Netflix bets on an apocalyptic spectacle from director behind ‘The Terror Live’ and the ill-fated ‘Omniscient Reader’
From left: Park Hae-soo, director Kim Byung-woo, Kwon Eun-seong and Kim Da-mi pose at a press conference for Netflix’s “The Great Flood” at CGV Yongsan in central Seoul, Tuesday. (Yonhap)
Netflix has been steadily muscling its way into the Korean film business, using its deep pockets to bankroll productions that skip theaters altogether. As multiplexes continue to hemorrhage audiences — ticket sales for domestic films remain at roughly 60 percent of last year’s figures — the streaming giant is only doubling down.
Its slate of Korean-language originals this year has spanned supernatural thrillers (“Revelations”) to frothy high-school romance (“Love Untangled”), and that eclectic spread now culminates in “The Great Flood”: a full-throttle apocalyptic spectacle packed with megatsunamis, crumbling high-rises, and the sort of spectacle-driven disaster imagery that would have filled multiplexes in another era.
“It’s a genre film,” director Kim Byung-woo said at Tuesday’s press conference at CGV Yongsan in Seoul. “Disaster and science fiction, woven together. Both genres have their own pleasures, and I hope viewers get the full range.” Kim added that he hoped viewers will remember the film as “something wondrous and lovely.”
Kim, as it happens, is no stranger to high-concept mayhem. His first major feature, “The Terror Live” (2013), turned a live broadcast into a ticking bomb; “Take Point” (2018) trapped mercenaries in a bunker amid a brewing world war. The director’s latest, the $22 million fantasy epic “Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy,” arrived this summer on a wave of hype only to bomb big-time, undone by half-baked worldbuilding and maudlin melodrama.
At least he’s been making headlines for happier reasons of late: He married singer and actress Hahm Eun-jung of T-ara last month, joining Korea’s growing roster of director-actor couples.
“The Great Flood,” starring Kim Da-mi (left) and Kwon Eun-seong (Netflix)
“The Great Flood” opens on An-na (Kim Da-mi), an AI researcher and single mother waking to a flooded Seoul. As water swallows her apartment building floor by floor, a security officer named Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo) arrives to evacuate her to a rooftop helicopter. What she learns en route — that an asteroid impact has melted Antarctic ice caps, that civilization is ending, that she holds the key to humanity’s survival — sets the film hurtling in directions the trailer only hints at.
Kim Da-mi has built her reputation on high-wire intensity that belies her baby face: with her feral debut in “The Witch” (2018), and as the sharp-tongued heroine of K-drama sensation “Itaewon Class” (2020). Here, she takes on something more intimate and fraught — motherhood.
“It was the hardest part of saying yes,” she said. “I kept asking myself, can I actually feel this? I’m not a mother. Do I have any right to portray it?” She credited her young co-star, Kwon Eun-seong, with keeping her grounded. “Eun-seong just made me believe it. He carried things I couldn’t articulate,” she said.
“Motherhood feels too enormous to capture. I just kept coming back to this idea: loving someone more than yourself. That’s what I held onto.”
Park Hae-soo stars in “The Great Flood” (Netflix)
Co-star Park Hae-soo has become something of a Netflix fixture in recent years since his “Squid Game” breakout. This year alone, he’s already fronted the streamer’s “Good News” and “The Price of Confession.” He recalled his first encounter with the script as something closer to cryptography than cinema.
“It didn’t read like a normal screenplay. Scene numbers, cryptic notations — I thought I was decoding something,” he said. Yet something kept him turning pages. “There was this lingering unease, this weight that stayed with me. I couldn’t shake it. When a script does that, you pay attention.”
Eight-year-old Kwon Eun-seong, who plays An-na’s son Ja-in, won over the room without trying. He’s already worked with Kim — the insect-controlling hero in “Omniscient Reader” — so this marked a reunion. When the moderator asked why he’d wanted the role, Kwon put it simply: “I love water and swimming. When I saw the audition had swimming in it, I really hoped I’d get it.”
For all its straightforward title, the film has other plans than playing it straight. Midway through, the narrative veers into science fiction territory, with puzzle-box trickery reminiscent of “Edge of Tomorrow” or Christopher Nolan at his headiest. Kim was careful not to spoil details but acknowledged the shift might throw viewers.
“I expect people will hit a point where they’re asking, ‘What the hell is going on?'” he said. “That confusion is intentional. It mirrors what An-na’s experiencing. Her questions don’t get answered quickly, and neither do yours.”
Kim conceded some might find all this convoluted, frustrating even. But he went on to make his case. “If you hold onto that uncertainty, the back half becomes more rewarding.”
“This film encapsulates something I’ve been grappling with for years — What is love, and where does it come from? If you keep that in mind while watching, I think you’ll feel what we were trying to say.”
“The Great Flood” drops on Netflix Friday.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
