DERANGED (2012) is the first Korean film to cover a major disease epidemic. It rates as a fast-paced medical thriller and brutal apocalyptic fun.
Jae-hyuk is a former biochemistry professor who is working as a pharmaceutical sales rep after losing his life savings and job after a bad investment his younger brother, a police detective, advised him to do. As a result, he is always working and irritable with his wife and two children. When dead bodies are found in a river, a major epidemic of a parasitic worm is discovered, which drives its hosts to seek water for a grisly reason. Jae-hyuk and his brother must work together to alternately solve the mystery of the crisis while also saving his family.
This is another great Korean apocalyptic film along the lines of FLU and TRAIN TO BUSAN. As with TRAIN TO BUSAN, we have a man who works too much to the detriment of his family, and through crisis learns what is truly valuable to him, providing a basic and decent character arc with people we care about. His brother is guilt-ridden about ruining his brother’s life and wants to make amends. The worm is suitably disgusting and horrific, its victims overwhelmed with the desire to eat (to nourish the worm) and ultimately to seek water (to allow it to hatch). Jae-hyuk and his family give us sympathetic characters thwarted at almost every turn, constantly ramping up the tension while the stakes get ever higher. Loads of fun for apocalyptic film fans.
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