In the old days, massive, mind-bending plot twists were virtually nonexistent in movies, but somewhere along the way, filmmakers occasionally thought to flip their storylines in crazy ways to surprise and befuddle audiences.  The first film I can think of to do this was Psycho (1960), but there were probably others before that landmark film.  Now it is almost routine to posit one premise but actually produce something related yet different entirely.  When it works, it’s good or even great (Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, for example), but this technique can be overdone or misguided, as I think it is with The Great Flood.  Sometimes a straightforward movie premise should just remain a straightforward movie premise, told honestly and with integrity.

Byung-woo Kim’s movie (this is a Korean production), finds a woman, An Na (Kim Da-Mi) and her son Ja In (Kwon Eun-sung) in a high-rise apartment building suddenly trapped when a tsunami floods their city.  The water continues to rise, so the mother and son, helped by Hee-jo (Park Have-soo), a man sent to rescue them from the flood, head for the roof and hopeful rescue.  Along the way, Ja In becomes separated from his mother and the search is on to find him before the flooding — caused by an asteroid strike in Antarctica, which is going to drown most of the world — makes escape impossible.  But then . . .

Isn’t that premise dramatic enough to drive a good story.  For most of the first hour of this story, it sure is.  Some of the destruction and communal dread is riveting as the situation reveals itself.  Even An Na’s nebulous company position, which affords her and her son the protection of Hee-jo and the promise of their rescue ahead of everyone else in the region, works to build suspense and mystery.  But then . . . what the story is really about gradually becomes clear, repetitively so.  And as we see, over and over again, what is really going on, it brings into question what is real and what is not.  This undermines everything that has come before, and completely spoiled the disaster scenario for me.

Ultimately this is an ambitious science-fiction tale about scientific progress, which often comes at the expense of humanity.  Everything centers around An Na’s job and what it entails.  That’s fine, I guess.  And if one is a fan of such time-loopy narratives as Edge of Tomorrow or Looper or multi-verse stories, you will probably find this quite thoughtful and perhaps exciting.  While I appreciate the ambition of the convoluted premise I became quite bored and even aggravated as An Na continually tries to overcome the obstacles against her.  I liked the basic story premise of the flood and wish that had been the only focus of the film.  Sometimes these things are just overthought to the point of apathetic redundancy, and that’s a shame.  ☆ ☆.  15 March 2026.