BlazeLime
Strong and Moving!
BoardChiri
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
teafico
...but my gosh, it works. This is quite literally one of the best disaster movies I've ever watched, and I've seen most American-made ones of the last 45 years. For once, a movie actually had characters and development I genuinely cared about, which made it all the more somber once the wave actually impacted. A lot of people complained about the build-up, the character development, which takes up probably 90% of the film. Honestly, I loved it. I felt I was watching a romantic comedy at times (until drama slipped in, but still), and it worked beautifully. I've come to the conclusion you can't approach this movie from the "disaster movie" angle, you have to approach it from the "drama surrounding a disaster" kind of movie. It's about the lives and relations of the people on the coast who are going to be effected by this, not necessarily pawns just to be written off by the story later. If you're looking purely for a disaster film with little plot and emotion, don't go for this.... watch The Day After Tomorrow or Earthquake or 2012, but if you want your disaster mixed in with an emotional story about a tight-knit community on the coast with a storm looming in on them, then this is your film. Highly, highly recommended.
gulthaw
Usually the disaster movies take a few minutes to explain what's happening and the rest of the movie is how they face the disaster.After seeing Haenduae I think that is the way a disaster movie should be. First, let me know the characters. Love them, hate them, laugh with them. Then, only then, show me what is happening so I can tremble when they run, cry if they die and laugh with joy if they survive.It was the first time I saw a korean film and I enjoyed every single piece of it. Brilliant.I don't understand the reviews saying that is bad... for me this is how all disaster movies should be.
KineticSeoul
I remember watching this in theaters because it was a really hyped movie and the theater was jam packed. Unfortunately the movie really didn't live up to it's hype, the characters were just obnoxious and the story just wasn't all that great. I think the biggest hype was because it's a disaster movie that isn't made by Hollywood, but besides that this movie was actually very dull from beginning to end. The movie lacked the budget so the CGI was pretty terrible, especially the scene when the mountain crumbles. And the disaster parts are used very sparingly as possible to the point it all becomes predictable and stupid. I really wanted to like this movie, but it's very difficult because the characters aren't really likable and you don't really get attached to them or anything, plus some of them make the most stupid decisions. I thought Sol Kyung-Gu was a good actor and for the most part he is, but I found him annoying in this movie as well. It seemed like this movie lacked the budget and resources to make a good or at least decent disaster movie. On a positive note few of the humor in this was alright.4.7/10
dbborroughs
Painful mess of a movie concerning the people living in and around Haeundae (I believe thats the cities name) who go through various serious and comedic gyrations while officials debate the possibility of a tsunami like the one that hit on Christmas 2004 near Sumatra hitting Korea. Of course huge earthquake happens which triggers the greatly feared event.Real mess of a movie doesn't know whether its serious or a comedy. Even by standards of Asian films which often mix moods, this is a real uneven movie.One need only watch the disaster sequences to see how terrible tragedy is inter-cut with some very silly moments. Of course it would help if we had some characters to root for but unfortunately there are only card board cut outs that are moved around.Then again I doubt anyone would watch this film for the story, what most people want is the spectacle of the Tsunami and on that score the film is pretty good. Granted most of the effects are computer generated which results in some uneven moments (the destruction of the aquarium is pretty bottom of the barrel fake). I'm not sure its worth navigating through the talky bits of the first hour, but on DVD getting to the good stuff is going to be rather painless.At best a rental, this is really only for people who want to see the destruction of 50 or 60 story waves crashing into a big city. All others best look elsewhere.
