- A catastrophic deluge floods Seoul in Kim Byung‑woo’s The Great Flood, now on Netflix from 19 December.
- The film begins as a survival thriller but pivots into recursive sci‑fi tied to a secret UN lab.
- Kim Da‑mi’s performance anchors a brittle yet compelling story about a mother, her son and the cost of ‘optimised’ entertainment.
H2: What happens in The Great Flood?
The Great Flood opens with a familiar disaster image: torrential rain and rising water swallowing Seoul’s streets and towers. The central focus is An‑na (Kim Da‑mi) and her six‑year‑old son Ja‑in (Kwon Eun‑seong), who fight to climb 30 storeys as apartments flood. The immediate survival stakes are clear — crowds jam stairwells, and chaos reigns — until a corporate security officer, Hee‑jo (Park Hae‑soo), arrives with unexpected news.
Hee‑jo reveals that an Antarctic asteroid impact has triggered apocalyptic weather. More startlingly, An‑na is told a helicopter will evacuate her and Ja‑in because she isn’t an ordinary survivor: she’s a second‑rank science officer tied to a hush‑hush UN research project that might hold the key to humanity’s future.
H3: From rooftop rescue to unnerving sci‑fi
Once An‑na reaches the rooftop, the film shifts. What began as a rooftop survival narrative keeps climbing into literal and metaphorical heights. The plot unfolds into a series of recursive loops that expose the secret lab’s work and reframe An‑na’s decisions. The movie borrows structural and visual cues from big‑scale sci‑fi and psychological puzzles — think Edge of Tomorrow and Christopher Nolan atmospherics — while keeping its disaster‑movie DNA.
H3: Themes and tone
Kim Byung‑woo uses the disaster to interrogate social stratification and our emotional responses to repeated catastrophe. As An‑na relives and corrects moments — helping a trapped girl, aiding a woman in labour — the film suggests emotions can be tuned and entertainment can be engineered. The Guardian review argues this becomes an apologia for algorithmic content: a meta‑commentary on how streaming platforms shape human feeling. That idea gives the Great Flood movie on Netflix an unsettling modern angle.
H3: Strengths and flaws
The Great Flood delivers strong setpieces and committed performances. Kim Da‑mi grounds the film with a believable mother’s fear and resolve; Park Hae‑soo provides a steady foil as the corporate security officer. Visually, the flood and rooftop sequences are tense and cinematic.
But the storytelling often feels brittle. The recursive structure risks confusion, and the film never fully lands a clear antagonist or moral target. Some viewers may find the sci‑fi pivot abrupt or the film’s critique of entertainment industry logic underdeveloped.
H4: Verdict
The Great Flood is not flawless, but it remains an engaging, sometimes unnerving watch. Its blend of disaster spectacle and speculative sci‑fi makes it a distinctive Netflix Original to look out for this winter. Streaming on Netflix from 19 December.
Image Referance: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/dec/15/the-great-flood-review-korean-apocalypse-movie-swerves-into-sinister-sci-fi-territory
