MOVIE: SUPER TYPHOON

Warning

AS A RESULT OF GLOBAL WARMING, A SUPERTYPHOON WILL BE SHAPED IN THE PACIFIC AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE CITY FACE A GREAT DANGER

THERE IS NO ESCAPE

SUPER TYPHOON

Yesterday, I was skimming the titles of the 99ers( cheap DVDs sold for 99 pesos) DVDs in  the music and movie store at SM Skywalk in Cubao.  99ers are usually either B-Movies or long-time ago releases. In the wake of Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan's devastations last November, a  DVD entitled “Super Typhoon” immediately caught my attention. It turns out to be a Chinese film. Reading the synopsis at the back, got me very interested:

A mammoth storm threatens to level a major city in this thriller advertised as China's first disaster movie. Xu (Wu Gang) is the mayor of a large city off the south coast of China, and one day he receives disturbing news from Cheng (Song Xiaoying), a trusted scientific advisor who was one of his teachers when Xu was a schoolboy. A powerful and rapidly growing typhoon nicknamed "Blue Whale" is heading towards the city, and Xu and Cheng must formulate a strategy to protect the city and its citizens before the storm reaches the shore. Cheng has had experience with world-class storms before; her father was a storm chaser who died in a typhoon in 1956, and as he deals with the current crisis, she can't help but think of the disaster of fifty years earlier. Meanwhile, a handful of people in the city are struggling to deal with their personal issues as they prepare to meet the storm, including a visiting meteorologist from the United States, a politician in town for the wedding of his daughter, a thief on the run from the cops, and a man who lives on a small island nearby trying to get back to protect his wife, who is expecting a baby.

I was totally engrossed with this film which revolves around the inspiring  exploits of the upright, compassionate and courageous  mayor who was determined to save the lives of his  constituents from the ravages of the super typhoon to the point of sacrificing his very own; and was steadfast in making difficult decisions  that can jeopardize even his own position as long as it will  lead the people to safety. I was moved to near tears in several scenes depicting bravery and heroism,  and as the super typhoon was ushering its destructive powers. Thanks to the indomitable spirit of the mayor, his aides, the preparedness of the military to act and to the accurate analysis  and unflinching conviction of the weather expert,  despite the epic magnitude of destruction, nobody  actually died in the story.

After viewing, I researched about it and read several reviews. It was shown in the Tokyo Film Festival in 2008 and was a box office hit in China.

Since this was shown five years ago,I wish  our leaders had seen this film. 

It was, however,  panned by most of professional critics and bloggers I’ve read to the point of finding the film hilarious; in particular the reviewers observed  the poor acting, the excessive melodrama,  bad  musical scoring and production glitches.(  I did not notice any as I was focused on the story)

“The special effects in the big typhoon set pieces are almost convincing, but loses its effect when the audience notices that this city only has one type of SUV (in three colors), one compact car (red), one crane, one police car, and one fuel truck, all being knocked around repeatedly” said Clickcity.com’s Philbert Ortiz Dy in his review in April 2009.