I'd be interested, what other things seemed odd to you. I actually had to look it up, what's the situation with Handa (the destination of the flight) as the last I knew, it was only domestically used. Turned out, it's used internationally again, but only since 2013 without issues, like no time frame restrictions, which led to no public transportation, open shops, so when the story was written, passengers would have felt discomfort anyway, but I digress.
Concerning Lance, just like a different commenter I watched it at darkest night, and in retrospect I have concluded, he wasn't the first to die, rather the last from reality's viewpoint.
This segways into your second observation: the plane was on autopilot, and as they were already dead, nobody had the capacity and training to turn the plane back.
The smoke: once everyone died, they entered the realm of the shinigami. There are several names for it, but in a nutshell Japanese mythology has a similar river like Lethe and Styx to go to the underworld, once they can let go of everything that binds them to this life. After Lance died, he moved on, and the shinigami took his place, he was the one scaring the cr*p out of Jake, the thief. Similarly, the "goth girl" (I forgot her name) did not hug herself, nor the shinigami, it was the apparition of her twin sister, whose death made her a goth. Many things, like the CPR, finding Lance's luggage, finding the ningyo did not actually happen. Their consciousness streamed into limbo, and the hands coming out of everywhere are responsible to drag those to Hell who did not repent their sins
Interestingly despite all odds, in the flight's case, on this story was based on, somebody (a civilian) tried to avoid the crash.
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MissOceanB
9 years ago
Sorry, I didn't catch what you meant in your last paragraph (last sentence)?
Thank you for clearing it up. As for the pilots not turning back after the first incident, I do not understand this. The pilots were still alive at the time.
*I grieve for the strength to wake up each day with a blank canvas
and paint it to my liking.
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debrecenisrac38
9 years ago
I just mentioned in passing, that a civilian did survive decompression, and tried to prevent the crash in real life, on which the story was based on, the issued jet pilots confirmed that, but since the person wasn't a pilot, the attempt only half succeeded, as mayday was relayed by that person, not the pilots.
This segways into my other point. We see the decompression event happening, and on face value we are led to believe, they passed that. The story never makes it clear, but just like the real life case it was based on, a series of incidents and negligence lead to the catastrophy. A cascade event happened, the cabin became depressurized, the masks weren't working and everyone minus one person was dead within seconds. That one person was Lance. When we see him die, everyone else is already dead, they are already in limbo, but since the transition did not fully happen, they still think Lance can be saved. The poor guy somehow managed to last a bit longer, and died in great agony, compared to others. So, in other words, we were just led to believe, that anyone was alive to act, like turning back the plane.
In this regard, I'm a bit sad, that neither the Koreans did not attempt to make one, nor the Americans tried to make an updated movie about KAL-007, which is a good example for irresponsible negligence.
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MissOceanB
9 years ago
Thank you for clearing that up. I do think I need to watch the film again!
*I grieve for the strength to wake up each day with a blank canvas
and paint it to my liking.
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debrecenisrac38
9 years ago
I'm glad if I could help ;) I very much love Shimizu's films ever since Grudge, but the recurring problem is, even if he makes them for Western audiences with a Western cast, on average we are not that familiar with different mythologies and superstitions. For example, the text message full of 4s works there, as repeatedly saying the number sounds like death, hence why some hotels don't have either a 13th or 4th floor, sometimes both. A different workable idea is a haunted apartment. I don't know, if you do transoceanic flights, if you do, you might have heard that in Hong Kong some apartments despite their luxury can be bought or rented below price, as some loacls upon learning the owner committed suicide won't touch it as they believe it's haunted by them.
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findyourwayinthedark
8 years ago
Interestingly despite all odds, in the flight's case, on this story was based on, somebody (a civilian) tried to avoid the crash.
Actually, it was indeed a flight attendant that was the only one able to communicate with ground control:
At 11:49, flight attendant Andreas Prodromou entered the cockpit and sat down in the captain's seat, having remained conscious by using a portable oxygen supply. Prodromou held a UK Commercial Pilot License, but was not qualified to fly the Boeing 737. Crash investigators concluded that Prodromou's experience was insufficient for him to gain control of the aircraft under the circumstances. Prodromou waved at the F16s very briefly, but almost as soon as he entered the cockpit, the left engine flamed out due to fuel exhaustion, the plane left the holding pattern and started to descend. Ten minutes after the loss of power from the left engine, the right engine also flamed out, and just before 12:04 the aircraft crashed into hills near Grammatiko.
On reading the actual report from the real event, autopsy reports stated most passengers were alive when the plane crashed, but in a state of unconsciousness.
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