BUSAN, South Korea, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- When single mother An-na (Kim Da-mi) is awakened from a deep slumber by her energetic six-year-old son Ja-in in The Great Flood's opening scene, the moment feels instantly familiar to any overworked parent.
We quickly learn, however, that this is no ordinary day. A rainstorm of biblical proportions is crashing down on Seoul, with floodwaters already reaching her third-floor apartment. And with that, Netflix's The Great Flood -- which had its world premiere at the Busan Film Festival last week -- hits the ground running as a thrilling disaster movie.
An-na, an AI researcher, desperately races for higher ground with cherubic Ja-in (Kwon Eun-seong), braving claustrophobic underwater sequences and panicked crowds in a quest to stay above the rising waters.
As waves crash into the building, she crosses paths with Hee-jo (Park Hae-soo of Squid Game), a security agent from her company sent to rescue her. It becomes clear that the deluge is not just catastrophic -- it's apocalyptic, and An-na herself holds the key to humanity's survival.
Suddenly, and somewhat jarringly, the white-knuckle survival adventure swerves into the realm of high-concept sci-fi, straining at times to keep its head above water under a deluge of plot twists and genre turns.
