Top Ten Unluckiest Bastards/Bitches

Ever had your heartbroken? I'll assume that everyone has gone through that, I'll assume it's part of everyday life. Today, I've had fresh heartbreak, and I don't know, but this time it felt different to before, I really did feel distraught and now feel like I will die alone. I mean, why should I bother? What is the point of life? What's the point of doing this blog?

Oh right, a sense of purpose I suppose. How Goddamn sad am I?

Anyway, after feeling sad then playing some Bloodbowl on the Xbox to distract me, I decided to watch 'Heaven's Soldiers', a South Korean film where soldiers from the North and South are forced to work together in order to survive and to help fend off a Japanese invasion with the help of a legendary general. A small summary, I recommend it, it's a great film.

But it did make me want to do this list. This list has been hovering around, but it's only today that I've finalised it. So while I'm feeling downhearted, at least I'm not these guys. Here's my top ten unluckiest bastards and bitches. What? Well have you ever heard a girl being called a bastard? And the only time a guy is called a bitch is when someone says "you'll be my bitch".

10. Sang-Wook - Heaven's Soldiers (2005)

I'll be honest, I'm not a hundred percent sure I've got the name right. I definitely saw the name in the subtitles when a character was talking to him, but either way, it's this guy (To the right).

And yes, I am starting of with 'Heaven's Soldiers'. After coming to terms with travelling back in time, after trying to train Yi Sun-Shin (Joong-Hoon Park, the same guy from the South Korean film 'Tidal Wave') into becoming the Admiral history says he is, the Korean soldiers are now taking the option to return to their own time. With the exception of the North Korea commander Kang, South Korea commander Park, and a couple of the other Korean soldiers. Basically these four.

Sang-Wook is tasked to look after Kim (Hyo-Jin Kong) as they make their way back to the present. Just before the...time vortex comes, a squadron of Japanese invaders attack. Sang-Wook goes to hold them off, and we see him get an arrow to the arm before the film cuts back to the main action.

Now, at this point we assume that Sang-Wook holds off the invaders for Kim to get away, but would be outnumbered and overpowered. This DOESN'T happen! When the film cuts back later, he has taken the arrow out of his arm and he is kicking arse! I bet if the terminator turned up Sang-Wook would rip it apart like tissue paper!

And then, when he has taken out the last soldier by breaking his neck, just as he's making his way back to the motor raft, WHACK! A random Japanese invader turns up and throws an axe into Sang-Wook into his back, killing him.

Dude! The guy survives all of that, and then when he's literally twenty seconds away from returning home, and then he's killed at the click of a finger. How cruel can you get?

9. Eok-Jo - Tidal Wave (2009)

Yes I am going back over 'Tidal Wave' from last month, here I'm focusing on one of the characters, Eok-Jo, or Choi's Uncle according to Wikipedia, who, if you can't remember who that was, was Man-Sik's uncle.

As we see during the film, Man-Sik doesn't want anything to do with his uncle, despite Eok-Jo's best efforts. You see, Eok-Jo wants to build a mall on the beach of Haeundae, which is opposed by many of the locals. Eok-Jo however does not want to go forward with the plans while Man-Sik and (Man-Sik's) love interest Yeon-Hee are there.

However when the tidal wave hits Man-Sik is swept away, most likely to his death. However Eok-Jo, who was in the area, grabs him and pulls him up a telephone pole, saving him. Wow, this looks great, it looks like they're finally going to reconcile, it looks like these two will finally...holy crap Eok-Jo just got crushed by a big heavy...thing.

Seriously, these two finally look like they're going to heal their relationship, and then Eok-Jo is killed off? We even get the heartbreak in the aftermath when Man-Sik and Yeon-Hee visit his memorial. Even one of the supporting cast members says he's unlucky. Or rather he's not the only unlucky one since Dong-Choon's mother wouldn't have been killed if she decided to go get her son some shoes.

Okay so both of those characters are really unlucky.

8. John Connor's Foster Parents - Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Ah yes, these two. Granted I haven't seen the film for quite some time, so I can't really remember if the foster parents are good to John or bad. I seem to recall the foster dad being a jerk, and the foster mother being somewhat nice, but then again the young John Connor is a jerk so it's probably reasonable that the dad doesn't like him.

As we know from a Terminator film, an android has been sent from the future to kill Connor while he's a kid, since the plan to kill his mother failed. After being thwarted by the T-101, the more advanced T-1000 goes to the foster home, where he kills the foster parents, takes the form of the mother and tries to persuade Connor to go home. The T-101 instead takes Connor away.

So why are they unlucky? Because they virtually did nothing wrong! The only reason why they were killed off, was because of their connection to Connor. In fact, if Skynet hadn't sent the T-101 back in time, then Connor's father wouldn't have been sent back, Connor wouldn't have been born and the foster folks would have lived a much longer life.

Until they're killed by the rise of the machines anyway.

7. Christine Brown - Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Hello Alison Lohman, welcome to my list. Lohman plays Christine, a bank loan officer who refuses to grant Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver) an extension on her mortgage repayments, after Ganush already defaulted twice before.

So this apparently means she deserves to be cursed and sent to Hell to be tortured for all eternity. Yeah, all she did was her job, and this Ganush lady curses her. Heck, even when Ganush dies (Yes she dies a day later) she still torments Christine, basically beating her up as a hanky. Hell, the corpse of Ganush still manages to kick Christine's arse for a while.

And, while I am repeating what Phelous said in his review, the film acts like the refusal of the extension was a bad thing, especially when the granddaughter says Christine deserves everything that's coming to her. And yet Ganush getting the second extension was generous enough.

And then when Christine thought she got free of the curse when she gave the cursed object to Ganush's corpse, the obvious twist where she got the wrong envelope which the button was put in is revealed. So Christine is dragged to Hell and tortured for all eternity. And all because she did her job.

6. Ben - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

We go to quite possibly the best film the Master of Horror George A. Romero ever did, 'Night of the Living Dead'. Pretty much like all the other characters so far on this list, Ben (Duane Jones) goes through Hell in order to survive the night against the walking dead and Harry (Karl Hardman).

The zombie herd eventually get into the house while Ben and Harry fight each other, eventually culminating in Ben shooting Harry. Barbara is presumably consumed by her zombie brother and the horde, while Helen is stabbed to death by her zombie daughter. Ben manages to barricade himself in the basement, outlasting the night. Come morning, he hears gunshots. He goes up the stairs, opens up the barricade and looks out the window...."Hit him right between the eyes" BANG!

I actually think Ben is the original unluckiest bastard. In the iconic ending, if Ben had called out or if the group clearing out the zombies had bothered to check if the guy was a zombie, Ben would have survived. Then again it didn't seem to matter since the zombies still consumed America and the rest of the world.

5. Unlucky Bastard - The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Again, another guy who would have lived to a ripe old age if it weren't for the actions from another character. You see, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) has taken control of John Hammond's (Richard Attenborough) company, and plans to bring a whole list of dinosaurs from the abandoned Site B, but his team only succeeds in bringing a Tyrannosaurus Rex and its baby to San Diego.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex, however, breaks free and goes on a rampage, wrecking havoc on the streets of San Diego. One unlucky victim is this guy, played by the writer of the screenplay David Koepp. He runs from the T-Rex, but is separated from the main group of runnaways. He runs towards a door, tries to push it open, finds it goes the other way, and is eaten. If the door opened the other way, he probably would've survived the mistakes of idiots.

And you want to know how unlucky this guy is? I didn't give him the name 'Unlucky Bastard', the film actually credits him as that!

4. Jeff - Cabin Fever (2002)

As much as I now hate all the characters in this film (Except for Burt, I still like him), Jeff (Joey Kern) is still an unlucky bastard in this film. Why? Well while his friends and girlfriend-turned-ex all succumb to a flesh eating virus, Jeff does not contract the disease since he all he drinks is beer; the disease was in the water supply.

Jeff, for some reason, returns to the cabin and fins the bloody after math of the battle between his friends and the locals, and comes to two conclusions, one, they're all dead, and two, he made it. Jeff makes a point to announce this at the top of his lungs. We kind of have a dual reaction to this, we hate him because Jeff doesn't seem to care that his friends have died, but at the same time we know we'd probably react the same way if we survived.

Then Jeff is killed in a hail of bullets by the police. Which doesn't make sense! Not only did Jeff announce at a very high volume indicating that he's a survivor and not infected, but you came across Paul (Rider Strong) who WAS infected, and you let Winston (Giuseppe Andrews) dump him in the woods. IN THE WATER! Where two kids unknowingly infect the rest of the town, or village, or whatever these people live in. Then again I think the sheriff wanted Winston to kill Paul, but didn't realise he screwed it up.

But anyway, Jeff, he's smart enough to survive the flesh eating virus, but is killed by a police force who have selective hearing.

3. The People of Alderaan - Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

These guys don't even get a line, and the Empire commits genocide against them, that's how unlucky they are. You'll have to forgive me if I get details wrong, I haven't seen the film in years, as, shamefully, I don't have this in my collection. Well, okay I do, but in tape form and I no longer have a tape player.

Essentially the Empire has taken Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) prisoner, and have been torturing her in order to locate the Rebel hideout. Upon threatening to blow up Alderaan, Leia tells them, but he Empire blow up Alderaan anyway. Then it's learnt that Leia told them the location of an old Rebel base. So really, the Empire only followed through with their threat.

But the people of Alderaan are effectively the definition of 'unlucky bastard'. Can you imagine being on the planet? Going about their basic lives, and then suddenly KABOOM! Millions of voices crying out in terror, and then suddenly silenced. Here's an example.

Tom: Oh hello Mrs Dexter! How are you today?

Mrs Dexter: Why I'm great thank you Tom, what about you?

Tom: Not bad, not bad, I'm just on my way home. It's my son's birthday.

Mrs Dexter: Oh that's fantastic.

Tom: Yeah, I got him this cute little puppy, he's been begging for one for years. He'll be so hap(BOOM!)

2. Mitsuko Souma - Battle Royale, mainly the book

While Mitsuko was actually the second most dangerous person in the Program and one of the main villains, she is sooooooo unlucky. In fact, saying she was unlucky is a Goddamn understatement. While I am using the picture from the film (Mainly because I loved the film, especially the performance of the actress who plays Mitsuko), her background isn't really touched upon in it. Except in the extended version, which I haven't seen.

In the book though, we really see how fu*ked up her life was. When she was nine her mother was paid to not only let three men rape her, but to videotape it. Then when Mitsuko told her teacher about it, her TEACHER raped her! When her mother was once again paid for Mitsuko to be raped, she resisted and killed her mother. Mitsuko was sent to live with relatives...where she was molested. And that's just the novel.

In the manga, her stepfather subjected her to all sorts of abuse, and then she took abuse from her mother. In the extended version we see a flashback of a man attempting to molest her before Mitsuko pushed him down some stairs, which ended up killing him

Can you see why Mitsuko is unluck...screwed...has a fu*ked up life?

1. Hershel Greene - The Walking Dead, pretty much all mediums

Robert Kirkman, you really hate Hershel don't you? Why else did you inflict so much misery on him? We first meet Hershel, in different circumstances. In the comics and the TV series (Where he's played by Scott Wilson) we meet him when Carl is shot by Otis, in the game, we meet him when Lee is taken there by other survivors.

The first hint of Hershel's suffering comes in the game when his son Shawn is killed by walkers. Angry, he forces Lee and other survivors off his land and puts Shawn in the barn, which will become full of zombies as the days go by.

Going over to the comics when Rick and his group meet the Greene family and friends, we're introduced to Hershel's huge family, including Maggie, Lacey, Arnold, Billy and his youngest daughters Rachel and Susie. His friends include Otis and his girlfriend Patricia. Now, Hershel feels very strongly against killing the zombies. We already know a lot about zombies, we know they're gone and there's no coming back. Hershel doesn't know that, he thinks they're just sick and need medical treatment.

And as you turn the pages Hershel loses members of his family one by one. The first is Arnold when he defends Hershel from a zombie when the group open the door to the barn to put another zombie in, followed swiftly by Lacey. Realising his mistake, he reluctantly shoots his zombie-turning family members as well as the others, which basically destroys his spirit. He tells Rick his group will leave when Carl is fully healed, but kicks them off the farm when Rick's wife Lori kicks off.

When Rick and his group come across the Prison, and the four inmates who remained there when the zombie apocalypse occurred, Rick goes back to Hershel to invite them there. Hershel, having calmed down and had time to think, agrees and moves his family and Patricia (Otis is to follow later). Upon getting there Rachel and Susie go exploring, and are subsequently beheaded by one of the inmates, the insane Thomas Richards. Now, normally, I don't agree with killing the bad guys or inflicting torture on them, as it means the hero stoops down to the gutter level with the villain. Thomas Richards is the exception to the rule where he deserves being killed for what he did.

So that's four of his family killed. Don't worry, there's more. When Rick, Glenn, Michonne, and Martinez return from Woodbury after meeting the Governor (Spoiler warning fro season three) (With the exception of Martinez who works for the Governor), who is a psychopath, they find zombies had made their way into the prison compound, where Otis was killed.

Later the Governor and his troops find the Prison and launch an assault on the compound, killing Patricia in the process. When the Governor uses his fu*king tank to bring down the prison fences, Billy is shot dead by a Woodbury soldier. Hershel finally loses the will to live, despite his only other daughter Maggie still being alive. Knowing that her new husband Glenn would take care of her, Hershel slumps to the ground by his son's corpse, only saying "Dear God, just kill me". The Governor is only too happy to do so. Then there's the TV series where he had Maggie and new daughter Beth and her boyfriend Jimmy, his new wife Annette, Otis and his now wife Patricia, and of course his already dead now stepson Shawn. By the end of the series only Hershel and his daughters survived.

So really, can you not see why he is the unluckiest bastard of them all?

And there's my list. So while I'm downright saddened with my life right now, at least it isn't as bad as these guys.

Tidal Wave: No Escape (1997)

I'm finally getting round to putting up the next review, and continuing with the water trend we have 'Tidal Wave: No Escape', which is effectively the title and tagline of the last film I reviewed.

'Tidal Wave: No Escape' follows John Wahl (Corbin Bernsen), a surfer who just happens to be an ex-Homeland Security agent, who is called in by his former employers to help consult on why there have been two tidal waves so close to each other. While I was thinking that earthquakes are random and there's no real way of predicting them, therefore it was just a coincidence, but talk of someone actually creating these tidal waves comes up. Apparently it's that option. What follows is a cat and mouse game between Homeland Security, Wahl and his love interest Julianne (Jessica Weaver), and the...tidal wave creator.

I have to say this because it was the first thing that popped up in this film, besides the opening kill people. There are HORRIBLE green screen effects. And I really do mean horrible, they are literally the worse I have ever seen. Well, maybe 'Pulse 3' had worse. But the green screens in this truly are awful, laughable really, especially when you see the initial tidal wave and the news report that follows. Then there's the obvious stock footage.

That being said, the effects for the actual tidal wave aren't actually that bad. It might be a combination of the year, budget and the fact that this was a TV production, but yeah, they weren't that bad. The main problem was when the wave interacted with  other things, like the coast. That being said the effects aren't great either, especially the so called nuclear weapons.

Wait, I just realised something, at numerous points the villain mentions how many Allied soldiers could have been saved if they had used a man-made tidal wave to clear the beaches first. However in order to generate a tidal wave, they need to use a nuclear weapon, and the atom bomb wasn't invented until after the D-Day landings....what was your motive again? No seriously, what was it? Firstly the villain is pointed out with ease since he keeps mentioning D-Day and there's only person in the film old enough to have been there. Secondly, the villain mentions they could have saved lives on D-Day, so he kills thousands of innocent people? What the Hell was your motive? Apart from "One billion dollars!"? I need to watch this film again to see if there was an actual motive.

Then again there's other stupid stuff to worry about. Firstly, when you see a tidal wave come towards you, do you: A) Drive away from it inland, or B) Drive alongside it? If you selected B congratulations! You're as stupid as the main character! We also have a tidal wave that can knock over a cruise liner-turned-hotel with ease but a few seconds ago failed to destroy a small boat, and tidal waves which fail to obey nature. And a timer which keeps resetting.

And then we have the acting. In it's defence the film does not have big name actors, obviously, but the actors they did have did an alright job. Nothing spectacular, but nothing really that bad. The only thing that really holds them back is the fact that the characters hardly have any development, they're all stuck in the same one dimensional form. Really the only character I liked the sounds of was the villain when he was still anonymous, though this did backfire when it was finally confirmed who the anonymous villain was, because it doesn't make sense when you look back at the info the characters gave about him.

The thing is though, this isn't really a bad film. Well, okay it is a bad film, but in all honesty, for what it is, it is still quite enjoyable. It definitely has its flaws, but when you watch it you do tend to forget about them. You end up getting sucked into the film, you end up being drawn into the story. This is effectively one of those bad films which is so bad it's good. Again, for what the film is, a low budget production with (Overall) mediocre effects, decent acting and an okay storyline, it's quite enjoyable.

Mass Effect 3: The Extended Cut

Yeah it's about time I did this. You may remember from my original post a while back about the ending to Mass Effect 3 and how I was indifferent to it; it wasn't the best ending in the world but it wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. But I was still going to get download the extended cut, just to see if they really do improve the ending. And boy do they.

First of all, plot holes are answered. And, some of it was what I said in the other post, kind of, like Joker came along and extracted the crew members who were with Shepard when he charges at the teleporter. Now this is the first new cutscene I believe we come across. Now, if you brought along a romance option, you do get a pretty tear-jerking scene in which Shepard bids farewell, otherwise it's a heavily wounded crew member who doesn't want to leave the battle but has no choice.

Shepard is then blasted by Harbinger and we get the whole stumbling through the Citadel, debating with the Illusive Man, and then meeting the Catalyst. Again, we get a new cutscene where Hackett receives word that someone has reached the Citadel (Presumably Anderson since Shepard doesn't really have a communicator on him. To the ship I mean, he at least has short wave radio). Now, the scene with the Catalyst has been improved beyond belief. The Catalyst's purpose and origin has been made clearer, and again, it was what I thought. That the Catalyst was an A.I designed by some ancient race to determine the solution to chaos. Although the Catalyst claims that it's creators also designed the Reapers, said race (Reluctantly) also became the first true Reaper, again, presumably Harbinger.

The three main options are clearly explained, so it allows us to decide better on which ending we'd prefer. Now, I painstakingly went through all four endings. Yes, I went through unskippable scenes four times, rather than look on Youtube, just so I can get a more personal feel. What? Oh yeah, I said four. Before going over the endings, the thing which appears in all four endings  have, in which when the Crucible activates, Hackett orders the fleets to retreat, explaining why Joker was inbetween warps when the Crucible...rays hit it. Not only does this scene show how Joker was forced to leave the battlefield, it also shows that the fleets are NOT stranded around Earth.

The fourth ending I'll go over now. Essentially, you now have the option to NOT activate the Crucible, with Shepard saying that humanity and the other species will fight the war their way, rather than accept one of the three options that are 'forced' upon the player. This is despite the fact that the Reapers have pretty much decimated the united fleets, outnumber the civilisations of the galaxy and outgun them. So, of course, the galaxy is doomed, and the aftermath is of one of Liara's capsules being activated. Let's be honest, it's a great addition, to give us something so radically different from the other choices. Then right at the end, we get a different Stargazer telling us about Shepard and how the capsules warned them about the Reaper threat. Sure, the two figures are humanoid, but you can see slight differences in their dark appearances. Again, this is a nice addition.

Now, I'll go over the endings just quickly. Like I said, you still have the same options; destroy, control, and synthesis. With the exception of destroy, the mass relays are not destroyed, solving the problem that destroying a relay wipes out a system. Well, okay, the relays are severely damaged, especially the Sol relay, but they're fixable.

The main thing I love about the extended cut, is that we have an aftermath. We get to see what happens to the other characters after the Reaper War. Depending on which ending you get, you either get Hackett (Destroy), Shepard (Control), EDI (Synthesis), or Liara (Refused). Hackett comments on how the united galaxy must work together to rebuild what was lost, EDI comments on how the Reapers now serve the new Synthetic race, Liara warns future civilisations about the Reapers, and Shepard tells us how he has evolved beyond humanity, becoming the controller of the Reapers and saying he is now the guardian of the galaxy with his army of Reapers.

And that's the huge improvement for me, seeing how everyone recovers; Kasumi hugs a hologram of her former love (In the synthesis ending anyway, in the others she's sitting and looking at the datapad), EDI learns what it is to be alive, the Reapers help rebuild the planets they destroyed and the damaged relays, Hell, Wrex becomes a father! The aftermath segments really did make the ending for me. In the destroy ending, we see the surviving ships from the unity fleet, EXCEPT the Destiny Ascension. It appears the flagship of the Council had fallen in the battle against the Reapers.

Okay, bottom line is, the extended cut not only fixes any and all problems the original ending had, but it improves it, it gives us the ending which the conclusion to the Mass Effect trilogy deserves. Of course, the question now is: "Why wasn't it the ending in the first place?". The game was delayed for several months at one point, why wasn't the extended cut the original ending in the first place? I think delaying it again would've been alright if we got the extended cut ending.

So should you download the extended cut? Of course you should! It clears up everything! It clarifies all the little problems, it explains the Catalyst's objective, it gives a fourth (And darker) ending! And if you still have problems with the ending, GO MAKE YOUR OWN GAME.

Tidal Wave (2009)

Continuing with the theme of water here, we go from Los Angeles, America to Haeundae, South Korea, and we also go from lack of drinkable water to lots of water. Though I wouldn't recommend drinking it. Yeah, we go from a terrorist attack to nature, and we also dive into what is South Korea's (Where it's called 'Haeundae', after the location) first ever disaster film.


I can't really dive into the plot (Pardon the pun) because, like 'Waterborne' and 'Contagion', the film has multiple plot points. They're becoming more and more frequent those kind of films aren't they? The ones I've mentioned, 'Crash (2004)', 'Valentine's day (2010)', and 'New Year's Eve (2011)' as well. It's weird.

Anyway, let's see if I can remember all the plots. But first the introduction. We're first reminded of the Indian Ocean Tsunami which occurred back in 2004. For those who don't know, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a tsunami which hit fourteen different countries and killed nearly three hundred thousand people, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in history.

In the film's introduction, we're introduced to Choi Man-Shik (Kyung-gu Sol), who is on a fishing boat during the middle of the tsunami disaster. He makes a mistake which causes a shipmate to be trapped on a boat, and Man-Shik is forced to watch him go down with the boat. Okay, now I can go into the multi-plots.

1. The guy who goes down asks Man-Shik to look after his daughter Yeon-Hee (Ha Ji-won). Yeon-Hee fancies Man-Shik and Man-Shik tries to overcome his guilt over her father's death so that he can lover her back.
2. Dong-choon (Kim In-kwon) deals with some shady business with Man-Shik's nephew, gets caught by the police, and gets moaned at by his mother.
3. Kim Hwi (Park Joong-hoon) tries to persuade high leading officials that a mega tsunami which could threaten South Korea is possible. He then comes across his ex-wife, Yoo-jin (Uhm Jung-hwa) and his daughter, and learns that his ex has never told their daughter who her father is.
4. Choi Hyeing-Shik (Lee Min-ki) saves Hee-mi (Kang Ye-won) from drowning, elbowing her in the face at the same time. Angry at this (Though I'm pretty sure it was a cover), she follows Hyeing-Shik around the city. As time passes love blossoms between the two, though they're hampered by a random jerk Hee-mi's sisters are trying to set her up with.

I think that's it.

The plots can get so intertwined with each other that they can be hard to distinguish. You have to really remember who's who. Once you've got the hang of who's who, the individual stories can be intriguing. The problem is that I went into this expecting a serious piece of film, which it does deliver, I can't deny that, but there are slapstick and comedic moments throughout the film. It does seem intentional, such as Dong-choon at the start being knocked down four times by different people, and yes, it is actually funny. But, in a way, it made the film a bit awkward to watch, knowing that the title threat will be hitting this beach resort soon, destroying pretty much everything in its way. Am I supposed to take this film seriously? Am I suppose to find it hilarious? How can I find it funny, knowing that there will be death and destruction later?



But in all honesty, it does add a certain...feeling to this film. It makes you feel more for the characters, it's actually slightly more realistic. No-one is perfect, and that's what the slapstick...um...emphasis's  I suppose. But love them or hate them, you can't help but care about them when the great disaster does happen, mainly because when the wave does hit, the characters we don't feel anything for suddenly become heroes. SPOILERS. Dong-choon saves thirteen people after the tsunami, basically surprising everyone and earning a citizen bravery award. Dong-choon however doesn't feel like a hero because his mother died during the tsunami. This was really sad and touching. Hyeing-Shik meanwhile sacrifices himself so that a jerk character is saved, while Hee-mi has no choice but to watch. Alongside that, Man-Shik, after pouring out his heart and soul to Yeon-Hee since he thinks he's going to die, but he is saved by his estranged uncle, which appears to repair the relationship. His uncle is then killed two seconds later. Shockingly depressing scene follows.


That being said, the structure of this film was weird. Most drama films basically put the drama right out there withing the first half hour, and then spend the next hour surviving. 'Tidal Wave', does it the other way round. It spends the first hour going over the characters, and then the tidal wave has come and gone in ten minutes, then twenty minutes is spent surviving the aftermath. This was both good, and bad. It's good because it allows the audience to get to know the characters and care about them. It's bad, because the audience start to wonder where the tsunami is. And then it's gone in a matter of minutes, which is actually understandable, a real tsunami would be halfway inland in ten minutes after hitting the coast. But then after the twenty odd minutes of survival, the film glances over the aftermath. I didn't really like the glancing. Sure, some of the characters it was enough, but then there's others where you want a bit more info.


Let's get to the actual tidal wave now. Again, going into this I wasn't expecting much, mainly because I wasn't expecting a high budget (Apparently the film had a budget in the region of $10-15million), and I hate CGI. I think you know that by now. Oh yeah, a film like 'The Avengers/Avengers Assemble' may come along and make me think "Oh my God the effects are awesome", but most of the time I think it looks too fake. The effects here, aren't actually that bad. Could they be better? Yes. But the effects aren't awful, they're actually pretty damn good, the tidal wave actually looks like its made of water, while the scenes of the city being destroyed are truly immense. In my opinion anyway. A shot of Hwi saving his daughter from being swept out of a window was truly brilliant.

Acting wise, yeah, it could have been better. While I do think the actors and actresses were pretty good at times, they were pretty bland in others. I didn't really find it that bad though, like 'Green Lantern' it was more because of the script rather than the actual actor.


Overall, I love this film. In fact, my DVD collection is slowly being invaded by the Asian market. 'Battle Royale', 'Heaven's Soldiers', and 'Dragon Wars' to name a few. Yes, I like 'Dragon Wars'. But whatever you think of 'Tidal Wave', while the build up was a tad too long, I have to respect the makers behind this film for taking a risk and producing South Korea's first disaster film. I found the film charming and creative, I found the character development great, the effects terrific, the chaos tremendous. Did I go into this film with low expectations? Yes, and that probably helped, but I really did love this film. I'd definitely recommend you to at least see if you'd like it, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Waterborne (2005)

So with the recent heat here in the UK and the lack of hero related films for this month, I've decided to go over some water related films. The first up is the 2005 film 'Waterborne'. Here, a terrorist attack has infected the water supply to Los Angeles, leaving the population unable to drink the water.



Now, the plot was what intrigued me, the idea that terrorists have cut off the water supply and that we'll be watching society break down. And whilst IMDB has a rating of 5.7 at the moment, Rotten Tomatoes currently has a 100% approval rating. Yeah, I've never seen that before, but this film has a 100% approval. I have no idea why. Then again the only information on Wikipedia is a brief description, a brief snippet of whose in it, who did the score, how it was the first feature film for Google Videos (Which will be shutting down in August), a list of 28 cast members, the one line about Rotten Tomatoes, and external links. That's it. As of the 28th July anyway.

There will be spoilers. I'll try my best, but I don't think I can avoid it. It's plot related so I'll leave that to last.

One things that stands out straight away, is the camera work. It is constantly moving around, even on shots where the character is just sitting there. It's just not professional. Then there's points where Bodi (Jake Muxworthy) starts beating on a guy, and the camera shows that the guy is obviously not hitting him. And then we have the news reports, where the quality is so bad, static is the only way it can get worse.


The acting is pretty meh, there aren't really any bad things to say, but I'm saying that they were any good. The main cast which you may recognise include Christopher Masterson, who you may recall from 'Malcolm in the Middle' and Mageina Tovah, who you may remember playing.......'Ursula' (The landlord's daughter) from 'Spider-Man 2' and 'Spider-Man 3'. And, alongside Ajay Naidu, who plays Vikram Bhatti, they are the best acting talent in this. But everyone in this are basically just 'there', there's no special scenes, nor are there any bad scenes. But this relates back to the plot so I'll come back to it. Right now.

Like I said, the whole idea that a city like Los Angeles, a city with nearly four million people, were told that they can't drink the water supply. The problem is, it barely features in the plot. I can't help but compare this film to 'Contagion', since both films focus on a disease and focus on multiple plots. The major difference, is that 'Contagion' actually shows us the devastation, it shows us how desperate people really can get, mainly because the film flashforwards at certain points. Then there's the game 'I Am Alive' where you play a character in a post Apocalyptic world where water is rare, and you certainly get that feel, especially if you play survivor mode where resources are even more rare.

Again, the whole problem with this film is that the main concept barely features in the film at all. Oh sure, they may mention it a couple of times, but overall, no-one really seems to have noticed, and when they do it's glanced over. I was watching this film go over three days of events, waiting for riots and looting to start, but no, nothing happens. A small crowd may yell at the army who are giving out supplies, like one gallon of water in half litre bottles, and one shoplifting incident may occur, but again, we don't really see the huge impact that cutting off the water supply would cause.

In fact, we see, what, three points when the lack of water affects people, and two of those aren't attributed to water. One point a customer tries to buy four jugs of water at the shop Vikram works, but Heera (Shabana Azmi) has restricted sales to two jugs per customer, therefore Gulu (Sarabjit Singh Kaloti) refuses to sell him more than two jugs. This of course pisses of the customer, who decides to racially abuse Heera and Gulu and saying that they shouldn't be in America at all. The American customer then sets fire to the American flag before assaulting them. That had nothing to do with the water, it was just racism. Anyone else would be pissed off and leave it at that, they wouldn't go to this extent. Especially since this is only the second day! People shouldn't be THIS desperate already!

The other point came when Bodi holds Zach (Masterson), Lillian (Tovah), Vikram, Jasmine (Lindsay Price) and her daughter hostage in a shop, begging for water. This happened on the third day, after drinking milk. Point one, okay, it's not water, but milk is a perfect substitute you idiot! Secondly, he's gone nuts after a day of going without water. Yeah, he had bottled water on the first day, he should still be fine at this point, therefore this incident wasn't about water! I'm still pretty sure that it was because of an earlier scene where Bodi tries to drink water from a tap (After being told it was infected) and Zach knocked the water out of his hand, where I'm pretty sure he still got some water in his mouth, so I think he was suffering from effects from the infected water.


The third point was when two soldiers, Ritter (Jon Gries) and Carlton (Chris Berry) stop some thieves from stealing a truck load of water. Carlton kills one of them, despite the fact that the kid was unarmed and was only driving away. Why does he do this? He expresses hatred towards different countries like Iraqi or Kazakhstan as well as threaten some Hillbillies who are taking water from an aquaduct, saying America should bomb whoever did it, but why did he shoot an unarmed American youngster? Couldn't he shoot the tyres? Fire a warning shot? He expresses regret and guilt later, but then it's never mentioned again.


This film was essentially influenced, not only by the paranoia that can be caused by a terrorist attack, but also deal with the racism that Muslims/Islamists  now get after 9/11. It's a bit of sensitive subject to touch upon, with some films going over it quite effectively, examples even including 'Armageddon of the Dead'. This film...really doesn't touch the subject. Okay, it does with the racist customer attacking Heera and Gulu, putting Heera in the hospital, and when Bodi randomly racially insults Vikram towards the start of the film, as well as when Vikram claims the police are racist when an officer is investigating Heera's assault (Though the description given to the officer doesn't really narrow the field down. Also why doesn't their shop have CCTV that they can simply give to the police?). But, like the infection of the water, again, this doesn't really feature in the film. It's mention a few times, but again, no real detail is given to the viewer, none that the audience shouldn't already know anyway.

The thing is, this film isn't bad, but, it wasn't good either. What would have made this film really good, fantastic maybe, was if it delved into the characters and the impact of the lack of water. Like I said, the characters are just there, they don't have any special or unique personalities (Except for Bodi, but his personality makes me hate him) which enable them to shine. For what was a low budget production (According to IMDB the budget was roughly one million dollars) maybe they couldn't fund a riot scene or two, but we don't really see any consequence for the water being turned off. If it fast forward a week or two or three and shown/told us a significant death toll, but again, virtually nothing happens, and whatever does happen seems too incomprehensible to happen after just three days. At one hour and fifteen minutes (Some of which was pointless imagery which amounts to nothing) we don't get a lot of information, but if they pushed the mark to a hour and, let's say thirty or forty minutes and gave a lot more depth and much more anarchy and chaos, but for what it is, it's pretty much meh at the end of the day.