Tháp Lửa, The Tower (2013 )

"Tháp Lửa - The Tower 2013 (HD)" tells the story of Lee Dae-Ho (Kim Sang-kyung),the manager of the Sky Tower in Seoul, and his daughter Hana (Mina Cho). Despite being single for a long time, Lee is happy with his comfortable life with his daughter. Everything would have been normal if the Christmas holiday had remained peaceful as usual. However, the tower owner suddenly decides to throw a grand party to thank the customers, featuring a helicopter performance and snowfall to create a festive atmosphere.

Unexpectedly, a plane in the fleet malfunctions and crashes into the Sky Tower. The familiar image of the 9/11 terrorist attack is immediately recreated. In an instant, the warm party with singing and wine turns into screams, moans, and fear. The plane crash causes a part of the building to collapse and smoke and fire spread everywhere. People are trapped in the building, with crowded exits and sealed off escape routes. As the fire grows more intense, they must quickly find a way to escape before it's too late.

As the manager and a father, Lee must work together with firefighter Young-Kee (Sul Kyung-gu) to rescue the victims and his daughter. He also secretly longs for Yoon-hee (Ye-jin Son),a beautiful restaurant manager, who is second only to his daughter in importance. He must make every effort to protect the two people he loves from the raging fire.

In terms of Asian cinema, The Tower deserves recognition for its impressive special effects. The scenes of explosions, flying objects, and collapsing walls are meticulously designed. We rarely notice the flaws in computer graphics that are often seen in Eastern cinema. Additionally, director Kim arranges the actors to run, scream, and trample on each other in a realistic manner, making the audience feel the horror and chaos.

Apart from the story of Lee Dae-ho and the two important female characters, The Tower also tells the stories of other trapped individuals in the building. However, simultaneously focusing on multiple characters sometimes makes the film lose its momentum when the screen time is not properly allocated, resulting in a diluted plot.

The psychological element in the film is also well-invested. The terrified screams, conflicts, and disagreements of the characters during their escape journey, accompanied by desperate cries that sometimes sound fierce and sometimes reveal helplessness. The film also includes scenes of characters sacrificing themselves to evoke tears from the viewers. However, if you have watched many Korean films, you may not find them particularly touching, as the melodramatic acting style is a characteristic of Korean cinema that can make it feel somewhat cliché. Despite its efforts to establish its own position, The Tower still falls short of reaching the pinnacle of Hollywood films. It has good special effects and deep investment in visuals and sound, but it follows a predictable pattern, which may disappoint cinema enthusiasts. However, compared to the general level of Asian films, The Tower is still a commendable progress.