A-yi had been searching for the Great Sage to help her to ascend to Heaven to report the crimes of the Eastern Dragon who killed her parents. And by some mysterious reasons, A-yi's blood had power to break the seal on the Great Sage to kept him confined in Wuzhi mountain for 400 years. Yet, considering the Great Sage's temperament... why would he so easily agree to help A-yi? His grudge is still so deep and Wukong still harbour the attention to retaliate against the Heavens while not caring how his actions may reflect towards his fellow monkey retainers as well as demon friends.
It's a nice journey as we get to see how Wukong gradually start to warm out to A-yi's presence beside him and how A-yi start to slowly calm the wild fire inside him and telling him not to kill recklessly. And it was interesting to see how the relationship between Wukong and A-yi would lead towards the future where the Great Sage would meet with Monk Tang Sanzang. I especially love the plot twist near the end after everything regarding A-yi's matter with the Long Dragon was resolved.
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And that, is the crux of the comedic element in this movie. It's quiet subtle to be honest, and you'll only realize it near the end... but for some reason Li Hongqi always did end up getting involved in a case while on holiday, isn't it? It's kinda hilarious when you think about it. The first movie had Hongqi get caught with a case that involved his future in-law's family and the second, which was set prior to the first movie, had Hongqi get involved in case during one of his blind dates. And this time, he gotten involved in a kidnapping and human trafficking case while on a visit to his mother-in-law and planning his belated wedding ceremony. When you think about it, Hongqi really could never catch any break, could he?
The movie started with Hongqi getting a call from Taozi's birth mother after finding out about their marriage and the mom insisting for them to have a proper wedding ceremony. That led to Hongqi meeting with Xinxin on the plane. The case started after Xinxin had gone missing after Hongqi left her to tend to his matters and because of that he felt compelled to recover the girl and get her back safely.
This is really an enjoyable movie as Li Hongqi juggled between planning for his wedding and trying to search for Xinxin while trying to get along with the local police who had a different approach on how they do their jobs compared to him. Since Xie Miao is such a proficient martial arts actor, we got to see quite a lot of action in this movie as Hongqi continued to investigate deeper into the case. Even then, the plot didn't always get too serious at any point as Hongqi also gets some help investigating via unconventional means from his mother-in-law.
I had fun watching this movie and enjoyed all the action and comedic element packed into this movie. While I wished that they could have had the original actress for Taozi to return for a cameo near the end, this is still more or less an enjoyable trip. It made me hope to see more of Li Hongqi's many other misadventures in future movie. Cos who wouldn't want to see more of the story of an earnest cop who kept getting involved with a case every time they were on a holiday? You can bet for sure that I'll be one who wouldn't mind seeing more of this.
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If you had grown up with a lot of HK/Chinese action movies featuring Jet Li, you most certainly would come to know about Xie Miao... who played the role of Jet Li's son in two movies. And this time, Xie Miao would also take the role of a father for the first time in this movie.
The Furious tells the story of a father, Wang Wei, who suddenly had to take desperate action to save his daughter after she was suddenly kidnapped by a human trafficking gang. And while tracking the whereabouts of the kidnappers, Wang Wei came to meet with Navin (played by Joe Taslim), who was also going after the gang in order to find his missing wife, who happened to be investigating the human traffickers as a journalist. The story is simple enough to understand: two men had their loved ones taken away from them, and by the sheer will of their own desperation and anger... they strive to recover and save their loved ones from that danger.
The action scenes were quite intense from start to end, and if you're a fan of old HK action movies... you'll have your attention hooked on from start to finish. Some people would argue that a few of the action scenes don't make sense, like... how could someone get back up so fast after being hit by a truck or a huge boulder of a man, but you'd be surprised by what a human body could do under adrenaline. And something people may miss about this movie; because unlike usual action flicks, the fighting power of the characters in this movie was more or less equal, thus what gives one the extra boost is their rage and fury... which was the core theme of this movie. Some would say that they'd want to see more of the story behind the main characters, but... in the end, does it really matter for us to find out the true identity of this mute man who appeared to be very good at fighting? In the end, he was still just a father who would give everything he had to save his daughter from bad people.
For fans of HK actions movies, The Furious pays homage to quite a number of past titles... notably Fist of Legend, in which director Tanigaki Kenji once appeared as an extra, as well as some tribute to Xie Miao's earlier works like New Legend of Shaolin, My Father is a Hero... and even Eye to Eye 2, in which Yang Enyou also starred as a sort of daughter-like character to Xie Miao's character. For fans of those other works... as well as past works of the rest of the cast, it would also be a great experience to spot any references from those works inside The Furious. All in all, The Furious really paved the way to a new genre of HK action movie, or extreme kungfu genre.
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This drama was Sungjae's first Sageuk... and a dual role, at that. As much as Sungjae was no stranger to taking a role inside a supernatural drama, this was the first time he played a character set in the Joseon period... and he did it quite well. You can really tell apart whenever he was playing Yoon Gap and wjen he was Gangcheori.
Bona did a great job portraying Yeori, which was quite unlike her role as a princess in Joseon Attorney. It was quite an interesting take, to have a character be gifted with supernatural ability but ended up staying away from that fate due to an incident in the past, while inevitably having to accept it in the end.
I've watched Kim Jihoon in other dramas before, most recently being Jang Bori, and I never thought I'd be able to see him taking a role as a Joseon King. Until now, that is. And I gotta say that I'm overjoyed seeing him being a king.
Overall the drama was pretty enjoyable. While the plot may move too fast or too slow in some parts, it still manage to hold itself together.
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This movie was so surreal... and wacky lol
Ngl I seriously didn't know what I was expecting lol I thought the plot would be simple but lol there so much twist... also wtf that cliffhanger ending?To be fair... the initial plot seemed promising but since there's too many wild attempts to capture Hana by every single opposing party that seemed to have gone mad, it felt like the punchline never arrive. Just when you thought there would be a happy outcome once Carter completed his mission, there goes the cliffhanger end that make us question whether or not Jung and Carter's family survived...
But seriously though, the movie did do well in portraying a world where people go mad after having a portion of the population got infected with a crazy virus, with one side fights to find a cure and another plots to take advantage of the virus for their own benefit. It's kinda like Busan but not really because the 'zombies' in Carter wasn't quite like the usual undead zombies once infected and it's possible to get cured if you managed to get the vaccine administered quick enough. But dangit... those 'zombies' can use guns and stuff lol, and instead of eating people they just mindlessly attack people. Still, since those infectees are still quite alive, they're not as scary as the usual undead ones and can be shot down if worse wome to worst and they'll stay dead.
Gotta say that the cinematography and cameraworks in this movie was pretty wild it felt like watching a continuous RE gameplay and can get pretty disorienting at times. The stunt work was crazy too and while there's a lot of CGI action being mixed in as well, at times you really can't tell which was which. Smh I wonder if the initial nude scenes at the opening part was really necessary because as much as I wanted to enjoy the action... the nudity was just...uncomfortable. Kinda like the fanservice fight in K-1. Oh yeah... the gore scenes were crazy too.
Not really fond of some of the choices of background tracks esp the ones that had lots of cymbals and brass instruments that always made me think of scenes involving shamans and stuff like why?
Not really sure what to think of this movie. Like on one end whoa... Joo Won doing more action unlike what he's done before! Yet the plot din seem to have a proper conclusion and poor Hana to kept being tossed around just because she was the human cure for the virus and ppl are losing their minds to 'own' her.
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Kamen Rider Geats: 4 Aces and the Black Fox
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A really fun light-hearted movie
When the trailer of this movie was first released, I had assumed that the the movie was set in between the last few episodes of Geats. Imagine my surprise that the setting turned out to be set after the series end!I had already anticipated a lot of laughs from the movie, especially with Kan-chan playing 4 different versions of Aces but I hadn't expected the way the plot end up leading to that point. Yet it was still interesting to see and have different versions of Ace interact with the rest of the cast, it which surprisingly matched with some specific qualities of Ace and the other players.
And I love the core theme of the movie which was basically about asking the question of what's the most important qualities of a hero.
I love the casts. Kan-chan really doing his best to bring up a lot of comedic acting that he really didn't get to do much in the main series. And I love how Ryuga's acting was so on point in support of Kan's (alongside the rest of the casts) and made the movie really enjoyable to watch. Some bits of the villain plot and the general plot might've felt to be moving too fast... but I had fun watching this.
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We already know the original story of the Red Riding Hood, yet this movie was not about the young girl's trip to visit her grandmother and encountered the Big Bad Wolf. Akazukin has set out on a journey, yet along the way encountered an incident that led to the discovery of a murder! And it's up to Akazukin to identify the real culprit.
Akazukin met with Cinderella, and decided to help her to go to the ball. Yet they ended up involved in a murder investigation. And the truth later on end up unlike what anyone could've expected.
I totally didn't expect how Gintama-like this movie end up being. And Sato Jiro playing the king just brought back the old Kagura-Henpeita banter that always amuse me. And seriously I love the different take on the 'fairy god mother' trope in which in this movie was just an old witch who's a bit bad on magicking people's shoes and her niece who's a bit better at it.
I really enjoyed this movie, and it's a pity that it's not a serial drama. I would've love watching what other kinds of adventure that Akazukin would encounter.
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A satisfying and great end, which is quite rare for revenge dramas usually.
Honestly I didn't know what to expect for this drama to be concluded, but I'm quite enjoying the ride Part one let us witness Dong-eun planting her seed of vengeance all around and preparing her ultimate revenge. So part two is when we're finally able to see how Dong-eun utilize everything that she have planned!Have to say that I really was so excited here, since part one had been leading us to the climax and the climax in part two managed to keep the momentum going without faltering. And something that is worth to note in this part two was, that so far as much as she have been planning this revenge for so long... her side hadn't really taken any active aggressive actions against her enemies and instead use her opponents weaknesses and arrogance to cause them to lead themselves to fall to ruin. If that wasn't brilliant, I had nothing else to say. But seriously I'm enjoying the mind games. It's nice to see that as much as Dong-eun barely committed any illegal acts aside from stalking people, instigating and manipulating people's actions to suit her plan; she still managed to get her revenge plan going. It was pretty clever, like I know revenge is bad and all that jazz, but dang... technically it'll be hard to prove that she have committed any wrongdoing (cos ultimately the ones who ended up doing the deeds of destroying her enemies was not her.) Real world moralities aside, who would not enjoy a story where people who do bad things be punished and getting their just desserts? And in this story, we're seeing stuff like victims of violent abuse taking charge of their lives and taking back their honor and selfworth.
And as much as there's no glory in doing bad deeds or even of committing acts of revenge, I'm really glad that this drama had a happy ending for Dong-eun. I mean, in the past, for revenge dramas that aren't daydramas, we usually don't often get a real happy end... and the MC tends to get sad endings after their revenge was completed. But this trope didn’t happen to Dong-eun. And as much as this part 2, still have some loose ends left wide open... it's still a pretty good conclusion to the story. Got to say that the whole cast and production team really did well to make this drama so engaging.
While some might say that it's dissapointing that Dong-eun's revenge didn't end up becoming more violent, I really like this outcome since despite the fact that the original five bullies did bad things deserving of violent punishments, there are still innocent people like Yesol and Doyeong. And I'm just happy that Dong-eun's revenge did not end up consuming her and allowed her a chance of a happy end (to which many other MCs of past revenge dramas didn't get. )
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A story of first love and of one true love, suppose we could find plenty of such kinds of stories being written throughout the years. As much as everyone would've at least experienced love at least once in their lives, what are the odds that your first love would be the true fated love for you? Chances are that the odds of that coming true could be one in a million or may be more. But what it such a miracle could happen to you?First Love: Hatsukoi was such a love story yet it wasn't quite a full fairy tale love story. Unlike love stories in faity tales our main pair didn't quite get their happy ends so easily. Through a fated encounter, their lives started to change. And as they strive to reach out achieve their dreams, they encountered many obstacles along the way as their lives took a detour into different directions before crossing paths again in order to reach the end.
As much as this drama was a love story, it can also be considered a coming of age series. At first Namiki Harumichi's life didn't seem to have any specific direction, but after meeting Noguchi Yae he started to have a dream to which he aimed to achieve with everything he's got. You can't help noticing how Harumichi and Yae start to shine as they strove to achieve their dream. Yet due to an unexpected accident, both of their lives took a different turn. The two parted way afterwards and that seemed to be the end of that relationship, but what if fates decides to give them a second chance? This drama basically try to explore that possibility.
The drama had a very beautiful and cinematic visuals and it also had a unique storytelling where past and present intertwined to tell us the story of what shaped the lives of both Harumichi and Yae. And because of that, it made this story pretty refreshing despite the recurring theme of first love as well as amnesia as a plot twist.
One would argue that the story could've been better if Harumichi and Yae's circumstances were switched but I'm glad that it wasn't. Since the plot would've been a bit too similar to Winter Sonata and I wouldn't have liked that.
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Long time since I've seen Rain in any dramas so I forgot how charming and funny he could be. I certainly didn't expect to really love this drama which was basically a medical Rattatoulle drama with coma ghost instead of a rat.Rain is really so lovable as the genius cardiothorasic surgeon Cha Youngmin. He really embodied the character description of being like a viper on the outside but actually a softie inside. Kim Beom was unexpectedly adorable as the cute chaebol resident doctor Go Seungtak. I totally didn't expect to be endeared to the childish Seungtak who seemed out of place at a hospital when he didn't actually have any skill besides being studious.
Rain and Kim Beom really did well in potraying the mentor-rookie relationship between Youngmin and Seungtak, even when this relationship didn't actually start on the right foot. Between a kind-hearted doctor who had worked hard to achieve great skill that could even be called genius yet ended up becoming jaded due to some twists in life and a resident whose merits was only on his vast knowledge he learnt but never did any surgery work due to the trauma from his childhood as well as his ability to see spirit causing him to be scared of doing surgeties, it was interesting to see how their life started to change when the two of them meet and forced to work together. It was interesting to see how Youngmin start to recover his old self and to see Seungtak becoming more determined to overcome his fears and become a real doctor.
That said, Uee and Son Na Eun were great as the romantic interest of both the male leads respectively. As much as most of Youngmin-Sejin scenes are quite melodramatic, there are still some cute parts in between and Sejin does still have parts where she had to remain strong. The same can be said about Soojung, and I love all the comical and heartwarning interactions between her and Seungtak.
While there weren't much romance in the drama, I love the fact that the actors were still able to subtly bring out those elements and show that these characters really do love each other. Like as much as we barely see Youngmin and Sejin interact normally aside from the flashbacks, we can see how both of them struggle with their sorrows as Sejin tried to find ways to revive Youngmin and how Youngmin couldn't do anything but watch her suffer because of him. There's really a lot of melodrama in Youngmin-Sejin pairing that it make sense why Youngmin would've wanted to reset that and made it a romcom. Soojung and Seungtak pairing was also cute seeing how the pair tend to support each other in their own way, which made it even more interesting when we get more revelations on their relationship beyond just being childhood friends.
Tae Inho's character reminded me about another similar character he played in Descendants of the Sun, but hey, every medical drama do need its villain and he seemed a perfect fit. Gotta say it was interesting to see Sungwon's relationship with Seungtak and compare it with Youngmin.
Sung Dongil was amazing as the resident ghost that still haunts the hospital and still occasionally helped out with things at the hospital. It was really heartwarming to see Tess calmly watching over the living and those stuck in limbo for 20 years at the hospital, even more once you find out about his real identity. Honestly, with every episode we receive tit bits about Tess's true identity and I just can't stop feeling amazed at how the little pieces of the puzzle just fits together.
As much as the drama was medical and supernatural in nature, one can't deny that it was also a family drama. This drama was really heartwarming as it reminds us to be kind to people as well as more thoughfull to others. I wasn't expecting to be drawn towards the stories about the patients and doctors beside the whole premise about a ghost doctor who continued to save people by possessing a living person. It was really fun watching this drama from the start till the end.
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I hadn't been aware that there was a Chinese adaptation of the novel and seriously I'm surprised that this movie somehow slipped my radar lol. But since I was rewatching Perfect Number, I ended up finding out about this movie.This is a very interesting take of the novel, in which the plot more or less closer to novel but 'Yukawa' is now a professor at a Police University and also a Police Consultant. As much as I had mused what an adaptation of Devotion would be like with the original setting, it was a pretty unique experience to see Professor Tang as a police consultant who also still somewhat well-versed in physics.
In terms of adaptation accuracy, this Chinese one was like a merge of the Japanese and Korean version mixed together. I could see parts that are similar to some scenes in Perfect Number (the circumstances on how the initial murder happen, the extra interactions btw the teacher and single mum, how the math teacher end up having himself be arrested) as well as parts from Suspect X (the mountain climb scene, Ishigami/Shihong's attempt to 'kill' Yukawa/Tang Chuan). I'm also amused that the movie also used a bit of reference from another earlier Galileo plot (murder using a sonic device to cause accidents) to add a different twist in the movie.
Still, of all three movie adaptations, I have to say that this one was the least emotional to me. The lack of Higashino-sensei's touch despite the movie was based on his novel was really telling, the movie did feel like its soul had been missing. The plot, as much as it follows the novel much more closely compared to the original Japanese adaptation, felt like it was moving too fast to really allow you to feel anything for the characters. And it still feel weird seeing a 'Yukawa' who willingly helped in police investigations. I guess you could call it a personal bias, since the biggest emotional impact that I love about the original story was the struggle that Yukawa felt trying to investigate the case on his own while also wanting to protect Ishigami and helping Kusanagi to solve the case. When that important element is gone, it just felt weird.
Nevertheless, this was an okay adaptation. Like I did at one point mused about wanting to see how it'd be like if there's a movie adaptation that follows closely to the novel (without Utsumi), and well... here it is.
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Haha... after so long I ended up rewatching this old thing, but this time a bit more properly than before. For someone familiar with the Tantei Galileo series, it's hard to not watch this movie and see how the Korean adaptation would adapt the novel compared to the Japanese liveaction version.Well, to sum it simply... this Korean version followed more closely to the novel compared to the Japanese movie. In term of the overall plot at least. But of course, this movie do still have some parts that are changed. To describe it in one line, this movie is what would've happened in Devotion if Yukawa Manabu hadn't existed and instead of him, it was Kusanagi who had been close friends with Ishigami and being the sole person who had to break the trick created by the 'suspect x'.
Got to say that it was an interesting take on the novel, tho there was one con to this. That we didn't have the confrontation between two geniuses, math vs physics, and instead we get the basic detective plot trying to break an alibi trick created by a person who made use of blind spots in logic. Still it was interesting seeing this movie, that we get to see some parts of the novel that wasn't shown in Suspect X. It's also interesting to note that in this movie, the mother-daughter relationship of Yasuko and Misato was changed to aunt-niece relationship for Hwasun and her niece.
The first time I watch this movie, I haven't really paid attention to the casting. But now I really loving it. It's interesting to see Jo Jinwoong play the Korean version of Kusanagi who was played by Kitamura Kazuki. It felt so fated, seeing how later on Kitazuki-san end up playing the Japanese version of Jo Jinwoong's character in Signal. I was reminded of Masha's quote about having a KOH+ song to accompany every Galileo adaptations, and I gotta agree... it does feel like something was missing in this movie when there's no KOH+ song playing in the credits.
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So far I've watched several dramas featuring autistic characters with Savant Syndrome trying to tackle a certain profession in which normally one wouldn't have expected people with severe autistic traits to do. I gotta say that an autistic detective with a Savant Syndrome was something I haven't expected to see. In a way, this was a very interested take in the usual detective genre.That said, as much as the series tackled with cases that was referred to as 'discarded mountain' or cases that tend to be discarded once it was determined to not be criminal in nature, the series itself tend to not be on the serious side and more comedic at times.
The tone could also be intentional as well since I do note how at times certain scenes somewhat contain a parody of other shows (like the Galileo references) or real life (like how there's the running joke on Sawa being a divorcee, which may be influenced by the fact Kitamura Kazuki had divorced with his wife the same year). The show even in some instances broke the forth wall.
Overall the drama was really fun and quirky. Gotta say that the characters really start to grow on you after a few episodes and that was one of the reason that it felt easy to keep watching the rest of the episodes till the end.
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While more Galileo live action adaptations are always welcomed, I do have some mixed feelings about it. It's quite obvious, of course since the reason was plain clear; I wished Utsumi was in this. I have nothing against Makimura to be honest, but the moment the character appear on screen I could tell that most of her characterism was based on Utsumi's template. Which was another reason why I wish it'd be possible to read the novel in English.
The case itself this time was still interesting. But unfortunately for Yukawa, this case also ended up having deep connection with him as one of his precious student was a possible suspect in a crime. Such thing had always been a sore wound to him ever since Ishigami, and obviously knowing his stance about how science should be use to enrich humanity he wouldn't like to see someone misuse it to harm others. And of course conflict will happen between him and Kusanagi due to their different opinions.
It was nice to be able to see Kuribayashi-san again, it was pretty amusing to see the old lab assistant fumble around to help Yukawa since we don't get to see him in Silent Parade. Overall, the SP was kinda neat. But I still wished that Utsumi was in this instead of Makimura (though I may understand why Shibasaki-san can't reprise her role as Utsumi in this SP)
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The cast were perfect as well. And I really have to appreciate the fact that most of the Touken Danshi casts (aside from Iwanaga Hiroaki) turned out to consist of the Tousute and Toumyu casts who may have reprised their own characters or took new roles in this movie. I also love the fact that most of the main formation swords consisted of the swords I already have in game (except Nihongou). Because of that I'm mostly familiar of many of the Toudan's characters and personalities. And it's pretty nice that the movie feature Mikazuki as the main Toudan who leads the expedition and whose POV we're following. Since in Hanamaru it had been Yamatonokami Yasusada (and Kashuu Kiyomitsu) being the main, while in Katsugeki, Izuminokami Kanesada and Tsurumaru had been the main Toudan. (In both anime, Mikazuki was mostly a support character.)
That said, I appreciate the fact that the Toudan involved in this movie consisted mostly of swords that belonged to the Nobunaga, Akechi and Hideyoshi's factions. Because then we could see as well how the respective Toudan react to the things they witnessed as they fought to protect history from the History Retrograde Army. It certainly adds to the emotional impact as we see the Toudan struggled with completing their missions while also witnessing the deaths of their previous wielders/owners.
I knew Suzuki Hiroki and Shiina Taizou mostly from the Saiyuki Kagekiden. And I'm really glad to see their performance, this time as Touken Danshi. The two, as well as the rest of the cast had performed really well in this movie. I look forward to seeing the second movie next year.
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