OUT OF THE INFERNO
China, 2013, 100 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang.
When audiences think of a disaster film with a skyscraper on fire, they tend to think of The Towering Inferno. And they are right. However, The Towering Inferno was released in 1974, quite a time ago. Perhaps it is time for another towering Inferno film.
This one was made in China, situated in Guangzhou, quite a business city and centre in southern China.
The directors were the Pang Bros, responsible for some dramas set in Thailand, like Bangkok Dangerous, as well as some horror films. With this one, they show that they are able to work on a large scale, with a big cast, and with spectacular special effects.
We are introduced to two brothers at the beginning of the film, one opting to stay with the fire department, the other, the younger, going to a business company which specialises in technology to prevent fires.
4 years pass. The older brother is married, his wife pregnant, but he is dissatisfied in himself and not supportive of his wife, even to going to see an ultra-scan with her. The younger brother is quite an executive and is on his way to a launch and a party celebration on the 40th floor of a new building. By chance, he meets his sister-in-law, on her way to the ultrasound, as he enters the building.
A worker is careless with a cigarette butt and throws it down, still alight. The sparks carry upward and soon the building is ablaze. Publicity notes indicate that the Pang Bros used real fire to create a sense of dread, fear and danger for the cast.
What follows is the expected panic, the saving of people, the use of new technology to fight the fire, some characters in danger, two young men stealing diamonds and killing the owner of their shop, the older brother leading the rescue but not taking his wife out first and the younger brother has to lead a lot of people to safety, even their swimming underwater, reminiscent of The Poseidon Adventure.
As a disaster film, Out of the Inferno is very watchable. However, it is surprising that the bloggers on the IMDb are generally quite negative towards the film.
The wider audience will probably enjoy it a great deal. (There are some warnings, especially with the careless worker and the cigarette butt but also an entrepreneur stocking dangerous chemicals, illegally, on the floor which is the refuge room.)
1. A different film from the Chinese film industry? The industry in the 21st century? Local stories, international genres?
2. The Pang Bros and their career? Action and adventure? Horror?
3. Memories of The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure? The American disaster films of the 1970s?
4. The directors, using real fire, for its effect on the cast, dangers and action?
5. The plot, realism, credibility? Contrivances for fictional situations and for excitement?
6. The opening, the simulation, the vast fire, the test, the group failing, the chief and his two sons, asking their choices about their futures, one wanting to leave and pursue ambitions? The other remaining to help people?
7. Four years passing? Tai Kwan and his wife, her pregnancy, the tension between the two, his seeming disinterest, the feelings of the wife? Going to the doctor, the joy of the ultrasound, the doctor criticising her husband? Her meeting Keung, talking with him, his going to his meeting, his speech, the new technology, pride, hopes? His girlfriend being there, proposal?
8. The workmen, the cigarette, thrown away, the sparks and their going upwards, the beginnings of the fire, its spread, the explosions? The dangers? The different floors? The shop and the jewellery, the father and the little girl, telling her to stay, going back, his wife, the crowds trying to leave? The room for safety?
9. Keung, coping, his girlfriend, organising the group to leave? Meeting his sister-in-law, his assessments, advising people to go up? His rope, going up, injuring his hand smashing the glass? Lifting the group up to the upper floor? The flashbacks to Tai Kwan, their father, in the institution, the decision to save him or not? The big crane, getting people across, the thief, his brother falling, risking everybody’s life? his apology? Saving Tai Kwan? Continuing to help? His falling down the lift shaft, the water, his ideas for safety?
10. Tai Kwan and his wife, his not rescuing her immediately, yet his promise to save her? The crane, the little girl, her mother, the falling roof, his being hit, lifting for safety? The lift shaft, his risks, plan, people thinking he had died, his surviving? His wife and the miscarriage, growing in love for her husband, not necessarily wanting him to resign?
11. The thieves, bashing their boss, his death, the body in the fire? The fears, the younger brother, wanting to take the diamonds back? His falling? Ho risking people’s lives? Apology?
12. The couple, the search for their daughter, reflecting on the shop, wanting their child, the return, the little girl going off with the crowd? The mother, the poison and its killing the father? Mother and daughter and reconciliation, the falling roof, Tai Kwan and the others rescuing them? Climbing down the ladder, escape through the water? The doctor, the argument with Tai Kwan’s wife about saving the child or not? Is rationalisation that he was a doctor?
13. The father and son, the rescue, the tracheotomy?
14. Tai Kwan’s wife, glamorous personality, dignity, her injuries, pregnancy, meeting her husband again, the endurance, saving the little girl, going through the water? The miscarriage and the reconciliation?
15. The picture of the firefighters, the squads, the techniques, rescuing, the crane?
16. The chemicals and their exploding in the safety area?
17. Human courage, change because of risks and dangers?
18. Issues of responsibility, the authorities, the irresponsibility of the worker and his cigarette? The importer and his having the chemicals there unlawfully?
19. The popularity of disaster films? The quality of this production?
