As I happened to stumble upon the 2020 sci-fi thriller "The Calm Beyond" by random chance here in 2022, I must admit that I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch what writers Heather Gornall and Joshua Wong had to offer. I mean, a movie set in a devastated landscape of Hong Kong, that sounded more than promising.
But this movie was sort of a mess of a movie. Sure, the concept idea of having Hong Kong devastated by a massive tsunami was interesting, but then everything beyond that made little or no sense. Why would the water remain at that high level after a tsunami? Why wouldn't surviving people have been saved by, say, the mainlanders from China? Why would people resort to violence and such under such catastrophic circumstances? Where did all the food come from? And how could they go such a long time without rescue or anything, I mean, just look at the decayed corpses as it would indicate the amount of time that has passed.
I wanted to like the movie, I really, really did, but there was just too many things that made no logical sense and just made me question the whole concept and believability of the movie. So director Joshua Wong didn't really deliver a very impressive movie here.
Sure, the atmosphere of a devastated Hong Kong was interesting and nice to see, and they definitely managed to pull that off well enough. But it just couldn't make up for all the shortcomings and flaws in the movie.
One thing I didn't understand was why they had to speak English. English is not the native language in Hong Kong, and thus is made little sense.
The acting performances in the movie were actually good, and this was all new and unfamiliar faces on the cast list for me, aside from actor Terence Yin.
"The Calm Beyond" is a movie that came and went without much of a ruckus, and it will sink back into oblivion for me, because this movie was not outstanding or memorable.
My rating of "The Calm Beyond" lands on a three out of ten stars.
