Y’all, Exit is a must see fun explosion with toxic gas taking over some part of Seoul and a happy ending as the cherry on top. It is a definite recommend and must see if you love Korean movies and action comedies that are kind of serious at times and are yet pure comedies. I know, you just have to watch it. It has heartfelt scenes and serious hilarity the bleakest moments. Also, this movie is the reason half of Korea now knows how to use S.O.S for help in an emergency.
Intrigued? I went into Exit not knowing anything about it, just that it was the blockbuster of the summer and pulled Im Yoona out of an entertainment slump. I also watched it raw in Korean (am not fluent), but that did not take away anything from the movie. All you need to know about this movie are that Im Yoona and Jo Jung-suk are rock climbers who struggle to make a living in the real world. Jung-suk is an unemployed bum in the beginning part of the movie just lazing around and kind of searching for a job.
Im Yoona plays his girlfriend that becomes his ex-girlfriend (I think because she is tired of making all the money for the both of them). There is also a mad scientist who makes a toxic gas to kill everyone in Seoul, basically because he got fired. That gas goes off in a very populated area with short and tall buildings all around and basically takes over all of the area. If you are in the gas then your skin starts to blister and if you breath it then you will die soon after.
The movie gets pumping when Im Yoona and Jo Jung-suk are both at a wedding. The wedding is part of Jo Jung-suk’s family and Im Yoona works at the hotel. So it is awkward. But then the gas goes off somewhere nearby and everyone is trapped at this hotel. They have to get to the rooftop to be rescued, but the door is locked to the roof so that is where their rock climbing skills come in! In this case, building climbing skills. The only problem is, there aren’t enough helicopters to rescue everyone in the area and the gas continues to rise and will soon be at the rooftop! They need to get to higher ground.
That is basically the idea of the movie. It is super Korean, which makes it that much more fun, so when you watch it you can see lots of easter eggs of Korean things that you really don’t see anywhere else. Like, karaoke is used to save the day, y’all. Seriously. But there is so much more (it is a super fun watch, seriously).
There is one thing I will tell you that you will need to know if you watch raw and for cultural reasons. Korea has gas masks in all the buildings due to the continuous threat of North Korea. That is something that a person growing up in the US will be all like, holdup, there are gas masks in the building? How convenient. But no, gas masks are literally in all the buildings. It is normal. However, for this gas, the filter will only work for 15 minutes. Also, as mentioned, there are only a few helicopters in the area and they can only carry around 20 people each (there is a weight limit). So tons of people are on buildings waiting to be rescued.
If you want to watch Exit, then you can watch it on On Demand Korea right now, and I’m sure Viki or Netflix might pick it up in the future. If you are lucky enough, then maybe you can watch in a cinema near you, it is worth it! Hilarious and worth it and makes me think that all this drama watching I have been doing all these years has paid off because I understood so many of the cultural references and easter eggs. If you do check it out, let us know if you liked it or not.
I need to watch this, I’ve heard nothing by good things.