Plot: The Tower (타워) is a Korean disaster movie about how a luxury skyscraper (known as Sky Tower) caught fire in the eve of Christmas and the struggle of the people, both the victims and the firefighters, trying to survive and escape from the skyscraper. Officially released on Christmas Day in 2012, The Tower was directed by Kim Ji Hoon and starred Sol Kyung Gu, Kim Sang Kyung and Son Ye Jin as the leading roles.
Thoughts: I actually had no initially idea on who were the main leads for this movie so I was pleasantly surprise to see Son Ye Jin in this movie. Being an avid fan of K-dramas, I could recognize almost all of the key casts in this movie, such as Kim In Kwon, Lee Han Wi, Kim Sung Oh (haven't seen him since Secret Garden), Park Cheol Min, Cha In Pyo, Jung In Ki and even Hyun Young (honestly, you can never miss her iconic voice).
Though this movie is primarily about escaping the Sky Tower and the disaster that commences, this movie manages to add in a bit of humour (especially scenes pertaining to In Gun, the assistant chef, as well as the Christian group), slight melodrama, emotional familial ties and sacrifices. I do think one main difference between Korean and American movies is that Korean movies are able to execute the emotional scenes much better. You have the main character, a single father who fears for the safety of his daughter and loved ones, and had to undergo the painful possibility of being separated from them; you have the old lady cleaner, whose only wish is to hand over the money she painstakingly earned for her son's tuition fee; the captain of the firefighter, who finally realised that at the very end, he has to sacrifice his life to save the lives of the rest of the people (I honestly was on the verge of bawling in the cinema at this particular scene, when he recorded a voice message for his wife at the very end). It is possibly the most heart-wrenching and emotional moment in the entire movie.
The CGI and the visual effects of the movie are quite well done and realistic in my opinion. I think the director used a blend of CGI and real life action to execute some of the scenes in the movie. The actors and actresses did their job quite well, though there wasn't any particularly strong performances. The plot and script is passable, not particularly bad yet not particularly spectacular.
Nevertheless, I highly recommend this movie as it is one of the better disaster action movies I had seen so far.
Overall rating: 8 out of 10. :)
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