Kate

There are some movies that are obviously cheaply made, but you can see that at least some people cared while making them. This ain’t that. No one gave a shit about how the end product is going to look like.

The production was just awful. The continuation of movements and even the pacing of the walk was off almost every time the camera cut to a different angle. There is no excuse for the bad CGI either. Youtubers who do special effects as a hobby at home on their laptops can deliver better results.

Don’t get me started on the storytelling. Literally there was no way of differentiating between the present time line and flashbacks. And I truly mean no way. It made everything painfully confusing. You kind of need to guess what scene belongs where and what is the past and what is part of the present.

Where was the demon fighting? Where was the action? Where was the doom? It was all a basic love story. That horror genre is a joke and should be changed to romance…

Overall, while the performances were decent, everything around them was not even mediocre.

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So, it was not a comedy?

Halfway through the movie I truly had to go check the genres, because I could swear it’s a cheaply made comedy that was supposed to jab at some social issues and horror tropes. To my surprise, the comedy genre was nowhere to be seen.

Kuta did one thing well, and one thing only - they truly presented the characters as realistic and annoying social media influencers. They were surprisingly realistically written. Sadly the performances were mediocre at best, awful at worst. I mean, one side character literally laughed at the joke he was supposed to deliver for the viewers…

The directing was quite chaotic. The mix of found footage and normal filming is always annoying. You show me all the vlogs to give that feeling for realism, but then the other half of the movie is shot in a normal fashion? Either commit to the found footage or not.

The worst thing about this movie was how bored I was watching. The writing, directing, filming, editing… nothing truly holds viewers attention.

Overall, saying it was mediocre would be a compliment.

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Maybe it’s a good movie, but the initial character introduction and the set up for the plot was so long I lost interest and struggled to focus on the plot later on. The movie is only 1 hour and 30 minutes long, so why did it feel like a 3 hour deal?

On paper the script probably sounded like a fun quirky comedy with a twist. Yet, it was not really that fun, the pee and puke jokes were juvenile and the twist was obvious from the start.

Random complaint, but the color grading was truly not my style. Everything was orange/yellow, the color saturation too high, but at the same time the whole movie felt dim and dark. It just felt heavy for the eye.

On the bright side, the acting was truly solid and I loved the job makeup artist and practical effects team did on the ghost.

Overall, I guess it’s just not a movie for me. I can see it being a fun watch as long as it’s viewed by the target audience.

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Dark heartwarming comedy drama - mix I never thought could work.

Korea back at it again - making completely unrelatable scenarios feel relatable. The emotions were raw, the characters complex and the story both warm and heartbreaking.

It was unexpectedly funny. Yes, I know it was tagged with the comedy genre, but honestly speaking, many drama comedies have more bitter sweet takes on what’s supposed to be funny. Here, I actually smiled and laughed quite a few times. The story was dark and yet they managed to create some funny moments even from quite gore and violence driven situations.

The best part of the movie was for sure the (in my eyes) one sided connection between Tae In and Cho Hee. The way Yoo Ah In presented the character of Kim Tae In was both beautiful and painful. A character that seemed to give up on everything, just following whatever others told and not presenting even a slight of active behavior. The gradual and minimal and yet impactful change we see after he had to take care of Cho Hee was amazing to watch.

That said, I think it’s a movie you have to read the synopsis for. I honestly don’t think it would be obvious and easy to understand Cho Hee’s character if it was not for what I read about the plot. She is the center of the plot and one of the main characters, so the vague understanding of who she is that we get from the movie itself, could have been improved.

Acting wise - perfection. Yoo Ah In did not say one word during the whole movie, and yet I perfectly understood what he wanted to convey during his scenes. Moon Seung Ah did a phenomenal job with her portrayal of Cho Hee - a character so complex I am amazed a child was able to deliver a believable performance.

On the production side, I don’t think any compliments can truly express how beautiful the movie was. The wide shots gave such a warm and, strangely slice of life feeling, that grounded the movie in reality, even with the not so mundane plot.

Overall, a great movie with great performances and amazing visuals. One that I could easily recommend to anyone.

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This movie is painfully 3D.

It’s so over the top, I honestly think I would get sick if I watched it in 3D in a cinema. Honestly, the makers had no chill. They thought “What elements can we make in 3D?” and went with the answer “all”. Because of that it feels as if the whole movie was done on a green screen…

It just felt cheap? It feels closer to 2004 than 2014 production. Technically speaking, with good storytelling and production this could be a horror movie with a social message… Sadly the delivery of… everything was off.

It just borrowed plot lines, stories and twists from other horror movies without adding anything new and refreshing.

Overall, rather skippable. It's one of the movies that ends I the viewer has little thoughts about it.

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Gory and gimmicky to the point of comedy.

Sadly, I’m disappointed. While it still was a fun and entertaining watch, season 2 lost the unique and eerie atmosphere season 1 was able to create. Too much blood, ripping of the skin and flesh - they even shot an arrow with an eye being attached on top of it. None of the scenes were shocking, unique, memorable - it was all about giving more action and more blood.

I’m not gonna lie, I do not watch Kingdom for the plot. It’s not new, fresh, complex nor groundbreaking. It's the same old court politics and struggle for power we have seen thousands of times. The court plot was literally the weakest part of the series, and yet it was the focus.

The characters also lost some brain cells in this season. Too many stupid decisions and actions for the sake of creating visually appealing shots. How many characters can just stand there watching the horde of zombies running straight to kill them, just so we can have that 3 seconds beautiful shot?

Queen’s arc and conclusion? Anticlimactic at best. We got to the end of it and all I could think about was: that’s it?

That said, it was not all bad. The action scenes were great. They found just the right balance between the dimmed light and enough visibility so we can actually witness the fights without losing the atmosphere. Throughout the whole show the lighting was just a masterpiece of its own. The way they worked with light and shadows was just beautiful.

The acting was exactly what we could expect from the cast - brilliant in most cases. Kim Hye Joon felt flat in some scenes, and I wished to see a bit more expression from her character.

Overall, it lost the impact season 1 created, but was still a fun and entertaining watch. It got quite a few laughs out of me.

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What a confusing structure and plot progression…

So much happened, so little made sense. It’s a mix of prison break, enemies cooperation (really short lived), military/medical experiments - and it all feels like a long first episode for a drama. It’s not like the movie did not have a solid ending, the whole plot seems like just a beginning.

First of all I feel scammed. What is Seo In Guk doing in the main cast? If we talk about the actual plot, these are only 2 main characters. Then the whole first half could not exist and it makes no sense it was so long. Literally everything that happens in the first half is more or less inconsequential in the second half. There is an extremely sharp turn and cut as to where the story goes that made me think - so what was the point of watching the first hour?

I saw some people praising the action scenes, but realistically speaking there was maybe one good one closer to the end. The rest was just said “monster” taking everyone done with little to no effort. Yes, the movie was heavy on gore, blood, but it was not really that heavy on proper action. By all means it gave me a slasher vibes.

I don’t want to talk about the set up of the story because… what was it? They did not even try to make it believable. And I’m not even talking about the monster, I’m talking about the cops being idiots. You cannot first claim there are 20 police officers with all 10+ years of experience, to then make them act worse than rookies.

The villain/villains were generic with generic motivations. Comedic in their “evilness”.

Yes, the performances were great, but what’s the point when the story was bad?

Overall, This should have been 2 separate movies, or it should have been two first episodes of the larger show. In current format it’s weak, underdeveloped and confusing (directing an structure, not story wise).

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If I was to judge only the two main characters’ story it would be a solid 9/10, but I was not as entertained nor interested in the second couple and their issues.

The star of the whole drama, both in terms of character’s writing and the portrayal was for sure Erek Lin as Amber. One of the truly refreshing and important stories to be told delivered with great skill. I appreciated how Amber’s identity was quite obvious from the start for the viewers, so we could see all the internal conflicts he was feeling from day one, and how it made it easier to understand him and his decisions by the end.

While I also enjoyed Pu Le Chien, I think his struggles were lost in the lacking storytelling. There were many moments perfect for setting up what’s to come in the 2nd half of the show, but none were used, so when the actual conflict happened, it did not feel earned in terms of writing. Sadly, I was not as impressed by Lukas Huang. I had no issues with the "daily life" scenes, but the more emotional ones felt over the top, often exaggerated by the facial expressions, with little emotions actually conveyed.

Surprisingly, by the end of the drama, I loved Hsieh Yu He. Not gonna lie, I was quite scared they would turn her into a typical jealous female character, as we often see in BLs, so it was a pleasant surprise that she was written with more nuance.

On the other hand, I could have done without Li Ching Lung and Guan Yu Chen - both not really interesting characters, at moments even unlikable. Their storyline brought little to nothing of value and seemed like a typical filler couple.

Production quality was good - many times there was a good use of the lighting creating a great atmosphere for the scene to happen. All that surrounded by an amazing, truly perfect soundtrack.

Overall, for sure one of the better BLs with important topics being brought into discussion and no over the top dramatic plot twists and scenes. More down to earth, falling closely to a slice of life genre.

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Supernatural thriller about human’s weak minds.

Surprisingly well crafted and presented story, that despite its simplicity, was able to keep me interested till the end.

Expecting horror from this watch would be a mistake, and for me, the poster and the title were misleading in terms of the core focus of the movie - it’s not the wacky possession scenes Emily Rose style. The plot centers around the investigation of the missing kid - So Jin. While there is a fair share of creepy supernatural elements, the more important part is the human aspect.

How much are we willing to do in a dire situation? How easily can we be influenced and believe in unbelievable things when all the other options turned out to be futile? I felt like the true horror came from people, and not from the supernatural. Rather than a critical view on religious views, for me it spoke more on the desperation people face and how they are willing to try and believe anything as long as it might produce the needed results.

That said, I’m not the biggest fan of mixing different religions and folklore in one story (unless there is clear investigation of the origin that would validate it). A little bit of christianity here, some shamanism there, and big nothing big nothing by the end, since it’s neither one or the other in the conclusion.

The acting was rather good. I was not impressed with Shim Eun Kyung as Kang So Jin. She did not really have that much screen time, but the few scenes I have seen just did not convince me at all.

The production was good. Nothing outstanding and visually over the top. It had the usual thriller aesthetics with some darker suspense moments that were supposed to bring that horror out of it.

Overall, surprisingly fun to watch for such an overdone topic. Nothing new, but presented in a decent way.

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Improves with each episode.

Cherry Blossoms After Winter is not anything groundbreaking, it’s something we have seen in one form or the other countless times, but it is cute. Light and fun watch with some questionable directing in the first half.

Here’s the thing, the second half was truly nice. The plot seemed to have the right pace, the scenes did not seem random, the dynamic between the leads was more clear and easy to understand. That said, the first (about) four episodes were just confusing directing wise. The plot was easy to follow, but how the specific scenes did not flow well was at times funny. Characters be talking about going grocery shopping, so I get excited to see some cute shopping scenes, just to get none of that. It felt like quite a number of times they were setting up a specific sequence of scenes, just to give up halfway through, and cut to something completely different.

The characters were fun. Hae Bom had a nice and realistic character development - it was presented in a gradual way. Realistically speaking, Tae Sung was there just to like Hae Bom. Hae Bom was the main character who had to face different external and internal conflicts. Not mad about it. With a short show like that, it’s better to focus more on just one character.

Acting wise, I am okay with what I got. The shock I felt when I found out the ages of the actors was something new. Being in your mid 20’ and 30 and still being a convincing teenage boy? That’s an achievement.

Production, as I said, improved in the second half. The show was better structured. Instead of trying to fit many random scenes in one episode, we get less, but better paced and developed moments and present the dynamics and relationship better.

Overall, I almost dropped it half way through. It just truly jumped around a lot and it felt like random cute scenes put together to create a typical BL show. It’s still a typical BL story, don’t get me wrong, but the quality improved a lot in the second half, and I was actually excited for the new episodes by the end.

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I could see they tried, but they failed.

This movie attempts to give us various plot twists based on the non-linear storytelling, character development of the female lead, who learns her ways when she experiences the treatment she served others, commentary about the clickbait culture and cheap journalism, and then fails them all. The only thing worth complimenting are a few scenery shots.

Here’s the thing, you cannot make the female lead a trash human being and then try to make me care about her, while also not giving her any real, well written character development. The circumstances were there, she just did not react to anything with any sense of responsibility till the end of the movie. At first they introduce her as someone who values true journalism and tries to write about important topics, even if they are not popular in the clickbait social media. It does not take her even 3 minutes to completely change her attitude, trespassing on the accident site, moving around bodies to take pictures and stealing a necklace from the victim. And I was like... when exactly that change in her happened? Because it was never shown on screen. I honestly just wanted to see her dead.

The movie would also do better without any police involvement. That was a new level of idiocy, and I saw a fair share of dumb cops in dramas and movies. This tops it all.

U-Turn does not even try to build any type of atmosphere, there is literally no build up. They drop the ghost stalking the girl in the first few minutes, and then the whole movie is just copy-paste similar sequences.

As I said at the beginning, the only redeeming qualities were a few aesthetically pleasing scenes. The acting was good, but what’s the point of decent acting when the writing is worse than the grades I had in math in high school? And believe me, I had hit rock bottom then.

Overall, I would honestly not recommend it. It is not worth spending 1 hour and 30 minutes on it.

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76 Horror Bookstore presents 4 short horror tales with different themes and sub-genres - each episode can be viewed as an independent story.

EPISODE 1 - RENT
Probably the weakest of the episodes. Rather than scary, it was simply gross. Not only it contains animal cruelty, it feels like over the top edgy content, that crosses the lines just for the sake of the shock value. The plot itself was rather messy too, even with how short and simple it was.

EPISODE 2 - HUNGER
Horror with elements of comedy and a nice small plot twist that ends a well executed storyline. Saying that the opening made me confused would be an understatement, but everything made sense by the end. The narration made me laugh a few times, and even though it felt weird at times, it ended up as my favorite of the 4 stories.

EPISODE 3 - HIDE AND SEEK
Kids are creepy. Kids with masks are even creepier. This one gave me chills, but the shift of mood by the end caught me off guard and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Still, I enjoyed it a lot. The acting by the young cast was great, especially the main lead.

EPISODE 4 - TAXI
I'd view the story as a psychological themes packed in a horror genre. Pregnancy being a theme in horror is a bit off for me. I thought Rent was at times edgy, but one scene in Taxi was a whole new level of edge. I appreciate them trying to give the female lead a whole completed arc throughout these 20 minutes, and I think it's fair to say they have succeeded.

Overall, it's a short series of rather obvious horror stories that will not scare anyone. They are still entertaining to watch, some having nice twists to them.

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What a lovable mess this show is.

I don’t think I have any brain cells left to write this review, but at least I’m truly happy. I’m not even sure my brain can grasp what I have just watched.

This drama is a pure form of entertainment. Name a trope, and you will find it here: hidden identity, crossdressing, male lead going from borderline psychopath to cute lovely sweet boy with the power of love, poisoning, double poisoning, fake identities, making masks from human faces, crucifying people on torture devices, raping girls on the wedding night (which was amazingly called "doing the nasty" in the show), almost biting someone's lips off... and there is more.

I love the separate cases the main leads dealt with, BUT the main plot that unfolded as the drama progressed was weak. I truly couldn't care less about all the past events. Maybe if it was shown as more of a vital part of the drama itself, I would be more engaged.

Our main leads were truly an amazing duo. After we got past Lu Yi abusing his position to abuse Jin Xia (dude literally kicking her injured leg at the beginning episodes) the romance became truly adorable. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, but the fact they made it into "enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers" just made me laugh my ass off.

That said, Jin Xia was an awesome character. She was smart, driven, hardworking, brave (when the situation needed it), forgiving but also funny and a bit over the top. I could not stop smiling whenever she was on the screen. She is just one of the characters that make you happy as you watch them grow.

I also appreciate the fact that the 2nd lead was so useless and annoying. Xie Xiao made the watch so much easier for me. No need to fear SLS. It won't happen.

I wished we saw more of Yan Shi Fan. I wanted to see more of his behind the scene schemes. There was something about how he dealt with things and interacted with people that made me more curious and interested, but I didn't get enough. I mean, the drama went into some details about his character. For example, I know he has a foot fetish: 6.6 inches is the best length. I just wished he was more integral to the story in the first half. Sometimes he was completely gone for a few episodes which made him less scary and imposing.

That said, the whole cast did a great job with the acting. Nothing felt over the top. The emotions were clearly visible and fitting for the scenes. I definitely felt the chemistry between all the characters and couples.

Objectively speaking, though, I should not rate it higher than 5. Some plot lines were just lazy. Whole Chun Yu Min story is questionable at best. Some directing choices were ridiculous. The underwater scenes (which also made me call the show "underwater wuxia") were iconic bad. This is CGI level -100. The weird close ups on characters' eyes were more often than not, too much and made me feel uncomfortable.

But... the show is what it is. It was crazy fun. I did not laugh so bad for ages. Binge watched it in a few days. Once I started watching, I could not stop. The entertainment value is as high as it can get. And for that, I don't feel bad about giving it 7.5. Not to mention, the opening soundtrack is beautiful.

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Live without regrets, without waiting for a chance that might never come.

I will be perfectly honest - if I have not seen the Korean version, did not know how the story goes and was able to experience it all for the first time watching the Japanese adaptation, I would rate it higher. Knowing all the twists and turns did take away from the excitement I could have felt.

With that, I would for sure recommend not even looking at the Korean version and just watching this one. It’s better in almost all areas.

Starting from the story - cutting the number of episodes to 10 was a wise choice. The pacing has to be tight to keep the tension up. At the same time, they managed not to bombard me with rage-inducing scenes one after another, giving me time to breathe and calm down with heartwarming moments between leads, but also truly adorable scenes of growing friendship between Misa, Yuriko and Miku. I don’t know how, but they were able to seemingly blend borderline telenovela and slice of life and all the scenes had perfect flow and smooth transition.

I truly appreciate how, despite the crazy plot, the whole show felt weirdly grounded in reality. All thanks to the characters’ writing. Four main leads truly felt like real people rather than exaggerated caricatures of cliche tropes (as they did in the Korean version). Kanbe Misa was not as much of a pushover in her second life as I thought she would be. Suzuki Wataru, while still ridiculously perfect, had that goofy side in him that made it a bit more believable. And both Esaka Reina and Hirano Tomoya were not as psychotic (this is one of the aspects I actually liked in the Korean version more - Soo Min was just a different level of evil).

Most big plot moments were delivered in just the right time, with just the right amount of flare and drama. The execution was close to perfection in hitting these highlights. Wish it had more romance? I guess cutting episodes means removing some aspect, they did leave all the important bits in, and it's more about Kanbe Misa and her journey anyway, but damn I wished to see more romantic scenes, because Satoh Takeru is just that hot.

Acting wise, as much as I love Satoh Takeru and I truly believe he aced the role, the true star was undoubtedly Koshiba Fuka. I believed every tear, every smile, every smirk and every line. Be it happiness, sadness, anger, helplessness or hopefulness, frustration, excitement, surprise, confusion - she hit the right note for every emotion. She also looked freaking stunning!

As for visuals - beautiful. Aesthetic feast. The best aspect? Lighting. The way they just knew when to film to make the sceneries look better - no words to describe how grateful I am. Indoors, outdoors, morning, night - no matter when or where, they did their best to give us the most stunning views.

Random specific things I enjoyed a lot/liked better than Korean version:

First of all, the conclusion they gave for Kanbe Misa and Esaka Reina was extremely satisfying, had more depth and actual emotional impact than the original version.

Not name dropping BTS for cloud (or any other popular group). I am sorry, but that “favorite song” moment in the Korean version was so ridiculous and cringe worthy I borderline wanted to drop the drama because of it.

Suzuki Wataru not being a “barely emoting wall of perfection”. It was so good to see all these emotions clearly visible on Satoh Takeru’s face.

The views! Again, I am amazed with how beautiful this drama looked.

Overall, yes I am aware this review focuses a lot on comparing this show with the Korean version, but I honestly want to make it clear that if one has to pick one over another - they should go with the Japanese version first. Even though the drama is literally about getting second chance, at the end of the day it sends a clear message that one should not wait for miracle to happen, and should start living the life they want to live now - no regrets, no hesitation, not doubt.

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I could have enjoyed it way more, if it was not for the poster and synopsis, which are completely misleading. What I expected was a simple dark revenge story, that is led by violence and desperation. What I've got was two kids (as Bok Sun developmentally wise could be considered a child) running away from a serial killer and some unnecessary family drama.

It should have been a game of wits (on Tae Soo's side) and will (on Bok Sun's side), but the chase between them barely took place. We've got a serial killer being used by his family members and Bok Sun trying to run away and be safe with Na Ri, whom she started treating as her sister. It's hard to even say this movie had much tension, because every time something interesting happened, we were back to some useless side plot lines.

That said, the acting was quite good. Especially closer to the end, Min Ki truly gave the "monster "vibes" and delivered a creepy performance. Overall, rather than a terrifying killer, he looked like a loser.

I didn't quite understand the tone the director and writer wanted to give this film. The differences between funny, bright and silly moments with Bok Sun did not match the serial killer gore and craziness of Tae Soo, and that did not match the family dynamics happening in the side plot. All the new scenes got me out of the mood the previous scene had gotten me into.

Overall, I kind of had fun, but because of the synopsis I kept anticipating the fight off between the two main characters and the cat and mouse chase, when I don't really know who the cat and who the mouse is... but it never truly happened.

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