"What do I do now?"
Hollywood may be swerving the disaster movie genre for now, but Asia still loves a big old apocalypse-fest event movie, yet The Great Flood starts off doing exactly what it says on the tin but then veers off unexpectedly (and not very successfully) into something rather different that is far removed from the usual Emmerich-style destruction extravaganza. Following an extinction-level asteroid hit, colossal tidal waves and the rapidly-rising flood traps the few remaining residents in the upper floors of a high-rise, with a focus on weary widowed AI-developer Koo An-Na (played pluckily by Kim Da-mi, put through the emotional and physical mill) and her young stepson, with An-Na's increasingly fracturing reality and alt-replaying of events all leading to an unexpected reveal. Sparingly-used effects work creates effective watery city vistas and towering tidal waves, with practical water effects used to put the beleaguered cast in some jeopardy. In some ways the film plays like an extended Black Mirror episode mixed with a rather glum take on Deep Impact, with its subdued apparent intent on exploring human emotions and the survival instinct, relentless steely-blue-hued colour grading and the future of humanity lying in artificially-created humanoids. It is an attempt to deliver something different with the genre tropes as a backdrop, but it is neither particularly engaging nor cohesive and becomes increasingly patience-testing.
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