The Calm Beyond

A young woman survives a tsunami on the upper floors of a Hong Kong building while eating a seemingly endless supply of Ramen noodles. Several scenes show her boiling the noodles with fire. Bad guys constantly harass the feisty woman and a little girl joins the battle. Flashbacks show a traditional Chinese family arguing in Cantonese which had no subtitles in the version I watched. The characters speak mostly in English but it was still an annoyance. The ending is silly and I cannot recommend this film.

Post-apocalyptic stories, it's normally a plot I really enjoy watching, and in some way I was entertained, but mildly this time. The story just didn't make much sense in some scenes. Why would anybody be interested in that woman trying to survive? It's little things like that that make the story not very credible. The acting was okay, not great though. The lack of subtitles when they spoke in Chinese was also a big let down. There was already not much dialogues in this movie, so the little Chinese conversations should have been translated. I expected more from this movie.

I almost didnt watch this movie because of previous reviews. Glad I did, enjoyed it very much. Great acting/ writing & storyline. Gave it an 8 because its better than 80% better than most of the stuff Hollywood is putting out these days.

Fans of Cormac McCarthy's The Road will love this movie. Fans of waterworld will enjoy it.

I cant believe the complaints of these other so called reviewers. One complained that it was unrealistic the survivors weren't rescued. Did they miss the part where it says world ending typhoon? This is a post-apocalypse movie, not a natural disaster one. They also complained it was unrealistic people would resort to violence. Not that movies about world endings apocalypses are known for their realism, but none the less the depictions of savage actions by desperate people are one area where this type of movie shines to illustrate, relative to being a movie. So another unintelligent nitpick.

Another reviewer complained to the effect of that the movie was boring, due to the buildings the of and around where the movie takes place being partially submerged by the waters. That confuses me because that essentially was the movie, that was the plot, it provided a unique and original setting for the story.

There are several low rated star reviews that nitpick and complain in ways that seem almost as if they had the film on in the background doing something else. I on the other hand really enjoyed watching this movie, both for the setting of a partially drowned city, and for the story itself. It's a shame it's not rated higher because I really think it deserves it. If you enjoy the depth and humanity and struggle exampled so poetically in the bleak cruel worlds built with dark simplicity in movies like "the road" then you will find that same brilliance here.

Lead actress is great, I like her a lot in this movie.

It has some interesting action sequences.

Sometimes during the movie you can see lead actress in situations before the disaster, I like that.

Decent movie. I enjoyed watching it.