Movie Review: Sector 7 (7광구)
By Mark Liebenthal
Released in August, 2011, this Korean action/horror movie spins a tale of family secrets, greed, and love, while the crew of an oil rig drills for new reserves.
The film stars Ha Ji-won (Sex is Zero, Haeundae), Ahn Sung-kee (Silimdo, Battle of the Warriors) ,and Oh Ji-ho (My Wife is a Gangster 3, The 3rd Hospital).
The movie begins by establishing the characters: Ha plays Cha Hae-jun, a tough girl who sets a high standard for the rest of the crew. She is stubborn, hardened, and lovely.
Ahn portrays Man Jeong, the captain. He’s a quiet, wise man of experience and graceful courage. His presence in the movie gives it the experience of age needed to be believable.
Oh plays Kim Dong-soo, the tall, handsome man whose heart is a toy for Hae-jun. She enjoys his advances, but refuses to return his love. He pursues her endlessly.
These characters, along with a few other drill crew members, a medical doctor, and a scientist, work together to find oil off the coast of Jeju Island. Hae-jun is haunted by the memory of her father who died drilling for oil while she and the whole crew are driven to find the elusive reserve. While drilling, they discover small aquatic creatures released from the newly drilled oil well. A creature is quarantined and kept for study.
All the while a sense of doom troubles the crew. Each member has their own motivation for drilling and being on the rig, but the presence of a threat released from the deep casts a greater shadow than their personal trials.
One crew member keeps a secret about the real purpose of the rig, while another knows more about the seemingly harmless aquatic creatures. Layer by layer, dark secrets are revealed, loyalties are tested, and crew members are found dead and mutilated.
The movie crescendos as horror is unleashed from within and from the deep.
I had been looking forward to this movie since its release and found it very entertaining. I consider this movie to be more of an action movie than horror because it really doesn’t horrify, and it relies on chase scenes to propel the story and captivate the audience.
The director, Kim Ji-hoon, who also directed May 18 and Mokpo the Harbor, chose not to distract the audience with deep or complicated relationships; there are no background characters on the rig, leaving me to wonder, who cooks? Who is actually running the rig? But I did not think it lessened the movie by being simple and unencumbered.
If you enjoy comic book-style characters and action, you will certainly enjoy Sector 7.