His name isn't Li Zing, it's Zi Ming... Also, I liked Bad Buddy. It was good for what it is. Was it a bit cliche?…
oooh, you really got me with my mistaken name-assignment above. lol
Bad Buddy is not only bad, it is one of the worst BLs ever made, extremely amateur in every way, including things like set design/construction, lighting, fight choreography...just terrible. I am not one who needs or wants to immerse himself in strawberry-rainbow fantasies of a candy-cane world where young men don't have sex drives and everyone is toxic-free, whatever the hell you people think you mean by that. I gave up fairy tales when I was about five years old and have no interest in returning to them through BLs.
Only good thing about BB was shirtless Ohm. Plus he is a good actor and I felt bad for him the entire time. BTW, are you male or female? I ask because the BB boys did not behave sexually in a manner that normal young men, gay or straight, do. Theyhave sex drives and are interested in satisfying them, especially with a person they love. I am a gay man.
Oh, how I love you for agreeing about Bad Buddy. The high ratings and rabid following for that show cemented that…
Hi there! So nice to read your Bad Buddy story of woes, lol. I could not agree more about EVERYTHING. If you get really bored, scroll through the comments there and you'll find me going at it a few times with the SJW/sex-phobic/PC psycho fans. One person said this was the best drama ever made, in any genre, at any time since film-making began. And they weren't kidding! Madness. I dropped in there a few days ago to have a laugh and read them still slobbering over the show, and get in some arguments. I'm a gay male of a certain age and I know for a fact the show is ridiculous, but only in the primary relationship it portrays. Acting, direction, sets, fight scenes, it was all so terribly amateur. I was embarrassed the entire time for Ohm, who I actually like as an actor and a screen presence and a hottie. As for Nanon, he has ZERO sex appeal, emanates zero sexual energy and is a boring actor. I just don't like him for some reason. However, I DID enjoy him as the main-character nerd in "My Biggest Loser" or whatever it was. He was funny in that.
I guess I need to check out "My Beautiful Man." Thanks for the tip.
This is a really good movie. Defied my expectations, plot-wise, right and left, so to speak. Not only a good movie, but an unusual one. The mixture of comedy and drama was off-beat and slightly off-key and I like that; I had a few belly laughs here and there during the first 2/3 of the movie, then things took a darker turn and some things I thought about the FL were turned on their head, another example of toying with my expectations. Japanese and Korean movies are teaching me just how indoctrinated I've been by Hollywood to expect certain formulas and outcomes, which I most certainly do not get here.
Mineta Kazunobu gives an Oscar-worthy performance here. I have never met a character quite like the one he expertly portrays here. He also has the most interestingly pouty/gigantic, side-view lips I have ever seen. lol From the front he is downright cute though, and toward the end with his new cut, without his glasses, he is downright hot. :) Another expectation shattered.
Matsuda Ryuhei is an actor I have come to think of with disdain from four or five movies I have seen him in, but after this one I'm beginning to think it is because he is exceptionally talented at playing creepy, off-center characters who make my skin crawl a little, as well as leaving me with the vague idea that I need a bath after he's been onscreen. Oily, that's the word. I think of him, the actor, as annoying and gross, but maybe it's that he always plays this type of role. And I hate that he has no lips. lol
I recommend this if you have a completely open mind to dissonant comedy mixed with drama that will piss you off. Otherwise you won't like it. I liked it a lot.
Terrible, but charmingly so, in that charmingly terrible Chinese BL sort of way. Two leads are handsome and have nice chemistry but every other element of this is just amaterish and awful, lol. That said, I will certainly be back for more because the two leads are engaging, and I find the new taller friend liking one half of the couple and the little rich guy liking him to be a nice love-quadrangle. Two leads are nice eye candy as well. I find Li Zing the more handsome of the two but Cheng Yi has a sexiness about him that I enjoy.
This is the first BL I've watched in months, as the few new ones I've tried are trash, including Bad Buddy, and I've been watching lots of Asian feature films, gay and straight and in-between in their place. Which doesn't help either, since that makes it difficult to come back to cheap, low-budget BLs and take them seriously.
the rating doesn't really reflect the quality tbh, it's a good show. some dramas on here rated 7 are literal trash
Come on...in every way that matters, except the nice chemistry between the two leads, this is terrible. Story, plotting, writing, dialogue, most of the acting, sets and settings, all are really, really bad in that almost-charmingly bad way that only Chinese BLs can be. lol
had some good action scenes. as much as i love TOP as a musician the boy hasn't wowed me with his acting skills.…
Interesting. I find his acting very realistic and restrained. I don't see him "acting," I see the character he's playing. And even though he is not a scenery-chewer or screamer here, I definitely got a lot of emotional projection from his acting. I was very impressed. You are correct about screen presence: he has tons of it, something that can't be taught.
Second movie in a row that I've wept over a north Korean spy.
MILD SPOILERS BELOW:
T.O.P. is unknown to me as an idol. I'm a fan of Jonghyun-era SHINee, but don't follow or know much about other K-Pop groups, though I've heard of Big Bang. This guy is the real deal as an actor, regardless of his idol-ness. :D I found him ultra-natural, restrained, unforced and charismatic; a naturally talented actor who was very well directed here. He has gravitas, screen-presence and the "IT" factor to spare. I look forward to checking his filmography to see what he's done since this. To me he bears a strong resemblance to Donghae of Super Junior, who is also a really good actor, though the only thing I've seen him in is a short film where he was kind of a douche bag. A really well-acted douche bag.
Once again, great Korean fight scenes and overall good acting. I do hate, though, when they make the female characters into useless, sobbing screamers who are useless in a pinch. When that big dude was messing with our hero near the end, she hears sirens but instead of jumping on top of the dude to beat on his face or SOMETHING, ANYTHING to help, she runs outside and stares at the police car and then says nothing when the cop runs up to her, speechless with fright. I like chicks who jump into the fray when their man is having a rough go.
That's about my only qualm with the film. It's not as good as "Secretly, Greatly," but that one is off the charts; I gave it a 9.5/10.
BTW...the song that Blondie sang as he played guitar near the end is beautiful. I teared up just from the beautiful/melancholy melody, the guitar and his deep, rich voice before I read any lyrics. Lovely.
I remember I've watched it 3-4 times in 2015 when I've discovered it for the first time. Lee Hyun Woo and Kim…
It is one of the few movies I've seen that successfully took me on a journey from slap-stick comedy and laughter to action/thriller to ugly-cry tragedy without feeling weird. Expertly done.
I played myself with this one.. This movie has me bawling at 2:34am and I'm done with everything now..... He just…
I'm an American, so my perspective regarding Korea is external, but given what a monstrous dictatorship of terror NK is, and that SK is now a fairly stable democracy/Parlimentarian system, I really don't get the fantasies people keep having about reunification. There is NO WAY it can happen without a violent revolution in the north to precede it. One is oil, the other water. They do not mix.
The movie is one of the biggest box office hits in Korea...Thats what the makers achieved... LolI loved the movie…
It's extremely unlikely but not impossible. Google unbelievable injury survivors and you will be amazed at the trauma some people have taken to their bodies and not only survived but fully recovered.
...so what's with the note under the picture at the last scene, did he actually manage to survive? or was it just…
While highly unlikely, it IS possible that he survived all the bullets AND the fall, especially if he landed on the young boy-spy. Occasionally I read about people who survive horrendous injuries as severe as that and worse. Who knows how but they do. And the more I think about the very ending of this movie the more I think he is alive and well. The SK police would have gotten him medical treatment and rehabilitation, treated him well as a source of valuable information from inside NK, and established him with a new name, identity, job and anything else he needed. I don't think they would have jailed him for life or anything like that. Because the mom/store owner would have hung the picture with the note AFTER he disappeared, so he'd have to be alive NOW to have left the response. YAY
omg, Korea keeps hammering me when I least expect it, with movies that move me in my deepest core and heart. I went into this expecting a fun, light comedy; and I got that for quite a while and then somehow I went into an excellent action/political thriller, but that wasn't enough either; I then went into an epic tragedy that left me ugly-sobbing at the end. wtf, Korea? How do you keep doing this to me? Do you hate me, personally? ;)
Naturally, as a drama-loving movie masochist, I loved every minute of the trip.
I just finished watching this and I still have tears streaming down my face. There are so many Korean films that leave me without words or space here to express how I feel about them. This is simply one of the best movies I have ever seen.
Asian films, and Korean films like this in general, tear me apart I think, because they have a living, breathing HEART AND SOUL. So that everything that happens to their characters matters to me at a gut level. This is when I begin to wonder if I was Asian in a former life, even though I ended up as an American in this one. It is astonishing how I connect with Asian cinema in a way I never did with Hollywood's stuff, even the best of it.
Kim Soo Hyun is a knockout A+ here, as are all the supporting cast. Love Blondie (though he is actually an "Orangie"), love the youngest of the spies, love the mom/store keeper and all the neighborhood characters. I get that there is perhaps some propaganda-ish elements to the story, but hey, North Korea really is a horrible nightmare of a place to live for its people, a true "Hermit Kingdom," insanely isolated from the rest of the world in every way imaginable. Just look at a satellite picture of Asia at night time: Barely a spot of light whatsoever within the borders of that country. It is a black hole of poverty, hunger and political terror. I will never forget or forgive what NK did to the young American who was arrested for pulling down a propaganda banner in a NK hotel and trying to sneak it home: for that he was jailed, tried and TORTURED TO NEAR-DEATH, then returned to the U.S. on a gurney, barely alive and died a day or two later. God only knows how many NK citizens have been treated the same way for the slightest politiical or cultural deviations from the expected norm. Imagine living every day with fear and terror at the back of your mind, even if you are as innocent as can be of anything. THAT is NK.
The movie did a good job of presenting the confusion of the NK agents after spending the early years of their lives being indoctrinated and trained to kill, then spending years in SK and slowly waking up, yet feeling a gut loyalty to NK by having been born and raised there, as well as feeling fear and worry about your family. I just cannot imagine.
Again, Asian cinema does the BEST, MOST REALISTIC fight scenes in the world. None compare. Korea especially has turned me into an action/thriller fan, to some degree, by the engaging plots, acting, wonderful characters and entirely believable, gasp-inducing fight scenes. During this one I repeatedly found myself holding my entire body rigid, feet and toes curled, with both hands over my mouth and my eyes bulging to their limit during each altercation, especially the ultimate one. I can only try to imagine the WEEKS of training and rehearsals required to bring scenes like that to fruition. And often they appear to have been filmed with minimum jump cuts, in almost one long take. wow.
Forty minutes in, I'm bored. Dropping. ML is drop-dead handsome but not enough reason to stick around. I don't know...fight scenes are Korea-excellent/amazing as always. Story is different, I suppose...maybe I'm burned out on bloody violence/revenge flicks for right now.
Bad Buddy is not only bad, it is one of the worst BLs ever made, extremely amateur in every way, including things like set design/construction, lighting, fight choreography...just terrible. I am not one who needs or wants to immerse himself in strawberry-rainbow fantasies of a candy-cane world where young men don't have sex drives and everyone is toxic-free, whatever the hell you people think you mean by that. I gave up fairy tales when I was about five years old and have no interest in returning to them through BLs.
Only good thing about BB was shirtless Ohm. Plus he is a good actor and I felt bad for him the entire time. BTW, are you male or female? I ask because the BB boys did not behave sexually in a manner that normal young men, gay or straight, do. Theyhave sex drives and are interested in satisfying them, especially with a person they love. I am a gay man.
I guess I need to check out "My Beautiful Man." Thanks for the tip.
Mineta Kazunobu gives an Oscar-worthy performance here. I have never met a character quite like the one he expertly portrays here. He also has the most interestingly pouty/gigantic, side-view lips I have ever seen. lol From the front he is downright cute though, and toward the end with his new cut, without his glasses, he is downright hot. :) Another expectation shattered.
Matsuda Ryuhei is an actor I have come to think of with disdain from four or five movies I have seen him in, but after this one I'm beginning to think it is because he is exceptionally talented at playing creepy, off-center characters who make my skin crawl a little, as well as leaving me with the vague idea that I need a bath after he's been onscreen. Oily, that's the word. I think of him, the actor, as annoying and gross, but maybe it's that he always plays this type of role. And I hate that he has no lips. lol
I recommend this if you have a completely open mind to dissonant comedy mixed with drama that will piss you off. Otherwise you won't like it. I liked it a lot.
8.5/10
This is the first BL I've watched in months, as the few new ones I've tried are trash, including Bad Buddy, and I've been watching lots of Asian feature films, gay and straight and in-between in their place. Which doesn't help either, since that makes it difficult to come back to cheap, low-budget BLs and take them seriously.
MILD SPOILERS BELOW:
T.O.P. is unknown to me as an idol. I'm a fan of Jonghyun-era SHINee, but don't follow or know much about other K-Pop groups, though I've heard of Big Bang. This guy is the real deal as an actor, regardless of his idol-ness. :D I found him ultra-natural, restrained, unforced and charismatic; a naturally talented actor who was very well directed here. He has gravitas, screen-presence and the "IT" factor to spare. I look forward to checking his filmography to see what he's done since this. To me he bears a strong resemblance to Donghae of Super Junior, who is also a really good actor, though the only thing I've seen him in is a short film where he was kind of a douche bag. A really well-acted douche bag.
Once again, great Korean fight scenes and overall good acting. I do hate, though, when they make the female characters into useless, sobbing screamers who are useless in a pinch. When that big dude was messing with our hero near the end, she hears sirens but instead of jumping on top of the dude to beat on his face or SOMETHING, ANYTHING to help, she runs outside and stares at the police car and then says nothing when the cop runs up to her, speechless with fright. I like chicks who jump into the fray when their man is having a rough go.
That's about my only qualm with the film. It's not as good as "Secretly, Greatly," but that one is off the charts; I gave it a 9.5/10.
This one gets an 8.5/10 Highly recommended.
Because the mom/store owner would have hung the picture with the note AFTER he disappeared, so he'd have to be alive NOW to have left the response. YAY
Naturally, as a drama-loving movie masochist, I loved every minute of the trip.
I just finished watching this and I still have tears streaming down my face. There are so many Korean films that leave me without words or space here to express how I feel about them. This is simply one of the best movies I have ever seen.
Asian films, and Korean films like this in general, tear me apart I think, because they have a living, breathing HEART AND SOUL. So that everything that happens to their characters matters to me at a gut level. This is when I begin to wonder if I was Asian in a former life, even though I ended up as an American in this one. It is astonishing how I connect with Asian cinema in a way I never did with Hollywood's stuff, even the best of it.
Kim Soo Hyun is a knockout A+ here, as are all the supporting cast. Love Blondie (though he is actually an "Orangie"), love the youngest of the spies, love the mom/store keeper and all the neighborhood characters. I get that there is perhaps some propaganda-ish elements to the story, but hey, North Korea really is a horrible nightmare of a place to live for its people, a true "Hermit Kingdom," insanely isolated from the rest of the world in every way imaginable. Just look at a satellite picture of Asia at night time: Barely a spot of light whatsoever within the borders of that country. It is a black hole of poverty, hunger and political terror. I will never forget or forgive what NK did to the young American who was arrested for pulling down a propaganda banner in a NK hotel and trying to sneak it home: for that he was jailed, tried and TORTURED TO NEAR-DEATH, then returned to the U.S. on a gurney, barely alive and died a day or two later. God only knows how many NK citizens have been treated the same way for the slightest politiical or cultural deviations from the expected norm. Imagine living every day with fear and terror at the back of your mind, even if you are as innocent as can be of anything. THAT is NK.
The movie did a good job of presenting the confusion of the NK agents after spending the early years of their lives being indoctrinated and trained to kill, then spending years in SK and slowly waking up, yet feeling a gut loyalty to NK by having been born and raised there, as well as feeling fear and worry about your family. I just cannot imagine.
Again, Asian cinema does the BEST, MOST REALISTIC fight scenes in the world. None compare. Korea especially has turned me into an action/thriller fan, to some degree, by the engaging plots, acting, wonderful characters and entirely believable, gasp-inducing fight scenes. During this one I repeatedly found myself holding my entire body rigid, feet and toes curled, with both hands over my mouth and my eyes bulging to their limit during each altercation, especially the ultimate one. I can only try to imagine the WEEKS of training and rehearsals required to bring scenes like that to fruition. And often they appear to have been filmed with minimum jump cuts, in almost one long take. wow.
OK. Highly recommended.
9.5/10
5/10