...but my gosh, it works. This is quite literally one of the best disaster movies I've ever watched, and I've seen most American-made ones of the last 45 years. For once, a movie actually had characters and development I genuinely cared about, which made it all the more somber once the wave actually impacted. A lot of people complained about the build-up, the character development, which takes up probably 90% of the film. Honestly, I loved it. I felt I was watching a romantic comedy at times (until drama slipped in, but still), and it worked beautifully. I've come to the conclusion you can't approach this movie from the "disaster movie" angle, you have to approach it from the "drama surrounding a disaster" kind of movie. It's about the lives and relations of the people on the coast who are going to be effected by this, not necessarily pawns just to be written off by the story later. If you're looking purely for a disaster film with little plot and emotion, don't go for this.... watch The Day After Tomorrow or Earthquake or 2012, but if you want your disaster mixed in with an emotional story about a tight-knit community on the coast with a storm looming in on them, then this is your film. Highly, highly recommended.

In South Korea, 'Haeundae' has enjoyed a somewhat baffling popularity. Despite having almost no redeeming qualities, it has become one of Korea's top grossing films. Part of this popularity is due to 'Haeundae' being the first disaster movie that the country has made. They've seen New York and L.A. get pummeled plenty, but never home. Additionally, while a tidal wave is the kind of disaster Americans reserve for a movie of the week, the immediacy of the disaster makes it more effective to the home audience than something that threatens the entire planet.For perspective, the American '2012' was released in Korea with the usual pomp and ceremony, but failed to impress because of its lack of story. It wasn't believable, so the Korean audience disconnected. A tidal wave is real, possible and precedented; which goes a long way in explaining the film's popularity in country where Science-fiction is just another crazy thing that the Japanese do.That said, this movie is actually really, really bad. It's not painfully bad; sitting through the film is not difficult so much as pointless. The first hour of the film is spent on a lot of campy story arcs. They are all drippingly melodramatic and are ultimately just lazy. There's the woman whose father died in the last big storm the region faced. She's in love with a guy who worked with her father and, secretly, blames himself for the man's death. (This kind of layered family drama is central to most of Korea's modern-era dramatic TV series.) Then there's the slacker friend whose mother keeps trying to find him a job. Slacker guy's younger brother is a competent lifeguard who saves a vapid, conniving tourist girl from drowning and she quickly becomes infatuated with him. The film gives us the obligatory scientist who sees the disaster coming, but is unheeded. The scientist is divorced and his biological daughter doesn't know who he is, yet completely by chance runs into his ex and the significantly younger man she's dating.If you're keeping score, that's three unresolved romances, three family conflicts, two life-changing secrets and zero natural disasters. In true movie-of-the-week form, the first half of the movie is a chess game of the filmmakers putting pieces into position for the most emotionally devastating finale they can. Unfortunately, anyone who has seen more than two disaster movies sees exactly what they're doing and it's difficult to take such blatant and artless tear-jerker set-ups seriously.After Slacker ruins things between Daughter and Guilt-guy, Lifeguard realizes that Tourist-girl is probably psychotic, Scientist gets mad at Ex for leaving Little Girl unattended, and Slacker's Mom sets off to buy her son nice shoes for an interview; we get the tidal wave which feels less like a disaster than sweet relief from the two-dimensional melodrama we just spent an hour sitting through, wistfully guessing which of the undeveloped stock characters is going to die.The special effects sequence is passable, but lackluster as it is over way too fast (though you sort of have to expect that from a tidal wave) and the rest of the film is people trying to get rescued from the ensuing flood and a second, aftershock wave. The emotional power of these scenes is undercut by a lot of elements; not surprising, given the weak build-up.The actors spend most of the film either being way to earnest or looking like even they can't believe they're doing this. Uhm Jeong-hwa, who turns in powerful performances in her other films, looks glazed and contractually obligated for the entire film. The defining characteristics of each character, most of which are negative, are shoved so violently down our throats that it's impossible to care about any of them.**Here be SPOILERS** Slacker escapes falling wreckage in a sequence that looks like it was ripped straight out of Looney Tunes. Lifeguard sacrifices himself in a move that seems less "heroic" than "I've finally escaped the crazy girl". Scientist and Ex stand on top of a building and are killed by the second wave when, by the film's own logic, they could have survived by simply running to the nearby stairwell. A pair of dress shoes float by implying that Slacker's Mom died and that it is kind of his fault, even though she was just as likely to die if she had been at home. The film closes with Daughter and Guilt-guy getting it together and Daughter immediately turning into a shrill, whining harpy. **End Spoilers**Disaster films is that they are about two things: 1) the cheap thrill of CGI destruction and 2) the emotional impact of that destruction. 'Haeundae' delivers neither. The destruction is over too quickly and the one extended scene involving destruction (see Spoilers above) is a slap- stick routine. There is no emotional impact because there is all of one likable character and he is surrounded by such unlikable people that death looks really attractive.The film does avoid a lot of non-sequiturs, keeping things coherent, if thin. So, the film saves itself from being painful to watch by being predictable in a vaguely comfortable kind of way. It's dull and shoots itself in the foot repeatedly, but could be enjoyable for B-movie fans and people who appreciate the over-the-top Asian style.

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!

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.