A MILLION

Korea, 2009, 114 minutes. Colour.
Directed by Min- Ho Cho.

A Million is a thriller, a variation on the television series Survivor. This time we are introduced to a man trying to commit suicide and then move to two years later. He is in charge of getting eight people together to come to Australia to take part in an online survival program. The film introduces the eight young people from various walks of life, from stock exchange to marine, to students…

The film is interesting insofar as the Koreans decided to film the program in Australia, in Western Australia as well as Thursday Island.

However, the film is also a variation on the deadly game. When confronted by the producer, along with his cameraman, the prize of a million dollars is shown to the participants. However, with eight tests, one will be eliminated each time. What happens is that the contestants are not only eliminated, they are killed. The various contestants show survival skills – and finally confront one another. The end is interesting enough with the final confrontation with a student who has been found by the police and is being interrogated.

It is only towards the end that we find out why the producer has gathered this particular group together. They were witnesses to an attack on his wife in a store and did not do anything about it.

The film is interesting insofar as it has some Australian production. It is also a variation on the way that the internet is used for immediate presentations of events, characters – and even deadly experiences like this.

1. The impact of the film? As a thriller? Korean? Australian settings?

2. The title, the million dollars, visualised, as a prize for surviving the game? The musical score?

3. The prologue, the man in the desert, about to shoot himself? The transition to two years later?

4. The range of contestants? The four men, the four women, seeing them in their context? Getting the information, the news that they had been selected? Their joy? The range of occupations? In Korean society?

5. The trip to Australia, the arrival, the clashes? Meeting the producer? The cameraman? Being warned that they were being filmed all the time? The show going online?

6. The travel, to the house, the meal? Their comments about the house?

7. The personality of the producer? His dealing with the contestants? With his cameraman? The cameraman’s later wanting to quit? The brutal treatment? The students attacking him? His continuing on?

8. The initial test, the beach? Making the raft? Rowing out? The votes, the abstention? The young man and his losing, his anger? His being killed, discovering his body? The girl coming to complain? Her being killed by the producer?

9. The reaction of the group? Infighting? Their trying to escape? Through the desert? The need for water? The hostilities, the producer reappearing? The further deaths?

10. The marine, his attitude, the young student girl? Their encounter? His helping her to be saved from drowning? The later confrontation, his killing the girl? The fight on the cliff? His death?

11. The finalists? The young man and the young woman? The encounter with the producer? The gun, Russian Roulette? The shooting of the producer?

12. The girl, the interrogation by the police after her being found? Her seemingly telling the truth? Their testing it with the online footage? Her changing the story? What really happened with the producer?

13. Her return to Korea? The information, in hospital, going to the bank?

14. Her getting the money, the encounter with the producer? The revelation of his story? The visualising of the attack on his wife? Seeing the eight people, their fears, their disregard, the young man with the video camera? The callous attitudes?

15. The girl with the money? The producer throwing himself from the upper floor? His death? The Asian pessimistic ending?

16. The variation on the reality TV series? A deadly version? The variation on the thrillers with the elimination of the various characters in turn?