The Tower

The Tower (Ta-weo) (2012)

Runtime: 121 minutes

Directed by: Ji-hoon Kim

Starring: Sang-kyung Kim, Kyung-gu Sol, Ye-jin Son, In-kwon Kim, Sung-kee Ahn

From: CJ Entertainment

Here's another Korean film for me to watch; it's one I've heard of before from a messageboard but I don't recall too many people having talked about it, so I wasn't sure what to expect aside from hearsay. This was the reason why I watched The Towering Inferno a few nights before, because they are pretty similar. To steal the plot description from the official press release:

“On Christmas Eve at Tower Sky, an ultra-luxurious building complex, a White Christmas party is held to dazzle its equally high-end tenants and VIP guests. Dae-ho, the manager of the building and single father, is forced to cancel plans with his daughter Hana to work the event. His Christmas is saved when Yoon-hee, the food mall manager with a secret crush on Dae-ho, offers to babysit Hana during the party. Meanwhile, Young-ki the legendary fire chief of Yoido Station has finally promised his first holiday date night to his long suffering wife. The party is in full swing with the spectacular sight of two helicopters flying overhead just to spray snow on the partygoers and make everything perfect. When unthinkable disaster strikes, Dae-ho and Young-ki must summon all their strength and courage to save the lives of thousands but at what cost to themselves and their loved ones?”

Note that there are high winds during this act-which was deemed dangerous but it was demanded it happen anyway-and of course, one of the helicopters crashes into one of the two towers (yes, they are twin towers connected at the 70th floor by a sky bridge. Despite the twin towers thing, don't worry about any 9/11 memories while watching this. Anyhow, after the crash things get real bad real quick in those 108 story towers.

Sure, there's a goofy odious “comic” relief character and there's a precocious little girl (two tropes I am rarely a fan of) and they can be rather annoying; still, even with that this was an effective movie. There are certainly goofy scenes and even some parts that I would call preposterous... that said, it's a thrilling movie where along with the action/excitement stuff-there are some pretty sweet and exciting setpieces-there is surprisingly good melodrama. If you're real sensitive you may even shed many tears.

Like with The Towering Inferno, it can be ruthless in who it kills. It's not a spoiler to say that not everyone you meet in the opening section of the movie (where you get to meet everyone & that was done well) will survive by the time the end credits roll. The Tower does borrow some elements from The Towering Inferno, besides the obvious things. Thankfully, the special/computer effects mostly looked fine. If it wouldn't have... the movie would have been hampered, for sure. 

But, the effects are nice overall and most of the characters are actually done well-enough, so you rarely get annoyed by them and you actually do worry about some of them... meaning this movie worked. I would take this over many Hollywood blockbusters, especially the disaster ones from Roland Emmerich or crap like Armageddon or Volcano. Watch this on Instant or elsewhere if you want to see a modern disaster picture, and I don't mean disaster as in atrocious.

I shall return Wednesday night.