Haeundae
Director: JK Youn
Year: 2009
Rating: 6.0
Country: Korea
Aka -Tidal Wave
Haeundae is a beach/waterfront area in Busan,
Korea. This probably didn't help with tourism. This is considered to be Korea's
first disaster film and to a large degree it follows most of the traditions
of Hollywood but adds a bit more humor and a lot more melodrama. And much
of it is fairly effective. Tonal shifts is I think the often-used phrase
and this has plenty of them. It spends a large percentage of the film building
up the characters - some would say too long - but it pays off when the tsunami
hits at about 70-minutes in a 107-minute movie. That final 37 minutes of
terror and death is well done with excellent special effects. And all those
people we have been watching for 70-minutes suddenly begin to matter.
They want to live and so do we. Even the ones we didn't like too much. It
is kind of like murders in a house - we know some of them won't make it and
it becomes a guessing game.
Those first 70-minutes is a strange mélange
of goofy slapping humor, drinking and small dramas in people's lives. It
begins with a minor tsunami five years previously when a fishing boat is
caught in the middle of giant waves and all but one man escapes on a rescue
helicopter. The one who dies is the father of Yeon-heui (Ha Ji-won)
who sells the fish she catches on the street. It is a poor fishing community
and the other men who were on the boat take care of her - in particular Man-shik
(Sol Kyung-gu) who has fallen in love with her. Another character the film
follows is the scientist (Park Joong-hoon) who keeps warning everyone that
a tsunami is likely. And of course, no one listens. Do they ever in disaster
films? He has a beastly ex-wife and small girl who doesn't know he is her
father. You can guess the drama out of that situation. Then there is the
sweet innocent guy who saves a girl who falls off a boat. She is a Seoul
Sassy Girl who gives him a hard time. His job is saving people in the water.
She goes out on a boat not knowing a tsunami is heading her way. You might
guess how that goes. Various other lives filter through the story - some
survive, some don't.
When the tsunami of fifty-foot waves hits,
it gets pretty awesome - tons of extras running for their lives being swept
away, buildings collapsing, a river in the streets like a fast-moving current
nearly drowning everyone in its path, people on a bridge facing a mountain
of water. And multiple bittersweet melodramas play out as death approaches.
Heroism. Sacrifice. Tears. Prayers. Last second goodbyes. Like
in all disaster films it is an ensemble film with a very fine cast and everyone
gets a few good minutes but the main focus is on the character played by
Ha Ji-won. And for that I am grateful.
