The film is adapted from the 2007 stage play Haemoo,[2] which in turn was based on the true story of 25 Korean-Chinese illegal immigrants who suffocated to death in the storage tank of the fishing vessel Taechangho; their bodies were dumped by the ship's crew into the sea southwest of Yeosu on October 7, 2001.

But things don't go according to plan when the Jeonjinho encounters heavy fog, rain and waves on its return journey, while also being chased by a ship from the South Korean Maritime Police.

Song Joong-ki was originally offered to star opposite Kim,[10] but had to turn down the role when he received his enlistment papers for mandatory military service.

"[29] It praised Hong Kyung-pyo's cinematography and Lee Ha-joon's production design as "effective in highlighting the differences between the lands of vast, cold port and the unforgiving environments of the sea and cramped insides of the fishing boat," but criticized director Shim Sung-bo's lack of subtlety and reflection, "with Haemoo subscribing to many of the conventions of both disaster epics and revenge drama, and the over-dependence of a central seaborne romance.

"[29] Variety wrote, "Turning a real-life human trafficking tragedy into a comment on social inequality and the cost of survival, Haemoo dramatizes a stark nautical ordeal fraught with tension.