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Zombie flick with lots of laughs and surprisingly moving moments.
I did not expect to cry during a zombie horror comedy, yet this movie surprisingly had a few touching moments and a lot of good comedy.Flawed family that obviously cares about each other - I am weak for things like that. Add a found family trope to that and you won’t see me complaining. The characters were the core of the movie and they were both amazingly written and perfectly portrayed.
I am honestly not much of a comedy person, but this was amazingly funny. Some jokes were more in my face than the others, but it was all well balanced so I never felt overwhelmed. They were able to keep the light atmosphere without killing all the thrills that come with zombie apocalypse.
Out of all the characters, Hae Gul, Jjong Bi and Man Deok were my favorites, but with how unique and fun everyone was, I’m sure each viewer can find their favorite to root for.
It’s almost a 2 hours movie, but it never felt long. Some might think the set up took too long, as the true action starts well past half point of the movie, but for me it was all necessary. For the characters’ choices to have sense in the last few scenes, we truly needed all that built up. Personally I believe this had some solid pacing - not too slow, not too fast.
Production value was amazing. Honestly beautiful shots. Sometimes I did not know if I should laugh about the comedy or appreciate how pretty the scenery is.
Overall, I would highly recommend it. Great cast, great characters, great story and great jokes. It’s simply a well executed zombie horror comedy.
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Calming, uneventful charm.
Nothing really happens in this movie. It’s a bunch of random stories and at times completely out of context conversations between characters you know close to nothing about, and somehow it was truly enticing.After finishing the movie I truly wished there was a guy like Master with his small diner somewhere in my neighborhood. The small sanctuary after the hard day of work, that sense of a small community the regular clients created.
It would be a crime not to talk about the amazing aesthetics of the show. The camera angles, the lighting, the editing and directing - it all created a beautiful movie that was just pleasant to watch.
The acting left nothing to desire. With characters that are not exactly well defined, it might be tricky to truly present them as unique individuals, but Midnight Diner made it. All performances made me believe these are the people I could potentially meet on the street myself. Normal, relatable people with their normal, mundane lives.
Overall, I have no idea why I liked it so much, but I did and that’s what matters. A movie about technically nothing, yet it never felt boring. I was engaged from first to the last scenes.
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The thing that I loved about the directing was how all the cases were linked together - each chapter had a scene we already saw in a previous story, but from a different perspective.
Chapter 1 - Room 504 - The Writer
One of the weakest plots of all the 5 chapters. While the small details in the background added to the eerie atmosphere, overall I was not impressed. The story was not scary at all, but I have to appreciate the acting from Lee Chang Hoon, who played a driven writer on the edge, because his writing has not been going too smoothly lately. I could feel his frustration.
Chapter 2 - Room 907 - The Pharmacist
The best of all the chapters. From the interesting story, to the creepy visuals - I was sold. The setup for the plot reminded me a little bit of P.T., with the radio station giving news about the murder. The loop of the characters’ actions and the corridor shots that made it seem as if I am there observing the situation, made this my favorite part of the movie.
Chapter 3 - Room 708 - The Salesman
Annabelle, but creepier. Except for the "companion" making me uncomfortable, there is not much to say about this chapter. The pictures created for some scenes were nice, but overall it was more entertaining than scary.
Chapter 4 - Room 604 - The Student
Trigger warning for gross body horror. Pimples and a lot of weird stuff happening to the face of one of the characters. Rather nauseating. That said, the body horror was quite well made - no complaints on my part about the effects and makeup. The story is rather simple, and focuses more on the visual aspect of it.
Final chapter - Room 1504 - The Caretaker
Had one of the scariest scenes from the whole movie - the elevator moment got me on the edge of my seat. The Caretaker concludes the story is a coherent way that makes sense, while leaving a door open for a possible sequel.
Overall, The Grotesque Mansion is just a simple and easy watch. Good for an evening when you might be a bit tired and you want to be entertained, but without forcing your brain to do any work.
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This review may contain spoilers
Directing and writing chaos.
I truly have no idea what was the vision and direction for this show. What was the main conflict? What was the plot? What was the genre? It was everything and nothing.Starting from the plot, I think Fighting Mr. 2nd does a huge disservice to season one - the cute, fun and a little bit dramatic story. Here we get full on makjang for the first episodes, that turns into corporation politics, and then into big old nothing.
None of the conflicts make much sense. Shi De agreeing to cut contact with the love of his life, because the dad said so was unbelievably stupid. Shu Yi trying to get his revenge at first made him one of the most toxic (for everyone around him) and unstable characters ever (at least that made sense, it was destructive but fitting). Then we have the "blond lady" misunderstanding and no true chat about it between the main characters. Not to mention the stolen files in the firm, which brought exactly nothing to the story - just stole the precious screen time that could have been used in a better way.
Zhen Xuan and Shou Yi romance could have been an amazing story, but it was simply impossible to do it justice as a side couple in a 3 hour story. Both characters were too complex and had serious underlying issues that should have been addressed in a more detailed manner. I am quite confused why they said Shou Yi has affective disorder though, since the ones that go into that category are stuff like depression, bipolar and manic disorder - mood disorders, so his lack of apparent empathy and incapability to form relationships with others was not quite fitting the label he was given.
Then we have the messy directing. What exactly was the plan? Was the dad supposed to be a scary controlling figure or a laughable, but a slightly obsessive comedic addition? Was the main romance supposed to be realistic struggles of the couple or over the top dramatic melo? I'm not saying you can't have comedy in the serious shows, or deeper topics in a lighter story - the tone needs to fit though. Here, it was a mess.
At the end we get to the problematic aspect of drinking on the set. For some it might not be a problem, for me it is. I see no excuse for drinking on the set. It puts the actor, co-actors and the whole production in danger. You don't just get your actor drunk for the sake of realism.
The only redeeming quality of the show was the acting and the music, and more specifically Unbreakable Love, which isn't even the original song made for the show.
Overall, season one was a good BL with nice characters and good pacing. This was just... a mess.
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If I had to describe the plot in just a few words I would say: Fight against the supernatural evil, and the one hidden in humanity, that leads to bettering oneself. The format is repetitive, it’s undeniable truth. They dealt with one evil spirit, a new stronger one showed up. How come it’s not boring?
At first, the cases are simply a background for introducing the characters, creating a team work and So Moon’s dive into a whole new world. Slowly, the past connections between different characters are discovered, and the background plot starts to take a forefront position. The progression from the simple procedural plot to uncovering the past mystery and dealing with the main villain is perfectly gradual, and speaks of the great pacing The Uncanny Counter has.
The core of the show are the characters. The cast is pure perfection, and whoever was the casting director, they should get a raise. We are presented with more or less four teams: high school friends, Counters, Yung partners and the evil assholes. Each group is well written and portrayed, and even the villains are charming in their own twisted ways. I still wanted to see them dead, but I was also curious about their next actions and shenanigans. The loyalty among the young friends, the protectiveness of Counters, the moral dilemma the partner’s faced - all that made me love each and every character.
The acting is top notch. Jo Byung Kyoo is a true star of the show. His acting made me cry, scream, laugh, hit my head on my desk… He was So Moon. Kind, smol, positive, but also flawed character, that was willing to slowly learn, mature and improve himself. Easily in my top 5 favorite characters of all time.
Each and every actor committed to their roles completely. I honestly did not feel that even one scene or expression was off. I was especially surprised by Kim Se Jeong's performance. I knew she was a good actress, but she improved so much with the few roles she had previously.
Production value was everything I could wish for. It is a mainstream kdrama, high quality of visual aspects is expected though. The directing of the fighting sequences was well done, making them exciting to watch. Some of the stunts in the first episode felt slightly off, but they quickly improved and became way more natural.
I’m not gonna lie, I did not pay that much attention to the soundtrack as I was watching the show. I was completely “distracted” by the plot to notice what kind of music is being played in the background. That said, I usually don’t care that much about the OST, unless they are extremely bad, not fitting or painfully overused. After listening to the song as I was writing the review, I must say: they are good. Each has a completely different feeling and emotional quality, but they are all making me want to listen to them on repeat.
So what are the flaws? The biggest one was the slightly anticlimactic ending. With all the set up, I was expecting a bit more. Tiny, convenient plots that are either added or forgotten, like Moon, at some point, is never shown attending school. We just don’t see him going there at all. Never to be addressed nor mentioned. He is still a student, he wears his uniform… but he ain’t even close to being in class. Then we have the introduction of Oh Jeong Gu close to the end that felt out of place and useless.
Taking into consideration how well crafted the story and characters are, I was able to ignore the flaws. These cons barely moved the scale, since the pros were that good.
Overall, damn yes. This show had such an emotional impact on me, there were moments when I had to pause the episode, since I was scared/not ready for whatever was going to happen. I loved each and every character. I was curious about the plot and how the team would deal with the obstacles they were facing. There was not one boring episode, and even though I am fine with the given conclusion, I would not mind a possible second season.
*Trigger warning: severe bullying. It’s pretty bad guys, especially in the beginning episodes.
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I am quite honestly annoyed. It was an easy 10/10 for me at the beginning. The story was simple yet effective in making me excited and interested. I cared deeply for Praewa and was anticipating all her "evil" shenanigans. But then they added so many plots and background stories for characters I couldn't care less about, it went downhill quickly.
If only they kept it as simple as they presented the plot at the beginning: revenge with pure chaos and death. Let Preawa win, let everyone die. Focus the mystery part of Preawa finding out the real culprit of her misery. Why do we need the "past events" story? It brought NOTHING to the plot, was dumped on me in the last episode, and I was like: cool... But why? What exactly was the purpose of it?
Truth to be told... the last episode was just bad. Amazing letdown compared to the rest of the episodes. The ending was neither shocking nor exciting. They definitely did not construct the story well enough for me to think "wow... yes, this makes total sense, why I haven't seen it coming" as the last few scenes happened.
Best part of the show? Ticha Wongtipkanon and Nene Pornnappan Pornpenpipat. Truly aced the roles given. Preawa looked mad AF and I believe every scene she gave. Nene surprised me a lot in the last episode, being the saving part of it. I also appreciate how daring they were with some graphic elements.
Overall, I don't even know. It's hard to judge a show that had an awesome beginning and tragically bad ending. On one hand, I want to recommend watching the first 4 episodes and drop after that, on the other hand... What's the point of watching just half of the show? Do with that information whatever you like, but don't get too excited while watching at first, because the letdown will be massive later on.
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Roy Chiu is extremely good looking and I legit got distracted by his beauty a few times.
The movie did exactly what I expected it to do - entertained me. The plot is fairly simple and they explained the lore of the ghosts enough for me to understand what is going on. The funny scenes made me laugh, and the emotional ones made me feel things (though I'm easily moved, so this is an extremely subjective statement). I enjoyed all the characters and random English words thrown by them.
I must say, the way the movie was filmed and edited was exactly my type. From the beginning I was enjoying the aesthetics of it.
Any flaws? The final scene between the big bad guy and the hero was... extremely anticlimactic. It was built up well. I could see that male lead is trying to outsmart the villain, while Hsueh is dealing with, let's say, trauma. Sadly, what followed was weak. With how entertaining the movie was, I expected some epic fight by the end.
Overall, a short, fun movie for a relaxing evening with which you don't have to strain your brain too much. If you are searching for pure entertainment based on some crime/supernatural elements, go for it.
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Every change begins with the word if, followed by the will and small first step.
This is for sure more of an office slice of life with romance, rather than romance set in the office. Rather than the story leading to romance, the romance is part of the greater self-discovery and development journey of our cute protagonist - Kano Akihito.The thing is - I went into this completely blind not even knowing there will be a fantasy element (imagine my surprise at the end of episode 1), but no matter the set up it became clear to me this is Kano’s story and everyone else is there to highlight his improvement and growth, and I was all in. At first I was scared that the parallel world would hinder the romance and make me not invested in the plot, but romance is honestly not the goal here, but rather a result of a character driven story. It’s the cherry on top, not the main course.
There were many important life lessons in it, but two that for sure I enjoyed the most were:
You should not compare yourself at the beginning of your journey to someone who is miles ahead of you. You underappreciate your own abilities and also the other person’s hard work to achieve what they did.
Often how people treat you is a direct reflection of how you treat them. Taking the initiative and the first step can help you form close bonds and dear friends who will help and support you no matter what. You can all learn from each other and grow as people. Instead of staying in the vicious circle of being distant towards people because they are distant towards you, and them being distant towards you because you are acting distant towards them - take that first step to close the gap and create a healthier environment.
That said, even if the romance was not the highlight, it was still great. I cannot just ignore the height difference - even if it does not play an important role in any of the scenes, and it’s just existing there quietly, it’s enough for me. I also love how obvious to us the dynamics between them is, and how oblivious to it Kano was. But that’s the charm of the drama - we can witness how Kano figures out that words can be used for communication between people, not only powerpoint presentations for work. The love story in it was honestly great. It’s all in small gestures, unspoken worlds, stolen glances. It’s about taking care of the other person, not wanting them to suffer, wanting to support them and lessen their burden. It’s slow and gradual, but it’s well executed. Wish the change of heart was a bit better presented though. With Kano I kind of get when and why, but I don't fully feel it.
Acting wise I loved the performances of both leads. Kano Akihito as this slightly neurotic salesman and Ogami Seiji as the stoic and what seems like a perfect senior. But it’s more than meets the eye - they both had their insecurities, hesitations, and fears. They both thought they made the right choices to help the other to later find out it was a misunderstanding and misstep for both of them. Especially big props to Nakagawa Daisuke with his dual performance, which had to seem close enough that it could be the same person in parallel words, but also different enough to justify the set up in the first place. Also, his tiny pinning moments? Amazing.
Overall, what a pleasant surprise. I went with the idea that fluff office romance will be enough, but instead got food for thought, soul and heart.
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Female lead was dumb, the police were dumb, the friend was dumb, even the villain was dumb - don’t let people fool you into thinking it’s some tight cat and mouse chase with a brilliant killer who outsmarts everyone. It’s not hard to outsmart idiots. It does not make him a genius.
What’s good? Acting and editing, some directing choices. I liked the shots presenting the world from the eyes of the phone user, and then from the angle of the camera. We never really think about how much our phones see, as we assume the camera is off. So it’s creepy to see how much one could spy on us, if they had the access to the camera itself. Overall, there were many pretty shots, they knew how to make it visually interesting.
As a side note about the “social commentary” - I am so tired of this “phones are dangerous, be careful how you use them” topics. How about showing what the true issue is: lack of laws and procedures when the cyber crime happens, lack of police involvement when the crime is being reported, worst case - ignoring the reported crime because “nothing can be done”. Criticizing the government and police for the lack of protection of the citizens should be the focus, not “people use phones in irresponsible ways and depend on them too much”.
Overall, what a waste of time, even for Im Si Wan fans.
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Refreshing concept with basic execution.
Honestly speaking, I don’t even have much to say. I’m not the biggest fan of the reincarnation trope, but it is something new in the BL genre, hence I gave it a try.As I said, the idea behind it is fun - not only do we see the reincarnation trope, but also a new twist to it - female to male reincarnation. How many interesting ideas for plots and conflicts we could get out of it! Do we get them here? Not really, and the few we get are barely developed.
Yeon Seok was quite a fun character in a constant mode of panic for various reasons. I did enjoy Jin Gun’s performance, even though sometimes it became a bit too comedic for me. On the other hand Jeong Ha Yeon as a character just did not catch my attention at all. Jeon Chang Ha acting in some more emotional scenes requires improvement, but overall, I was not mad about his delivery.
Overall, I don’t regret watching it, but I could do without it too. It does not really bring much to the table.
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Not scary, but disturbing.
More than once I asked myself: what am I watching? Either because the scenes were truly graphic and they did not shy away from some triggering scenes, other times the picture they were framing was simply funny in my eyes. I think that's the unique quality many Japanese horror films have: they just go for it and see no limits.To some extent, the story led nowhere. Did I mind it? No. From the beginning it was more about questioning what will happen to the characters next, and not where they will end. As we all know, usually horror stories are not that nice to the main characters. That said, the plot was still at times confusing (especially closer to the end) and some stories were for sure not explored enough. Given we only got 25 minutes for each episode, I still believe they did a fairly good job with the plot.
The thing that amazed me was for sure directing and editing. I was in love with the style the whole drama was shot in. They committed to show the gore and violence and some of the worst sides of humanity. The sounds and music used in it were PERFECT choices.
The acting, damn it was good. Ririka's performance was especially to die for. Truly believable and raw. You could feel all the emotions Kiyomi was feeling, though at times I would rather not be able to see and understand it all.
The goal of this show was not to scare, but to make you feel uncomfortable. There are no jump scares, but we did get some long scenes showing the most despicable acts. As I watched it, I questioned how bad these people are and how much their actions are influenced by the supernatural.
Overall, I would like to say trigger warning for rape and gore. If you expect some cheap jump scares followed by loud sounds, this ain't for you. If you are grossed out by gore, this ain't for you. If watching serious abuse is too much for you, this ain't for you. It's a good show, but the target audience is rather small because not many would enjoy watching it.
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At first I was not sold on the cast. I loved Namtan as Mind, but could not get into her acting as Mean. Luckily, I got on board in later episodes. I also felt like Krist is a bit too old to play a high schooler, but again, got used to him as I watched more episodes. They both did an amazing job in conveying all the emotions and bringing these characters to life. For sure I liked Kay and his portrayal of Gun more than Sungjae’s performance. Jan did a stunning job as Tida. I hated her quite a lot, but still felt slightly bad when things started going against her wishes.
I think the only problem I had with this version was that I did not care about the romance at all. I much rather watch the friendship blooming and skip any romance altogether. While the guys looked truly in love with Mind, I could not feel the same emotions from her. I saw she liked them and felt a lot of gratitude towards them, but the romantic feeling was not there for me.
The plot is for sure intriguing, but not exactly on the realistic side. Did it bother me? No. It was cohesive and exciting. I can imagine how nerve wracking it must be for someone who has not seen the Korean version. The anxiety that keeps one on the edge of the seat every time Mind almost gets caught. I wished I had never seen the Korean version to appreciate this one more.
The leading premise of the show is clearly “bullying is wrong”. That said, I appreciate how many times the “kids/teenagers” made exactly the same mistakes, judged each other before even trying to find out the truth, called each other names and blamed each other without proof. It made the message more realistic. Many young people claim they would never partake in bullying, but they are… They just think their reasons for it are valid and the person deserves it. It’s not easy to change and it’s not easy to see faults in your own actions.
Overall, I would for sure recommend this over the Korean version. It's produced with less over the top style and is more grounded in reality. The characters are more likable too. The only thing that drove me mad were these long af bangs Mind/Mean had. Poor girl, my eyes hurt every time I looked at her.
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Here’s the thing - the cast is amazing, brilliant, funny, and has perfect chemistry with each other, but the concept of the episodes lack creativity and clever directing/planning. How many times can we watch an episode about food and restaurants? What is this, mukbang? All the episodes that focused on anything other than food were, just based on that aspect, better.
Many times the production team focused so much on making the fake place “bigger and better and more shocking” they forgot to actually make it “work”. This is not Pimp My Ride Restaurant Edition. They should focus less on the place/building, and work harder on the writing of the story behind the place and the people working there. Simpler ideas would be so much harder to guess.
One more thing that started to annoy me as the show progressed was the love line joke between Jessi and Sang Yeob. Yes, at first I found it hilarious, but at some point I felt like it went too far? I started to truly just feel uncomfortable with it.
That said, it was still overall extremely entertaining, all thanks to the cast. Nara was the awesome older sister trying to fight against her bad luck, So Min made me cry while laughing because of her unusual jokes and out of the box behavior. Jessi was the queen she usually is, with a straightforward attitude and Mi Joo was the pure chaotic energy and the master of body gags. And then there are Jae Suk and Sang Yeo trying to run the show and survive.
If you liked season one because of the cast, you will still love this season. Even with some flaws, I still believe it’s funnier and better than the majority of the variety shows I have seen.
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It’s been a while since I have seen a story as predictable as this, that still managed to surprise me with some ridiculous plot lines and reasoning behind the characters' action. We get to know rather stereotypical student Sky, brainwashed Sun with some serious issue of Stockholm Syndrome, Bank - a cute puppy and Pitch, the only redeeming quality of this drama. We follow their love stories, where every conflict (and I truly mean each and every one) is based on the complete lack of communication and honestly, while at the same time, the characters complain the other party is not honest and does not communicate their feelings ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
In the background, serving as a thrilling angst addiction, we have mafia schemes that led to our main boys being beaten up here and there, almost losing their lives too many times for me to care by the end.
For a romance driven show, the chemistry between Sky and Sun was not as golden as their blood apparently was. At the same time, I found it refreshing that there were more emotions and sparkles in the scene where they stood one meter apart, compared to all the kissing scenes.
On the other hand, Bank and Pitch were rather a nice surprise. The unsureness of their feelings and slow development of their relationship felt more grounded and reasonable. The playful chemistry of them bickering while smiles did not leave their faces was just bliss to watch.
The best acting for sure was served by Sugus - that smile alone could kill. Sadly, Gun’s performance was mediocre at best. Unintentional comedy bits that were the crying with no tears scenes truly made the watching experience that much more fun, but for all the wrong reasons. I could see how hard he tried to squeeze these tears, and I truly felt bad for him for failing each time.
Overall… I have no idea why I watched it, but I for sure do not regret it. It’s one of the cases of mindless entertainment, when you just accept nothing makes sense and the quality of the whole show is questionable at best, and yet you keep watching.
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The writing got me on a few plot twists that I didn't see coming. Some bigger, some smaller, but all executed quite well. With a limited screen time, they did a good job at giving enough exposition to ground you in the story, but not waste time on unnecessary details. The characters were interesting, and surprisingly I got attached to them quite fast. The chemistry and the switching dynamics and testing each other between Po Xiao and Feng Ren was perfect and by the end of the movie, I craved for me.
It’s definitely worth talking about the visual aspect of Wuliang - it was an aesthetic feast. Even if the plot was not as interesting, I would still finish the movie without skipping a second just to appreciate the beauty of it. The background music perfectly enhanced the atmosphere the visuals created.
The acting was also amazing. I felt everything the characters felt. Well, sometimes I went on more of an anger ride, when they felt sad, but that’s given. The emotional delivery was quite detailed. Nothing to complain about.
Overall, I highly recommend watching. It’s an old tale of “with great power comes great responsibility”, but it focuses more on the characters, building trust and understanding each other's motives, while trying to survive.
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