Reviews

This is one of those movies that leaves you feeling confused… and strangely affected at the same time.

This is a disaster drama that leans much more into symbolism and emotional chaos than into a logical, well-structured story. It’s less about understanding every detail and more about feeling the weight of the situation: fear, loss, helplessness, and survival. The flood itself feels almost like a metaphor for everything collapsing at once, externally and internally.

This isn’t an easy film to follow. The narrative feels fragmented, sometimes messy, and often unclear. A lot of things aren’t explained properly, and more than once I found myself lost, trying to understand what was happening and why. But the more I thought about it, the more it felt intentional.

Visually, the movie does a good job creating a heavy and oppressive atmosphere. The cinematography and sound design help sell that sense of panic and disorientation, even when the story doesn’t fully land. Some scenes are genuinely impactful, while others feel rushed or underdeveloped.

That said, this isn’t a movie for everyone. If you like clear explanations, strong narrative cohesion, and answers, this might be frustrating. For me, it was confusing, yes, but also oddly compelling. I didn’t fully understand it — and maybe that’s part of the experience.

Overall, The Great Flood is far from perfect, but it left an impression. It’s messy, symbolic, and emotionally heavy, and even though I felt a bit dumb watching it at times, I can’t say it didn’t make me feel something.

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12 mins of emotional chaos

this went from an acting interview to holding hands to dancing in the park to “never abandon me“ to walking alone in the rain to re-watching the interview video clip to tears and abandonment.
in some ways it’s well done. it says a lot in those 12 mins. and conveys a wide range of emotions in such a small time frame.
I did find the score to be a bit distracting, but I understand the use of the music to help carry the emotions through. I found in particular, the funeral music showed the depth of Jay’s heartbreak.
the note at the end to tell us what a rat imir turned out to be explained it all very neatly.

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I thought you folded cranes not eggs

This was such a cute story about high school romance! I loved all the characters from the main three to the rest of the friend group! I'm not going to lie I was a little sad when Cha Woo-Min's character ended up being the second love interest instead of the main one. I thought him and Shin Eun-Soo had great chemistry together. I personally thought they had more chemistry than the main two together. I was still really happy though with the main two ending up together because they were really sweet. I also didn't like how Se Ri made it seem like Hyeon didn't like her curly hair and weirdness and we saw that he did. Other than that, I really enjoyed it! Highly recommend!

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Let me make an exception this time and put my usual three questions at the beginning of the review:

Was the film good?
Yes, it was a coming-of-age film done with precision, and tied together local history of the place with a positive message.

Did I like it?
I don't get on with the performative SNS of the modern age, and that impacted my enjoyment massively. But I understand that this is my own problem. Now, some days after watching, I find that this *was* an outstanding fim.

Who would I recommend it to?
To people who like coming-of-age stories.



The thing is that I really struggled to get through the first half of this film. Modern socmed and their empty performativity, that is nothing I know or care about. So, to see Masao and his friends fake being handball players and fake caring about their hometown just for likes from people they don't even know, that felt strange to me. How can they love this kind of empty praise? How can they not feel ridiculous when they do this? On an intellectual level, I know that this must be addictive. but I don't (want to) understand.
I also did not understand Masao's gloom and doom attitude, when everybody else around him had already picked up the pieces after the devastation of the 2016 Yumamoto earthquake. On an intellectual level, I know that this film was done very well.
I could see the quality of the story telling and of the actors. I liked that the film was so grounded in the history of the 2016 earthquake and its aftermath (I'm reasonable sure that the places we saw are original locations, especially the temporary shelters). I liked the background characters, the grandpa with the wolly hat, Masao's brother and his girlfriend, Masao's parents -- all of whom were sweet people, who had no idea of what happened with Masao's "dutch ball" and the "SNS". I liked that the boys were realistically boys, not sanitized at all -- rough and hormonal but never mean.

I just wasn't able to bring up a shred of interest, but I know that this is solely my own problem, not a problem with the film itself.

Luckily, this changed in the second half. Or rather, about 35 minutes before the film ended. It was only then that the film showed us its core theme. And the theme surprised me in the best of ways. Earlier, a girl had asked Masao "What are you "striving" for?", and he didn't have an answer. And if the film had followed the usual path for a film like that, the boys would have banded together to win the nationals as underdogs, and would have worked hard and harder, with a lot of "ganbarimasu" -- and they would have beat the odds, or at least they would *almost* beat them etc. etc.
Thing is, this does not happen here. Not quite. Yes, the boys band together -- but they immediately quarrel about trivialities. Yes, they take part in the nationals -- but the focus is on the audience, who came to cheer them on, because, as two elderly people said in the beginning: "It feels good to cheer someone on." -- "Yes, instead of being the ones cheered on." And when Masao leaves for the game in the morning, he tells his mother: "I will have so much fun!"

And I think this is the core of the film.
"To "strive" to enjoy life." Don't live in gloom and doom, after something bad has happended. Live your life to the fullest, find joy in the trivialities. Do what you like, whether it's being a funeral dicrector (like Masao's brother), a hostess (like Masao's brother's girlfriend), or a handball player. Show the world that peace sign and smile into the camera, not for others to cheer you on, but for yourself.

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The tension syats strong from beginning - end

I was on edge almost the entire time watching this. The tension stays strong from the opening until near the end, making it hard to look away.

The cast delivers solid performances, with Zhang Yixing standing out the most. His portrayal feels raw and painfully real.

Knowing this film is based on real events makes it even more disturbing. It really hit me how terrifying the world of online gambling and scams is — highly organized, structured, and far from harmless.

The only letdown is the ending. After such a strong buildup, the police action felt underwhelming and could’ve been handled better.

Worth to watch! ✨

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monster é um filme que sente.

assistir esse filme pela primeira vez é realmente uma experiência. você começa hipnotizado pela cinematografia, então, aos poucos a crítica é construída e vai de pouquinho em pouquinho explodindo a sua cabeça. é uma daquelas experiências em que o cinema deixa de ser só narrativa e se transforma em sensação.

“who’s the monster?”
as crianças não nascem com medo de quem são. elas aprendem a ter medo – do sentimento, do que pensam, do que amam. aprendem a se moldar pra caber em expectativas. então, acreditam que o erro está nelas, mas, o verdadeiro monstro está no olhar de quem provoca o medo.

que o mundo deixe de ser um lugar onde é mais fácil moldar uma criança ao medo do que abraçar sua verdade. ser lgbt não é algo a se envergonhar.

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eu amo minha melhor amiga.
sem ela eu não simplesmente não existiria, porque minha alma não sabe viver sem a dela.

não ironicamente esse filme me rendeu umas duas horas consecutivas de choradeira pensando o que seria da minha vida sem a isabelle, e a conclusão em que eu cheguei é que não teria vida, talvez algum tipo de existência, mas quem me deu vida foi ela, foi a presença dela.

eu cresci do lado dela, quero envelhecer com ela, acompanhar todas suas fases e conquistas, comemorar momentos felizes, chorar em momentos ruins e ser e buscar abrigo em quem eu sei que acolhe. eu quero partilhar da vida com ela nessa, na outra, na próxima depois da outra, e se for permitido, eternamente, mas, se não for, eu dou um jeito mesmo assim.

bebelle como você disse, eu não tenho muitas certezas na vida, mas sei que você, e eu, somos as partes mais bonitas da vida uma da outra.

“you said the sun can shine brightly because of the shadow, even though they can’t become one, the shadow is always there in the distance, so the sun was never lonely, and is able to shine.”

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