Haeundae

When you compare this to 2012, you feel like Roland Emmerich provided you with three more disaster movies in almost the same running time. Tidal Wave is a good bad film: getting to the dramatic part takes too long, in tentative hints, and through all that time we are forced to watch a group of uninteresting characters cracking unfunny jokes (it wasn’t just me who wasn’t laughing; the whole theater was quiet). Everything, however, takes place in the attractive setting of the real Korean city Haeundae with a famous (HUGE) beach surrounded by skyscrapers and is shot in a cool blockbuster manner. When the tsunami hell starts, the audience can enjoy nice effects in well-composed shots and be pleasantly surprised by a few original screenwriting ideas (a tanker leaning on a bridge), but everything is spoiled by the incredibly over-the-top sentimental scenes of parting and weeping between loved ones that make even the tackiest Hollywood pathos look like a cold calculation. However, the final impression is positive: Koreans know their filmmaking craft as well as the rules of disaster-movie entertainment, so they can join in – unlike us in (provincial) Central Europe. (07.12.2009)

Watching this disaster film from Korea is all the more chilling when you consider that less than two years after it was made, the same disaster of monstrous proportions hit Japan (which is a stone's throw from Korea). As far as the tsunami is concerned, I thought the film was pretty solid, but the filler around it was really bad at times(!). I can't help but smile at times when I watch an Asian feature film, which I really don't want to or should, but some of the Asian actors can really get to you with their gestures. In short, it's a kind of Asian take on Emmerich's disaster movies that relies mainly on great visual effects, impressive cinematography and beautiful music. (01.04.2011)