Tidal Wave (2009)
"Haeundae" (original title)

Man-sik and Yeon-hee, are unsure as to whether they can overcome past wounds and continue being a couple. Dr. Kim, who cautions against a possible mega-tsunami at Haeundae, collapses in ... See full summary »

Director:

Youn Jk

Writer:

Je-gyun Yun

Stars:

Ji-won Ha, Nicole Dionne, Jeong-hwa Eom

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ji-won Ha	...	Gang Yeon-heui
Nicole Dionne	...	Yeon-Hee (voice)
Jeong-hwa Eom	...	Lee Yu-jin
Kyung-gu Sol	...	Choi Man-shik
Joong-Hoon Park	...	Kim Hwi
Ye-won Kang	...	Hee-mee
Min-ki Lee	...	Hyeong-shik
In-kwon Kim	...	Dong-chun
Jae-ho Song	...	Choi's uncle
Bo-geun Cheon	...	Seung-hyeon
Sean House
Lee Briggs	...	Helicopter Pilot
Yi-du Jeon	...	Section chief at district office
Ho-min Yeo	...	Jun-ha
Mark Zeeman

Storyline

Man-sik and Yeon-hee, are unsure as to whether they can overcome past wounds and continue being a couple. Dr. Kim, who cautions against a possible mega-tsunami at Haeundae, collapses in agony springing from an unexpected turn-up of his daughter and divorced wife. Hyoung-sik, after rescuing a woman from Seoul, rides out a ferocious storm to gladden her heart. A tsunami which destroys Haeundae symbolizes the establishment of a typical axis called provocation of conflicts, and later the inner spaces of the couples without anything left behind after all conflicts have ended.

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Plot Keywords:

tsunami | disaster | korea | tidal wave | giant wave | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some disturbing disaster images and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp] Official site [kr]

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean English

Release Date:

22 July 2009 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Tsunami

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

CJ Entertainment, Doosabu Film, Polygon Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min 129 min (director's cut) 103 min (international)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The CGI tsunami sequences had been shot at Kerner Optical's stages using water-dump tanks left over from special effects sequences of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in San Rafael, California in November and December 2008, months before any principal photography began in South Korea

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Connections

References The Matrix (1999)

User Reviews

Silly and melodramatic in equal measure

This lacklustre disaster flick should have been so good: it features tremendously good special effects scenes of 100-metre high waves tearing through a city, laying waste to anything and everything in their path. These scenes alone are among some of the best bits I've ever watched in the whole disaster genre; destruction and mayhem on a massive scale, with carefully-crafted CGI bringing the chaos to full and authentic life.

It's a shame, then, that the surrounding movie is so poor. Tidal Wave takes an hour to get to the disaster stuff, and until that time we're treated to…Korean comedy. Now, I don't mind a bit of comedy, the quirkier the better; THE HOST had a lot of fun moments. But this comedy is something else, the comedy of ridiculous characters behaving ridiculously, almost on a sub-slapstick standard. The over-the-top acting is absolutely appalling; I avoid American comedies on principle but this is even worse than those.

Of course, disaster movies always have to build up to the disaster, and I fully understand the need to develop the characters before dropping them in the clag. But, in my mind, the film should always be about the disaster, even before it occurs: have characters making warnings that are unheeded, or build suspense and foreboding with minor events preceding it. DANTE'S PEAK is a case in point of how to achieve this. TIDAL WAVE sits in a completely different, and entirely superfluous, genre until the actual disaster occurs.

Once the chaos gets underway, things get a lot better, although there's a reliance on overwrought melodrama which will test the patience of even the most hardened viewer, I imagine. Endless scenes of characters facing death, drawn out in painful slow-motion and with maximum crying, screaming, sobbing and telling each other they love them. Such scenes are a personal pet hate of mine, and they threaten to overwhelm the film even when the going gets good. It's a real shame, as with access to those special effects TIDAL WAVE could have, and should have, been a true great.