Haeundae is a Korean disaster movie released this summer, featuring a mega -tsunami that slashes the popular Haeundae beach resort in the coastal city Busan.
And it's challengingly poor.
A disaster motion picture is usually quite predictable; it's already pretty clear when you buy the ticket that you just want to witness a cinematic visual feast and be exposed to some extreme natural calamities. But two thirds of this so-called "blockbuster" revolves around a badly-written melodrama that introduces an ensemble of dull characters and tedious character development. I did try to squeeze out some laughter midway in an effort to cheer myself up, but the main reason I stuck to my seat was the promise of disaster. That's why I bought the ticket.
But it takes around an hour until the tsunami finally arrives! It's fair to say the last half hour deserves some plaudits as the depiction of the destructive tsunami throbs right through your heart, particularly when the huge wave flattens skyscrapers with evacuees fleeing.
To be fair , one can understand what the director is attempting here, namely trying to win the audience's sympathy in the prelude before the huge wave kills the people you have just been acquainted with for the past hour.
But the shabby and clichéd preliminary plots only serve to dampen your desire for the climax before it actually comes.
The movie Haeundae sends out yet another warning signal that Korean films are in danger of exhausting their originality. It's hard not to list the predictable characters and stories of Korean movies in recent years: old ladies always screaming and quarrelling; and one token comic female character dropped into the plot, to list just a few. In this movie, you even have to tolerate another brief copy of the popular Korean hit My Sassy Girl. If Korean movies continue to walk the beaten path and wallow in meaningless subplots, I'm afraid, just like Korean TV dramas, they're going to end up with an audience of housewives.
I give Haiundae four out of ten.
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