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The actors all did a fine job with what they were given. Vincent Zhao handled his fight scenes well, but Zhou Xun was the heart of the movie. The child actor wasn't one of the stronger ones I've seen but he was mostly supposed to cry and yell so I can't lay it all on him. Gordon Liu who played Beggar Su in Young Vagabond made a guest appearance. Michelle Yeoh and Bryan Leung also make special appearances.
My problem with the story was with Su. At first he was unbelievably naïve to the point of endangering his family. At other times he was next to useless, self-absorbed, selfish, or short-sighted. Without giving away any spoilers, let's just say he was never going to make father or husband of the year. His wife, Ying, could see when danger was approaching and also when the time to act was. Her first thought was how to hold the family together and looking for ways for them to survive. For me, she was the real hero of the movie.
The fight scenes were good as one would expect from a Yuen Woo Ping movie when they weren't relying too heavily on CGI. In a 2 hour movie it would have been nice to have had a little more dialogue between characters and some character development. I wasn't given much of a reason to care about any of these people.
Most egregiously, the final act seemed completely unrelated to the rest of the movie in style and tone dragging out the story in what appeared to be more of a political statement.
The fighting in True Legend was exhilarating, if exhausting. It just needed a little more heart, and some better editing, to make it memorable.
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Godzilla, Mothra, & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
4 people found this review helpful
Once again we had a plucky female heroine, this time the intrepid reporter, Yuri. More often than not she ended up playing the damsel in distress in need of rescuing no matter how brave and spunky the writers intended her to be. Alongside the Guardians, the humans led by Yuri's father, had developed a weapon they hoped would put an end to Godzilla's reign of destruction.
Instead of random, almost unseen people getting killed, Godzilla's victims were often shown close up or were characters who had been introduced. There were real stakes with the humans' and Gardians' lives. Godzilla had returned to being the terror that he was in 1954, this time with soulless white eyes. The monster fights were actually quite good and entertaining as each Guardian did their best to take down Godzilla. Once the action started around thirty minutes into the movie, it never let up. Overall, this was an entertaining men in rubber suits kaiju movie.
8 April 2021
Baragon Note: Baragon was a B list kaiju who also starred in Frankenstein vs Baragon and Destroy All Monsters!
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I enjoyed this movie, it's one of the last Mothra movies to be aimed at adults as well as children. Later, the movies became obviously aimed at kids.
The miniatures were good and Godzilla was given a menacing face to make sure you knew he was the bad guy in this tale. I did worry a little for the actor inside when it looked like his costume caught on fire!
Mothra was at the end of her life cycle and her appearance showed it. Though ragged around the edges she was still her graceful, mystical, environmentally conscious self even if she was not at the top of her game.
The twin Shobijin fairies were once again played by the Peanuts, singers from the 1960's. Mothra's besties always know when to call on her for help and when to encourage her.
There was a rather lengthy subplot about greedy investors wanting to use Mothra's egg that washed up during a typhoon as a tourist attraction, but we all know the main attraction was watching the two leads fight! The fights were short but effective and a reminder to never underestimate a Butterfly.
These movies were made before CGI and you have to let your mind travel back into a simpler movie time to enjoy it. But enjoy it I did.
15 March 2021
1 October 2026 Update:
I just finished rewatching this film and enjoyed it all over again. The monsters showed up at around the 33 minute mark and the battle was on until the end! Toho regulars Takarada Akira and Koizumi Hiroshi were compelling leads even in this genre.
I love how Mothra's twins trash talked Godzilla.
This is the film where the Godzilla suit caught fire though quickly went out. The take was used in the film. Looks a bit terrifying for the actor inside when the head caught fire.
I'm always amazed at the women running in pencil skirts and high heels. I would have been one of the first casualties trying to run in that outfit, long before Godzilla could get to me.
Poor Big G had several tail malfunctions. He gets his tail caught in a tower which really ticked him off. Then Mothra dragged him by said tail. Finally, the Mothra caterpillar bit down on G's tail and like me with a chocolate chip cookie---wouldn't let go!
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I love a woman who has a sword and knows how to use it, but it helps if she knows how to use her brain as well. It took a long time for her to figure out who the mastermind behind the plot was. I knew in an instant who it was. If this guy is on the screen hide the jewelry, don't turn your back and refuse anything he offers to eat or drink.
Shu Pei Pei did a fine job with all of her fight scenes. Every time Tang Ching showed up they played music very similar to The Man in Black's (Clint Eastwood) theme evoking an American Western feel.
Unfortunately, the plot felt inconsistent and disjointed with fight scenes going from being indoors to on the top of a mountain in an instant. There were no emotional consequences to any of the events that occurred on screen. The prop department must have maxed out their credit card at Buckets 'O Blood and Trampolines 'R Us. While I don't mind some leaping around and filming jumps backwards this one seemed to over use the technique.
This was Wu Ma's first directorial experience and he choreographed the fight scenes as well. Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung have said Wu Ma is the one guy they wouldn't want to face in a fight because he's the real deal. I'll have to watch for other movies of his to see if he improved as a director. This one wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good either.
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Once I accustomed myself to the 20-year-old Hong Kong production values, I settled in and enjoyed this energetic romp complete with minions on bungee cords and rollerblades. The bad guy was a tall, skinny version of Dr. Evil who did everything but cackle maniacally. Silver Hawk has to save a kidnapped scientist with the help of a cop she meets on a plane, Richie Ren. The actors all looked like they were having fun and put a lot of energy into their roles as they fought with each other and the baddies.
This is not a movie for everyone because the movie is dated and comes across fairly low budget. Aside from Michelle Yeoh, the acting is sometimes not as strong as it could be from the supporting cast, but not horrible. The movie feels like a mash-up of 1970’s kung fu movies, James Bond, and Batman if Batman acted like he was actually having fun. If you can loosen your critical eye for 90 minutes it makes for some silly diversionary entertainment.
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There are times this film tries too hard to be "artistic" and other times it succeeds. The fight scenes are blurry using a slide-show technique I wasn't overly fond of because it was nearly impossible to tell what was going on. Other times the grainy colorization worked and was beautiful.
Most of the characters are dealing with the consequences of the bad choices they've made or the problems created by inaction. Only one character seems to overcome this dilemma by making choices that guide him away from being simply a cold-blooded killer and able to love as well.
Yo Yo Ma does a great job of re-imagining Frankie Chan's original score from the 1994 movie. The music enhanced the scenes and the emotions being played out.
This film can be confusing as the characters' faces are often half-hidden and the story doesn't always play out in chronological order, making heavy use of flashbacks. I honestly need to watch it again to make better sense of the story.
Ashes of Time is often thrown into the love it or revile it category because of it's different artistic take on the classic wuxia tales. If you enjoy wuxias it's worth a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.
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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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"Some lies come true"
Rikuoh told the story of a struggling tabi maker whose company had been in business for 100 years. As other tabi factories succumbed to the fading need for the traditional white socks, Miyazawa Koichi would risk nearly everything to guide his family’s company in a new direction in order to keep it afloat and relevant in a changing and challenging market.Miyazawa Koichi fears his family’s tabi factory will not last another decade. When a young bank officer tells him to expand into something different, he chooses to make running shoes patterned after the ancient style socks. The runner that inspired him is Mogi Hiroto who was injured from his poor form and would benefit from shoes that guide his foot into a more proper stride. From there, Miyazawa will have to convince family, friends, workers, bankers, and suppliers in his dream. Miyazawa must rely on his super strengths of tenacity and resiliency for his company to survive.
Rikuoh was completely predictable in every way. It benefited from the veteran actor, Yakusho Koji, to keep the cheesier moments grounded in reality. While there were no surprises, there didn’t need to be. This was pure comfort viewing. There were moments of conflict and setbacks, but I never doubted for a moment that Team Dragonfly would be okay and that allowed me to sit back and watch as the scrappy seamstresses and engineers made their magic happen.
If you need your business dramas to make logical sense, this may not be the drama for you. There were obvious lapses in the business narrative that the viewer is expected to overlook or fill in the gaps. Some were larger than others. (What business doesn’t carry insurance?) The women were secondary, mainly represented by the seamstresses. The banks and multiple businesses contacted were completely void of women. Miyazawa’s wife and daughter appeared to be for décor, or for the wife to say in any given situation, “That’s nice, dear.”
Overall, the drama kept my attention with its languid interlaced approach to storytelling splitting time between the scrappy Team Dragonfly, Mogi’s journey and running team, and the shoe competition. Everyone learned valuable life lessons, even a few of those characters who were originally antagonists. On the race track or in the factory, there were no shortages of inspirational speeches and tearful cheering. Miyazawa and Team Dragonfly helped their company overcome numerous obstacles and setbacks. Just like the determined runner Mogi, they all had to repeatedly get back up and dust themselves off, hug it out and start over as many times as were necessary.
12 April 2025
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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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Once again, there were no words, no actors emoting, nor emotional music in the background. Thunder might evoke a visceral reaction depending on your life experiences. Ito used a variety of technical skills that I can’t say I completely enjoyed, but I also could not look away as it stabbed me in the chest like a bolt of lightning.
25 September 2026
Trigger warning: This film used numerous instances of strobing bright lights. If you are sensitive to this, you might want to avoid Thunder.
Ratings note: As there was little acting and the music was more strange sound effects, I couldn’t really do much with the stars on the ratings board.
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