The Great Flood

Kim Da-mi

Kim Byung-woo's The Great Flood is a serviceable Korean Sci-Fi disaster film that has turned out to be the most viewed film on Netflix during the Christmas season. A mother (Kim Da-mi) and her six year old son are trapped in a Seoul apartment building as an apocalyptic flood is unleashed. An agent of the UN (Park Hae-soo) tries to facilitate their exit, the mom is part of a secret government program designed to create artificial humanoid life forms, but there is doubt that he can be trusted. About halfway through the picture, The Great Flood morphs from a disaster film into a sci-fi one in which the characters are stuck in a loop of eternal recurrence, like Groundhog Day or Edge of Tomorrow. The rationale for this is Sci-Fi gobbledegook, but this well acted film evokes moments of human loss and bravery that lift it slightly above ordinary fare.