Where We Live: Concrete Utopia + The Kitchen

2023, Tae-hwa Eon (Vanishing Time: The Boy Who Returned) -- download

2024, Daniel Kaluuya, Kibwe Tavares (feature debut) -- Netflix

I live in Toronto, a city that has been suffering a housing shortage for years. But not a shortage of places built for people to live in, for that far surpasses the number of people needing places to live. No, the shortage is affordability. Its not a new story, for that concept comes and goes regularly, like all societal pendulum swings do. But it seems more extreme at this time, wherein the towers continue to be built, the houses continue to be renovated and put on the market, but they must be running out of the people who can afford such exhorbinant prices. And the renters? The renters, like myself, are still dealing with a post-pandemic crunch where landlords need to make their money to deal with their own increased expenses, but now many of us cannot afford to live where only twenty years ago, we easily could. 

Only twenty years ago. 

But we all need a home. We all deserve a home?

When The Walking Dead made the "its not about the zombies, its about the humans!" a thing, it was a spotlight on a trend where people could claim the story was more about the humans involved than about the genre aspects. But really, weren't all genre flicks claiming that always more about the humans? I prefer equal billing. Concrete Utopia is definitely more about the humans involved in surviving after a world-ending earthquake than anything else. World-ending we assume, because no details are ever filled in, with just the slimmest hints at what caused it, but we are left with a single apartment complex standing amidst the rubble, and we focus on how the survivors living within choose to deal with their advantageous circumstances.

The movie opens with a brief introduction of the apartment / condo state in South Korean cities. It explains that as people moved from the rural areas, and came to the cities, and the cities only offered them apartments. But not just apartments, but communities with all the amenities easily nearby. Tower complexes that were almost their own villages. But there were more people than apartments and lists were drawn up. People sat on those waiting lists awaiting the time a slot would come free, after which they could buy / rent a spot; if they could afford it. A home. A place to call their own. A clear status symbol.

Big Earthquake and I mean, BIG !! When it comes down, the only structure standing for as far as the eye can see is their multi tower complex. Oh there is some damage, but for the most part they come through unscathed.

They go through the usual expected trials. Electricity is gone, and soon running water. But they pull together as a building, pool their resources, elect some leaders and... kick every other person seeking refuge out into the cold. The winter cold. The kind of cold that leaves their dead bodies frozen in the rubble not long after. This building has taken a stand with its status of Last Building Standing. This is their building and everyone else is an outsider. But are things ever so cut & dry?

Of course, in the end, the Bad People suffer at the hands of those they offended, and the Good People who did not do the best they could are left to the pains of their own guilt. There is some decent drama, but all the characters are barely more than cookies from the cutter. And unfortunately, the building, which could have been the greatest character of all (it is the only standing building, after all) is barely even given a note.

Meanwhile in Netflix's new British near-future scifi The Kitchen, the place is as much a character as the people who inhabit it. Inspired by imagery and stories of the Walled City of Kowloon in Hong Kong, a structure or collection of structures that was left to its own devices for far too long. It grew up with no regulation, no policing, no control but for the chaotic crime-ridden forces within, growing up and around and everywhere with wild abandon. But inside, it had its own sense of desperate community, as it was a place for those that had nowhere else to turn. Until it grew too big and too terrible to be ignored, and was then just torn down.

The Kitchen lies at the heart of London, obviously built upon the idea of cyberpunk arcologies meets housing projects. At some point, it was destined for destruction, but the people who called it home wouldn't leave. So now they squat, while at regular intervals, the London police force raid it, and take everywhere who doesn't bar themselves behind armored doors. Obviously, there is still some societal conscience as they are not all just shot down where they stand, but... the place remains a challenge. In turn the residents raid outside for food and other neccessities while others work to make money. 

But the story is really about Izi (Kano, Top Boy) and Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman, debut). Izi lives in The Kitchen but works at a funeral service that tells you they turn you into a tree, which for a while you can come and attend to until the money runs out and they plant you somewhere. Its a scam but in a city where you likely cannot be buried, its a beautiful scam. Benji's mother dies and she is sent there, where Izi recognizes her from his past. Its pretty obvious that he is Benji's dad, but they never really come out and say it. That (not) said, he still takes Benji under his wing, as without his mom paying the rent on their place...

Izi has plans, to save enough money to actually rent a small (think Toronto downtown bachelor condo) place for his very own, outside the Kitchen and all its woes. But he also feels beholden to Benji --- kind of. Benji wants to connect with whom he assumes is his dad, but he also needs to find a place in the society he is brought into. The movie is much about navigating that world, seeing its mundanity, its vibrance, its community but also how challenging it is.

For Kaluuya's first movie he does an admirable job of exploring this place, the community and the social commentary. But I felt he could have pulled the gloves off, said more, did more.

The Korean movie felt like it wanted to explore the relationship Koreans have with their apartment buildings, but it ended up being more just a Lord of the Flies in a building, with some post-apocalypse tossed in for fun. The British movie more navigates the nuances, the life of the people and the place itself, which eventually comes to a head in a climax that had to be expected. I mean, the Kowloon Walled City is no more so....

I think about living spaces a lot. I have lived longer in this one apartment than I have in all previous spaces, including my childhood home. We have not moved. We cannot afford to move (now); I don't know how anyone actually can. Life would change drastically if this place was no longer available. It is home, and yet, it is not. Its not yet a dystopian near-future out there, but in some ways, yeah it already is...