[Current & Culture]My Number One Horror Movie in My Heart

A Reality More Terrifying Than Any Horror Movie
The Discharge of Fukushima Treated Water
Helplessness and Anxiety in the Face of the Decision

There is a characteristic among people who love spicy food. Even though they know many sufficiently spicy dishes, they keep searching for spicier foods and rank them in their own order of spiciness. Horror movie fans are the same. They always wait for scarier movies to come out and rank them. I, who indulge in horror movies regardless of genre?from supernatural films to slasher movies?am no different. My personal horror movie rankings change quite often, and in the past decade, films like “Hereditary,” “Midsommar,” and “The Conjuring” have entered the list. However, the number one spot has remained unchanged for decades. “The Exorcist (1973),” directed by William Friedkin, made before I was even born. I still haven’t seen a scarier horror movie than this one.

This year, a work finally appeared that threatens the position of “The Exorcist.” It’s not even a new release, but a series I watched a few years ago that wasn’t even on my radar, yet suddenly shot up in my mind’s ranking. It is the five-part series “Chernobyl,” presented by HBO in 2019. Since it deals with the nuclear power plant explosion disaster that occurred in the Soviet Union in 1986, it is clearly a true disaster drama. The reason this work transformed into a horror genre in my mind is the decision to discharge Fukushima contaminated water (treated contaminated water). I know. Even if I write a thousand columns like this, the discharge decision won’t change, but I still write. Not to incite fear, but to encourage us to think a little about the seriousness of the situation.

Only a very small number of scholars truly understand the scientific nature of Fukushima contaminated water. The media only conveys experts’ claims in simplified and incomplete expressions, and even experts have rarely seen the actual Fukushima contaminated water or conducted experiments with it. The claims of scholars who have studied the related field their entire lives vary. Some say the treated contaminated water is safe and even say they would drink it themselves, while others warn it is more lethal than we fear. One thing is certain: no one knows exactly what will happen when Fukushima contaminated water is discharged. Therefore, the Japanese government’s decision is not an administrative measure but an experiment. An experiment that risks the health of not only its own citizens but also our neighboring people and ultimately all of humanity.

Coincidentally, the Chernobyl explosion was also caused by an experiment. It was an experiment to answer the question, “How long can the electricity generated by the turbine spinning by inertia supply power if the reactor is shut down?” The absurd process and horrific results of this experiment are depicted in the HBO series “Chernobyl.” Nearly 40 years have passed since the Chernobyl explosion, but vast areas remain uninhabitable. The land does not flow, but the sea does. Contaminated land can be avoided, but how do you avoid contaminated seas? Like the mad cow disease incident, it may turn out to be just an unfounded fear, but the ecological damage could be greater than expected. Just as cancer rates surged in neighboring countries after the Chernobyl accident, secondary and tertiary damages that cannot be clearly linked causally may occur later. In such cases, is there any way to get compensation from the Japanese government?

In about 30 years, the largest experiment in human history will begin, pouring massive amounts of treated contaminated water into the sea. Is there any way to stop this extremely risky experiment? Seeing my growing helplessness and anxiety, it seems my number one horror movie ranking in my heart is about to change soon.

Lee Jae-ik, Novelist