The Great Flood

Story: One day, Goo An-na (Kim Da-mi) is once again woken up by her son Ja-in (Kwon Eun-seong), who desperately wants to go swimming. When he tells her that there is a swimming pool outside, she ignores the six-year-old, only to look out of the apartment window a short time later and see that almost everything up to the second floor is under water. Next, the water reaches her. She then receives a call from Son Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo), who wants to pick her up and rescue her on behalf of the company she works for. He is on his way and tells her to immediately take the stairs further up. Meanwhile, panic has broken out in the apartment complex and everyone is fighting for survival when a gigantic wave suddenly floods several more floors. Finally, Hee-jo arrives and tells An-na to come with him to the roof, where a helicopter will soon land to pick them up. An-na is an important scientist who has managed to give AI emotions. Hee-jo also explains to her that her work could ensure the survival of humanity, because the flood that is currently engulfing everything is the result of a meteorite that struck Antarctica and melted all the ice there. Civilization as we know it is therefore coming to an end...

Review: The last major disaster movie from South Korea that stuck in my mind and is also well-produced is “Concrete Utopia”, which shares the setting with “The Great Flood”. This time, too, we spend almost the entire film moving through the corridors and stairwells of an apartment complex. The core of the story is a mother's feelings for her son, which is why one might assume that the film is also a drama. But even though there are a few rather innovative ideas, the story stumbles at this very point. This has mainly to do with the son, who hardly wins the viewer's sympathy, as well as with a twist that shifts the focus of the story considerably shortly before the halfway point, making it difficult for us to reorient ourselves emotionally in the events. Director Kim Byung-woo proves at this point that he wants to create much more than just a disaster movie, but he fails to convince us that he knows where he wants his story to take the audience. This is a great pity, as the potential behind it was quite considerable.

In retrospect, the wasted opportunity behind this sci-fi film — because that's exactly what it soon turns out to be — is all the more annoying because Kim Byung-woo was able to tell a story with “The Terror Live” that completely took me by surprise (in a positive way). After a break of several years, he seems to be working all the harder for Netflix at the moment, as he also shot “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy” in 2025, a fantasy film that was just as far from what it actually wanted to be. At least it can be said without a doubt that the special effects in “The Great Flood” are many times better than in his last work and are even downright impressive most of the time. Since we are initially led to believe that this is a classic disaster movie, it is essential that we see the sea outside the windows of the apartments at all times and that the extent of the disaster is made clear to us by the skyscrapers rising like small spires out of the ocean. While over and over again, gigantic waves come and sweep everything away and submerge it under water. Quite breathtaking.

The hook is also convincing and quickly checked off. Nothing to do with climate change, which for some outrageous reason suddenly floods everything; no, you have to think on a cosmic scale: it's a meteorite that destroys all life. The government knew about it but kept it secret because nothing could be done anyway and panic had to be avoided. However, it would have been nice to get a little background information. What about amateur astronomers? Were they dismissed as crackpots when they discovered the meteorite? Was it really possible, despite the internet, to get all the media to cover up the approaching doom? And would every one of the insiders really have gone along with it? But “The Great Flood” already has enough on its plate without having to deal with these questions, because after almost 50 minutes, it becomes clear that the film is about AI and how it can be trained to feel emotions. To reveal as little as possible, we'll leave it at that. Still, it's quite perplexing that the story suddenly takes a completely different direction than one would have expected. Fifty minutes as an introduction to then present the actual subject of the story is simply too long.

The biggest problem, however, is the characters. Kim Da-mi (“The Witch - Subversion”) plays a mother who is overwhelmed by her child. On top of that, there is a secret surrounding the child, and An-na carries a trauma that has to do with the fact that she almost drowned and lost a loved one. The worst part of the story, though, is the son: apparently, the writers wanted to create the most annoying child in the world, and they succeeded. But does that help to strengthen the bond between mother and child as a dramatic element? Certainly not. The scenes in which the son gets lost (again) because he wanders around like a lemming are the best, because then we don't have to put up with him for a while. An-na, on the other hand, is a person with many flaws, which is supposed to be very important for the story. Everything revolves around her transformation into a better person, and to this end, there are several situations in the high-rise complex that seem like side quests she must complete in order to grow. That may sound strange, but it fits with the twist that was mentioned.

Ultimately, however, it has to be pointed out once more that this is a science fiction film which raises some interesting questions about AI and offers some good ideas, rather than a proper disaster movie. But good ideas alone are not enough, because “The Great Flood” seems disjointed in many places, as if several nice ideas had been thrown together somehow. The film lacks a common thread, because as a viewer, you too often have the impression that you are watching a fever dream that is fascinating but fails to draw you in. The director is unable to capitalize on the various interesting set pieces; they are simply there, and the emotional center that is supposed to be created through the mother-child relationship falls completely flat because the son, in particular, is downright annoying. I love the sci-fi genre, but “The Great Flood” shows why the genre cannot appeal to everyone. The story is told in a confusing manner, much of it seems ill-conceived, and so one has to settle for the great special effects as the movie's only true strength. Accordingly, “The Great Flood” can only be recommended to fans of the genre.

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