It just so happened that the Japanese film "Pandemia" I first watched quite recently, during the fight against the epidemic COVID-19. But I want to note that in 11 years the film is not outdated. Moreover, being in turn a response to the outbreak of bird flu in the 2000s, this film about the struggle of doctors with infection was released a few months before the real pandemic 2009, when the world was raging swine flu. And even more so, the nature of the disease, shown in the picture, makes it still relevant for the current situation in the world.
The film focuses on the risk to the lives of several hospital doctors who are faced with an unknown virus transmitted by airborne droplets and causing bloody vomiting. One of the doctors, Tsuoshi Matsuoka (Satoshi Tsumabuki), due to his youth and negligence, mistakenly diagnoses SARS to the patient, unaware that he is dangerous to others, thereby allowing the infection to leak first through the hospital and then throughout the city. Later, the investigation leads him to Patient Zero and then to the place in Southeast Asia where it all began. But while scientists come up with a cure, people are starting to die en masse across the country. Including relatives and close doctors. After all, in the fight against infection, the count sometimes goes by the clock.
In general, I noticed that “Pandemia” is to a lesser extent a disaster film. This is more like a drama and thriller from the life of doctors. The picture even turned out to be somewhat chamber - most of the screen time unfolds only in one hospital. There is also no huge number of special effects and pathetic speeches, as in American films. But here the color scheme inherent in horror is successfully selected - bluish-green, and the work of doctors is sufficiently detailed. So detailed that for someone and 138 minutes will seem long.
Of course, the Japanese tried to reveal the topic as fully as possible, so the film became more like a documentary. But in the pursuit of detail, the film loses in dynamics, and therefore seems somewhat delayed. Overall, it was pretty good.
6 out of 10
