Everyone knows about the COVID-19 pandemic, which have impacted many lives globally. However, not many people knew about the battle which all the frontline workers are going through daily to fight off this infectious disease. Hence, it brings me great honor and privilege to join my close friend in attending the documentary premiere of “76 Days”. This film illustratres the struggles of the patients and hardship of the frontline workers during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. It was my first documentary premiere and i’m glad this milestone is achieved through watching this film, as it gave me the insight look of the situation in various hospitals during this pandemic. This is my very first review of a documentary film so my review on this particular film will be conducted differently. With that being said, let’s begin the review of “76 Days”.
General illustration of the film
On January 23 2020, COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan and the world has changed ever since. Everyone is required to wear a mask when going out and several countries are on lockdown even till this day. While healthy citizens are frantically buying their daily necessities in preparation of the country’s lockdown, patients who have contacted the disease have to be qurantined in hospitals and follow a strict set of rules set by the doctors and nurses. This film takes an emotional look inside 4 Wuhan hospitals, showing the pain and emotional suffering which the patients have to endure on a day-to-day basis. 3 groups of patients were featured in this film, which includes the pregnant woman, elderlies and the ones who lost the battle with COVID-19.
As the patients were fighting for their lives, doctors and nurses had to work against the clock to take care of these patients and conduct regular checks on the patients. The enormous amount of stress and fatigue were piling for those frontline workers as the numbers of infected patients rose rapidly during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, heart-warming and kind gestures can still be seen despite working in an extremely stressful environment. Nurses were seen cheering the patients and writing encouraging messages for the patients as well as one another to spread the positivity in the hospitals. All of these emotional support were vital for the patients as the visitors were not allow to enter the hospital to prevent the spread of the infectious disease. Overall, the battle with COVID-19 was tough for the infected patients, both physically and mentally. However, the frontline workers were always with the patients to provide the necessary support and fight the battle alongside with the patients.
Personal thoughts
For those viewers out there who may have watched medical drama or TV shows (e.g. Grey’s Anatomy & The Good Doctor) in the past, this documentary does not have much intense moments of the emergency rescue. However, the documentary made use of raw footages taken by 3 producers ( Hao Wu, Weixi Chan and a person who wished to stay anonymous ) to give the viewers a first-hand look of the intense situation at Wuhan during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, which lasted for 76 Days.
According to the main producer Hao Wu, he was meant to get on a plane to come to Wuhan for the shoot, but as the virus spread around the world, flights were canceled and he had to direct remotely and communicate with his on-the-field directors (Weixi and Anonymous) virtually. It was a very complicated shooting process for them during the lockdown as medical workers, patients, reporters, and government-sanctioned TV crews were only allowed to go inside the hospitals. I urge viewers to appreciate the efforts put in by the directors in making this documentary as these raw footages somehow managed to get past the strict censorship imposed by the Chinese Government, especially with the past criticism on the Chinese Government for their lack of transparency and tendency toward misinformation of the COVID-19 situation in China.
Memorable moments
This is my list of memorable moments in this documentary and if your favourite scene is similar to any of the scenes listed below, please do leave a comment below and let me know.
1. Emotional nurse unable to send of her father who was in critical condition after contacting COVID-19.
2.Chaos at the lift lobby area as infected patients pushed their way through to get treated and admitted into the hospital.
3. Infected Grandfather with Dementia attempting to leave the hospital to go back to his family.
4. Pregnant lady in labour during initial COVID-19 outbreak.
5. Senior nurse delivering the devastating news of the patient’s passing to the deceased’s family.
Movie Review : 7 / 10 (First-hand look at the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak at Wuhan. Heartbreaking moments from the struggles of the patients and hardship of the frontline workers. However, non-Mandarin speakers may struggle understanding the content of several conversations in the documentary despite the presence of English subtitles and thick native accent from the patients. Improvements can be made by indicating the no. of days passed after Day 1 of COVID-19 outbreak for viewers to track the progress of the documentary and anticipate the ending.)
Movie duration : 1 hr 33 mins
#76days #COVID-19 #Wuhan
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