Haeundae

Madman

R4 DVD

Haeundae is a Korean Tsunami disaster film which is big in terms of plot, character development and special effects. It is unusual to find a film which while embracing big budget special effects and a powerful catastrophe theme is also able to explore family, community and personal relations. While more modern Hollywood disaster films tend to have a short preparation with basic character development, then a special effects extravaganza followed by a “survival tale”, Haeundae harks back to earlier disaster titles such as the Poseidon adventure where the story and plot are as significant as the special effects and climatic disaster scenes.

The majority of the film focuses on a web of interpersonal relations which take place in Busan, Korea’s second biggest city. Through these relationships Yoon Je-kyun is able to explore a range of issues important to Korean society, ranging from relationships to family, crime to urbanization and development. It is surprising just how complex the film becomes and the stories it is able to tell before a single wave has hit. Each of these characters later play roles of varying significance as the mega-Tsunami hits. There is the good hearted but chaotic Man-sik and girlfriend Ms Kang; his geeky coast-guard brother and a hot girl he rescues who somehow falls for him. More significantly there is a troubled divorced couple which is made up of the ocean geologist who uncovers evidence that a mega-Tsunami is on the way and his ambitious social climber ex-wife. There is Man-Siks’s Uncle who is a property developer and his mother, a sharp and touch Matriarch. The community is fleshed out with a wide range of other related characters and stories.

What is impressive is the way in which the story is deliberately carefully paced. The complex web of relations is developed and developed some more with little real “action” except for fights and clashes and a backstory involving Man-Sik and the death of Kang’s father. That is not to say it doesn’t keep your interest, but just you are waiting for disaster to hit ! Through the work of the geologist we learn about recent underwater earthquakes as well as various natural portents such as seagulls losing their bearings, but nothing major until the Tsunami hits.

When it hits, sure does it hit. The CGI is pretty incredible and the disaster scenes have a high level of authenticity but the director also deliberately uses unusual camera angles, stunts and quirky performances to give the disaster a very different feel. The special effects are well done but again unusual. At times they have been deliberately used in a “fantastic” manner which adds an element of fantasy to the authenticity of the disaster. This strange mix is compelling and stimulating.

While the Tsunami is depicted in all its brutal majesty, there are deliberate humorous elements used to emphasize the shock of the event. The scenes on the bridge as trucks explode as a cigarette light triggers disaster is visually stunning and funny in a very dark sort of way.

Haeundae is unusual in that it doesn’t stay within one “emotional” key; generally Hollywood films try to limit the emotional extremes of what they present, but not in Haeundae. It moves quickly from humour to horror, death and destruction to laughter and even love, there is a fluidity in the plot which is truly impressive. I would suggest that this comes from a different cultural standpoint. Hollywood still tends to think in polarized, even absolutist terms; good and evil and right and wrong are still the categories of choice. Korea having a strong Buddhist tradition tends to be more relativist and hence characters are shown as more human, flawed yes, but not simply “good and evil” and accordingly a wider range of emotion and human behaviour can be explored on-screen. Haeundae is a good example of this where the life of an extended community is presented, warts and all, and the whole spectrum of human emotion is give expression. This also leads to a very different approach to two important elements within any disaster film, the portrayal of the heroic and the nature of the environment.

In Haeundae the hero is not some brazen individualist but is the community as a whole. While Man-Sik’s coast guard brother sacrifices himself, he is not celebrated as a lone-gun but as part of a community who worked together to help each other. This is a very different portrayal of heroism which is far more community focused and removes the brash egoism of so many disaster films. There is also a change in the way the environment is depicted. While certainly it is destructive, it is not “the enemy”, we do not send rockets, bombs or whatever else to try and divert the disaster, we accept the variability of the cycles of weather and adapt. We may use early warning systems or evacuations plans but we accept that nature has her cycles and work with them. These two elements are intriguing as they make Haeundae a very different sort of disaster film with a very unusual sensibility.

In Haeundae lots of people die including the ones you identify with. There is a level of honesty about the nature of a disaster which is refreshing compared to feel good we-all-make-it-in-the-end type cinema. There are scenes which are moving, others which are very confronting, others which are humorous, while the sheer intensity of some of the Tsunami scenes are quite compelling. All in All, this is a very new take on an old genre and offers a powerful cinematic experience which most will find riveting and enthralling.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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