The Great Flood – Movie Review | Netflix (3/5)

THE GREAT FLOOD on Netflix is a Korean Sci-fi Disaster Movie (org. title: Daehongsu). I loved the twists along the way, but I must admit it was a little too long – maybe due to some repetitiveness. Still, I highly recommend all genre fans to check it out. Read our full The Great Flood movie review here!

THE GREAT FLOOD is a new Netflix disaster movie from South Korea (org. title: Daehongsu). We’re talking sci-fi, thriller, action, and a lot of emotional drama. Without any further comparison, this movie made me think of everything from The Impossible to Interstellar. It’s all about survival and family fighting for each other.

The runtime is 1 hour and 46 minutes, but it did feel a little longer. Not least because we keep being trapped in this huge flood, where tsunami elements also come into play. And again, this is a sci-fi movie as well, so it doesn’t “just” deal with a natural disaster. It is brutal… and also makes for a very intense action thriller.

Continue reading our The Great Flood movie review below. Find it on Netflix from December 19, 2025.

The last day on Earth?

Yes, The Great Flood is actually about a huge flood, but there is more to the story. The kind of “more” that results in a plot description that includes the words “set on the last day on Earth”. This is why it isn’t simply a disaster movie, but a sci-fi disaster story.

It all begins very quickly, as a catastrophic flood is currently sweeping across the world. One woman, An-na (Kim Da-mi), has been targeted as a key person who must be saved. She’s an artificial intelligence researcher, and she has her son, Ja-in (Kwon Eun-seong), with her, whom she also needs to save.

She’s in an apartment building and needs to get to the top – a desire shared with everyone else in the building, for obvious reasons. In many ways, it almost felt like a cruel game from Squid Game or Alice in Borderland, as it seems like an impossible task. Something constantly gets in her way, but she never gives up.

Save the AI researcher, save the world

To make things much worse, she is told that her being rescued is necessary for the future of all mankind. No pressure, right?! As the man sent to help her get to the top of the building, you’ll see Park Hae-soo (Squid Game, The Price of Confession) as Hee-jo. He is a part of a security team that must do whatever they can to save her.

Without giving away any spoilers that the poster, trailer, or plot haven’t already revealed, I’ll say that the movie changes quite a bit around halfway through. I loved this twist, but I recognize it may not be for everyone. Again, I remind you that this is a sci-fi disaster movie and not a Greenland or The Day After Tomorrow disaster movie.

What makes The Great Flood work as well as it does is Kim Da-mi as An-na, the woman who must be saved, and who needs to save her own son. Also, that little boy is amazing, so kudos to the young actor Kwon Eun-sung (Pachinko) is also due.

Watch The Great Flood on Netflix

This new Netflix movie comes from writer and director Kim Byung-woo, who builds a brilliant universe that I can imagine some genre fans will fall in love with, while others will be less enthusiastic. I was actually a little of both, even if this sounds strange.

In terms of premise, filmmaker Kim Byung-woo has managed to create a brilliant sci-fi adventure thriller of an apocalyptic disaster movie. However, the execution could have been stronger if it were a little shorter. I mean, I understand why it needed to be fairly long, but it is also too long.

Something I would rarely say about a South Korean movie (original title: Daehongsu) because I love their character-driven slow-burn plots. For this particular South Korean movie, however, it isn’t very slow-burning, so the longer runtime isn’t very necessary. And yet, I was also very fond of that gorgeous core plot, so do check it out.

The Great Flood is out on Netflix globally on December 19, 2025.

Details

Director: Kim Byung-woo
Writer: Kim Byung-woo
Starring: Kim Da-mi, Park Hae-soo, Kwon Eun-sung