Heracin

Memorable and gut-wrenching story with an interesting structure

This movie took me on a wild ride : I felt physically sick at some point because of the events unfolding on screen. The fact that the story is based on real life events is just heartbreaking and the social criticism raised by it is really worth a watch. It left me with a very profound and resounding impression.

The unreliable narrator angle took by the film is very interesting in itself and has a clear shock factor. I wish a longer epilogue would have exploited it even more, especially to get more details on the outcome of the story. I also wish a third view would have been set up to define even better the media role : the part of Kamenashi Kazuya could have been developed more, even if in itself it did a solid job showing the brutal impact of media targeting. A better pacing and and a longer epilogue showing the various sides would have been perfect to round up the movie.

The acting was excellent : Ayano Go as well Shibasaki Ko who hold central roles, were both scary and painfully touching depending the angle you were looking at the story. Miura Kira played incredibly well his traumatic part and overall, I hope to see him grow into an amazing career, as kid role can sometimes make or break a movie, and here it was really well acted.

The production value was pretty good: very grey and anxiety-provoking...With images that are leaving me with lasting torturous feelings.

I would strongly recommend this to people looking for a crime thriller with a very interesting point of view. The movie can be pretty triggering so you might want to have a look at the tags. However, I feel the best way to enjoy this movie is to go in blind, not knowing what it is about. I had no clue what the story was about and it really impacted my watching experience in a positive way as I was dumbfounded and grasping with a lot of feelings.

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I really disliked it : not because of the relationship nature but how devoid of feelings it was...

This movie, featuring a forbidden romance between a high school student and her English teacher, was really bad. Full disclaimer, I can enjoy (and even love !) in FICTION taboo tropes, "risqué" topics, age gaps, forbidden relationship, toxicity and a lot more of unhealthy stuff...But I really need to feel the passion and angst. And here, with this movie, it felt really lacking.

The story in itself was painful to follow as I was utterly unconvinced by the romantics feelings of both leads for each other...Every romantic gestures felt very bland and at the same time irking with a constant push-pull that felt super manipulative but was not treated as such by the writing. Other than the leads, the remaining characters storylines were inexisting : it is impossible to believe in any of it because it is so bland. Being the friendship or the family affection, it all felt fake.

The acting was quite average but the chemistry was the worst of it. None of their touches made me feel anything other than cringe. There were a couple of "dead fish" kisses that left me stone-cold. It was just frustrating as I really love Yamapi since his early works. In this role, he felt robotic at best (an handsome robot but still that's not enough for the current me in Dramaland...). Komatsu Nana did not do better...As her character is supposed to be stone-faced and showing little feelings, it might be part of the reason why. However, even with that type of role, she totally lacked range in her acting and it felt super repetitive and boring.

Production was quite average, I don't remember finding any scenes outstanding in any way and I found the soundtrack quite bad. Maybe the music (and the sound overall) felt of so poor quality because I was not feeling the romance. Even the ending song left me a bad impression.

I would not recommend this at all to people. Because of how familiar the beginning of the movie felt, I vaguely remembered while watching it reading the manga (or at least part of it) : I either dropped it or have no memories of completing it, which clearly shows how forgettable it was. Am I surprised that the movie did not manage to elevate the source material ? Not really...but well, they could have tried at least...

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A cute & fluffy watch when you need to put your brain off

Was this BL revolutionary ? Certainly not. Was it (overly) sweet and so sugary I thought my teeth would get rotten ? Probably. Did I had a good time watching that amount of fluff ? Yes.

In terms of storylines, nothing much happened, it is just a story about a group of friends college students falling in love. It feels very similar to a lot of Thai BL production featuring the same kind of story but it is very charming ! The series does not hold a lot of substance, but the various couples in it had me swooning. Even Teerak, the central character with a super childish personality, was quite endearing to me...Which is quite a surprise as those kind of characters can get very annoying.

Casting definitely influenced positively my enjoyment of the series. Indeed, I watched previously DMD Friendship S1 and S2, a TV Show with the objective of creating new BL pairings for future DoMunDi TV Production dramas, and 3 of those new pairs were featured in Your Sky! I was therefore quite invested into watching the actors playing the main couple and the two secondary couples. It was really satisfying to see the outcome of the TV Show take life on screen and it participated a lot in my watching experience. Not all had the same screen time nor the same acting skills level, but overall I was quite fond of all of them. If I had to choose my MVP, it would be Auau but I will be on the lookout for the next dramas with those actors.

I would recommend this to people looking for a sweet BL. It is not original at all and recycles a lot of over-used storylines in Thai BL realm but it is very charming. The chemistry between the actors is good, and even if some of the acting is quite green, I was pretty happy to watch it as I was very invested into watching the new BL pairings formed by DMD Friendship S1 and S2.

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Pretty moment but lacking logic...Felt more like an ad than a well-thought conclusion

A very needed epilogue that has the same flaws as the main series. with the writing being very weak and making not much sense. It has quite a bit of fanservice and at least provide a more complete conclusion to the drama even if I was still not convinced by the actors chemistry.

That being said, Kou Wei Long is super pretty and charismatic, I would be curious to see him in something else...

I would not recommend this necessarily to people...But as it is only 9 minutes, if you have made it through the drama, you might as well watch the SP to get the full picture on the endgame of the romance.

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A rare occurrence : an adaptation that I enjoyed more than the original Taiwanese movie

I was really curious to see the Thai version of this story featuring a supernatural mariage between a gay ghost and a straight guy who wants to become a police officer. The original story was fun but not without flaws and I appreciated Thailand version more. It is adapted well to fit the local culture, balancing some very slap stick humor and over the top moments, with very actual queer questioning in a world that is progressing on acceptance on the topic but not fully free and liberated yet.

The strongest point of the movie is the actors performances, especially Billkin. Full disclosure, I'm a big fan and once again, he did not disappoint. His acting is the heart of the movie. He is very versatile, has a great sense of comedy and can deliver angst like no-one. He has iconic scenes in this movie : really fun ones that I will remember for a long time as well as more touching scenes that he nailed. He managed to outshine everyone, even PP Krit, which is not an easy fit. PP still did a commendable job with the extrencity and likebility of his role. Their characters bonding through the film were the best part of it all.

Production was quite good and colourful. I particularly enjoyed the scenes at the club as well as the "Fire Boy" reference. Those were simply unforgettable (contrary to the soundtrack which was alright but is already fading away from my memory).

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a Thai action comedy with a lot of heart and fun. The friendship that the two main characters built together is great to follow. If you like Billkin and/or PP Krit, it is definitely a must watch. If you enjoyed the original movie, you should definitely give it a shot as it is a real adaptation, improving on the source material and embedding it in Thai culture, rather than just being a basic copy.

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Mixed feelings about it : the first half got me invested but then it was quite a let down

I really enjoyed the first half of the series but I vibed much less with the second part. At the start, the series felt very real with a deeply wounded main lead with huge mental shift and scary side. The fighting scenes were gritty and the drama took my breath away with the mental hurdle faced by the main protagonist, the way pressure was put on him by his family environment. However the series then went into more of a shonen style with characters trying to be "heroes" and fights feeling much less realistic and relatively repetitive. There were also introduction of new characters that were quite purposeless. Still, the ending hint at a sequel, which I felt could be quite interesting.

The cast was good but also definitely too old (with maybe the exception of Lee Jung Ha but even for him it was an hard sell) to play realistic high schoolers roles. The level of acting was good but the credibility really was missing. Still, I enjoyed finding back Lee Jung Ha in this drama: he is clearly breadening his range of acting, far from his sunshiny role in Moving. Production was good overall. They have not an outstanding amount of budget but the fight sequences are dynamic and well-made. I especially loved the flashback and the grey scenes making very clear the suffering of the main lead.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a highschool fight drama. It is in my opinion less good than Weak Class Hero but it is exploring relatively similar thematic, so if you enjoyed one, you might appreciate this one as well.

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From S1, I knew it would probably not go the way I wanted it to go...and indeed it did not !

Did I enjoy this second part of "Lost You Forever" more than the first part? Certainly not.
Did I think this second part had the best episodes of the full series ? Definitely.
Let me explain...

This second season was a let down to me because of the romance not going the way I wanted it. It might be unfair to the show, that still delivered a solid and compelling journey to the throne tale for Cang Xuan (my favorite character) but I never go onboard on the romantic aspects that the series was trying to sell me. Still, there were a couple of episodes between the heroine and one of the main male lead that were so good because of all of the build up in their relationships that I definitely don't regret watching the series.

As in season 1, this second season (which is really a direct continuation of season 1, the show needing to be splitted in 2 over different years to fit new requirements imposed by the Chinese governement) had the same qualities and flaws. The acting is quite good, especially for Zhang Wan Yi (in the role of Cang Xuan) and Tan Jian Ci (in the role of Xiang Liu) who have a lot of very impactful moment. The OST and the production were overall good despite some cringey CGI and noticeable green screens.

I would recommend this series to those that have seen season 1. Of course, even if the endgame is not to my taste and that the romance was hardly palatable at times, there are really a couple of impactful episodes that made me not regret the watch. Outside of its romance (which was not my cup of tea), the overall journey followed by the characters made sense, with some great and heartbreaking moments as you get more and more attached to protagonists and their world.

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A heartbreaking and inspiring movie

I was not expecting this movie to be such a punch in the gut. The writing was tight, the pacing was excellent and if I would have liked a longer epilogue and to spend a bit more time outside of the plane, I must say that I was properly captivated (and in distraught) for the full duration of the film. It managed to say so much in a relative short amount of time. It featured an heroic character as well as a pitiful and hateful villain. And the fact that it was inspired by real events is giving it a bitter note with a long lasting impact.

The acting was excellent. I love Yeo Jin Goo and here again, he is brilliant, portraying a role that could have really been just one note and instead giving it nuance and perspective. Ha Jung Woo is definitely up to par and does not disappoint as well. Both brought me to tears, when I was just expecting thrills and action, I got very emotional. The production was really solid : all the historical aspects of air flight from that era in time was really interesting and well made. Action sequences were intense and very believable. The soundtrack was not overly present but very fitting for the epicness and dramatic of the plot.

I would strongly recommend this movie if you are looking for very well acted and emotional action story. It has a lot of nuances in addition to a lot of intense moments, and it will definitely keep you on your toes.

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Such a guilty pleasure : short vertically filmed South Korean series with a lot of steamy kisses !

This vertically filmed series took me by surprise at how much entertaining I found it. It was an enjoyable trashy show : the plot could be written on a (small) napkin, the dialogs are right out of pretty average fanfic...and still, it takes you in a so fun ride as the viewer follow the heroine participating in a dating reality show and literally going from one "relationship" to another.

There are various options for the heroine to date, all very caricatural. It is pretty obvious that this series is an adaption of a dating game with all the archetypes : the tsundere cold guy, the nice guy, the rich guy, the wild girl, the pure girl,.... Once again, no time to really ponder and give some sort of deepness to those various types of characters...The focus of the script is clearly elsewhere : let's put these characters in hot situation and make them smooch each other. And while shallow, it was really fun to watch !

Production budget is clearly limited but appropriate for the format and the kind of light series. The cast do a convincing job in the hot scenes but other than that, there are not a lot of emotional moments or anything else to really demonstrate a lot of range.

I would recommend this to people looking for a no brainer show filled with hot moments with very little content and thoughts. It is all in good fun and if you watch it with no (or low) expectations, I think you are in for an enjoyable watch.

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1st episode was incredible, too bad the whole series is not at the same level

After an amazing introduction episode, probably one of the best in Dramaland out there, my expectation were huge. Park Hye Ryun writes usually very strong introduction episodes and here again, the start of the story is brutal and gripping with great and heartbreaking performances of the younger cast (Moon Woo Jin and Lee Re). Unfortunately, the remaining of the story does not hold a candle to the introduction arc. It is not bad per se, it is just not as good as it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, especially with the flashbacks involving the heroine.

I quite enjoyed the romance, even if it never went in the direction I wished. There are a lot of thrills and angst thanks to the familial aspect : it is the best part of the scenario. I think the series would have benefited from streamlining more the side-storylines which were much less interesting. The main cast was very good. The two main male lead played by Chae Jong Hyeop and Cha Hak Yeon were both very charming. They had some adorable moments with the heroine (played by Park Eun Bin) and part of the fun of the story was putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Once it is done, there is less meat to the story and the romance pale in comparison to the relationship of the younger version of the characters.

The making was lovely and very colorful, with a very nice summery vibe. I liked the soundtrack with some songs sang by the heroine. It is not very memorable but sweet to listen to. The island flashbacks were unrealistic : I wish they would have made it much more gritty than what seemed to be fairy tales scenes. I feel pacing could have been better, the lengthy episodes felt unnecessary, they could have made the plot much tighter with less filler plotlines (such as the diva one which remained pretty lukewarm all along).

I would recommend this to people looking for a rom-com with an almost fairy tales feel. The first episode is one of the best I have seen. The journey of the heroine is pretty entertaining to follow and the romance is sweet. I wish the writing and the tone of the series would have been as good as first episode for the full drama but overall show was still fun to follow even if not up to par with its very solid introduction.

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Unlikeable characters made it impossible for me to really care about their destiny

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this movie. Don't get me wrong, there were some pretty cinematographic moments but overall, I never managed to get invested in the journey of the main character. At not point did I find him sympathetic, despite how bad his family background was. This was a big deterrent because the movie takes the viewer on the journey of the (anti-)hero as he elevates himself out of poverty and became a big shot on the black market of Bogotá. If you don't like or don't care about the character, there is not real angst regarding his fate and no interest in following his uprising.

There were some striking scenes but most of the action sequences felt a bit lacking : it was too clean, not gritty enough given the context of the story. Pacing of the story could definitely have been improved as well. The cast and the acting was a strong point of the film, even the acting of the foreigners in the support cast was alright, which is often a rarity when Western actors act in Asian movies and series. It was not great but suitable.

I would not necessarily recommend this action movie as I did find it lacking in the characterization of the main character and his relationships with others. Despite its relatively short length, it felt quite long to get to the point.

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Quite predictable locked-room mystery lacking in rythm despite its solid cast & interesting premise

This movie, as its title indicates, is centred around 12 suicidal teens as they are planning to end their life together. They don't know each other, they all have various motivations and they are grouped together to solve a mystery as in the room they met they uncover an already dead boy. I wish the scenario digged even more into the characters personnality as well as the bond they formed together. I think they should have maybe reduced a bit the number of characters to deep dive into their psyche, their motivations as well as their evolution.

There is a quite a few familiar faces for me in the cast : Hagiwara Riku, Mackenyu, Kitamura Takumi and Takasugi Mahiro. I was happy to see them, especially Hagiwara Riku and Mackenyu, that I really love. The ensemble cast did a solid job overall. Not all the roles were as interesting but I liked the variety in characters.

Production was not outstanding but efficient in highlighting the main points of the locked-room mystery. Overall, the editing could have been better to make it more intense. It also lacked in terms of pace as well as thrills factor. The soundtrack was very forgettable and there was a dull aspect to the picture which might be expected given the thematic but did not help in making the story more interesting.

If you are looking for an investigation movie, with some psychological aspects and featuring a locked-room mystery involving 12 suicidal teens, you might want to give it a shot. I honestly found it relatively predictable in its ending, but at least the resolution of the mystery made sense. The morale behind the story felt a bit too light given the heavy topics at stake. I feel that an epilogue, combined with a reduced number of characters might have made the outcome of the story more fullfilling.

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A trashy drama : flawed and repetitive, in the guilty pleasures realm

It is a very flawed but quite entertaining drama (especially at the beginning for the novelty factor). It features the "romantic" relationship between a yakuza boss and a student, both suffering of insta-lust for each other (not sure it can be called love). After the introduction, the story gets quite repetitive as the yakuza boss is fighting some enemies, the heroine waiting for him to came back to her and then having some sexy time together. That's the whole plot. The end.

The acting was really bad. I commend the commitment of the main male lead to his slow motion entry scenes, and there are also some hot kiss scenes. Unfortunately, that's about all the positive I can find there. Other than that the actors (the main as well as the supporting cast) are really not convincing at delivering the entertainingly cringy lines. The main actress has a mono expression all along the drama, with big rounded eyes as unique way to emote anything, making her acting very fake and flat.

The production is not great but not as bad as the script and the acting. I felt it was quite in line with other Japanese drama I have seen with not a huge budget. The background music is quite forgettable despite its repetitive effect.

I would not recommend this to people unless you are looking for a mindless trashy short drama. And sometimes, there is nothing wrong at watching that kind of show, as it can be pretty entertaining and just what you need. Given the (lack of-) quality in the writing and the acting, and the repetitive aspect to the series, I cannot rate it higher but I cannot deny that I had quite a bit of fun watching it.

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Disappointing...Wasted potential because of weak writing and unclear intention

After watching this movie, I am mourning the lost potential of what could have been an exciting and dark story mixing loan sharks and high school bullying. Not sure if it is the fault of the script, the editing or both, but unfortunately the pacing of this film was all over the place. The stakes were pretty slow to be put in place and the ending felt rushed. The ending left me unsatisfied by the lack of morale and overall character growth. At the end, I'm not sure what the intention of the story was and that's a bit of a bummer.

The acting was not exceptional but satisfying given the writing issues. Yoon Seon Ho is clearly carrying the movie on his shoulder and is doing a good job depicting the anguish in which his character is constantly living. Yoo In Soo is excellent and I wish his role was better written in order to give him more room to play, especially at the end. Next to them, the females and villains roles lacked charisma.

I would not recommend this movie as I feel the pacing and writing were quite lacking. If you like Yoon Seon Ho and/or Yoo In Soo, it might be worth giving it a shot for them.

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Guilty pleasure : highly entertaining despite its flaws

A very entertaining guilty pleasure BL series : I found the premise pretty interesting and there were some crazy developments that really kept my attention all along the show.

One of the main lead was a pretty gentle stuntman with not any survival instinct, the other was a rich heir with a crazy side, full of red flags. Their relationship was quite toxic, with an intoxicating push and pull factor between them. It was not healthy, frustrating at time, but mostly highly entertaining. The last quarter of the series felt a bit more tame and I wish the ending would have been a bit less "easy" on some character, but overall I'm satisfied by the wild ride the scenario took me on.

The acting could have been better, most of the support roles were not as well acted as I would have wanted...With the exception of Porsche, the actor playing Sol which managed to make his character endearing to me all along the series despite the repetitive aspect of his role. The two main leads Poom and Up had a good chemistry between them but I still think it is not the most sizzling I have seen in a BL and that their acting in some of the more emotional scenes felt a bit lacking at time.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for an exciting and wild BL. There are some bonker elements in the story and it is a very fun ride. I feel the story lost a bit of steam in its last quarter and that acting could have been better for some part. Nevertheless, I have no regret to have watched it : it is a good guilty pleasure show !

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