101
370
13
2
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2
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6
1
7
1
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2
5
9
The only highlight in the movie was Michelle Yeoh who had about five minutes on screen with which she outshone everyone else in the cast.
The police corruption story was merely in the background and the excuse to put the main leads together. The Hong Kong police officer was a dead ringer (pun intended) for the Japanese woman's deceased fiancé. The rushed romance comes across a little creepy given that she falls for him because he looks like her dead lover and he knows this. The police story was convoluted to the point of being ridiculous.
I would have scored it lower, but Michelle Yeoh's scenes had me feeling slightly merciful.
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The story is a thin borrowing of Dr. No, complete with a villain having a metal hand who carries around a white cat. Bruce works with the Hong Kong police to bring down this evil drug lord who had a hand in the death of his sister. The bad guy’s lair is on an island of course, with traps and lots of minions. Bruce is headed there to join the tournament where the Big Bad looks for new recruits and new victims.
John Saxon plays an American guy in deep debt looking for a score at the tournament. Jim Kelly’s character is there because he likes to fight and win. Sadly, John Saxon has most of the dialogue and while he is engaging enough, his fighting skills are sorely lacking. I would have preferred more dialogue from Bruce Lee and the charismatic Jim Kelly (who was a real karate champion).
Sek Kin, who was around 70 years old when the film opened seemed to take great delight in his villainous role and fought with vigor. Bolo Yeung picked up his stage name from this film. He often played the bad guy the hero fights to show his ability but I always find him interesting to watch. Sammo Hung had a brief scene at the beginning sparring with Bruce.
Bruce Lee is incredibly fast and usually slows his moves down for the camera, but in one scene he goes at full speed and it looked like one move, but if you slow it down you can see it’s several. And of course, Enter the Dragon has THE iconic kung fu fight scene where Bruce Lee and the Big Bad fight in the mirrored room.
What I liked most about the fights is instead of landing several hundred blows that the opponent shakes off, this time the fighting was quick, brutal, and often deadly.
The production values were higher than the standard kung fu movie. The music was much better than most kung fu movies and the sets were nice if a little heavy on the red lacquer and dragon imagery. The language was dated and women are mostly there for the men’s pleasure. There are also scenes with racism in them. It’s not a perfect film.
What it did well was raise the bar for kung fu movies in how they were shot and how fight scenes were choreographed. Bruce Lee’s moves are legendary for a reason and as an actor he is compelling to watch. The movie earned $350,000,000 world-wide against a budget of $850,000 proving that Western audiences were open to what he was offering.
This was Bruce Lee’s last movie, not counting the ones that were spliced together with old footage and look-a-likes, and it makes you wonder what more he could have accomplished. He worked to be a bridge between East and West and this movie took a small first step in doing that.
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This review may contain spoilers
This was one cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs little drama, but it was entertaining. At the Aino Mating Agency the ringmaster of this circus is a former ethologist who dresses in outrageous suits and breaks into song and dance at least twice an episode. Every move is exaggerated for dramatic effect. On the plus side he has a nice voice, unfortunately the rest of the cast that often join him doesn’t.
His assistant is a Catholic nun because...well, why not? As she falls in love with every client I don’t think she will be one for long.
The agency has a 100% success rate of relationships leading to marriage. Aino Shingo repeatedly says there isn’t a more wicked emotion than love and that love is data so he tries to take that variable out of two people getting to know each other. The couple isn’t allowed to meet in person until they agree to marry.
In each episode Aino practices a strange alchemy of ethology observation techniques and logic, insight, and a little magic to match two seemingly disparate personalities. He then guides them on their way through various obstacles to marriage. The fun is in figuring out how two people fit and what threatens to keep them apart.
The Aino Mating Agency is a zany, feel good comedy, often bordering on the ridiculous. If you are feeling blue this singing and dancing ethologist and matchmaker with his nun sidekick just might lift your spirits.
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Instead of joining his child with his new won wealth, Gi Hun becomes obsessed with finding those in power and ending the games. Armed with 45.6 billion won he hires his old loan shark to locate the games’ recruiter. Officer Hwang now works in the traffic division with most of the police force thinking he’s lost his mind when he rambles on about the murderous games. With the help of a fishing boat captain, he searches for the elusive island. Eventually, the two survivors of S1 find each other and devise a plan to bring down the cruelly sadistic creators of the deadly competition. Gi Hun ends up back in the games and as before there are those who want to go home and those who want to see how much money they can win regardless of how many people must die.
The players this year included an influencer in a disastrous crypto business, a drug addicted and psychotic rapper, a mother and son, a pregnant young woman, a trans woman, an old friend, a deranged shaman, and an obvious plant. This time around there were people who had lost billions of won/millions of dollars. There was one mole known to all who watched the first season with plenty of hints for the clueless players to put together. The second secret plant was overly obvious from early on for the audience. As before there were unexpected heroes and cowards. The focus shifted slightly more to the players and their teams as people picked sides of whether to vote to stay or go. There were new games and an old one, all as insidious and barbarous as S1 for those who need their daily dose of gore and carnage.
Gi Hun could be a difficult player to root for. By the time he made a catastrophic choice I suppose he saw everyone as already dead. He certainly wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box. Hwang also didn’t choose his allies too wisely. There were only a handful of characters I hoped would make it through to the end, and that’s if a person has small hands. S1 taught me to not become too emotionally attached to any of them.
The acting ranged from excellent to over the top to barely had a pulse. There were characters who were killed that scarcely made a ripple in the puddles of blood. The production values were once again of a high quality and the writing was nicely paced. I wasn’t bothered by the cliffhanger knowing there was a S3 scheduled. Sometimes it takes a third installment to take down Sauron or Darth Vader.
While S2 didn’t have the element of surprise that S1 had, it was still a solid effort. The characters who valued life, theirs and others showed the quandary of wanting to stay alive and also of having a life to go back to. As the money poured into the giant translucent pig other players’ greed and gold fever broke out over them in a lascivious sweat. Traitors lurked in the open and in the shadows. The games of the “have nots” on full display for the “have everythings” once again showed the disparity between the desperate and the bored. I wasn’t sure SGS1 needed a sequel but I’ll stick around and see how the writers decide to conclude the multi-tentacled story.
31 December 2024
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"If you leave something behind, you gain something, too"
Writer/Director Celine Song brought out the Kdrama tropes in her directorial film debut Past Lives. She took such tropes as childhood connection (destiny!), lovestruck second male lead, and the much-maligned love triangle and used them in fresh ways. The film I was expecting and the film that played out before me were quite different.Na Young and Hae Sung are best buddies at the age of twelve. Then her family emigrates to Canada separating the two children. Twelve years later Na Young, now called Nora, looks up old friends on a lark, including Hae Sung. The two reconnect via computer and begin conversing. Hae Sung wants her to come to Korea for a visit and she wants him to come to New York City where she lives. Feeling at an impasse in her life she goes on a break from Hae Sung. Twelve years later, now at the age of 36, Hae Sung comes to NYC to visit the married Na Young.
I dreaded Nora’s husband, Arthur, being portrayed as the rich, abusive or disinterested white guy standing in the way of the sacred childhood connection. I laughed when Arthur said their situation would make a great story, “I would be the evil white American husband standing in the way of destiny. I’m the guy you leave when your ex-lover comes to take you away.” In reality, Arthur was a loving, generous husband, who was learning Korean to better connect with his wife. He didn’t throw a jealous hissy fit when Hae Sung came to town. He respected Nora enough to let her do what she needed to.
Hae Sung arrived in town, obviously still in love with Na Young. Or was he only in love with the idealized version of her? He hadn’t spent any time with her since she was a child. He still lived with his parents and considered himself too ordinary. Despite working, he hadn’t made enough money to marry and had recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend. It didn’t help that handsome Yoo Teo looked his age (42) and not 36 which further made me wonder about his hesitancy with life choices.
The star of the film was Na Young/Nora. She had always had dreams and goals and was highly competitive. She was a playwright and working out her own destiny. The choices she’d made weren’t easy but she knew where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do. That didn’t mean she was cold and calculating. She’d loved Hae Sung as a child and maybe even as an adult. But she also loved her husband and was funny and affectionate with him. Nora made the choices that were right for her, no excuses, and actually seemed satisfied with her decisions. After making the painful decision to go on the break with Hae Sung she never showed any regret. That didn’t mean she didn’t miss him or Seoul, and maybe more importantly, who she was in Seoul. As an immigrant, she had two selves, and both were authentic and important. Hae Sung helped her remember the little girl from Seoul she’d left behind.
Greta Lee gave a lovely nuanced performance as Na Young/Nora. Without tears and histrionics, she delicately showed her character working through where she wanted to be, who she wanted to be with, and more importantly---who she wanted to be. Joe Magara made Arthur a sympathetic three-dimensional character subtly playing out a variety of emotions. Yoo Teo brought a vulnerability to Hae Sung as a man who had to take one last chance to see his childhood love.
This film was far less a love triangle and more one of Nora’s self-discovery and reconnecting with her past and ethnic identity. Many people have that “what could have been” someone in their life. But often that person is in the perfected past of memory and not the imperfect reality of the present. Past Lives gave us mature, honest adults coming to the realization of what doors needed to be closed, opened, and left slightly ajar.
25 August 2024
*********************spoiler******************
Dude, 24 years? That is why you ended up the second lead. Luck and love favor the bold!
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"When you have it you don't want it, when you don't have it you want it"
Hello Ghost is a remake of the 2010 Korean movie by the same name. It is a comedic movie with the dark thread of gut-wrenching loneliness running through it for one man.Ah Wei has been alone his whole life. On his 21st attempted suicide he briefly stops breathing. His life is saved by a pretty EMT on the way to the hospital. When he awakens, he can see four ghosts who refuse to leave him alone. A shaman tells him he must grant their wishes before they will leave, not an easy task for these ghosts. There’s the older woman, crying woman, smoking man, and mischievous little boy. The four lead him on a merry chase getting him into all sorts of trouble. He also keeps running into Yu Xiao Yin, the EMT.
Unlike so many ghost stories, there was no threatening entity, no mystery to resolve. The ghosts appeared to want to have a good time. The only external threat was to Xiao Yin’s brother who was deeply in debt to loan sharks which also made her life miserable.
The comedic moments often bordered on cringe-worthiness although there were some genuinely funny scenes. The slapstick didn’t feel as over the top with this version. Aside from trying to make you laugh Hello Ghost also tried to touch your heart, deeply enough to hear it beat. This story would have benefited from more backstory for Ah Wei, and why he never created a family or friends for himself. Why would a hospital kick a suicidal patient out without any mental health counseling, especially after he admitted to hearing voices? Why was Xiao Yin so attracted to Ah Wei who had attempted suicide multiple times and talked to people who weren’t there? As with the Korean version, the ending saves this movie and gives it meaning. Even knowing how it ended, I still teared up.
As good as parts of this movie were, like with the original, it left me disappointed that the rest of the film wasn’t as moving as the final ten minutes. Hello Ghost is a movie that with more character development and either less or better slapstick might have been as deep as it wanted to be. Overcoming hopelessness is not an easy fix. Despite its shortcomings, if you’re prepared to be patient, Hello Ghost is a movie worth trying.
2 February 2024
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Revenge is a dish best served with blood
Dong Lan Xue began with a scattershot approach to the story, not entirely sure of what it wanted to be. I honestly dropped it after the first episode as it felt like the cast and crew had knocked back one too many double espressos laced with an illicit drug. The characters and story moved fast and erratically and one "time traveling" character was particularly annoying. Fortunately, I went back and gave it a second chance. When the writers took a deep breath and detoxed and decided to focus on the Seventh Prince and Shen Yan, the story began to gel.For people well versed in historical Cdramas, the story was a familiar one. An evil Crown Prince caused misery for Shen Yan and other innocents due to his greed and desire for power. Seventh Prince had suffered a childhood trauma due to the Crown Prince's mother, the Evil Empress abetted by his father the Emperor, whose evilness has yet to be determined. Seventh Prince and Shen Yan teamed up to extract revenge on those who had caused them pain. They were not afraid to shed blood…a lot of blood to get there. Many of the more deadly scenes didn't make much historical sense but they were fun in a vengeful way so I just rolled with them and it was exciting to watch Shen Yan have her way with the Crown Prince's armored henchmen. There were also some very sensual scenes for a historical Cdrama, but well done. In around 90 minutes they told a story that often takes 50 episodes for other dramas while leaving enough story for part two of the revenge pact.
Dong Lan Xue was a short web series with high production values at least where sets and costumes were concerned. Once they settled the cameraman down and the pacing from the first few episodes, even those production values improved. The fight scenes were as good as any in a longer drama. I particularly liked Shen Yan being allowed to be a badass. They didn't shy away from her past as a prostitute or try to glamour or gloss over it. Too often they weaken actually strong female leads. They chose her background and stuck with it, not feeling the need to dumb her down or take away her power or voice. They also didn't remove her sensuality as she had chemistry with the Seventh Prince and with the Prime Minister's daughter.
Dong Lan Xue proved that longer isn't always better although I would have liked to have seen some of the story gaps filled in and it would have been nice to watch the whole thing uninterrupted. The main leads worked well together and the plot was fairly coherent if not historically plausible. All in all, after the first few episodes it became a highly addictive and entertaining watch.
7/7/23
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"Let go so you will be happy"
Down the River told the melancholic story of first love through the eyes of Krit, an openly gay high school student. This film was Director Nuchy Anucha Boonyawatana’s graduate school effort so I was lenient in my rating and criticism of it. The story was heavy with Buddhist and natural symbolism interwoven with the boys’ decisions about their futures and whether they would be together or apart.Krit is convinced that if he gives offerings and prayers at nine different temples that his wish to be with Win forever will be granted. The two have bonded since childhood and their friendship has crossed over into something more intimate. Win is going to the academy in order to join the military which would end any type of relationship they might have. Win also refuses to believe he is gay despite their friendship blurring lines with being lovers. He has a girlfriend and knows the military and society will not be accepting of him as a gay man. Krit presses flowers and his memories of Win into a book that he keeps with him that becomes a symbol of his love. On the trip to the temple and hike to the Elephant Waterfall, the seventh of the falls, Krit hopes to convince Win to stay, but to his dismay Win invites two girls to go with them. Further dimming Krit’s hopes are the monk at the temple telling him at the beginning of the trip that in order to be happy he has to let go.
Nuchy filmed numerous scenes of water and the woods set to a score that perfectly matched the mood and natural background. Sadly, several scenes were too dark to see much of anything. I don’t know if that was by design, age, or poor equipment. The film was held back between the dark scenes and rudimentary acting. While Krit came across as more fully developed, Win was a bit of an enigma. Despite the more amateur issues, I enjoyed the film especially as the meaning of the title became clear.
Krit reminisced about his relationship with Win in an almost spiritually poetic manner. While the film had a universal theme of first love, it also showed how first love between members of the same sex faced even more hurdles in a time and place where their love wouldn’t be accepted. Sometimes a person can hold onto their first love and other times they have to let it go to the river of time.
12 August 2024
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"You're disgusting, you make me sick!" Preach on sister!
The Street Fighter was violent, exploitive, and had almost no redeeming qualities. Takuma Tsurugi was the manliest man to ever man which means he got a pass for sexual assault and selling a woman into sex slavery. This was a violent film just to be violent, with little story to go with it.Takuma breaks a death row convict out at the last minute. When the convict’s brother and sister can’t pay the last installment he begins to rape the sister. The brother tries to intervene, so Takuma kills him, and sells the sister to be a sex slave. Big man. A group attempts to hire him to kidnap an heiress but he turns down their lowball number. Because Takuma knows of their plan they attempt to eliminate him which drives him to be the heiress’ protector. After forcibly kissing and groping her, he's hired on to protect her. When the convict discovers what happened to his family he joins the other bad guys for the chance to free his sister and kill Takuma. Yeah, at this point I’m rooting for anyone who would kill this b@stard.
The fight scenes weren’t well choreographed and I hated Sonny’s fighting style and acting. The editing was even worse. At one point Takuma asked his sidekick, “How did you get here?” I was expecting Ratnose to say, “Heck if I know!” It was as if they edited out anything that would have caused the story to make sense. The story jumped around and so did the people as if they had a transporter to drop them into a completely unrelated scene. The acting was bad even for a 1970’s martial arts film.
The Street Fighter failed on every account for me. Only for Sonny Chiba fans and those who enjoy the main lead behaving reprehensibly toward women. This movie put the mindless into mindless violence. At the end of the film, in big letters it declared “Return of the Street Fighter coming soon!” Thanks for the warning.
14 March 2024
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This review may contain spoilers
"If we can't live together, we'll die alone!"
Pending Train was an entertaining story about strangers on a train mysteriously landing in a dystopian future. The strength of the drama was the characters and how they learned to work together through their fears and problems in order to survive.Mild spoilers:
From the first, "Guys, where are we?" it began to feel like the writers had recently watched Lost (2004) and wanted to update the story for Japan. Shirahama Yuto (Jack) was a fire fighter with a painful past experience at work that has left him with deep seated guilt and a need to save everyone. Kayashima Naoya (Sawyer) was a hair stylist who due to his painful past trusted no one. Hatano Sae (too bland to be any character from Lost) was a school gym teacher who thought no one liked or respected her at work who was part of a weak sauce love triangle. The rest of the main cast contained a businessman who took a walk on the wild side (Locke), an effervescent game designer (Hurley), a graduate biology student who had a physics professor for some reason, a shady self-centered manicurist, and a middle-aged CEO who worried that she didn't spend enough time with her daughter.
As with Lost it turned out there were Others on the island who would compete for resources and survival. The battles were not nearly as deadly or mysterious. I have to say there were several characters who had me wishing a Smoke Monster would come and drag them away. At one point I honestly thought earnest Shirahama was going to quote Jack and say, "If we can't live together, we'll die alone," and he did more or less. Hatano was so uninspiring that her flashback story centered on her looking at a rainbow. She was everyone's cheerleader with either a smile on her face or a look that said, "where did I leave my purse?" None of the women had particularly interesting backstories or compelling stories in the future.
Despite the Lost coincidences and poor writing for the female characters, I did enjoy this drama. Kayashima showed the kind of character growth that makes dramas worthwhile. Shirahama worked through his guilt with the help of his new friends. The struggle to figure out where/when they were, and how to obtain food and water was interesting. The bromance that developed between Shirahama and Kayashima was the most engaging relationship.
The scenery varied with one side of the tunnel displaying Tokyo's ruins covered in an almost rainforest. And on the other side of the tunnel (always a tunnel in these pesky time-traveling dramas!) was a barren landscape. The latter setting appeared to be the one Kurosawa Akira used in his film Dreams for a post-apocalyptic future. The OST had a tendency to err on the overwrought side, not always meshing with a scene's mood.
The biggest problem I had with the drama was their "science" which would have been convoluted for an old Godzilla film and only coming in second to the Professor making phones out of coconuts on Gilligan’s Island ( yes my pop culture references are old ^^). And it was hard to get on board with people starting a fire with a green stick on a green leaf. The last two episodes dragged and didn't make a lot of sense with what had gone on in previous eps. To make matters more complicated the drama seemed to give an alternate ending unless they threw their own pseudo-science out the window.
Some people wanted to go home, desperate to see their loved ones while others had nothing to return to and were happy in their made kingdom. Many of the characters decided after learning how to survive in a hostile environment, the problems at home would be easier to deal with and they also would show appreciation for each day and those they cared about. "We have the power to recover from all kinds of obstacles and failures." Yet life is funny and people can be cruel and ignorant in the face of the unknown. I'm sure there were more than a few characters who would like to have said, "We have to get back to the island!" or at least "When's the next train to the future leaving?"
Pending Train came across more as a healing drama for damaged people than "it's the end of the world as we know it." If you enjoy a more character driven drama, don't mind a lack of dire consequences in your dystopian stories, and can overlook the terrible science, this drama can be a fun watch.
8/12/23
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"In the end, all you have is family."
Red Family, a film about a "family" of North Korean assassins living in South Korea feels dated in some ways, but timely in the never-ending question about what makes up a family.The Assassin Family lived next door to the South Korean Sitcom Family. The Assassins blended in seamlessly in public but in private were stiff and formal, with the "Mom" who was their team leader constantly barking orders and threatening them. The Sitcomers were wasteful, always ended up in comic situations, and were constantly yelling at each other. Yet somehow, this comically imperfect family forever tainted The Assassins, causing them to question themselves and their mission.
The Assassins also had families back home, families who could be jailed or executed if The Assassins failed in their missions. Little by little, The Assassins began to develop into a real family who cared about each other which was a threat to their mission according to their superiors.
Also discussed was the split family of Korea divided into North and South, and the forces that kept the family apart.
The highlight of this film for me were the teenagers, the Assassin daughter and the Sitcom son. They were cute as they began to bond and form a friendship. I also enjoyed Assassin Grandpa and Sitcom Grandma having a few light moments.
The low points were the moms. Sitcom Mom was always screaming and berating her husband for not making enough money. If all South Koreans were this loud and obnoxious, I'd have headed north myself to get away from them. And even though The Assassins could hear much of what was said next door yet Assassin Mom's voice was always set on screech. The people down the block had to have known that they were North Korean assassins.
At the start of the movie, the Red Family seemed mostly one dimensional. Layer by layer, the rigid exteriors were peeled away to show more of what made each Assassin unique and the fears they had for their families back home. It would have been nice if the film had delved into the internal conflicts they might have had over having so much food available and being in a place where people could speak their minds without fear.
The premise was also a little shaky. The Assassin Family had taken out dozens of defectors to the south, and with all the other spy teams at work, it seems someone would have noticed if hundreds of defectors had been murdered over the last few decades.
Overall, I found the movie entertaining, if predictable. The juxtaposition of the two families with conflicting realities, the Assassins' stress of having to be ever vigilant for fear of being caught by the authorities or condemned by those monitoring them, and their evolution into something more than they were trained to be made for a flawed but compelling story.
26 January 2022
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"Life has no script"
I’m Married…But starred two of my favorite Taiwanese actors, Jasper Liu and Ko Chia Yen. No one does realistic marriages like Taiwanese dramas, but somehow this one didn’t completely blow me away.Lin I Ling and Zeng Xue You have been married almost four years and are still living with his parents. Zeng is fine with the set-up, he has two women to take care of him leaving him plenty of time to build his Lego town after work. Lin is not nearly as enamored with the set-up which causes a lack of privacy and autonomy. Zeng’s first words tend to be, “My mom said…” Not what a wife wants to hear every time they discuss an issue. Lin doesn’t want children while Zeng does. At least once a week Lin contemplates divorce. When she puts a soul mate app on her phone due to a client’s request, it changes the trajectory of her relationship.
These two characters seemed ill matched. Zeng was passive and overly kind to everyone. Lin was blunt and easy to anger. I don’t know what age the characters were supposed to be but the actors were both pushing 40. If they hadn’t been able to save enough money by that age, especially living at his mom’s for free, it’s doubtful they would ever put enough cash together for their own “house.” Another sticking point being that Zeng’s mom had a tendency to reallocate their savings. Disagreements over whether to have children can doom a marriage. Both flirted with other people. For me, this drama would have benefited from showing what inspired them to marry in the first place.
The special effects were telling. The father-in-law and other older men were often portrayed as houseplants, completely invisible to the rest of the family. When Zeng heard difficult news, his brain funnily enough displayed the blue circle of death with a “stop function” indicator. Lin’s talking uterus popped up out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly.
Six episodes into the drama I was ready to divorce Zeng because as nice as he was, no wife wants to be second to another woman, even her mother-in-law. I kept waiting for Zeng to find his useless cajónes. While he did have some character growth, that growth never displayed itself by disagreeing with his mother. His mother may not have been evil, but she was manipulative. Newly married couples need to learn to depend on each other and make decisions for themselves.
I enjoyed this short drama primarily for the actors’ performances. Jasper Liu stretched and displayed more emotional nuance than I’m used to from him. I found many of the couple’s decisions mind boggling though many real life couples fall into the same pits they did every day. As much as I love Jasper Liu’s beautiful smile, I might have been tempted to smother him in his sleep the ten thousandth time I heard, “My mom said…”
29 April 2025
Slightly spoilery comments below
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
The minute “Rain” showed up, the Piña Colada song (Escape) sprang into my brain.
“If you like piña coladas
And gettin' caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga
If you have half a brain
If you like makin' love at midnight
In the dunes on the cape
Then I'm the love that you've looked for
Write to me and escape”
Infertility was not treated the same for men as women. Lin was subjected to every woman in the family giving her advice, forcing vile potions on her to drink, they had priests chant over, and even moved the bed to a more favorable (public) feng shui place in the house. When it turned out Zeng was the one who was infertile, everyone clammed up and left. Speaking of which, Lin’s uterus also shut up, and baby making was never brought up again. And on that subject, Lin thought about divorce incessantly and then suddenly decided to have a baby. Baby’s do not heal marriages, they exasperate current problems and reveal new ones.
I will admit, a man buying menstrual pads for a woman he is dating would definitely give him a star in the win column. I’m not sure that would be enough for this couple to stay together, maybe a place of their own and a good couple’s therapist. These two needed to be able to make their own decisions, one of which should have been to purchase a CPAP machine for beautiful Zeng to tame his snoring.
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"We don't just save lives, we save hearts, too!"
Pararescue Jumper was an entertaining look at Japan’s Air Rescue Wing. Featuring the energetic Uchino Seiyou as the pararescue instructor, the drama demonstrated some of the rigorous training the candidates went through in order to graduate. In a high attrition school, the trainees had to learn to not only trust themselves but to also trust their team members with their lives.Seven trainees are introduced to their unconventional training instructor, Usami Seiji, when he repels out of a helicopter at their welcoming ceremony. The trainees include an airman who was saved by Usami as a child unbeknownst to him, the first woman to make the cut, a General’s son, an orphan, and also a black Japanese man who is always mistaken for a foreigner. With a washout rate of up to 50%, Usami is determined to see everyone graduate this time. Several of the airmen have issues impeding their progress and need his special brand of creative therapy. Usami’s estranged daughter, Yuna, is given permission to tag along in order to research her thesis paper showing her for the first time what her father does for a living.
The animated Uchino Seiyou was perfect for the role of the training instructor who pushed the trainees to their limit but also helped them however he could. With the exception of the black trainee whom the writers had no idea how to write for, the others were given quality one-on-one time with the instructor when they didn’t think they could go any farther. Yuna worried the strenuous mental and physical training was abuse when in actuality it was a gift for people who would be tested by Mother Nature if they succeeded in the program. “Nature is far more unreasonable than I am.”
For a military drama, the tears and hugs flowed freely. Dark secrets and fears revealed themselves as the trainees pushed themselves to their limits and breaking points. Usami was always there to lend a hand or throw it, whichever was needed. The young actors all did a good job of portraying the determined and at times conflicted candidates. At first, they did not comprehend Usami’s madness or his greeting of the “glorious sun.” As they endured and progressed, they came to understand that he was preparing them for a job where death was always close by and answers weren’t always easy.
Aside from the rescuers’ dogged determination and strong desire to help others, the drama emphasized the need for family. Whether it was Usami interacting with his ex-wife and cranky daughter or the trainees opening their hearts to each other and Usami, biological and made families abounded. They might all be carving paths for themselves but no one walked alone. I thought PJ was a compelling and heartwarming drama with interesting characters that provided the audience an insight into the grueling training few complete. These often unsung heroes make calculated life and death decisions as they put their lives on the line to save strangers. Pararescue Jumper did an admirable job of showing the sacrifices these brave people make for the greater good.
10 August 2025
Small note from watching this with someone who had similar training: Running in formation leaning forward will give you shin splints. Straighten up people! And when belaying rappelers, pay attention so that they don’t free fall. If they mess up, don’t tell them to take off their gear, send them back up!
Continuity glitch:
Fujiki injured her left arm but her right arm ended up in a sling. oops!
spoilery comment:
Re: Fujiki They were heavy handed in their acceptance of her, but for the most part it worked. There are no female PGs in the world. The position comes with one of the most rigorous physical tests in the military. For one reason because in war time it would also be combative and the life spans of PGs is very short during a real war.
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"Every day is April Fools"
Abe Hiroshi played much the same type of character in News Anchor aka Caster as he did in Vivant. I liked that character so I was okay with him looking rumpled, stunning and irreverent in his black suit and white shirt, this time as a no holds barred news anchor.Shindo Soichi is hired to destroy the JBN news program from the root. Failing and stagnant, the evening news might need a shakeup with a journalist who doesn’t play by the rules, but the employees aren’t overjoyed by his process. Sakikubo Hana is tasked with being his handler. She has a secret past connected to him that makes her loathe his presence. Motohashi Yusuke normally handles the camera on assignments and is often caught between Shindo and Sakikubo. What neither of his colleagues know, is that Shindo is also searching for the people behind the death of his father and attack on his former wife.
As I mentioned, I’m okay with Abe playing Abe. At 61, he’s still got it. Shindo was the stereotypical loose cannon that doesn’t play by the rules but (nearly) always gets his man. Nagano Mei as Sakikubo Hana, despite her offset troubles, was handed a tough role. Perhaps Sakikubo was supposed to be the voice of compassion but I found her completely insufferable from beginning to end.
News Anchor had the murder mystery and coverup at its base. On the surface it covered organ transplants and Japan’s extraordinarily low donation rates, murder, sneak photography, and a wildfire. It also showed how reporters and news stations often comply with governmental offices, sponsors, and police departments in order to maintain access. It’s something that happens worldwide and has been one of the worst things to happen to news organizations. By refusing to ask the tough questions and dig for the real answers in order to access the soundbites they need, they cede reality and truth to those in power. Shindo blew past all those niceties.
Aside from Sakikubo who was nails on a chalkboard to me, I enjoyed News Anchor for the most part. That’s not to say it was a great drama, far from it. Aside from the FL, the various pieces of the puzzle were ham-fistedly shoved together in the last episode while leaving the corner piece to be found should there be a season 2. News Anchor took a lot of dramatic license and loved to throw out red herrings. Probably only for fans of Abe Hiroshi or other actors attached to the drama and viewers who don’t need a great deal of realism in their journalistic drama. Categories it would seem, I fell into. lol
13 July 2025
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"I don't scare easy" Well, I do sister
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is one of those movies I started without fully realizing what I was getting into. I am not a body horror fan so this film was not at all my jam. This review is for anyone thinking about watching it who also might have concerns about this sort of film. For fans of the genre, they will most likely find many things to enjoy about it.A metal fetishist who has driven metal into his body runs out in front of a car and is hit. The couple take his body out to the woods to dispose of. The victim takes his revenge on the salaryman by causing metal to begin growing out of his body. That's the simplest explanation.
This film felt like the efforts of someone who had been on a psychedelics bender and brought his horrific hallucinations to life. There were numerous scenes that made it hard to tell if something was really happening and if it was, why it was happening. Was it just a delusion? Much of the action was fast forwarded or stop action which was nausea inducing.
Tsukamoto Shinya who wrote, directed and starred in this film had a penis obsession. Whether mechanical or real, the object of ecstasy or torture, phallic symbols abounded.
Tetsuo is the type of film that is more about the experience than the “plot.” For me, it was not a great experience. A curiosity, yes. Entertaining, not particularly. Again, if you enjoy this horror subgenre, it’s older, but might be one to try. Every time I think I've seen the weirdest movie, there's someone to say, "Hold my motor oil."
16 June 2025
Trigger warnings: Basically, if you have triggers, it would be best to avoid this film. Bugs. Gore. Violence. Sex. Nudity. Penis gore. Sexual assault.
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