User reviews

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.

I enjoyed this. However, I can't recall seeing a disaster movie with so much drama. You have to expect some drama so that you become invested in the characters but it seemed like a bit much for me. It wasn't a bad film though. If you are looking for something suspenseful this is probably not the right movie. If you want a drama film that just happens to, eventually, have a tsunami in it this is what you are looking for.

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.

Tidal Wave (2009)

** (out of 4)

This South Korean disaster picture deals with a wide range of people who at first are trying to deal with their personal lives but this all changes when a tsunami hits and they must fight for their lives. Apparently this film had the biggest budget for anything to come from South Korean and in fact I thought the special effects of the disaster looked pretty good but more on that in a bit. What really kills TIDAL WAVE is the first eighty-minutes, which is the time spent with the characters. It's clear that this film is just like so many American films in that we spend the majority of the running time getting to know the characters so that when the disaster does hit we care for them and want to see them survive. The problem here is that the majority of this is built around a bunch of comedy bits that simply aren't funny and in fact they really take you out of the movie. I'm really not sure what the purpose of these comedy scenes were but they should have been in a Laurel and Hardy movie and not something like this. Even the personal drama was pretty predictable as we are given the same stereotypes and same clichés that every disaster movie has followed since the 1970s. The film certainly does come alive once the tsunami hits and I thought the special effects were extremely good on the whole. Yes, there are some shots that are obviously fake but I enjoyed the imagination that went into them and we do get some pretty intense scenes. Still, after these scenes we fall back into the cliché routine with way too many scenes where someone is giving their live for someone else's and it just gets a bit repetitive after a while. TIDAL WAVE, on the whole, is a disappointment but fans of the genre will still want to check out the actual disaster bit.

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. .

I suppose most are now acutely aware of how increasingly devastating natural disasters have been in recent years, starting from the 2004 Asian Tsunami which swallowed thousands of unfortunate souls. Then there are the recent destruction caused by typhoons and earthquakes, the latter which we're more acquainted with given the tremors which we feel as a result of neighbouring incidents, a phenomenon not experienced until the last few years.

There are numerous accounts of heroics and tragedy following every disaster, and it's not a surprise that they have become fodder for mass entertainment. We had 252: Signal of Life as the Japanese offering to the disaster genre earlier this year, and the Koreans too have decided to match that with Haeundae: The Deadly Tsunami. With 252 it was the disaster hitting hard and fast first, followed by the shoving of human melodrama down your throat, and thankfully though Haeundae is quite the opposite, having the human drama established first without feeling forced, before the special effects extravaganza took over.

So if you belong to Camp Impatient, then you're likely to feel bored as the film sought to introduce the ensemble characters, each with their respective back-stories and selfish reasons why they go about doing what they are doing, of course with repercussions all nicely built in as well for some karmic response. There's the fisherman and the romance with the daughter of a man whom he had caused the death of, and this provided most of the emotional anchor for the film. Then there are others like the opposites attract with the coast guard and the free-spirited girl from Seoul, a seemingly scheming politician who's in some kind of en-bloc mess with the folks of the coastal village, a much maligned scientist and his estranged wife and daughter, and enough overbearing mothers.

All these provided some 60 minutes worth of dramatic run time before it's time for Nature to hit back with its tidal waves, where quick response to an actual event will save lives, which stemmed from complacency creeping in when early warning signals went uncalled for. The filmmakers here had realistically created the phenomenon of the massive tidal waves with the receding waters and such, and the effects here were nothing short of eye-popping. Fear-inducing even, though there was one quick scene which seemed lifted from Hollywood's Deep Impact upon reconciliation of 2 characters in the face of impending doom.

But of course budget dictated that the effects could only sustain the movie for a short while, and anything more than 2 wave cycles would probably either be cost-prohibitive, or just plain dragging out the misery of the characters in their preservation of lives. Some fade-to-black-at-opportune-moments also came to the rescue of the film, and cheesiness reined comical supreme needlessly as well, though no efforts were spared in others especially the one involving the little girl left in the hotel room, providing that edge-of-your-seat thrills in what would be a literal roller-coaster ride in the last half hour.

Haeundae served more as a disaster film without any preachy overtones regarding the preservation of the environment. In earnest, I thought the release of this film was more like serving up an appetizer to the bigger budgeted extravaganza come November with 2012. That, I want to see.

Koreans, apparently, have never made a big disaster movie until now. It's taken this long, until 2009, so many years after fellows in other Asian countries (like Japan or, well, Japan) have done the disaster-movie thing over and over, usually with monsters. Why is this? Perhaps Korea didn't have the budget for it - apparently, at a mere 11 million US, this is the biggest budgeted movie in Korean history, and it looks like a giant Titanic-movie as one might expect - or the intent with the subject matter. I don't know why Je-gun Yun decided now was the time, or this was the subject, but it probably has something to do with an actual giant damn tsunami taking apart coastlines all across the south-east Asian seaboard and killing hundreds of thousands and displacing so many more. It's one of those monumental disasters-of-the-decade that in its own circles (i.e. countries) is as horrible as Katrina.

So, perhaps, this is the first step towards healing: a big blockbuster that doesn't really elevate the form from previous American big-budget summer disaster-movie blockbusters, but doesn't suck like a box of Michael Bay d***s either. The film, named after a shore-line city, follows a group of characters in a series of semi (or not at all) connected plots, including one with a man who previously caused the accidental death of another while they worked on a boat during tsunami 2004 and has to reconcile with his alcoholism and a possible new love, another with a new coast-guard worker and his (unintentional) love interest, and a guy working at the weather-control center who has a very estranged relationship with his ex and his daughter who doesn't even know he's her father (since, you know, he works non-stop at a weather center tracking earthquakes and the like).

For the first hour, or maybe more, there are some big laughs and some entertainment to be had, if only on that shallow-surface level one might be familiar with in an Independence Day kind of fold-out (or for the older folks Towering Inferno). With the exception of the young coast-guard guy and the twerpy girl who is or isn't trying to court him depending on her mood, which just sucks, the plots are at least sort of engaging on a fun-dumb movie level. And even with the shots of visual effects that look terrible (and some of it is SyFy level quality), when the actual tsunami hits the city it is quite a sight and thing to experience, especially with a full audience. The problem that Yun comes with though is both the script, its uneven plot threads and hit-or-miss humor (some of it is very funny, intentionally so, including a giant explosion scene on a bridge during the tsunami climax), and in corralling some of the acting.

From what I hear, some Korean movies do swing and sway quite wildly between moods from scene to scene, and it isn't usually consistent even in the best films (exceptions I think might be Bong Joon-Ho and Chanwook Park's films). But here in Haeundae it breaks down like this: two-thirds of this is a decent crowd-pleaser, what my wife called a "mixed salad" kind of entertainment. And then in the last twenty-five minutes it turns into more or less a total weepy, so much so that you'll either fall for it completely Titanic style (and lo and behold many in the audience I saw the film with, mostly Korean-Americans or Koreans in town in NYC, were in tears), or you'll be scratching your head or simply cringing at the hysterics on display. It's never too terribly directed, but after so much of it... you wonder when it will end. It's a good start for a possible future genre Korea can take some more cracks at. It's just not something you need to rush to see. Unless you're a die-hard Roland Emmerich/Korea fan. And yes, fan of Korea, not even Korean movies.

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.

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.

When I first watched Titanic on the big screen I could only wait for the iceberg so that the film would end quickly. Bring on the iceberg!I said to myself. The iceberg arrived duly! But no! The Titanic refused to sink!

With this film (Tidal Wave)I did want the tsunami to arrive quickly. The tsunami did arrive after the cheesy romantic start off and, mercifully, the film did end quickly On the plus side, the special effects were awesome! Most Westerners would think that the acting was woody, but then they have no concept of the inscrutable faces of their Eastern brethren!

Disaster movies have are part of a big tradition, and any number of them have been effective in their own ways. HAEUNDAI starts from the simple premise that an unstable range of undersea mountains may give way to a "meta-tsunami" - promising waves fifty feet high.

HAEUNDAI may have its own fanciful approach to geology, but the film divides into two sections: the first hour or so, and the rest. The first hour involves plodding, ineffectual set-up as we come to know the ensemble of characters. Consisting of drunkenness, yelling and screaming, and a hint of romance, this part of the movie would work if it were more integrated and carefully written. The remainder of the film is the disaster and its aftermath - which involves not one, but three tidal waves, each one bigger than the one before. In other words, HAEUNDAI begins by testing your patience, and delivers its disaster in a matter that's not even remotely credible.

Hollywood's THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW at least had a certain visual brilliance along with its effects and nonsensical setup. HAEUNDAI just has CGI waves and rampant melodrama. If not for the promise of disaster, I probably would have left early.

I watched this film with such excitement. but I'm quite disappointed of what I saw after expecting so much from the trailer.

First I'm Korean myself and was surprised to see such high CGI effect movie from a Korean director.

Although D-war had quite great CGI , haeundae was the first disaster movie from Korea.

The first part is just drama style comedy plot, which is not that great. It get's boring, and I tend to forget that I was watching a disaster movie. About hour later the movie past, first real disaster occurs. When the tsunami hit Haeundae, it was quite something, the effects were well done, and outlined the problems that would occur well. But I'm disaspointted to see only one disaster occurring. After all this wait in the movie, there's only about 10 minutes of the tsunami. Rest is just back to normal drama plot.

Out of proporstions, where , if your on the hunt for tsunamiaction, you may spin fast forward to 75 minutes into the movie, which are pretty neat, but damaged by to much mediocre screams of sorrow as one after the other the cast drowns and sucumb to the frothing waters. without exhagerration i might say that this film covers all film genres except porn...

its a solid film productionwise and very korean at its nervy edge, though the cast isnt at its best, the score are as usual very nice and much of its filmography are great. its a disaster cathegory that is hard to make look real and some cheesy scenes do show greenscreen and cgi at low level, but also some funny scenes that made me laugh out loud, where a man is bombarded with shipping containers at a bridge, superb shoots.

but there are far too much romance and mediocre and boring human connections, that makes this film feel draged out of porportions and slow, so therefore just a little recommend from the grumpy old man

The film Haeundae is more than a disappointment. This was just a marketing heist that tries to cover up for a very bad movie.

The crappy CGI, the shabby script (full of clichés) and retarded acting makes this the worst Korean movie in recent memory. The director of this film, J.K. Youn, has been notorious for literally copying American comedy hits of the past and 'translating' them into Korean for quick bucks movies.

Of course I didn't expect any originality or authenticity from the director J.K. Youn, but this movie just scrapes the bottom of the barrel... I mean this insults my intelligence! As a fan of Asian cinema and Korean cinema I was actually angry after watching this movie. There are great Korean filmmakers such as Bong Joon Ho (The Host) and Park Chan Wook (Oldboy). But when I see a film like this I began to wonder what kind of people make this kind stuff. I read that the production cost for this movie was more than that of The Host. Haeundae is just a waste of resources (as well as your time if you care to watch this) for copycat filmmaker with no imagination and poor visual effects.

Haeundae is not a disaster movie, it's major disaster itself!

Wow... I've seen quite a few disaster movies, and this one was disastrous.

It began as a comedy and ended up a sorrowful one... Please set the mood right. The pacing of the movie was relatively even, and yes, the coming tsunami was... underwhelming.

The main actors are all pretty convincing, but the supporting ones are just that.... supporting ones. Their acting could only be called flaky, at best.

Let me get this out of my system. Japanese have one of the most advanced earthquake/tsunami early warning systems in the world. the Korean scientists made their Japanese counterparts sound like they were extremely I thought the ending was also too drawn out and long-winded. This movie would only be good when you are left with nothing better to watch.

I have seen quite a few Asian films from many different countries in Asia and this one was by far the worst one I have ever seen. Seriously marred by bad acting over 75 percent of the time, the concept of a Tsunami movie was buried beneath ten feet of choppy unrelated inconsequential events. I was not sure if it really was about a Tsunami until near the end-it seemed to be mostly about nothing but a raving alcoholic imbecile with a little boy. I would not recommend this film to anyone.Compared to The Host, a recent Korean horror-Sf film, Heaundea, comes off like a terrible commercial for international travel, as in, this is one vacation you would not want to take.

This wasn't so much a Disaster Movie as a disaster of a movie. It promised much and delivered little. The first 60 minutes was devoted to silly stories of silly people, for whom it was impossible to have any feelings other than boredom and irritation. Most of the characters were obviously stock characters rather than people. Perhaps we were expected to sympathise with them in their daily lives, but in effect I found I couldn't care at all. In fact I was on the side of the tsunami. If they all got wiped out, it really wouldn't have affected me at all. Not build-up to the expected tsunami. No suspense. No excitement. And then we got to the special effects. Except that there weren't any. 100 minutes just to prove that the Koreans cannot make a film. But let's be generous and award it 3 out of 10. And not watch any more Korean movies.

I like watching disasters movie but this one doesn't have anything else

What a weird movie. First thing to notice is, that the visual of the film looks pretty ok. Some decent camera work was definetely one of the stronger sides of Tidal Wave aka Haeundae. Being a Korean disaster movie I already had some worries due to experiences in the past with movies coming from Asia. And I didn't have to wait long. Immediately those horrible nonsense dialogues came up, causing that you won't like any of the characters at all. Basically everybody without a high degree of any sort falls into this category and all the interactions and relations don't matter anymore. You just want the wave erase 95% of the cast right from the spot and show us epic slow motion shots of how entires cities get washed away. Romantic aspects, and there were quite a few which were forced upon us all fall flat and appear unrealistic. The funny thing is, they are not! Living in Asia myself I can tell first hand that romantic issues are handled a lot more different, very indirect and seemingly naive. It may be authentic to a certain point, but it is definetely painful to watch. Another aspect of the 101 of Asian film making (of course there are exceptions to the rule) is at least one goofy character who always has to be the clown, no matter how serious the topic of the movie may be. As if there is a Comedy quota that has to be reached by any means. And yes, Tidal Wave deals with all of these flaws excessively. And this makes most of these films nearly unwatchable. The only good aspects of this movie are indeed the disaster elements themself, even though they rely on extreme usage of CGI as far as the eye can see. Some of these shots were really epic and fun to watch. But what does this help if you have suffer through this gruesome acting? Sad to say, but this movie would have been beeter if they wouldn't have even bothered in building up characters or relations of any kind and instead simply go nuts on epic destruction. 10 to 15 good minutes won't erase over one hour of uselessness.