Pandemic (2009)

Tsuyoshi Matsuoka, a doctor at a Tokyo hospital, misdiagnoses a patient's disease as a common cold. But after the patient's sudden death, he realizes that it's very serious disease, which ... See full summary »

Director:

Takahisa Zeze

Writers:

Takahisa Zeze (screenplay), Takashi Hirano (story)

Stars:

Satoshi Tsumabuki, Rei Dan, Ryôko Kuninaka

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Satoshi Tsumabuki	...	Tsuyoshi Matsuoka
Rei Dan	...	Eiko Kobayashi
Ryôko Kuninaka	...	Takako Mita
Yûji Tanaka	...	Eisuke Mita
Chizuru Ikewaki	...	Mami Manabe
Takanori Takeyama	...	Kôsuke Suzuki (as Kanningu Takeyama)
Ken Mitsuishi	...	Shôsuke Kamikura
Midoriko Kimura	...	Miwa Ikehata
Kyûsaku Shimada	...	Shûji Tachibana
Akio Kaneda	...	Ryôzô Takayama
Bokuzô Masana	...	Michikusa Tamura
Dante Carver	...	Klaus David (as Dante Kâvâ)
Ayaka Komatsu	...	Kyôko Kashimura
Akifumi Miura	...	Mikio Komori
Natsuo	...	Akane Kamikura

Storyline

Tsuyoshi Matsuoka, a doctor at a Tokyo hospital, misdiagnoses a patient's disease as a common cold. But after the patient's sudden death, he realizes that it's very serious disease, which can make a population extinct, so he struggles to find out the cause of the disease with doctor Eiko Kobayashi.

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Plot Keywords:

pandemic | world health organization | virus | suspense | scene during end credits | 

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Did You Know?

Soundtracks

Yume no tsubomi
Written by Ryôta Fujimaki
Performed by Remioromen

User Reviews

Kind of alright

"Pandemic" is a movie that sort of raised mixed emotions for me. The story in the movie is compelling and captivating, even though it drags out in a slow pace at times throughout the movie (making the 2 hours seem longer than they are). But in general, the movie works pretty well at a good pace.

There were some pretty nice images throughout the movie, I especially liked the gloomy doomsday-like images of the normally busy and crowded Japanese cities devoid of life and shown in a bleak gray-scale.

Most of the medical scenes seemed real (or believable enough), although there were a handful of scenes that had some flaws in it. Scenes that will make you go "hmmm, I wonder what kind of doctor/nurse would do that with their medical background". Which is a shame, because the medical stuff is what should carry most of the weight of the movie. But these flaws don't really bring the overall movie enjoyment down that much.

For some reason, the actors/actresses having to cry in this movie were all so amazingly poor at portraying hurtful emotion and crying. It all came off so forced and fake. That was almost literally physically painful to watch. Oh, and you just got to love the "Engrish" that is used in the movie. Japanese people speaking English is usually funny, and in this movie, it is!

The cast, in general, were fairly good. No award-winning acting going on though, but most did a fairly good job none the less.

I would say that "Pandemic" is a mix of high rolling thrills and dragged out waiting. This is the type of movie that you watch one, and most likely never again. The movie does, however, leave you imprinted with lingering thoughts. Is a pandemic of this kind and magnitude lurking just around the corner? This effect is what brought the movie together in full circle.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 January 2009 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Pandemic

Filming Locations:

Akiruno, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$20,712,567

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), Toho Company, Dentsu

Technical Specs

Runtime:

138 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1