The Great Flood [Movie Review]

The Great Flood [Movie Review] | I heard about the movie from a friend and The Impossible (2012) immediately came to mind. 

So the question is unavoidable. Will this follow a similar path and can it be just as moving and memorable?

SYNOPSIS

The Great Flood (2025) Trivia

• Hangul: 대홍수
• Romanized: Daehongsu
• Starring: Kim Da-mi & Park Hae-soo
• Director: Kim Byung-woo
• Producer: Chun Roy-kyoung
• Production Company: Hwansang Studios

• Distributed by: Netflix
• Release date: December 19, 2025
• Running time: 108 minutes
• Rating: MA
• Country: South Korea
• Language: Korean
• IMDb: 5.4/ 10
• Tomatometer: 60%
• Metascore: NA
• The Emotion Engine was inspired by real debates: can emotions be taught or must they be experienced?  
• The massive flood mirrors An-na’s buried trauma and guilt.
• Every repeated staircase and flooded hallway is designed to make both An-na and the audience feel trapped.

Inside one unit, Gu An-na wakes to her son Jai-in’s voice, asking her to go swimming. It sounds playful. An-na is distracted, distant, tethered to a phone call and a lifetime of unfinished grief. 

When she finally notices the water pooling at her feet and looks out the window, the city has vanished under a huge body of water. Jai-in is insistent and wants to dive, which leads. to An-na scolds him. In a moment of anger, An-na snatches away his diving goggles. Ja-in hides inside a cupboard while the flood keeps rising.

She carries Ja-in on her back and searches for rescue and hope at each floor. And at each floor, she is confronted by echoes of loss. A drowning man in an elevator she cannot save. An elderly couple calmly awaiting the end. A pregnant woman in labor she walks past without stopping. 

When rescue finally comes, it comes with conditions. An-na can leave. Jai-in cannot.

When all action fails, suddenly An-na wakes up again. An-na is not just a mother but a scientist, the final key to a project meant to carry humanity forward. The Emotion Engine. A future that demands sacrifice.

All that has been happening is a test. The flood, the apartment, the child all of it is a constructed world. Designed to see whether love, guilt and sacrifice can be coded into a new form of humanity.

Whenever she awakes, the day resets. Each time, she listens. Each time, she chooses differently.

She saves who she once abandoned. She reaches where she once failed. And when the final wave comes, she doesn’t run from it. She dives into it, hand in hand with the child she refuses to lose.

Would you still love a child, even when you know that he is not real?

MY REVIEW

What I Like:  

• The cast is great - they managed to carry the emotion.
• The CGI is believable. 
• Kinda glad it does not imitate The Impossible.

What I Don't Like:

• I tend to get confused with too much resets. Not that I don't like it, but the narration and some side characters could have explained/ explored better to get us understand the plot.   

Will I Watch It Again: I don't mind watching it again.

Overall: 4.2/ 5.0

The pictures are taken from multiple sources on the Internet. Thank you.

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