Kate

A bit confusing characterization.

omeone who has not seen the original movie, nor was aware of the full story presented there, while the plot of this short gender swap version was easy to follow, the motivations of the characters were either confusing or shallow in presentation.

Instant love that seemed fabricated from the start, lady general who does not connect the facts and male lead who for some strange reasons trusts a demon? My brain hurts.

That said, for a movie that is basically shot in one location, it was visually quite well made. They truly used the limited space they had, so the plot never felt small nor insignificant.

The performance was good. He Chang Xi delivered the best in terms of conveying emotions, especially in the second half, while Ding Cheng Xin was able to combine the delicacy and destruction in his presentation of Xiao Wei.

If you want to watch it based on your good opinion about Wuliang and the Censored Romance tag, you might want to reconsider your motivation. Production and directing wise it’s not as strong as Wuliang (though still quite a good short movie), and the tag is at best baiting. It serves a vague ending that brings more questions than answers, and for me, who likes to overanalyze scenes and lines, even more confusion.

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Was it entertaining? Yes. Do I feel like I would miss a lot if I have not seen it? No. Do I regret watching it? No.

The biggest positive aspect - it had a great variety of characters. And yet a good majority of them annoyed me more often than not. While I understand Sina being suspicious of everyone, her blindly accusing any person in the household of being the evil mastermind was at some point frustrating. She kept showing all her cards and not getting any closer to the truth. Like girl, use your brain.

There was quite a straightforward plot that had a nice conclusion. BUT It felt like a lot happened in the first 20 episodes, and at the same time... nothing was really happening. And then last 10 was a cluster F of plot lines coming together.

The part that at the beginning I enjoyed the most was the amazing chemistry Sina and Thi had, but even this died down a lot in the middle of the show, just to be brought back in the last few episodes in what seemed like a forced manner.

Conclusion: It was fun, but it was not amazing. I guess me and lakorns need to peacefully go our separate ways from now on.

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Was one boy truly worth it? No girl power in this movie.

The whole plot is teens bullying each other and breaking all the horror rules possible, but somehow too many of them stay alive. I did enjoy how layered the movie was despite the simple plot. Setting on the isolated island for female juvenile offenders (which alone sounds tragic), the supernatural components and well developed lore with interesting visuals, well done kills and even pacing made the movie an enjoyable journey. Yes, there was not one character to truly root for, and more likely than not you will want to see them all dead by the end, but the dynamics, even if annoying, were keeping my attention.

All that said, the movie is too long for such an unsatisfying ending. If I have to sit through over two hours of teens bullying each other, I want some cathartic conclusion, not whatever this was. It was for sure a more interesting ending, but it just left me annoyed. I think they either should have made it more simple, or even more complex with just one more twist as a cherry on top.

Baipor and Perth delivered great performances. Both Ing and Aim were annoying for different reasons, but they played off of each other's characteristics well. The way Ing was slowly breaking more and more, while Aim started to lose her control and confidence - a game in which there are no winners.

The production value was nice. I wish some scenes were better lit, but it was not bad enough where I could not see anything. The design for the supernatural was decent, but not scary. Some kills were better than others.

Overall, it is too long to be called a simple afternoon quick watch, but it is interesting enough to actually sit down and see. Nothing groundbreaking. Simple, but well executed.

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Turn on the light ⇢ How production can ruin a movie.

It took me a month to finish Nokturno. I watch few minutes here, few minutes there, but it never grabbed my attention enough for me to dedicate more than 20 minutes in one sitting. Why?

How was the movie? I don't really know. I was mostly watching my reflection on screen because the film was so freaking dark. How can I feel invested in the story, when I literally do not see what is happening? Scared? Of what, when the scares I hidden in the black hole of the lighting department. It was simply frustrating. I was putting my laptop right in front of my face trying to catch a glimpse of that's going on. I honestly considered getting into worsedrope with hope a pitch black could help.

I get it, horrors are usually not supposed to be all bright and light in tones (though, some of the best titles do use light setting for their advantage), but we still need to see something. Anything.

That said, it's not like the poor lightning was the only issue. The plot itself was just mediocre at best. The idea behind the creatures? Interesting - that's the movie I want to watch. Or at least get a better more elaborate explanation of the background. The say way they did not flesh out the supernatural elements, the human on was underdeveloped too - the relationships between the characters, their motivations, reasoning for their choices. Everything was always summed up in one liners.

Nokturno feels like a cheap version of The Ring with The Nun aesthetics. It just felt extremely sloppy. Decent performances meant truly nothing when everything else was distractivelly bad.

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They were not running in circles, they were running a circus…

And I became the Chief Clown with zero regrets. It’s not that something was not right, everything was wrong, but somehow felt just right.

The whole show was stupid. The premise itself and the conclusion it led to made me laugh more than once. Yes, it might have been a slightly “I’m going crazy with this bullshit” laugh, but nonetheless, I was entertained. And by all means this should not have been this fun to watch.

The whole plot is one and the same thing - one misunderstanding and countless miscommunications and wrong assumptions about it… over and over and over again. Ba U? Extremely determined to self-sabotage any potential hope for happiness. He literally is the type of a person who would say “no you don’t” after someone confesses their feelings to them. He was so confident and assured in his wrong assumptions, facts, logic and evidence could not change his mind. He was delulu.

Then we have Ji Hun, my man was going with the flow with no action so hard he was basically not moving at all, but spinning around getting dizzy, just to be like “I guess I was not clear about it” - you were not unclear - you made no statements, you did nothing. He was also delulu.

And then we had Ha Min, who was the cherry on top of this radioactive cake. Loved him since episode one. He knows no boundaries and is so cheeky about it, it was hard for me not to appreciate his presence. He also worked double shifts to make sense of Ba U and Ji Hoon, and if you ask me, made all the right choices. No matter how unhinged he might seem, he was in fact the only one that was not delulu.

While the repetitiveness of the plot did not bother me at all (I actually found it weirdly entertaining), I cannot say the same about the directing and editing. What’s the point of having longer episodes, when we keep getting flashbacks of things that just happened? Characters making the same mistakes all the time is one thing, but then me having to witness them twice every time is just too much.

Acting wise it was fine. I did like Jung Je Hyeon and Ji Min Seo a lot in their roles, but Choi Min Ho as Do Ba U did not fully convince me in some scenes. Sadly, I think it’s the eyes - surprised look with no real emotions behind them.

Overall, if someone asked me why I liked it, I won’t be able to answer and not look crazy. I liked it for all the wrong reasons. I liked it for the flaws and how ridiculously entertaining they were.

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Why did it feel so cheap?

From writing, directing, filming to acting and editing - everything felt cheap and mediocre. Which is somehow surprising, since the cast is actually rather good, filled with well know supporting actors.

The plot was extremely basic and predictable. I'm confident half way through majority of the viewers will understand the mystery behind the house. The structure of the plot was also extremely messy. The opening scene logically makes sense, but the way it was "blended" to the story just felt off.

Not one character was well developed and that includes So Hui. Detective Nam should not even exist, since he did not bring anything to the table. In Gyeom's introduction was good, but the way his connection was explained was not. Hye Ran was there to fill the screen.

Overall, I was rather bored. I did chuckle a few time, but for completely wrong reasons.

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How to ruin a drama with the last few episodes - tutorial.

I am sorry (now really), but the last 3 episodes were tragically bad. They went so slow pace in the previous ones, it felt like they had to fast forward three seasons worth of content in the last 4 hours. And it made everything feel so cheap.

Maybe I expected too much? Maybe they just switched the pacing too rapidly closer to the end? Something just did not feel right at all. They started to kill every character left and right, many things that were set up as important had no lasting effects nor consequences and I became completely detached from it all.

I think my biggest issue is the fact… the drama felt weirdly empty. With the slower paced romance, they should have developed the surrounding plots more, but they did not. Nothing really felt like it was highlighted - neither the romance, nor politics, not the scheming. And I just feel empty after finishing it.

Nothing felt like much of a threat, because no one actually did much. The big secret palace maids organization? Did two things throughout the whole plot, barely shown. King Yeong Jo? Bipolar turned dementia - clearly loved San so he never felt like much of a threat either. Hwa Wan was just dumb. The drama pretended like there was some grand complex plot with political struggles and fractions, and then nothing.

I actually wish they made it more character driven. Deok Im’s internal conflict was extremely interesting, especially since no matter what choice she would make, it would hurt her. I wish this was developed to a greater extent. And this leads me to one question: what the fuck happened with the plot after King Yeong Jo died.

They literally fast forwarded all the most interesting aspects of the plot - the aftermath of Deok Im “giving in”. They kept giving me “x years later” and it just made me angry. So many emotional scenes were flat because they completely lacked the context. Do I care about the little prince dying? No. Why? Because I do not know this child at all, I did not see one scene of his existence and then he is dead. Whatever. Yeong Hui dying, while sad, was also so ridiculous - the girl really went with “sex is worth dying for”. And it could have worked, if they set it up.Everyone was just dying left and right, and I was just laughing. And then Deok Im died and my conclusion was “you must be fucking kidding me”. But that was not the end, because San also died, and so did I.

Everything that happened in the last 3 episodes should take place in at least 7. I am so confused about the pacing and writing for this show. What happened? Was it supposed to be a longer show and they had to cut it short after half of it already aired? I just do not understand the choices that were made.

All that said, there were still a lot of things I love. Hong Deok Ro was easily my favorite character. How brazen and misguided he was became one of the highlights for me. I also loved his scenes with Kang Tae Ho and the contrast of what they view the true loyalty was.

Then we have the friendship between Deok Im and the other court maids.

The dynamics between Queen Jung Sun Kim, Consort Dowager Hong and Princess Hwa Wan? Amazing. The power struggle, the scheming and plotting. I want the whole show focused on them.

I know a lot of people loved the acting here, but I was not convinced. I watched the main cast and I kept thinking about other more defining roles they played. I kept seeing them as the actors playing the roles, rather than the characters themselves. The acting was good, don’t get me wrong, but somehow I was never wowed. Probably the best scene from the whole drama was the confrontation between San and Deok Im after the Crown Prince died - the defeat and the answer were extremely well presented.

The Red Sleeve also presents amazing beauty - both in terms of visuals and the soundtrack. Starlight Heart is such an amazing song. I kept listening to it on repeat.

Overall, I was entertained, but left disappointed.

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Braincells left the room…

I honestly feel like whenever there was a choice between write and wrong writing wise, they took the lightspeed towards the latter.

I did not even hate the premise. Was it ridiculous? Yes. But it could have been fun if executed well. It was not though. Which is sad, because friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes.

We have Akk and Theo - cute best friends separated because of evil forces of emigration. They also are brainless amebas. The number of “I knew, but didn’t tell” and “I didn’t know, and didn’t ask” and “I was confused so I assumed” was ridiculous.

When the big reveal happened, that it was in fact Theo who acted as Enchanté, I already checked out of reality, but then they tried to explain his reasoning, and it just killed the 3 remaining brain cells I had. You made this whole ass ploy to get attention from Theo? That’s just psychotic. They could have just given him DID.

Akk was not better, but with how mother was, I’m not explain. I still cannot believe that 20 minutes before the drama ended his mother LITERALLY told him Theo probably likes his friend from France more, and that this friend is better for Theo than her own son. Wild. And then the next day when Akk said he does not deserve Theo, she did not even try to deny it. Who needs enemies when you have a mother like that.

Then we have musketeers of fake romance and one “artist”. Natee changed his crushes more often than teenage girl, Wayo legit needs to go to rehab, because he has serious gambling issues, Phupha who was borderline stalking Theo and Saifa was who was so chill he literally barely existed.

Last two episodes? Fever dream. Conflicts coming out of nowhere, resolutions being even less logical. My boy Akk having lower self esteem than poor female leads from early 2000s kdramas curing his issues with one 20 seconds chat with Friend friend. Divorce, separation, emigration, break up, proposal… damn they truly threw everything at me hoping something will stick.

Till I see true improvements I’ll keep saying it - maybe during the workshops they should practice other scenes not just the romantic ones. Yes, all these BL boys aced the “I’m in love” and “I’m pinning” look, but the moment they need to deliver any normal every day line, they fail… painfully.

One thing I did actually enjoy was the music.

Overall, fun for the wrong reasons.

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Felt like a short slice of life dating show.

I am sorry, but if you start this show to watch some thrilling drama filled dating shows and everyone being into everyone - it’s on you and it’s your mistake, when the synopsis literally says “Centered around travel and friendships”. This is the “slice of life” version of dating shows.

It’s not really focused on romance, but it does encourage some connections when needed. It was for sure more about friendships and chilling while remembering the previous seasons. For some contestants it was about getting some closure. That said, we did get a few interesting potential future couples from it. The title is fitting though: it’s just a beginning. The show gives us the potential first step, and shows nothing else.

I liked it. Quite a lot. Since I already knew the cast, I could focus on their interactions. I liked a lot of scenes that were focused more on the friendships, rather than the flings. I got what I expected to get and what I wanted to get. Yes, I do wish the show would be a bit longer, but again - this is not really a dating show. It’s more like a special season - these are always shorter.

I also really liked how they invited couples from previous seasons to sit on the panel since they know these people better than any viewer can. Not to mention, it's great to see at least Exchange does not seem like a completely staged show with couples breaking up the moment it finishes airing, because there was nothing truly between them in the first place.

At the end of the day it’s a sweet, short, feel-good special season that is directed strictly to viewers of the previous ones. There are no big romances and dates. It’s just friends hanging out and some finding more connection with each other than others.

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Trying to balance horror and drama is not always a good choice.

In this case, the drama was far more engaging than the scares. The story about a female lead learning from the beginning how to view the world would probably work better as a slice of life - at least with the scenes presented in this movie. Loved to see how she still needs to assist herself with other senses, because she doesn't know how to fully depend on her eyesight.

Even the drama related to the cause of the nightmare reality she needs to face was great. Diving deeper and in more detail in these stories would be amazing.

And the horror? Mediocre at best. They did not deliver the scares, nor the true suspense.

Acting itself was good. My favorite performance must be Yut Lai So as Ying Ying. Adorable actress and heartbreaking tale.

For the production, you can feel it's 2002 movie based on the special effects. What’s more? They thought they were clever with the braille credits, but nope, it was dumb

Overall, neither the story nor the horror was that well written and presented. While I was not bored, I was not that interested either.

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Conclusion: everyone was wrong and everyone was right.

And I don’t know how I feel about it. I’m honestly convinced a lot of people got brainwashed by how good the last few episodes were, to believe this drama is a true masterpiece, when at the same time most of us agreed that the whole mid section was quite meh.

Here’s the thing - by the end of the drama I kind of wanted everyone dead. Personally, there wasn’t really a character to root for. Everyone was hypocritical and painfully frustrating. On one hand, this was one of the aspects that made the drama objectively good - complex and flawed characters. On the other hand, it left me with no emotional stakes - I couldn't care less about what will happen to all these people. And I’m a character driven viewer: I can watch a boring plot, as long as I like the characters, but I get bored with an interesting plot, if I don’t vibe with anyone.

It started strong. Sure, I disliked fans’ favorite - Bang Won, but I adored a lot of other characters: Sam Bong, Boon Yi, Bang Ji. All characters had distinctive personalities, motivations, and moral values. But the closer to the end we’ve got, the less interesting the majority of the characters became. Some were just stagnant with little to no change or development, some completely lost any individuality and felt a bit too like plot devices. Sure, Bang Won and Sambong were great, dynamic, driven, smart, but also amazingly flawed. But it’s “Six Flying Dragons” not “Two Flying Dragons”.

All that said, Six Flying Dragons for sure had one of the most fulfilling endings of all dramas I have seen - everything just made sense and I could clearly see how all the events and characters led to that conclusion. It was just satisfying and I might have cried just a little bit.

The performances were amazing. I know many people are not on board with Shin Sae Kyeong, but for me, she did exactly what the character demanded from the actress. She was not supposed to be this charismatic and badass fighter, she represented the normal people and for me, her delivery matched that energy well. Objectively speaking I know Yoo Ah In did an amazing job, but I disliked Bang Won so much, it’s hard for me to verbalize what was good about the performance - it for sure made me feel a lot of different emotions… Best performance though: Park Hyuk Kwon. Being able to deliver both Gil Tae Mi and Gil Seon Mi, and make them feel like truly two different people was a phenomenal job done.

As for production - impressive. The fact that even after 8 years the drama does not feel dated at all is surprising. The styling, production value and budget for dramas changed so much in the past few years, achieving this level of quality in 2015 could not have been easy. Best part? Fighting scenes! The choreographies were truly pure perfection. Some I rewatched good 10 times.

Overall, it’s a great and addicting drama with a bit too much filler plots in the middle part.

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My brain is dead, but at least I had fun?

I get people loving it because it was entertaining, but damn this was extremely poorly written. Too many plot points were simply ridiculous and beyond unrealistic and too many things were just vaguely explained. Some scene progressions were questionable at best, distasteful at worst. One of the best examples - the way they switched from showing physical abuse to a silly rap battle made me so uncomfortable. Or when the witness starts with “she almost made me blind”, but they end the statement on “she asked me to buy her sanitary pads” as if that was the worst thing he had to deal with - is this a joke? Social satire? What is going on?

I think the biggest flaw of the drama was Cha Woo In. She was stagnant throughout the whole show, and her character development happens before the story starts. She is presented as a basically flawless person - smart, strong, righteous, caring, determined. Anything she had to learn she already did, anything she had to improve she already did.

On the other hand, we’ve got some great development for the other characters, including many supporting ones. Stories that focused on admitting to your wrong doings, facing the consequences and learning from them. Lessons that show kindness can change a person, even if we think they can never improve. Surprisingly a lot of depth considering the over the top scenario.

The highlight of the drama? Everything Noh Tae Nam related. I would love to see a drama focused on him as the main character. This could be some great character study.

Production value was the standard high quality we get from tvN - nothing stood out either on the positive or negative side. The soundtrack was great, especially the opening song - Ha Hyun Woo has simply magical vocals.

Overall, it was fun, but painful for my brain.

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While the first and second half of the movie did not exactly fit in themes, both had quite good ways to create suspense and scare the audience - be it with visuals or the story itself.

Personally I enjoyed the first half far more - the mystery of all the supernatural events, the small details in the background that you need to pay attention to. The directing truly made me focus on what was happening on screen, since I did not want to miss any one of the bizarre moments - all thanks to some small detailed images.

And then the story started to get explained and for me it lost a bit of its charm. The scares shifted from unexplained supernatural to human’s evil deeds - it made me more uncomfortable than scared. There is value in exploring such themes, but it was not something I was looking for in this specific title.

The acting was decent. Nothing too outstanding, but good enough not to get distracting. Koki did a good job with the duality of her performance.

Overall, kept my interest till the end, even if the second half was slightly disappointing.

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Who comes up with these ideas?

This started so normal if we compare it to how it ended. I was in tears from crying during the last 20 minutes. Undoubtedly they had a lot of creative freedom while writing and filming this movie.

It has everything - decent CGI, awful CGI, small snakes, big snakes, friendship, romance, morality lessons, social commentary - all in the amazing trash quality.

I did laugh because of a few stupid jokes that were perfectly timed and well-delivered. I’m just glad there were exactly zero seconds where they tried to be serious about the plot. The acting was surprisingly fine - ain’t no high production quality mainstream title, but I was expecting something far worse.

Whatever comes to your mind after seeing the poster and the title is exactly what you will get.

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Why was it so wholesome?

And why did I enjoy it so much! Give me a gory slice of life with amazing friendship and sweet romance. How does this combination make sense? No idea, but it was fun.

This movie is not scary, this movie is entertaining, heartwarming and silly. Yes, the deaths are gruesome, but the stakes are non-existent. This is probably the most chill horror I have ever seen - no worries, no true tension, just pure enjoyment.

The plot could be separated into distinguishable sections depending on the characters; knowledge of what is happening around them and the growing friendship. With that, it never felt boring, and surprisingly not repetitive at all. We’ve got a cute slice of life during the day, and nightmare in the night - how did it click so well? No idea, but I loved that format.

Production value was fine. I’m glad we only saw the Red Person in the dark and shadows, because giving us a good view of it would ruin the fun - the design was just too silly, looking like something from Five Nights at Freddy's.

Overall, initial confusion about the tone of the movie turned into a tiny excitement and overall a pleasant experience, which is a rare thing to say about a horror movie.

Ps. Don’t even watch the after credits scene - it’s dumb. They thought they got the viewers with a twist, but it makes literally no sense.

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