VIRUS is a film I first saw in the early 1980s and didn't think too much of it at the time . Much of my discontent was down to the fact that the ensemble cast just seemed a little too ensemble - there's no real character that the story tries to focus on . Indeed this makes the story feel somewhat mechanical from a narrative point of view . When someone turns up to explain plot turns they disappear quickly never to be seen again . Recently I found out that I had seen the American 108 minute version rather than 156 minute original cut but I can't help thinking perhaps the 156minute cut would make things any more coherent
Perhaps the problem lies in that post apocalypse fiction isn't best suited to the cinema screen . One can't help thinking its perfect medium is either literature or mini-series . NO BLADE OF GRASS would have benefited greatly from being a 4 hour mini-series rather than a disjointed 90 minute film and breaking up VIRUS in to an episodic series would have helped its story telling too
From the outset we're treated to some obvious and ridiculous exposition involving the MM88 virus where characters go in to details about things they must surely know or don't need to know . At any second you expect a character to reply " But we're commie agents trying to steal a biological warfare weapon not characters in a film so please STFU " In fact when they get on a plane with the stolen virus they spend so much time talking they don't notice the mountain in front of them thereby setting up an inciting incident at its most painfully obvious . The film that becomes clichéd as people in power - in this case the staff at The White House - watch on television as the world succumbs to " The Italian flu " which is in reality the MM88 . If that's not bad enough an insane General primes America's nuclear deterrent to take out the Soviet Union just in case they decide to launch a nuclear attack
" But if the world has been wiped out by the Italian flu why would anyone bother priming nuclear weapons ? "
Yes but that's to do with a later contrived plot turn where survivors in the Antartic are safe from the virus since it can't reproduce in sub zero temperatures . That and the fact it's a Japanese film and we all know how the Japanese feel about nuclear missiles especially when they're being pointed by Americans
Actually this is the confusing bit . If the survivors are confined to the south pole surely they'll become extinct anyway ? After all it'd be impossible to become self sufficient , you'd be unable to grow crops etc . Perhaps that's why Antartica has no indigenous population ? There's nothing to indicate that the Italian flu will die out so mankind is doomed anyway even without an imminent nuclear strike
This condemns the film which is a great pity because in parts it's compelling enough for people interested in speculative fiction . The idea of a myngonist relationship is a thing of the distant pass in this new society is touched upon but like so many other ideas in VIRUS is quickly skated over and then forgotten about
Perhaps the problem lies in that post apocalypse fiction isn't best suited to the cinema screen . One can't help thinking its perfect medium is either literature or mini-series . NO BLADE OF GRASS would have benefited greatly from being a 4 hour mini-series rather than a disjointed 90 minute film and breaking up VIRUS in to an episodic series would have helped its story telling too
From the outset we're treated to some obvious and ridiculous exposition involving the MM88 virus where characters go in to details about things they must surely know or don't need to know . At any second you expect a character to reply " But we're commie agents trying to steal a biological warfare weapon not characters in a film so please STFU " In fact when they get on a plane with the stolen virus they spend so much time talking they don't notice the mountain in front of them thereby setting up an inciting incident at its most painfully obvious . The film that becomes clichéd as people in power - in this case the staff at The White House - watch on television as the world succumbs to " The Italian flu " which is in reality the MM88 . If that's not bad enough an insane General primes America's nuclear deterrent to take out the Soviet Union just in case they decide to launch a nuclear attack
" But if the world has been wiped out by the Italian flu why would anyone bother priming nuclear weapons ? "
Yes but that's to do with a later contrived plot turn where survivors in the Antartic are safe from the virus since it can't reproduce in sub zero temperatures . That and the fact it's a Japanese film and we all know how the Japanese feel about nuclear missiles especially when they're being pointed by Americans
Actually this is the confusing bit . If the survivors are confined to the south pole surely they'll become extinct anyway ? After all it'd be impossible to become self sufficient , you'd be unable to grow crops etc . Perhaps that's why Antartica has no indigenous population ? There's nothing to indicate that the Italian flu will die out so mankind is doomed anyway even without an imminent nuclear strike
This condemns the film which is a great pity because in parts it's compelling enough for people interested in speculative fiction . The idea of a myngonist relationship is a thing of the distant pass in this new society is touched upon but like so many other ideas in VIRUS is quickly skated over and then forgotten about