Put Others First: Flu (2013)

A hero is they who are willing to put others' needs above their own, even if they have to sacrifice their own selves. Then there are people who just content to safe themselves. And finally, there are cowards who just put their needs above all else, even if they must sacrifice others. Which one are you?

Kang Ji-goo (Jang Hyuk), an Emergency Response Team (ERT) member, falls in love at first sight to Kim In-hae (Soo Ae), a doctor who he just saved in an accident. Their love story must blossom in the midst of a new strain of Avian Flu epidemic that has struck Bundang, a town in South Korea not so far away from Seoul. What will happen to them? Can they survive the epidemic and the political chaos that ensues?

As usual, to tell the message of the story, i need to tell the whole story, so Spoiler Alert!

First of all, i must say that this is a great movie. Director Kim Sung-su manages to capture the panic that happens during an outbreak. From the start we are brought to care for Ji-goo and In-hae's struggles. But this movie's strength is in its dramatic build-up, so don't expect any medical accuracies from it. For example, how the military handles the public during quarantine is very overreacted. The way they treat people is so violent and brutal, no wonder it's gonna incite riot, sooner or later. I can assure you no military will do that to their own people, or to any people for that matter, if the objective is to protect them in the first place.

The next flaw is how Prof. Yang (Kim Moon-soo) always being ridiculed by the officials, mostly by Senator Choi Dong-chi (Choi Byung-mo) and South Korea Prime Minister (Kim Ki-hyeon), despite the fact that Prof. Yang is the doctor. I mean, he's the one who supposed to be listened, right, with all his medical degree and medical knowledge stuff? But i get it that it's done purposely to move the story forward, because if all the people in this movie had listened to Prof. Yang's advice since the beginning, the movie would have ended in about 30 minutes.

The next one is how all the victims cough blood profusely when they got the disease. Again, i know that this is done for dramatic purpose, and you, the viewers, must feel the sense of dread and danger from this disease. But come on, what do you think is this? Ebola? Coughing blood is not the main symptom in any kind of flu, whether it's Avian Flu, SARS, MERS, or COVID-19. It could happen if there is a liver failure, but it only happens in the late stage of the disease, and certainly doesn't happen in all of the victims.

With all that being said, let's talk about the message of the movie. We can see that many of the characters in the movie do something stupid that is motivated by self-importance to prioritize their needs and safety, but ends up makes things worse for the general population. It begins with the disease itself is first spread through human trafficking, an illegal act that's done only for the economic purposes, either by the smugglers or the people who are being smuggled.

After that, Senator Choi ignores Prof. Yang's suggestion to do the lock down immediately, because he's afraid of the economic repercussion that's caused by such lock down. If only he had listened to Prof. Yang' advice, the virus wouldn't have spread to the whole city, and more importantly, Monssai (Lester Avan Andrada) who carries immunity to the virus would have been found much sooner. Later, when the virus has spread to the whole city, and the Prime Minister orders to do lock down first before public announcement to prevent mass panic, Senator Choi wants to do public announcement first so that he doesn't take the blame for this situation, which can be bad for his reputation and his chance in the election. Seriously, all that this Senator thinks is his own self-interest.

The next defendant is the Prime Minister. I think he's not entirely guilty because all his fault is he's being too easily controlled by USA representatives, forgetting that they also have their own interest, which is to prevent the spread of the pandemic to the whole world, especially, of course, USA. They don't care about the fate of people of Bundang, and they want to reduce the risk of spread to as minimum as possible. And this leads to one of the biggest blunders in this movie and in the whole history of medical epidemiology i've ever seen, which is to take away all the people from their house and lock them all down in one quarantine camp.

I mean, what's the logic behind that? It's not only unethical but it will only increase the risk of uninfected people to be infected by putting all of them in one place, not to mention the risk of military and medical personnel to get infected too. Why not just lock them all in their own houses, so all healthy people can still be safe, while all the sick people can die in their own places without infecting others, since they're gonna die anyway because of that no cure thing? You know, like what we do now in this COVID-19 pandemic.

The next one, and i think is the biggest culprit, is this asshole Ju Byung-ki (Lee Hee-joon), one of the human smugglers. From the beginning, his violent tendencies bring nothing but chaos to the people around him. First, when he's in the hospital mourning his brother's death, he goes berserk and in the process infects a doctor, and probably the whole hospital, with the virus. Later in the quarantine camp, he goes rampage again and in the process infects a soldier with the virus and this kick starts a string of events that leads to the riot in the quarantine camp and sparks the initiation of OPCON protocol. He even kills Monssai, the antibody carrier, and another doctor in the process, because he blames him for infecting and killing his brother. Seriously, if this kind of guy really exists when an actual epidemics happen, he's the one who must be shot first.

Then, there is Jeon Gook-hwan (Ma Dong-seok), military officer who when he finds out he has the disease, does everything he can to escape from Bundang, including uses his influence and bribes. When the OPCON protocol has already initiated, he stirs the mass to march through the military barrier, all the way to Seoul. His logic is, if he must die, he wants people in Seoul to feel his suffering too. In that march, Kim Mi-reu (Park Min-ha), In-hae's daughter who now has the immunity, almost got killed.

The last offender is, of course, USA. They do everything necessary to stop the virus from spreading outside of Bundang. They shoot innocent civilians, and later they almost bomb the whole city with the fighter-bomber jets.

If only all the people in this movie can put their self-centredness aside for a while and willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, the casualty of this epidemic can be reduced to minimum. Monssai could be found and the vaccine could be created much earlier. Yes, the disease is scary, but we're all in this together. It's not about a group of people or a region, when this kind of epidemic attacks, humanity is the victim, and we musk work together to help it. If everyone only wants to save themselves, more chaos will ensue. Even the soldiers, when they or their loved ones are the ones who are in the face of death, they show the same fear and helplessness too. No one is above others in this tragedy.

Let's learn from Ji-goo, even in desperate times, he always puts others before himself, not only to In-hae and Mi-reu, but also to people that he doesn't know. He helps people who are trapped in the mall when could just escape and save himself. He replaces Mi-reu as the one who is brought to the infected section in the quarantine camp. Then he put himself in danger countless times to save Mi-reu. He even rebukes In-hae when he believes she's doing something selfish that can endanger others.

I hope we can learn from this movie to always concern about others before ourselves, especially in this COVID-19 pandemic. If you can't help, at least don't be a burden to others. Stay at home unless it's absolutely necessary to go outside. Don't hoard medical equipment or daily needs just to sell it again with high prices. And take care of yourself, because even if you're fine, you could be the source of infection to others. Remember, we're in this together, and if we decide to be selfish, we're also the one who will reap its consequences.