by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
A flood of Biblical proportions has spread around the entire planet as Koo An Na (Kim Da-mi) and her son Ja In (Kwon Eun-sung) attempt to escape the slowly rising water in their apartment building. With the help of Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo), a man who appears to be working for a larger organization that needs An Na’s child, she must attempt to reach the roof and escape the disaster. But as things progress, it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems, and there may be more sinister reasons behind Hee-jo wanting to help.
The Great Flood is another of those stories that starts as a straightforward survival story, but gradually becomes more complex as you learn more about the characters, why they are there, and what is really going on. At first, things seem normal as An Na and Ja In join many other residents trying to reach the higher floors of the building that the water hasn’t reached yet. It’s easily the most compelling part of the movie, before the narrative shifts to something much bigger. There is also the idea early on that An Na has a past that could mean the flood might traumatize her more than anyone else, but it’s unclear what this adds to the overall narrative. Do a young mother and her son facing an apocalyptic event really need further justification for why that experience would be traumatic? Surely the threats of death are enough.
Possibly, this plot point is here to better convey how determined to survive An Na is, as she faces many obstacles and new hazards, such as gas explosions and tidal waves hitting the apartment block, while An Na continues to climb with Ja In. Hee-jo showing up and telling them of a possible rescue if they get to the roof adds an extra element of hope to the situation, leaving you intrigued about where the narrative might go from here. Many, however, will be disappointed by where it goes, as it is at that point that it becomes a sci-fi story, most likely another script idea added to the screenplay for this one, because the tonal shift when the story change happens is incredibly jarring.
Suddenly, the questions are no longer about what the characters will do to get out of the current situation, but instead about what the heck is really going on, what this really is, and why it is happening. However, these aren’t questions you ask because you are interested in the answer, but rather because you are just confused as to what’s happening. The story suddenly tries to be much bigger and more convoluted than anything seen in the first act.
The core idea director Byung-woo Kim has here is decent, focusing on creating AI humans through trial and error. Unfortunately, the way it’s presented isn’t particularly interesting, and the fact that a more conventional disaster story precedes it makes you wish you weren’t watching it. You are left hoping the story will return to the more straightforward scenes in which An Na tries to escape the flood. When the story hits you with bigger concepts and thought-provoking ideas, you just aren’t prepared for it. It might have worked better if the fact that this story was part of something bigger had been set up or alluded to at the beginning, but instead, it all comes in a big exposition dump midway through, and you feel like you are watching a different story from then on. There are some nice subtle visuals during the second act to remind the audience that what they are seeing is no longer real, such as numbers on An Na’s shirt and visually interesting black borders around wide-angle shots in certain scenes. But outside of that, everything is simply the first act again, just framed as a time loop story.
Visually, the experience is somewhat repetitive, with almost all of it taking place in a large apartment block, and all exterior shots showing similar surrounding buildings as they are gradually engulfed in water. The water effects are decent enough to spark a sense of terror as you feel the water progressively eliminating any sense of safety. Some shots look pretty fake, but they aren’t frequent enough to be distracting, and not so fake looking as to cheapen the experience or spoil the emotional moments.
Kim Da-mi does a great job carrying this movie single-handedly for most of its runtime, as she is the only prominent character for much of it. She has to find a delicate balance between being an action movie heroine who can escape tricky situations and outsmart characters trying to foil her, and being a protective mother simply trying to work out how she and her son can survive. Park does a similarly excellent job of channelling a figure of authority. You certainly feel sympathy for both characters, and can’t help but root for them to pull through by the end.
All in all, The Great Flood had the potential to be a gripping disaster movie about a mother and her young son trying to survive. But it’s let down by the way it tries to be about so much more than that, with a lot of bigger themes and ideas about AI, human compassion, and how humans as a species might survive the apocalypse, which disrupts the pace and enjoyment of the whole experience. However, that does not mean the film is rendered worthless by these bigger ideas; many of them do work, and there is plenty to enjoy. It just could have been a lot better if it hadn’t been trying to juggle so much.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
The Great Flood is currently streaming on Netflix
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