Haeundae (2009) Reviews

• Best disaster movie I've ever seen

  gulthaw2011-09-08

  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.

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• You won't be washed away, but prepare to get drenched!

  paul_haakonsen2010-02-16

  I found this movie to be a good attempt at a disaster genre movie to come out of Korea. The movie had a good story, and had enough interesting side stories to keep you compelled. It is good to have several story lines that work well to come together for a good wholesome story. The characters in the movie were good and believable, though some of the dialogue were cheezy at times. The effects of the movie were adequate, but of course you can see it is not a multi-million dollar Hollywood CGI fest going on. But with that in mind, they made the effects work well enough. This movie is a good alternative to the usual comedies and horrors movie that mostly come out of Korea. It also takes up some real life issues about tsunamies. In overall I think this movie is a good choice if you like disaster movies, and if you are tired of big Hollywood movies with superstar cast listings.

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• Cheese overload!

  Siamois2009-12-14

  Disaster movies have been fine-tuned by Hollywood into a fairly reliable and polished formula. One of the ingredient is usually a good dose of melodrama. Now, Asian cinema as well, is known to spice movies with melodramatic bits. It therefore doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what an Asian take on disaster movies is gonna end up looking like: A melodramatic extravaganza. The first hour of Haeundae (also known as Tidal Wave in English) consists of setting up the table by presenting the cookie-cutter characters (played by a rather weak cast which tends to overact) and their clichés relationships. The script and story is pretty standard for the genre (you've seen all of this in Twister, Armageddon, many of Emmerich's movies and so on) but the writing is just... immature. As if the script came straight from a high school play. I must still praise some of the comedy bits, which are indeed funny and make certain characters more likable. Unfortunately, the dramatic bits are as (unintentionally) funny as the comedic ones and that is a problem. The final part of the film is where the disaster unleashes and ends up being a poor payoff. The special effects, cinematography, editing are uninspired. This film suffers from poor direction and you immediately feel like you'd rather catch an old disaster flick on cable TV. But what absolutely kills the disaster scenes are the tear-jerking attempts. It's like the director is trying to squeeze a dehydrated fruit and fill a glass with orange juice. It still deserves a 3 because there is some heart to it and it maintains your interest with some of the quirky characters. Plus a few comedic bits are also worth it. But if you're not a fan of the genre, expect a big waste of time.

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• I wasn't swept away by the first hour, but the last 40 minutes or so were smashing.

  BA_Harrison2010-09-29

  I experienced quite a range of emotions whilst watching Haeundae (AKA Tidal Wave): the first hour, which is spent introducing its various clichéd two dimensional characters, was tedious in the extreme and I found myself impatiently urging the cataclysmic forces of nature to get a move on and wreak some havoc, thus putting an end to my misery; however, when the mega-tsunami finally hit, I felt rather guilty for having been so keen to see some death and destruction, the horrific sight of the massive wave crashing down on the helpless people of Korea immediately bringing to mind the very real scenes of destruction from the tsunami disaster of Christmas 2004. So I'm sitting there feeling morose, reflecting on the real-life horror of such a phenomenon—how terrifying it must be to be confronted by an unstoppable wall of water—when the film slips into cheesy post-tsunami mode, and I'm presented with umpteen tried-and-tested disaster movie clichés as the survivors face further danger amidst the floods. These include the obligatory 'electrical cable in the water' routine, a well executed scene with a little girl being swept out of the window of a high rise building, and an awful slapstick moment that sees the film's comedy relief dodging metal containers as they fall from an upended freight ship. I'm now feeling much better, having a blast with what I realise is cornball blockbuster material of the purest kind. And then a second wave hits the city, killing even more people, including the little girl's parents, and it's lump-in-throat time again! Although Haeundae doesn't qualify as an essential disaster flick in my book, the build up being overlong, the characters not all that memorable, and the formula predictable, the special effects are much better than I expected and the mayhem is spectacular enough to make this film worth a go if you get the chance. 5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

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• Surprisingly Good, But Way Too Long

  bababear2010-08-19

  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.

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