Saturday, November 27, 2010

HaeUnDae-Tidal Wave 2009

Haeundae (film)
Image via Wikipedia
The Wife and I sat down the other day and watched this movie.  I am not sure what kind of budget it had but I can tell you that  the movie could have been done better.  It wasn’t the special effects, which should have been better considering how much animation comes out of Korea, but the editing.  The movie felt rushed and it comes in at 120min.  There were a lot of scenes that would just cut from a scene and other scenes that were maybe  10 seconds long.  There was a scene of a group of friends talking that must have changed camera angles about 50 times in a 2 minute scene.  I thought I was going to be sick.  When I review movies, I don’t usually mention editing, it just isn’t something on my radar, but it was obviously bad with this movie. 
The Characters were likeable and this is with us watching it in Korean with no subtitles.  I was able to catch the drift on what was happening without too much translation from the wife.  Not sure how we got a version without English subtitles but it happens.  The acting was pretty good and this is where Korean movies generally shine.  There was lots of visual comedy.  The still gorgeous Uhm Jung-Hwa was in this one and does a pretty good job in a fairly emotional scene. 
The writing suffered in this movie as well.  People are randomly living and dying for no obvious reasons.  Science is blatantly ignored in order to increase tension and advance the plot.  Some of this is done for comedic effect and that is okay but thee rest is taking itself seriously.. 
Overall it was a fun movie as long as you didn’t think about it too much. 
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3 comments:

Pat Tillett said...

Too bad! I'll watch anything relating to tidal waves as it's one of the few things I'm afraid of.. well, other than clowns and hallways that is... great review!

Budd said...

Don't not watch it, it is fun enough and Uhm Jung-Hwa is reason enough.

DEZMOND said...

Asia and Europe often hide a lot of great films which the West has never heard about.