Review of 'The Great Flood'

An-na (Kim Da-mi) is an AI researcher living with her young son Ja-in (Kwon Eun-sung) in a 30 floor apartment building who wake to find a global catastrophe is flooding the building forcing her to travel up to escape the rising waters. She receives a call telling her a rescue party is on their way to retrieve her. Agent Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo) manages to meet up with them and help take them to the roof. He reveals that the world government had known for years about the asteroid impact that caused the flooding but had decided to concentrate on secret survival efforts including a space station and research into humanoids implanted with human consciousness. While scrambling to safety An-na has flashbacks to an accident she and Ja-in survived in which her husband was killed when their car fell into water. Finally making it to the roof, the agents separate her from her son who is revealed to be an artificial life form but as she gets aboard the helicopter she suddenly finds herself back in her apartment with the waters again rising…

This is quite an amazing film that keeps you guessing despite the endless repetition of the final hour which suggests there is perhaps a bit of padding going on here. The effects are amazing and the drama feels very human throughout which makes the sudden incursion of major Science Fictional elements even more shocking than it is - From life in a standard hi-rise apartment to spaceships and space stations in a single second…The premise of why they are rescuing An-na seem a bit flimsy to me but it does make for a good story. What is good is that the viewer learns what is going on as the main character does, seeing things through her eyes. There are a number of small side-stories that are tragic but keep our interest as the story repeats over and over again…

“The Great Flood” starts off amazingly with the action dialled right up to 10 but tends to lose it's way a bit leading to a tedious second act that eventually provides a modicum of satisfaction at the end.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2025-12-31

Directed by: Byung-woo Kim

Studio: Hwansang Studio

Year: 2025

Length: 109 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29927663/