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Monday, May 24, 2010

Devil or Raging sea?


I was in a dilemma, I had read all the books available and had come to change them from that small lending library (Cherry), but the guy had not opened... He opens after 4pm... it was only 2pm, had to kill 2 hours and I was in-front of Liberty complex... with two choices- Pokkiri Raja or Haeundae : The Day After, a Korean Tsunami movie.. In between Devil and a raging sea I plunged head long into the sea... 


Thats how I ended up watching a B movie in theater, something that I never does... But with Pokkiri Raja playing I can let my guard down... literally..

Haeundae : The Day After is a disaster movie.... of course with minimal budgets and cheesy special effects and high on melodrama... Probably in Korea it is not a B movie, but when compared to Hollywood giants like 2012, or The Day After Tomorrow it is really Child's Play (pun intended). The only difference between the latter movies and the Korean effort is that this one has a story, whether it is bad or tolarable is another matter, but it had a story... now when it has a story it creates some human interest... and my problem was all actors looked same.. I was confused for around first quarter of the movie... They may be Korean Shahrukhs and Korean Kareenas but they where all looking the same. 

And there were a lot of characters... a divorced scientist who yells in every scene that a Mega Tsunami is coming and he has to save some lives, his wife who thinks that all this is a ploy to take her daughter away from her (I never got the logic of that), a fisherman who loves the daughter of another fisher man who was killed in previous Tsunami that happened in 2004, the girl who comes to know that he is responsible of her father's death, a life guard who helps a girl from drowning, a mayor who wants to buitl a shopping mall and is opposed by public.... almost more than half of the story deals with their love lives and trivia... 
Then Tsunami strikes...and all hell breaks loose... 


On the positive side... there are some scenes that are really inventive... like the one where the scientist rescue his daughter from falling from 17th floor of a building and camera zooms out showing the whole building... and comedy scenes are really hilarious... especially one on the top of a bridge where a container loaded ship is struck on the top rail of the bridge and a comedian runs and dodges from the stuff falling from it and escapes in hair width... and some emotional scenes really connects... one where all main characters looking out of the windows of their respective homes during a fireworks display showing their love to the place... 


And the best thing about the movie is it is not preachy don't have over the top heroism... characters are highly believable and tsunami scenes are far better than what they shown in Dasavatharam.. But its bit dragging, bit over sentimental and far less exciting as a disaster movie... my recommendation is watch if you are not having any other choice.. .(I dont consider Pokkiri Raja a choice!)

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