Hae-Jun (Ha Ji-Won) is
an equipment manager on an oil rig off the coast of Korea's Jeju Island, where the
exploration was suspended for decades. The team on the rig works toward energy
self-sufficiency; Hae-Jun's father had died there pursuing that dream. The clock is
ticking: They are not finding oil and their frustration manifests as petty squabbles.
Headquarters has ordered shutdown as Hae-Jun's uncle, the former captain of
exploration, visits the site. When crew members begin to die one by one, they
have to set aside their differences and fight a horrifying monster.
Sector 7, directed by Ji-hun Kim,
is the first 3D sci-fi horror action film from Korea. The plot is Alien moved to an
oil rig, complete with a female action hero at the center. The monster, too, looks all Alien
行 no eyes, all teeth, tubes and suckers, except it's flammable, possibly another petrol
byproduct. Perhaps it's part Godzilla, too 行 a monster from the deep, as Nature's
retribution for man's hubris and greed.
Meticulously sculpted and animated,
Sector 7 opens to gorgeous ocean scenes, at the darkest depths and above
water bathed in hazy light. The only music is sung by the whale that passes the awed
diver, Hae-Jun's father. The mood is quickly shattered when the story shifts to some
20 years later and the action kicks into gear. The team fights to control a stuck drill
bit, to an overbearing soundtrack that announces: Action! Drama! In the scene, our
heroine's pro-active, I-can-do-anything-a-man-can-do traits are established. The
disaster contained, she gives her colleagues a thumb up, despite having been injured
in the process. Straight from Nausicaa. Or was it her animé bangs (50 degrees
sweep, over the eyes)?
Sector 7 sinks deeper when the action
slows down to "build the characters." The crew party scene could have used some oil to stop
from creaking. Earlier in the scene, Hae-Jun is a Miss Hothead, challenging the rig's current
Captain. The next, she is wistfully looking at a faded photograph of her father. Her uncle sees
her and蒳n the background, the crew woodenly stand and pretend they have something to say
to each other. The insipid company picnic/hospitality score doesn't help, either 行 couldn't they
have used some party music on an LG instead?
Billed as the only female action star from Korea,
Ha Ji-Won is pretty and athletic, her character rather more resourceful than an average action-pic
female who does little more than pant and run.
She even shows off her athleticism by winning a motorcycle race on the deck with her gorgeous
hunk of a boyfriend (Ji-ho Oh), who, incidentally, doesn't do much other than look good. Then
there is the handsome old captain (Sung-kee Ahn). You see, disturbingly, the cast are visibly
divided into the disposables and
those with a mission 行 the good-looking three predictably endure the longest.
(The next longest-lasting are the less-sexy duo assigned the film's
Hidden Fortress-style
comic camaraderie.) Maybe I was predisposed, by blood, not to enjoy this movie.
But this bit made me appreciate the art of æcasting against typeæ that American filmmakers
emphasize.
The film ends on a cautionary note: the real Jeju
oil fields were put on the back burner when the Japanese withdrew from joint explorations in
the mid-'80s. If the exploration does not resume by 2028, the oil fields will be subject to
territorial disputes. That, actually, sounds to me like a better premise for a sci-fi horror film.
-- Rika Ohara
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