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Cast:Mina Cho, Sang-kyung Kim, Sul Kyung-gu, Ye-jin Son
It’s Christmas Eve at Seoul’s ultra-luxurious, 108-story, residential high-rise, Tower Sky, and the annual White Christmas gala is planned once again to dazzle the elite tenants and their VIP guests.
Building manager Dae-ho, a single father, reluctantly disappoints his young daughter again, cancelling plans to work the elegant event. Kitchen manager Yoon-hee, who has a secret crush on him, offers to babysit. Respected fire chief Young-ki has finally agreed to a date night with his long-suffering wife and the extravagant gathering is the perfect venue.
The holiday revelry is in full swing on a truly magical and unforgettable evening when unthinkable disaster strikes. Out of the reach of help, chaos and panic erupt. Now two strangers, Dae-ho and Young-ki, must summon the strength and courage to save thousands … But at what cost?
When watching "The Tower" I couldn't help but think of the classic film "The Towering Inferno" that I enjoyed watching many years ago. The box-art mentions that along with "Die Hard" but I couldn't see anything similar to that film other than both being played out in a high-rise building.
Tower Sky is actually a set of twin luxury highrise towers right in the heart of the big city in Korea. They are connected halfway up by a bridge that makes for a fantastic view of the city. It is Christmas Eve, a huge party has been prepared for all the VIP members of the buildings. Dae-ho, a single dad has to disappoint his little girl once again because he has to manage and watch over the events in order to make sure the party goes off without any problems. Yoon-hee, the beautiful manager of the cooks for the towers volunteers to keep an eye on Hana, as all the workers run around getting all the last minute preparations done. They even hired helicopters to fly around the buildings carrying big snow making machines since the weather was not calling for any snow this Christmas but when a down draft occurs the helicopters lose control and disaster strikes as they slam into the the tower causing the high rise to ignite in flames. Now Dae-ho must fight to get to Hana and Yoon-hee, as well as perform his job by trying to save those who are also trapped.
At two hours the film takes a bit of time to get going. It spends the early part of the film building on the story and introducing us to the characters which I liked because how else are you suppose to get some sort of feelings towards them if they are not developed enough? But once the film gets going its a non-stop thrill ride full of tension and suspense that will put you on the edge of your seat the entire time. This is an exciting film filled with plenty of drama and even a bit of humor as well to lighten the mood a bit. I personally felt they could of done away with the humor but at least there wasn't enough of it to hurt the story.
South Korea certainly doesn't have the money that Hollywood has to make a film such as this but you would never know that by watching it. The effects, fire, water, explosions ect.. are all incredibly well done which makes this even more impressive. I haven't seen a good disaster film like this one in some time so I guess I forgot how much of a thrill ride a film like this could be. "The Tower" exceeded all my expectations I had before watching it, I highly recommend this to everyone that likes a good disaster film. This one certainly gets the blood flowing. Available VOD and on DVD, the DVD comes with the original Korean Language and English subtitles as well as an English audio track as well. CJ Entertainment does a fantastic job with their releases and the including an English audio track is a smart choice and it makes good business sense.
I likely recommend picking this up, you can order the DVD HERE.
Released by CJ Entertainment
**** Out Of *****