The Tower

The Tower: A 2012 Korean disaster movie.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Story Summary: It's a Korean movie about a high rise tower going up in flames. What more do you really need to know?

This movie hearkens back to the days when Hollywood made self contained disaster flicks on a regular basis; i.e. "Poseidon Adventure", the "Airport" (not "Airplane") movies, and the like, and, of course, the obvious comparison being "Towering Inferno". There's not a whole lot of variances afforded when you make a film like this. After all, it's a disaster film in a ship, building, plane, or what have you, so, it's basically just try to mitigate the damage, save as many people as you can, and see who (if anybody) makes it out alive. What you can do though, is try to have the viewers invest in some of the characters, provide an engrossing film with a decent enough story, some nice pacing & action, and, not make your stunts & effects look like crap. Does this film succeed on those fronts?...Yeah, pretty much.

Everything centers around the buildup to the Christmas celebration at the fabulous Sky Towers buildings. The first 30 minutes of the film or so are devoted to introducing the people who'll be the integral players in the disaster to come, they include; various hotel & building employees, some guests and love interests, the firemen who show up on the scene, some side groups, and the kid (gotta have a kid involved; this is a mandatory disaster movie rule). There's some ominous foreshadowing about high winds and a busted sprinkler system along the way, but screw it; let's send in the helicopters to drop fake snow on the buildings to appease our VIP guests as planned. What could possibly go wrong here?

OK, it's holiday party time! Where are those snow dropping helicopters?...Oh, here comes one now! Uh-oh!...What was that about the strong winds and a bad sprinkler system again?...From there, this is Disaster Movie 101, and, it's pretty entertaining for the most part.

This movie is what it is, meaning it's basically a popcorn action flick with little room for much else. The entire cast does a fine enough job, but there's not much for them to do past the ¼ mark other than run for their lives. There are some decent action set pieces where the characters have to escape the flames while traversing various floors & elevator shafts, navigate sky walks & scaffolding before they collapse, etc...This is all done with a fairly solid mix of live action, stunt work, and CGI. You also get your standard dose of Korean melodrama along the way (of course), but, it's not really any more melodramatic than those old American disaster flicks mentioned above; this movie really does play just like those films, except it's more modern and from a different country.

Bottom Line: It works well enough overall!...If you're looking for a fantastic story & dialogue driven Korean film, then, this ain't for you!...But, if you want to just chill and watch a decent action/disaster flick from Korea, then, this will probably fit the bill!

I think it's in the 6-7 out of a 10 star range!...Ehhhh! I'll give it 7 stars!

This film is basically a remake of The Towering Inferno post 9-11. There's a twin tower building full of people that catches fire by accident. There's no water available on the critical floors so the fire spreads. There are lots of people trapped inside the building and rescuers doing their best to save them.

Really, you know what you're going to get, there's no surprises, and it all comes down to how well executed the action sequences are and whether we care about the people involved in the tragedy. For me, this film works. Granted it's Korean and subtitles take some of the tension away as your eyes are flicking to the bottom of the screen to see what's bring said. But, this film really works as a 21st Century disaster film.

There's lots of big action sequences, big fires, explosions, burning bodies, falling bodies, tons of special effects. It's all exciting stuff in a very PG sort of way.

Taking advantage of knowledge gained in the 9-11 disaster, we see steel frameworks buckling, people tacking pleas to find their loved ones on nearby walls, burning debris falling from the top of the building; everything that happens to modern buildings when they burn.

My biggest criticism of the film is that there are too many characters. The film takes 30 minutes before the fire starts and in that time we meet the maintenance manager and his child, the restaurant manager, the head chef, the incompetent chef, the incompetent chef's girlfriend, the maintenance manager's friend, the rookie fireman, the fireman sergeant, the work obsessed fireman, the lottery winner, the Christian, the mother of a college student, the college student, the building manager, the building owner, the snooty woman and her dog, and so on and so on. Really, there are just too many. Cutting the number down and shortening the introduction would have improved this film a lot, allowing us to care more for fewer characters.

Whilst most of the film is deadly serious, there is some light relief provided to make the film more watchable - two hours of relentless disaster is just too depressing. In particular, the character of the fireman sergeant is likable, comical, but still very serious in his actions. My favourite moment comes when he prays for, and gets, a tsunami, dozens of floors up the building.

I can't imagine this film being made in America, post 9-11, and many Americans may find it too distressing to watch but, as a reboot of the disaster film genre, it's great success.

If your looking for a good action pack, dramatic movies that keeps you on the edge of your seat, then this the right movie for you. Once you get past the character building, setting the mood, at the beginning the movie is magic.

As far as disaster movies go, 'The Tower' hardly reinvents the wheel, but even though it sticks to formula, audiences looking for B-movie thrills will love the adrenaline rush it gives you from start to finish. Clearly inspired by the 1974 Hollywood classic 'The Towering Inferno', it uses the same premise of a luxurious skyscraper that catches fire one fateful day to devise a continuous series of high-octane action sequences that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

True to its genre, the first half-hour is spent introducing the bevy of characters whose fates will intertwine. Chief among them is the building's security and maintenance operations manager Dae-ho (Kim Sang- gyeong), a single father to a precocious young girl, Hana, whom he promises to that it will snow on Christmas Eve. That is also the reason why Hana eventually finds herself at the ill-fated Tower Sky residential complex, made up of two adjacent towers connected by a sky bridge at the 70th floor.

Dae-ho is infatuated with kitchen manager Yoon-hee (Son Ye-jin), who offers to look after Hana while he goes about ensuring that the preparations for the management's lavish Christmas Eve party go according to plan. The occasion turns out to be the reason of the calamity, as the management's egotistical President Cho (Cha In-pyo) arranges a fleet of helicopters to rain snow down from near the top of the building – despite being earlier advised of possible strong vertical drafts - just so he can impress the residents.

After seeing his wish of a 'White Christmas' come true, an even more wowing spectacle awaits when a sudden gust causes one of the helicopters to lose control and crash into one of the twin towers. Immediately, the upper floors become engulfed in flames, leading to the activation of the men stationed at the Yeoudio Fire Station – including the veteran captain Young-kee (Sul Kyung-gu) who forsakes his promise to his wife to spend the night with her in order to join his comrades in the firefight.

Young-kee turns out to be a key player in the rescue of those trapped, as Kim Sang-don's workmanlike screenplay sets him up as the proverbial selfless hero whose bravery is ultimately milked for high-pitched theatrics. The rest of the characters are similarly delineated in terms of tropes – whether Dae-ho as the nerve-wracked father constantly worrying about the safety of his daughter, or President Cho as the devious businessman cum de facto villain of the film. The most inspired bit of Sang-don's writing is in the addition of a group of devout Christians gathered to celebrate Christmas for comic relief, whose prayers for help are inadvertently always answered.

It is to director Kim Ji-hoon's credit that the film never has a dull moment despite the formulaic script. Right from the start, he confidently demonstrates his ability to navigate seamlessly between the various points-of-view of the various characters, and that adroitness proves useful in maintaining a tense and taut atmosphere throughout the movie. He also keeps the movie well-paced and easy to follow, with the first half focused on extinguishing the fire from within its source and the second on evacuating as many people as possible before the weakened tower collapses under its own weight.

Within that two-act narrative, Ji-hoon engineers some truly gripping sequences. The helicopter crash is the first of the money-shots, and by deftly combining actual images with CGI, it amply demonstrates that the Koreans have caught up with Hollywood in terms of visual effects. Besides the spectacle, two particular scenes stand out – the first where a ragtag group of survivors make a perilous crossing from one tower to another using the sky bridge, whose steel and glass structure is at risk of collapsing; and the second where who's left of the same group pack themselves into an elevator and attempt to free-fall it down around 60 floors to escape the crumbling tower.

Next to the top-drawer special effects, the cast and their acting unfortunately play second fiddle. Nonetheless, they play their roles with conviction, in particular Sang-gyeong and Kyung-gu – though the most memorable actor here is not one of the leading cast, but rather Kim In-hwon, who plays a jocular firefighter hailed as a saviour by the group of Christians after turning up at a particularly opportune moment.

Still, the main attraction is the visuals, which under Ji-hoon's confident hand (who was also behind 'Sector 7'), prove to be very impressive for an Asian film. Any criticism that the pleasures to be had here are no more than B-movie thrills is moot – after all, that's exactly what 'The Tower' intends to deliver. Indeed, if you're looking for a gripping two-hour adrenaline high, then this big-budget action disaster film is just that shot in the arm for sheer exhilaration.

I found it really good, always love watching foreign movies, and it made me cry so much at the end!!