Review | Ashfall film review: Ha Jung-woo, Lee Byung-hun brave volcanic eruption in Korean disaster thriller
- This star-studded story of a mission to North Korea to steal nuclear weapons tries too hard to please everyone
- The relentless explosions, shoot-outs and destruction take away from a promising storyline
2.5/5 stars
When a long dormant volcano threatens to destroy half of the Han Peninsula, the biggest stars in Korean cinema are assembled to save the day. Combining the collective blockbuster attractions of disaster movie, action thriller, family melodrama, and buddy comedy, Ashfall erupts in a pungent cloud of lofty ambition and epic scale.
But when the ash settles, what remains on screen is the molten wreckage of a high concept crowd-pleaser that, in its efforts to be everything for everyone, ends up delivering precious little to anyone at all.
Lee Hae-jun, writer-director of Castaway on the Moon, shares scriptwriting and directorial duties with prolific cinematographer Kim Byung-seo ( Along with the Gods ). They have assembled an audacious cast, headed by Ha Jung-woo.
As Captain Cho In-chang, Ha plays a war veteran and bomb disposal expert, who abandons his heavily pregnant wife (Bae Suzy) to lead a covert operation into North Korea. His mission is to steal a cache of nuclear warheads, which are to be used in preventing a cataclysmic volcanic eruption.
Conceived by Ma Dong-seok’s Professor Kang and Jeon Hye-jin’s Security Secretary, the mission also requires Cho to find and collaborate with untrustworthy Northern defector, Major Ri Jun-pyong (Lee Byung-hun).