Some of the well-known Dystopian movies were mostly made by American production, to name a few, we have Divergent, Hunger Games, Maze Runner and these movies were actually adapted from Sci-fi Young Adult Books that were published more than 10 years ago. One of the most unique Dystopian movie that I have watched was also In Time, in which they have timers in their arms that signifies the life span they have, the more time you got, the more time you can live. It was starred by Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. To add more, you have The Purge movies, 5th Wave, Death Cure and Planet of the Apes Movie series. These movies are depicting the possible future of there world when everything has been destroyed or the political background of each of every one of us has changed and the society has completely depend its ways to survive to a new system. These are works of art that represents the great mystery and wilderness.

I know when you say dystopian, some of you will think this is another useless action movie that shows how life will continue even after the apocalypse or the judgement day but this however, in reality, constructs the same pyramids of priority that the present society have, although they just dress it into after-the-end kind of situation, but I believe that whoever made these stories, plots, they know what they are talking about, and they have seen injustice with their own eyes.

But today, I’m not gonna talk about politics and society and laws but I will talk about the newest Korean Drama Series that was released this May on Netflix. Starring Kim Woo-bin, we all knew him from The Heirs and Uncontrollably Fond, with Song Seung-heon who starred in Autumn in my Heart and Black.

The series has 6 episodes in total, and it started with a 40-year-advanced, since a comet struck the Earth and some continents were submerged into the seas, leaving Korea as one of the surviving continents. Only 1% of the population had survived and with this number, they created a new social order. This order is consisting of three divisions which are The General, Special and Core District. These are the new hierarchy of the society.

They are embedded with QR codes which serves as their identity codes and those who are not in possession of QR codes are the less fortunate to belong in the divisions, and these are the refugees. These people don’t have QR Codes and make living by killing, stealing and other unimaginable things just to survive. The world they’re living in is not as safe as it was before. The air is polluted, making the air they breathe as expensive as their lives. They made Giant airfare to convert oxyanium into oxygen; People order oxygen like it was food and if they run out of it, they will eventually die. And the story starts from there…

Since the only way of living is by QR codes, some refugees are making it to the divisions by working as a deliveryman and most of the kids in the refugee division, dreams of becoming a deliveryman and one of them is Sa-wol (played by Kang you-seek. A refugee that was cared/adopted by a soldier named Seol-ah (played by Esom) with her sister Seul-ah (played by Roy Yoon-seo).

Deliverymen 5-8 (played by Woo-bin) is actually a legend. He is also secretly helping refugees to get their stash of oxygen. Not only that, he is also carrying a secret organization in his shoulder, this organization is trying to figure out the in and outs of the society, trying to find the culprit of the recent killings and kidnapping in their place. The first episode showed how armed men entered Sa-wol, Seol-ah and Seul-ah’s home. They were attacked and during the attack Seul-ah was killed and Sa-wol was shot in the head.

Miraculously, Sa-wol survived the attacked and woke up after few hours. 5-8 saved him by bringing him to a hideout and treated his wounds which healed a little faster than a normal human. 5-8 suspected Sa-wol to be a mutant. These people were considered a threat and also a special one because even their science haven’t had a good study of his kind.

With a relocation happening in Cheonmyeong City, lead by Ryu-seok (played by Song Seung-heon), they are trying to get rid of the refugee before relocation to be able to make their new place a clean one, with now refugee existing, a world they dream where only the ones with money and can afford oxygen will live. Despite this evil plan, Ryu’s father, the chairman, was not agreeing on any relocation and he cares for the refugee more than his son does.

With the plan to run smoothly, they wanted to mass kill the refugees. One of the idea they got is to let them all watch the deliverymen recruit contest, which Sa-wol joined because that was his dream from the very start. In the contest, Sa-wol won and made him Deliveryman 5-7. (I opted not to tell the story about the race as to not spoil everything and you’ll have to watch the series for yourself.)

Fast forward, 5-8 discovered that Rye is actually polluting the air for the people to choose the relocation rather than staying, and after killing so many refugees, 5-8 created a plan to take down Ryu and his army. The plan went well, until they managed to kidnap Sa-wol and later on Ryu rebelled against his father and his father was killed by the Defense leader. The only mission that Ryu have right now is to erase refugees’ existence and push through with the relocation. It was eventually stopped by Ryu and the attack that was assisted by the delivery men, lead by 5-8. They managed to get the sympathy of the higher ranking people, including the President.

The movie ended by the President proclaiming that relocation will push through but this time, no divisions will exist and everyone will be treated fairly.

The Verdict

I love dystopian, that’s it! The surprising moment for me was 5-8’s past and how he was able to survive the killing of refugees during his time and how he was able to make a name and a secret organization without blowing his cover. I also liked Sa-wol’s attitude towards life, no matter how many times he fall, he still stands up and just fights. I love the story because not only it reflects the current situation of politics and society, but also the possibility of this happening in the future might be an accurate one. We all know what will happen in the next 40 years, right?

I wanna talk about the effects of pollution in our health, well, this was actually portrayed in the series as if we are actually watching the present time. Imagine, paying for the oxygen that you’re breathing? Having it express delivery or standard delivery is actually expensive, if that time comes and also the dilemma of getting more than what you need will be there too. You see, there’s no right or wrong answers when it comes to dystopian stories because the possibility of creating stories of injustice is actually endless.

6 Episodes might be a little short to even cover everything. It maybe a nice story but the plot has its own loopholes, just like how mutants really work, like do they have power aside from being metal inside and the fast healing, I kinda wanted to know the deeper story there but they failed to elaborate it because they actually don’t have enough run time to even add that part. I also wanted to know the story of grandpa and the chairman, after all, they made the blueprint of the division together. Even the story of Seol-ha’s family. I think if you twist the lid really further, will get some answers but nothing was spilt at all.

It might be a little bland for me as I was expecting more because this was a dystopian genre after all, so I guess those were some of the obvious loopholes I got. I think it would have been better if they stretch the story into 8 to 10 episode. The shorter you make the series, the faster you get the answers as if it was spooned with you. These kinds of genre were supposed to ask you more questions and get your brain cells working.

All in all, I love it, fair to be part of the hall of fame of Dystopian movies/series. I would definitely give this 90% wonderroanne rating.