Extremely moving and sympathetic account of what really happened.

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2014)

Having just watched this film, I felt compelled to leave a review and also to highlight the ignorance of some of the people who have posted "bad" reviews of this film. I was one of the lucky few that escaped with my life from the Tsunami, sadly my partner was not. I was therefore unsure whether I wanted to watch a film that would depict the day in which my life changed forever. I am, however, extremely pleased that I did as what I have just watched was an extremely powerful, moving and sympathetic film. I would however like to highlight the ignorance of one such reviewer, "yipiha" posted on 18 Dec 2013....
Running away in silence is somewhat out of the question.... Oh how I would have loved it if I was able to run away or not scream! When the Tsunami hit where I was staying, I had about 5 secs to try and understand what this huge black wall rapidly approaching actually was. It was traveling at 500 mph and was 20 foot high so the actual impact was similar to having been hit by a jet plane.
After saving themselves, the mother and eldest boy climb a tree. Why? Well I would have thought this was self-explanatory.... Having just been hit by a huge wave and not understanding what a tsunami was (I mean how many people honestly knew what a tsunami was until it happened), everyone that I encountered didn't know whether there would be another one so we all scrambled to the highest point possible, whether that be up a tree, up a mountain or onto the roof of a hotel until we were certain that there were no more waves, in my case this was almost 24 hours.
The oldest son loses his mother twice in the hospital... This highlighted the fact that the hospitals were totally ill-equipped to cope with a disaster of this magnitude. During those first 48 hours after being rescued, I was twice taken down to the mortuary to identify a body (neither of which were my partner). I was then found by my father who had traveled to Phuket when he had heard what happened, where he saw on one of the hundreds of missing people boards that I had been found and was in hospital in Phuket, when I was actually in hospital in Krabi some 100 miles away. There was total confusion everywhere as the authorities tried unsuccessfully to keep a hand on what was going on. With over 5500 confirmed dead, 8000 reportedly missing and over 10,000 injured in Thailand alone, surely you can imagine the chaos that was going on.
I could go on but I feel I have made my point. Yes, I think it was still too soon for a film to be made of this disaster and be portrayed as "entertainment", but I also think that it was done with the utmost respect to those that did lose their husbands/wives/families. The reality of the situation really hit home and I have since urged all those around me to see it as I believe it is the most accurate portrayal of what actually happened I have ever seen.