soufflei

A movie about treasuring each day no matter what.

I hope I'm not too biased in writing this review just because I'm a fan of Micchi (Michieda Shunsuke) but I just think that this movie is really good. Even just from watching the trailer, it has greatly piqued my interest. At first, the plot reminded me of the series One Week Friends, where the girl also had amnesia, except her memories reset each week instead.

**SPOILERS**
The start of the movie greatly hints on what eventually happens later in the movie, which is something that I didn't really like but I guess that's what made me want to continue watching it even more. And with how Toru and Maori's relationship started, you'd think it's a typical "fake dating" trope, but in my opinion, it wasn't, their chemistry didn't feel forced and it really looked like they enjoyed each other's company. It was painful still, because for Maori, she was meeting this stranger for the first time everyday and she always had to put up a front. The part that I really liked was from the point when Toru found out about her illness, because at this point, Toru had actually fallen in love with Maori and despite knowing that she forgets him everyday, he was determined to make her everyday fun. One of my favorite lines in this movie was when Toru was talking to his sister about Maori, when he said "When there are fun things written in her diary, it would be nice if when she reads it, she'd be able to look forward to everyday, even if just for a bit.", my heart hurt a bit when I heard him say that but at the same time, I felt so much respect for this character.

I think all the characters in this movie was well-written, I also liked Maori's friend, Izumi, who is always there to help her no matter what, and she also eventually supported Toru and Maori's relationship so much. She was truly one of the important characters in the movie as she also played an important role towards the end of the film. Although one thing that I didn't quite understand was the relationship between Toru and his family, but I do think that showing this was necessary especially for the ending of the movie.

Overall, I recommend this movie if you just wanna cry and feel all kinds of emotions. I will not forget the dread I felt when I finished watching this, I couldn't stop thinking about it. It made me think "Ah, this is why this movie was so popular". At first, everything would seem slow but it will just hit you like a truck towards the end so I think it's a movie worth watching lol it will make you think about a lot of things in life.

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Not as bad as Squid Game but still... unnecessary

It was good, the cast, the acting, the games. But did we need this 3rd season? Absolutely not.

Everything just felt so forced. I think Usagi just needed therapy, I don't really get why she thought that going back to the games would let her meet her father, like girl, he's long dead, what were you expecting to see there? My dad is dead too but I wouldn't go back to those games just to see him or whatever, like it doesn't make sense. Girl suddenly trusted this random ahh man that she met once and suddenly they're fighting life and death together like what lmao. I really did not understand her reason for going back to play the games, even ended up risking her own life, her baby's life, and her husband's life. It felt so forced, like please, you need therapy and more communication with your husband. I lost it when she reunited with Arisu and she was like "I wanted to see you!" and I'm like girl you wouldn't be in this situation in the first place if you didn't go back here.

It's also forced that this citizen wants Arisu as a citizen in Borderland too, like bro was literally just a couch potato before he got to Borderland, it's not like he's the only one who survived the games. I don't really get the point of Borderland Jesus either, like ok he explained that this place exists between life and death but it's not like we didn't know that already? It's just so confusing.

The other players were good characters, but I didn't feel as much emotional attachment as the ones in S1 and S2. The acting and CGI was amazing as always, I guess that's the only good thing in this season. I would've been happy if they just inserted a small scene in the last ep. of S2 with their new lives, like literally the last part of S3 with Arisu and Usagi happily married and with Arisu talking to everyone at the end.

Anyway, I don't even wanna talk about that America bit in the last ep., main character syndrome country fr when will Netflix learn that not everything needs an American spinoff.

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The weird trope and clichés aren't for me...

Jiang Mu and Jin Zhao, who is an adopted son, were raised as siblings until their parents got a divorce when Mu was 10 and Zhao in his early to mid teenage years. This background alone was enough for me to raise my eyebrows but I still gave it a chance since they were technically separated until Mu was 20, but still, it was weird. Jin Zhao basically raised her too since he's been taking care of her since she was a baby, and it was just weird to me that they made it seem like he's been yearning for her ever since they got separated when they were younger, like, a teenager liking a 10 year-old just doesn't seem right to me. The difference with how they treat each other after they were reunited was kind of crazy to me, bc it seemed like they weren't "siblings" at one point, they already had some sexual tension going on, again, weird.

I decided to just turn off my brain and ignore the part that has been bothering me so I kept watching. Everything was fine and they were actually cute and sexy when they started dating until... the accident and the breakup, things became messy after that. Like okay, I get why Jin Zhao had to send Mu away bc he wasn't sure if he could still stand up or walk so he didn't want to hold her back. But it only took him like 6 months or a year to walk normally again, I don't get why he cut off all contact with her, and everyone else basically covered up for him, which is such a crappy and selfish thing to do bc Mu was hurting for 6 years missing him. If she didn't go back to China and found his coffee shop by coincidence, then she would've continued living without knowing anything. I also hated how his friend, Sanlai, lied that her dog went missing and she was so heartbroken about it bc she wanted to bring it with her overseas 'cause she can't be by Zhao's side, but no he didn't tell her that the dog was with Zhao and just let her cry about it, Jin Zhao basically stole her dog and even renamed it. There was also the coffee shop which seemed sweet at first, but if you think about it, he established it all by himself and just gave it to her like a piece of candy, when all she wanted was to put up a shop TOGETHER.

The lack of self-respect that Jiang Mu had made me go crazy, bc she basically had to beg Jin Zhao to let her stay by his side even though she did nothing wrong because she was left out of the loop and everyone lied to her for years. I hated Jin Zhao's reason that he didn't want to hold her back, he didn't want to make her suffer blah blah, like dude, she still suffered anyway, for 6 years bc she wanted YOU, she wanted to be by YOUR SIDE all this time. He didn't even apologize enough for hiding and lying from her and making everyone else lie for him, she forgave him too easily and was desperate to get back together with him even though he's pushed her away so many times, that's just foolishness disguised as love. She also forgave the friends too easily like nothing happened.

I thought the main conflict of this drama would be the mom being against them bc they were like siblings, but no, the problem was solved in just one episode and Jin Zhao didn't even get to talk much, he just cut off the plant for her and then ta-dah it's all okay now.

Whatever, maybe I'm just not the target audience for this drama, maybe I just don't see the world through rose-colored lens.

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I wished this movie was actually about a great flood....

I don't really know what this movie was trying to do. It just feels like a movie trying to promote AI or something, and they were developing AI by putting them in the most unrealistic situations? Idk man I just found it all stupid. I know they were also trying to be touching with the "mother and child" thing but all I felt was that I'm annoyed and confused, I don't know what they were trying to do with that. I went into this movie without actually watching trailers or reading the synopsis so I expected that it will be about a natural disaster but nah, they suddenly threw in this AI crap or whatnot.

Conclusion: I hate AI and kids.

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I'm writing this review with swollen eyes from crying...

I started watching this drama bc I absolutely love Lee Dohyun as an actor but I ended up loving everything about this drama. This drama really just exceeded all my expectations, from the acting, down to the plot and how each character had striking personalities. Hands down especially to Ra Miran and Dohyun, they had such a great dynamic as mother and son that it made me cry so hard.

With the story, at first I was so mad at Youngsoon bc she was really a bad mom to Kangho, at some point I kinda sympathized with Kangho bc parents can truly be cruel, if not all times then sometimes. Even if they tell us that "it's for our own good", the scar of those hurtful actions and words from our parents will stay with us even as we grow older and move on with our lives. Watching this drama, I've realized that the people we care about get mad at us at times all because they equally care about us too, they're equally as concerned as we are for them, and we just all want each other to live a good life. I love how eventually both Youngsoon and Kangho met eye-to-eye without any grudges and with just smiles on their faces.

This is a bit of TMI but my dad passed away a day before this drama started airing so until now everything is still fresh in my head. I don't know if it's because of this that this drama made me so emotional or if it's really just that good. I started crying so hard when Youngsoon said that Kangho's father's last words to her were "See you later", that he always said that to her because he didn't like saying goodbye. I remember my dad also never said "Bye" or anything similar, it was always, "Go on", "I'll fetch you later", or "Take care", my dad's last words to me was "You should go now" before I left for work, now that I think about it, it just felt like he told me to go on, move forward, that maybe it's time to live by ourselves. Maybe I was a bit jealous of Kangho and Youngsoon because at least at the last moment, they were able to say the words they weren't able to say to each other all this time, the lullaby scene just hit me so hard it was almost embarrassing. Anyway, enough of me, the bottom-line is, this drama had so much power over me, I'm sure that other viewers would also find this drama hitting close to home. 10/10 I would watch again if I feel like crying again.

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