Background
“Deranged” is a 2012 South Korean science fiction movie about an infectious diseases epidemic.
The beginning of the movie shows Jae-hyuk, a former university professor who has a doctorate
in biochemistry but is now currently working as a pharmaceutical sales representative in a failing
pharmaceutical company. Jae-hyuk started the job of a pharmaceutical sales representative
because he lost most of his life saving in a bad stock investment, which was suggested by his
detective brother.
Jae-hyuk has a pretty wife and two very cute kids, a boy and a girl. The horror aspect of the
movie begins with when several dead bodies are found floating in the Han River. Later on, as the
number of dead bodies increases, the public is shocked to discover that the fetal deaths are
caused by outbreak of virus-infected mutant parasitic horsehair worms, which is called
“Yeongasi”. The infected people show symptoms of increased hunger, without weight gain, and
excessive thirst when the worms are mature and ready to reproduce. Hence, the worms control
the human brain and force the victims to jump into the water, so that they can come out of the
body and go into water.
As the investigation proceeds, the public discovers that the worms are released into the Han
River by the failing pharmaceutical company where Jae-hyuk works. The pharmaceutical
company does this in order to make themselves the only supplier of the drug that can cure the
disease. The company is illegally manipulating the market demand and supply.
Business portray
The business world in the movie is actually portrayed under neutral light but more towards the
positive light. At the beginning, the company is failing and ready to go out of the business until a
foreign investor, whose name is never revealed, buys the company at a low price, and organizes
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a secret research lab for a new drug. Here, the business world is portrayed from negative light to
neutral light. Then the pharmaceutical company spreads the mutant virus into the Han River
illegally. It successfully manipulates the market by making people sick and desperate, so that
only their company can supply the drug demanded by the people to cure the disease. This gives
the company a monopoly in the industry. Then the business world is portrayed under positive
light.
Dilemma One
The Han River of South Korea is a famous tourist spot, where tourists gather together in the
summer and swim in the river. Because it is a popular vacation spot, the evil pharmaceutical
company chose to release the mutant virus in the Han River so it can spread and infect large
number of people rapidly.
The night before the opening of the Han River for swimming, the river’s administrator saw the
pharmaceutical company employees release the mutant virus into the river. But instead of
reporting it to the police, he kept quite until the outbreak went out of control. Later, they found
out that the reason he kept quiet was to keep the Han River open for summer so they will have
revenue generating from fee paid by tourists (There is certain fee charged for swimming in the
river so they have enough fund to protect the environment). If he had told the police, they would
have closed the river, thereby resulting in no funds to use for next year. After seeing that the
deadly disease killed many people, the administrator felt deeply guilty but nothing could have
been done at this point. At the end of movie, the police arrested the administrator.
In my opinion, the administrator should have reported to the police after he discovered what the
pharmaceutical company had done to the river. The administrator only cared about his own
business revenue from the Han River, he did not bother if it was ethical or not. The administrator
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had the legitimate power over the Han River, which gave him responsibility to run a good tourist
business based on the Han River. At this point, I would say that he is indeed doing his job
responsibly. He thought about the overall profit. But that shouldn’t excuse him from not
reporting harmful, illegal activities that had been done by the pharmaceutical company.
Dilemma Two
Now, let’s look at the pharmaceutical company who caused this outbreak. Initially, the company
is in deficit and losing money; then a foreign investor buys the company and organizes a secret
research lab for a new drug to bring the company back to life. In order to sell this new drug, they
need large amount of market demand, so they decide to create the disease to make people
demand the drug. Releasing mutant virus into the Han River infected a large number of people
who swam in the river. At that moment, the government was eager to search for the cure and the
drug is the only cure. Suddenly, the whole country is demanding the drug, but the demand is
more than the supply. It makes the company the monopoly in the market.
At end of it, the company wants to eat a big pie by asking the government to buy the company
for an unbelievably high price. If the government doesn’t agree to buy, they won’t manufacture
enough drugs to cure the disease. Finally, the government can’t stand any more pressure and
agreed to buy the company. When the fraud got revealed while signing the contract, the police
arrested the owner, and the entity comes under the government’s control. The government then
manufactures large amount of drugs right away to save people’s life.
I think the pharmaceutical company should never release the virus into the river. The drug is
made to save life, not the other way around. It is unethical to create a disease to manipulate
market demand and then make a new drug as the only cure. For new drug, they should do market
research and to promote their drugs in the ethical way. If there is not enough demand, then they
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should switch to the other product. Here, the company became the monopoly illegally. Especially
for pharmaceutical industry, the products are meant to save people’s life so it makes the
pharmaceutical company more sensitive to the ethics. In addition to the government, a law
should be made that forces the company to do certain actions, so that they manufacture drugs
right away to save life first when facing such severe disease outbreak.
Dilemma Three
After the severe disease outbreak, people demanded the drugs; but the
pharmaceutical company claimed they don’t have enough drugs due to lack of
sophisticated operation equipment required to manufacture the drugs. All those
are heavy lies. They had enough drugs inventory way before the outbreak and
they hid it in order to force the government to buy the company for
unbelievably high price. Because people are dying everyday due to no cure and
that put the government under huge pressure from the society, the government
was willing to buy the company at any price.
In the end, the government and the company are ready to sign the contract so
they can start manufacturing drugs as soon as possible. However, the contract
was not signed because the government found out what had the company had done
and arrested the owner. Now the company is under the government’s control.
I think that’s absolutely wrong. The company should never use people’s life
to force the government to buy the company at a high price. I think the
company should release all those drugs to save people’s life since it is the
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company’s fault. But the contact was never signed due to last minute
discovery as I expected.
Other business dilemma
There are few other business ethical dilemmas. First, Jae-hyuk lost all his
savings to a stock option that is suggested by his brother who is a detective;
this is due to his trust in his brother on which he can use his job’s
advantage to gather underground confidential stock information. So there is
guaranteed earning money on those stocks. Second, after the disease outbreak,
there are no drugs to purchase because the company hide all those drugs; the
employees who work at the company have access to some drugs, so they would
sell all those drugs at black market at extremely higher price to benefits
themselves.
What I learned
I had watched the movie twice prior to writing this paper. When I first
watched it, it really upsets me because people are dying and the government
can’t do anything. Then I felt anger towards the pharmaceutical company. I
think the pharmaceutical company is inhumane and crazy and all the company
cares about is money.
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When I watched the movie for the second time through a business lens, I
observed that the company was actually successfully accomplishing their goal.
It did bring the company back to life by creating demand and offer limited
supply to the market. And it made the company the monopoly for the disease.
This shocks me how observing things through a business lens can turn the whole
way of looking at moral issues upside down.
Even though the company is really close to what they want to get, they were
caught at the last minute. It surprises me how people can easily make wrong
choice when they want a huge profit. When facing the business ethical dilemma,
it should always be the long-term goal above the short-term profitability.
Here, the company only sees short-time profitability and not the long-term
goal. I learned that when there is business dilemma, we should always consider
long-term strategy and see if the decision is really sustainable to the
company.
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