- An intense, Seoul‑set deluge starts Kim Byung‑woo’s The Great Flood, centring on a mother and her son.
- The film shifts from a survival drama into a recursive, unsettling sci‑fi about sacrifice and algorithmic entertainment.
- Kim Da‑mi’s An‑na anchors the emotional core; Park Hae‑soo plays a corporate security officer who changes their fate.
- The Great Flood streams on Netflix from 19 December 2025.
What the film is about
The Great Flood opens with catastrophic rains that swamp Seoul. An‑na (Kim Da‑mi) and her six‑year‑old son Ja‑in try to reach safety as water rises through their apartment block. Initially a straightforward survival story, the plot soon reveals that An‑na is a scientist tied to a secret research project — and that her rescue could have consequences for all of humanity.
Key characters
Kim Da‑mi is the film’s emotional anchor as An‑na, a mother torn between self‑preservation and duty. Park Hae‑soo appears as Hee‑jo, a corporate security officer tasked with evacuating her. The child actor Kwon Eun‑seong plays Ja‑in, whose swimming obsession becomes a small but affecting motif amid the disaster.
Sci‑fi swerve and themes
Halfway through, The Great Flood pivots from rooftop rescues into speculative territory. The narrative becomes recursive, revealing layers of the research An‑na is involved with and shifting the movie toward metaphors about control, optimisation and the future of entertainment. The film draws comparisons with time‑loop and high‑concept sci‑fi — viewers may notice echoes of films such as Edge of Tomorrow or Interstellar in structure and tone.
Social critique and tone
The director uses the flood to examine social stratification — the literal climb up the apartment block doubles as commentary on class and access to escape. As the story loops, it also raises questions about emotional calibration in an age of algorithmic content, suggesting a chilling alignment between human feeling and entertainment engineering.
Performances and direction
Kim Da‑mi delivers a grounded performance that keeps the film emotionally readable even when the plotting becomes complex. Park Hae‑soo brings a measured gravitas to his supporting role. Director Kim Byung‑woo balances spectacle — towering waves and rooftop desperation — with quieter moral beats, though some viewers may find the storytelling brittle and the film’s shifting focus uneven.
Should you watch it on Netflix?
The Great Flood won’t please everyone: its shift from disaster drama to cerebral sci‑fi and its reluctance to commit to a clear antagonist make it an imperfect ride. But the film offers striking images, a strong central performance and provocative ideas about the future of storytelling. For viewers who like genre blends and films that leave threads to chew on, it’s worth a stream when it lands on Netflix on 19 December.
Watch The Great Flood on Netflix: Netflix.
Image Referance: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/dec/15/the-great-flood-review-korean-apocalypse-movie-swerves-into-sinister-sci-fi-territory