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)