Concrete Utopia

A massive earthquake turns the once-great city of Seoul, South Korea, into a heap of rubble. All modern services, including food supply, the police service, the financial system, and transportation, vanish in the blink of an eye. Every house in the city, it seems, has been destroyed – just as outdoor temperatures begin to fall. One single complex – the Imperial Palace Apartments – remains intact. For a while, the Imperial Palace residents think they are blessed. But it is not long before the rest of the city’s survivors learn of the fate of Imperial Palace… Soon, groups of survivors try to barge their way into the complex, forcing the Imperial Palace residents to make a grim choice: Should they admit the survivors to the complex, or fight to keep them out? The residents turn to the quick-thinking resident of room 902, Yeong Tak (Lee Byung Hun), for leadership. He turns to the civil servant Min Seong (Park Seo Joon) for help keeping the homeless survivors at bay. But Min Seong’s wife Myung Hwa (Park Bo Young) doesn’t want to close the door on the hopeless survivors. Will Imperial Palace Apartments become a beacon of hope amid the disaster – or a cauldron of violence? Concrete Utopia is a 2023 South Korean movie that was directed by Um Tae Hwa.