Tidal Wave [Blu-ray]

...I enjoyed it so much, that now I'm going to start it all over from the beginning. Korean cinema has become KICK-ASS SURPRISINGLY AWESOME in recent years!It is worth some EXTRA WORK ON OUR PART (English folks) to find a way to watch these in the BEST WAY POSSIBLE.I choose Korean language WITH English subtitles. This is the (BEST) ONLY way to watch Korean cinema…. like “TRAIN TO BUSON” or “SQUID GAMES.”Even then, you might want to find a YouTuber to explain the language differences between the intended Korean lines and the English translation to understand the intentions of the creator.This is especially impactful for the mind-bending series, “Squid Game.”

The broad humor is balanced by the catastrophic events the characters all find themselves in, and I appreciate that balance. The love stories are depicted with more tenderness and allowed me to care about them and what happened to them. This is Korean Cinema's first foray into disaster films and I think they knocked it out of the ballpark. Good for you, Korean Cinema! I look forward to your next project. -PEACE-

Okay

serious and humorous

I guess you have to be Korean, or at least have lived in the country for a number of years, to totally get with what's going on with these characters. From what I observed, the lead male character is an alcoholic and a major f*#% up. His son is supposed to be very smart, but is also a whiny brat. The boys "uncle" (friend? brother? Who knows?) is often smacking the kid around, just as the aforementioned male lead is often being smacked by his elderly mother. We're talking "Three Stooges" smacking here, folks. I guess it's supposed to be hilarious. There's also a psychotic female character who's messing around with a helicopter rescue worker. The rescue worker, in his first scene, is a bit of a klutz, when he almost drowns the girl who will become his stalker. Later on, he's all of a sudden the most heroic professional you ever saw. Go figure. There's a bunch of other characters, and it takes about an hour and 20 minutes until we finally get to the "money shot", of the tsunami starting.The resulting tsunami is incredibly well done. I love disaster films, and was completely satisfied with the finale of this movie. It's hard to imagine, however, that any of the characters survive what took place on the screen. But, what the heck, at least some of them did survive.My only complaint is that, two of my favorite characters in the movie didn't make it.I enjoyed this film, because it was so bizarre , but I don't think it would be everyone's cup of tea. I can only recommend it for someone who enjoys the "strangeness" that comes with watching a foreign film.A much superior Korean disaster film is THE TOWER (2012) , which I gave 5 stars to and which I heartily recommend.

This was a really good movie. It will take you for a ride the whole time and nothing happens the way you expect.

The beginning is hilarious. The action comes when the tsunami hits.

I cannot say I didn't know what I was getting into. I've seen better I've seen worse. Characters a bit unhinged or over the top highly emotional and irrational at times. This might be tough going for reading challenged and the humor or drama may be lost to some viewers as a result. There are lots of little tidal pool stories in the first hour in which may or may not be of interest. Once the wave gets moving the special effects kick in. In a nutshell, first hour is tofu/miso, second half is galbi with gristle.

A great Korean subtitled movie. I never realized it was a box office hit. I have seen a lot of Korean movies recently that have impressed me- The Tower, The Wailing and Train to Busan to name a few- and this one just adds to the mix. With great action and superb special effects this movie is a real blast. It does take a while for all of the action to start but it builds up and you get to know the characters. And when it does it is great. The subtitles can get a bit fast sometimes but it is not at any important bits and I forgot that I was reading them after a while.Is it worth the money?If you can get through the subtitles then it is a great disaster movie. It has action, romance, good special effects and some real heroic scenes that really brought a tear to my eye. The special feature is a trailer.

I was very disappointed with this film.In my opinion it was rubbish.Not a film I would ever want to watch again.

The Koreans have made some brilliant movies. This isn’t one of them. The CGI is well done so the movie appears to be well made. As is normal with a disaster movie, the first part is designed to make you care about a small group of characters. Unfortunately the direction, script and acting are awful, so the characters are very cartoon like and irritating. When the tidal wave finally hits town there’s a complete lack of tension, so there isn’t even pleasure in seeing the irritating characters killed off. One star for the special effects.

Even though this movie is Korean, it follows the standard Hollywood disaster formula (probably because it sells the best?). The formula can be a bit tiresome... 60 to sometimes as much as 90 minutes of build up, often with tedious plots. But that is how these movies work! And in this respect, this is neither better nor worse than Hollywood. It is the effects that puts it "up there" among only the best that Hollywood has offered, top notch!

This movie very well blends comedy, drama and action together to create a great film, the only actor I could spot is Joong-Hoon Park who was in Heavens Soldiers as Admiral Yi Sun-shin. The subs on the dvd are a bit fast and while most of the film is based before the actual wave its good to see some films use drama and comedy rather than an entire movie comprised of action scenes. The only extra on the dvd is the films trailer and its subbbed (WOW)