Movies that will teach us a thing or two about the pandemic

A worldwide siege of pandemic-scale viruses is always an unexpected battle. It is not the usual clash that can be won by armors and guns by soldiers—rather, expertise and knowledge in health and medical fields are the frontlines to end such a crisis. History has gone through different plagues, and yet just like people, viruses also progress and adapt to be more deadly, making every search for vaccines a race against the clock. The lockdown happening within Luzon and different parts of the globe are just one of the strategies to buy us more time, in order to isolate the propagation of the virus within other hosts.  

In the meantime, while panicking won’t solve the situation, these movies might help us to process the drastic changes that happen today, and probably make us realize that after all, reality is so fragile that life can get this close to fictional movies. 

Yeon-ga-si [Deranged] (2012)

This movie tackles the plight of people to survive an epidemic that roots from one’s selfishness. The story depicts a middle-aged Jae-hyeok (Kim Myung-Min) as the family head working in a pharmaceutical company, producing anti-parasitic medicine, and living with his wife and two children. On the other hand, his brother, Jae-pil (Kim Dong-Wan), is a detective with no interest in public service but prioritizes the profit on the stock market and his girlfriend, Doctor Kim (Hunee Lee), who eventually aids a big hand to resolve the problem.

The story takes off in the middle of summer, where people tend to go on swimming escapades with their families in the Han river. The river itself has been contaminated with millions of long mutant horsehair worms that form in intestines, then make their way to manipulate the human brain. Once these parasites developed, it would soon find its way to leave the host through water, where infected ones drown themselves due to uncontained thirst. This newly-born sickness caused chaos to people and thorough studies on professionals to solve the problem.

Director Jeong-woo Park’s Yeon-ga-si is a fresh projection of a living scenario of ambiguity and audacity of characters from the local sector and medical practitioners and their conflict with the government. The conflicting episodes of handling press releases, legal measures on patent production of the medicine, and brave-heart attitude amidst the crisis are key elements of the movie.

Contagion (2011)

Contagion tells the story of a large-scale disease that rapidly spreads all over the world through physical contact. As the patients increase in numbers, professionals take necessary tasks to provide proper examination, and conduct a further study regarding this new spawn virus so they can act immediately to save the affected communities. 

The story starts in Hongkong where Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) has her business trip before returning to her family in Chicago. Upon her death, the U.S Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finds this as one new virus that developed from a fetal bat cell. As the Center for Disease Control and World Health organization race to come up with a vaccine, the plot implies how such false information could affect the probable solution, like when journalist-blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) writes conspiracies that triggered people to work on their own to survive the health calamity.

12 Monkeys (1995)

This sci-fi thriller is about a so-called Army of Twelve Monkeys that allegedly pioneers the spread of a killer virus that would wipe out most of the human race to break new ground for the planet Earth.

 Set in 2035, a group of scientists and researchers are on a quest to counter the devastating plague that occurred in 1996 led by an eminent virologist Dr. Goines (Christopher Plummer). Prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis) is set to travel back in time in exchange for his parole to trace the roots of this epidemic. His childhood experience of lucid dreams assists him in the process of investigation.

Terry Gilliam’s direction of the film depicts a fictional version of resolving epidemics. However, as we can relate to our present scenario, the presumptions of people tend to result in misdirected actions and end up diverting our focus from the real suspect to the fake, just like how James Cole thought the Army of the Twelve Monkeys started the virus rather than Dr. Gionnes. This movie also tackles how viruses could be also a product of research and experimentations, which, in itself, is already a quick strategy to annihilate the population in the simplest mode.

The Flu (2013)

Aside from the story of choosing between personal life and occupation, this movie also emphasizes the importance of decision-making and timing on when to make a  sacrificial move. As people worry about looking after their own welfare, the authorities engage themselves to realize what it takes to prioritize the safety of their community during a pandemic situation.

After illegal immigrant survivor Mossai (Lester Avan Andrada) decides to take a stroll around Bundang, South Korea, which he has no idea would soon be known as the epicenter of Korea’s first mutated avian flu, dubbed as “H5N1”. Being an airborne pathogenic disease, this illness is easily transmitted to humans by coughing and engaging in direct contact with people. Due to the rapid spreading of virus and Budang having more than half a million residents, the government issues an immediate total lockdown with a quarantine camp for exposed and positive patients. Being part of frontliners during this pandemic, Dr. Kim In-Hae (Soo-Ae) and Emergency Rescue Team Staff Kang Ji-Goo (Jang Hyuk) work together to save Dr. Kim’s virus-infected daughter, Mi-reu (Park Min-ha).

By the direction of Kim Sung-su, the movie clearly shows the storyline transitions, and actors are able to give justice to their roles. The Flu also represents the dilemmas of the families, medical frontliners, and government as they combat an impalpable attacker.

93 Days (2016)

Netflix’s 93 days makes it on the list as it represents doctors and health professionals as the vanguards of healing sick people. It is based on a true story in Lagos, Nigeria in the 2014 setting.

The First Consultants Medical Centre (FCMC) discovers their first case of ebola through Mr. Patrick Sawyer (Keepy Ekpenyong-Bassey), a Liberian Diplomat who has business meetings at Lagos but then directed to FCMC for checkup due to a heavy cough. Dr. Adadevoh (Bimbo Akintola) thought this is unusual and later confirms that Mr. Sawyer carries this deadly disease. Trying to resolve the concern and securing the 21 million population in their homeland, the doctors and staff perform self-quarantine and their own observation. Isolating camps for asymptomatic persons and deep researches pave the way through  Dr. Adadevoh.

However, as they strive to combat the disease, they face a big struggle as the virus dwindles their manpower. This movie also delivers a clear view that hospital workers are no excuse to be sick and are at high-risk to be infected with the illnesses of their patients. In this time of crisis, Director Steve Gukas’ team produced a heroic commemoration to those frontliners who didn’t hesitate in fulfilling their duties to save lives. Without their contribution, people with illnesses—including the deadly ebola—would just suffer and wait for their expiration.

Graphic by Rachelle Calaustro