Tidal Wave (2009)

Movie: Tidal Wave (12): Action/Drama - KoreanPositives:Sol Kyung-gu is impressive as always. Ha Ji-won is highly impressive as well. Rest of the cast also does a near-perfect job.The action/disaster scenes of the film deserve a special mention as they are very neatly executed. Visual effects are pretty impressive and enhance the film's entertainment to a great extent.The emotional scenes are impactful and have been executed with excellence.The story is quite good and the message of the film is appealing.Negatives:The only negative is that it takes too long to arrive at the main point. Although the first half does showcase some good character development and makes us understand them even more, the comedic bits are at times overdone and could've been easily done away with. In short, it's only the editing which is a major flaw.TIDAL WAVE is a decent disaster film which does take its own sweet time to build up, but it makes sure to reward the viewer for his/her patience, in the second half with excellent visual effects and action scenes.

Straight to the point.This is not an American movie. If you intend to watch this and are expecting an action packed disaster film full of pretty images from start to finish, well then you'll likely be disappointed.This is a disaster flick, which takes it's time showing you the relationships it's various characters share. The disaster is always looming and by the time it occurs you are deeply invested in the characters.Again thins is not an American disaster flick. If you want nonstop action go somewhere else.I would compare this movie to James Cameron's Titanic. No it's not a love story, but like Titanic you know what's going to happen, You also spend so much time with the various characters that you actually do care about what may or may not happen to them.I hope this helps those of you that may be undecided as to whether or not you want to see this film. .

Mel Brooks came up with a rule of thumb that I consider essential: don't make your movies longer than 90 minutes, because that's the longest a person can make one box of Raisinets last.The tidal wave doesn't enter the scene until over 70 minutes in, and at least 30 of those minutes could go. The story introduces a large cast of characters (and it's sometimes hard to figure out who's who), puts them in place in Busan, South Korea, and then unleashes the water.It's well photographed and there's a very well done scene where numerous characters are united by their watching a huge fireworks show over the harbor. The director is comfortable using the wide screen format, and does a very good job handling scenes with large crowds of people on screen.And the event, when it comes, is impressive- I wish I could have seen this in a theater instead of on my computer monitor.We have stock characters. The young man beset by guilt, his mother, and his would-be girlfriend; a scientist and his ex-girlfriend and her daughter- and of course he's the little girl's father but doesn't know it; a very nice guy and the poser girl he falls for who hangs out with airheads; and a real estate developer who wants to replace the funky shops and restaurants on Busan's waterfront with a sterile, soul-dead mall. You can pretty well figure out who lives and doesn't. And there was a scene where two characters are on a roof talking while another wave approaches and I wanted to shout, "Head for the stairwell and find an interior room on the top floor on the side of the building opposite the ocean!" Nobody listens to me.But because the pacing is so slow we begin to wonder how, in a city with a population of almost 4,000,000 people, characters happen to run into each other so often.Probably the best scene is a large set piece on a bridge after the first wave has struck. A slacker I'll call Odious Comic Relief survives the deluge, then is caught up in catastrophic events involving flying guy wires that snap loose from the bridge, falling vehicles, and finally a huge fireball. Imagine Chuck Jones directing WILE E. COYOTE IN HELL with the forces of water and gravity replacing the Roadrunner.It's rated R almost entirely for totally unnecessary foul language. There's is, of course, action violence- but if you're looking for another HOSTEL this isn't it.Should we evacuate the city? We can't! The Cultural Fair is going on!! But we've got to. Lives are at stake here!Think the screenwriters saw JAWS? No, I'm sure it's just coincidence.

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.