Kate

Entertaining controlled chaos.

The show was a really good way to get more accustomed to the trainees and get to know them better. Most episodes had a rather simple to follow 3 part structure: pre-game that allowed the trainees to gather clues about werewolves, werewolf game (which is basically mafia), and then the final game with two winners - everything portrayed in a specific setting (hence the costumes the guys were wearing).

Not gonna lie, the werewolf/mafia game was my favorite part. I could easily just watch them play the game for one and half hours and it would be entertaining. Sometimes I was amazed how smart, intuitive or observant some of the trainees were, at times I was laughing on the floor because of their dumb mistakes.

The enjoyment of the show and the specific episodes might depend on how much you care and like specific trainees. I would be lying if I said I was equally entertained watching them all - sometimes I felt bored watching some scenes, in other episodes I was crying from laughing so hard and rewatching moments that made me almost die.

Overall, it was for sure fun. You can watch all the episodes, but if you are not that interested, just check the episodes with the trainees you like. Each episode has its own unique plot, so you don’t have to worry about not understanding anything if you skip one or two.

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The Host is a movie that can be both enjoyed as a simple monster flick, but also as a satirical commentary on US Foreign Politics.

On one hand, we are presented with a family drama that focuses on rescuing Hyun Seo, daughter of the protagonist. On the other hand, we are witnessing the inept behavior and planning from the government, which is too heavily influenced by the American presence. The at times ridiculous and uncaring attitude of certain groups of people did frustrate me to the core, but it was an important part of the storytelling that made the movie more impactful.

The performance was stellar. Song Kang Ho and Byun Hee Bong left such a strong impression on me. Not one performance felt off or below the standard set by the main cast.

I also appreciated the still camera shots that allowed me to truly grasp the situation and focus on the actors' performance and delivery. The directing wasn't distracting. It was a great balance of impressive and aesthetically pleasing shots (the visual aspect) and great storytelling.

Overall, even though the movie was made almost 15 years ago, it aged really well. It did not feel dated, the effects and CGI were good. To some extent, it is a statement piece, so reading about the inspiration and political background of it, makes it a better watch.

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Urban legends - crime edition...

...but there were not enough crimes nor urban legends. 2 out of 3 stories were technically driven by crime that is linked to the Futmalls.com website, yet I felt like there was barely any investigation going on. It wouldn't bother me much if we got to see more of the background story of said website and its products - did not happen. The mysterious products linked all the plot lines, but at the same time, the whole story led to nowhere.

That said, I still quite enjoyed the drama. "Best-selling author" was a perfect opening for a short show like that, "No chance to grow" hit harder on the emotional side and "Air doll & Internet celebrity kidnapping" made a quite weird, but interesting ending. If we can even call it an ending.

The show does not have the greatest cast of the characters. Bai Yong Xin was the most fun and interesting one to watch. On the other hand, Zhao Xu Zhen, Yang Nian Jun and Li Zhong Wei were painfully stereotypical. I guess, these types of characters actually work well for the "urban legends" kind of deal. That said, Nian Jun was presenting some next level of poor and dumb decision making skills closer to the end of the show.

The quality of the production was quite high. I liked some transitions between frames, especially during the questioning of the witnesses/family members scene in the first episode. The special effects were nicely done too. I have to appreciate the makeup artists that worked for them, for the well done bruises that looked truly realistic.

The acting was good. The roles were not exactly that demanding nor required amazing acting skills. I was most impressed by Phoebe Huang during the "No chance to grow" story - her emotional delivery was quite nice.

If the news about season 2 comes out, I might add 0.5 to my story and the overall rating, since it seems like a nice introduction to a larger plot, but is questionable as a solo project.

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The best way to watch this movie is to not know what it is truly about and trying to guess the forces involved as the plot unfolds. Questioning the reason behind all the evens happening both in the past and present are what kept me interested. It was fun to guess if it was psychological thriller or the paranormal ghost story or something completely different. With the way the scenes were presented, any guess was valid.

On one hand it's a story about the sacrifices people can make for the ones they love, on the other, how you cannot escape the destiny and story written for you. It had heart, tension and some good scares. One of the scenes, that I would probably pick as one of my favorites from any movie I watched this year relied only on the sound and was such a refreshing way of creating suspense.

The acting was quite nice. I was hesitant to start the movie because of Ok Taec Yeon, but since his character was not that complex, and served a purpose of guiding the viewers, I was fine with what he presented. He was more or less the exposition.

The movie is also shot in a beautiful way. Many scenes were presented from unusual angles and I could clearly see how much attention was put in the lighting.

There was one aspect of the plot I wasn't too happy about, but since it's a major spoiler I will write about it in comment section under spoiler. But even with that, I could appreciate the story for what it was. Another thing that was slightly off was the makeup done on Kim Yoon Jin to make her look older. Even though better than in many other productions, it was still not fully believable.

Still, would definitely recommend. Best to watch with lights off and headphones on.

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Love the directing, editing, acting and aesthetic of this, but I was questioning some of the writer’s choices for both the characters and plot lines.

First, I don’t quite get the mother’s character. She switched from crazy to normal to crazy far too quickly without truly good reasoning. Matsuda Yusuke's massive love was at least weird. They tried to somehow explain it with the origin story, but even that brought more questions and annoyance.

So why do I have a problem with the origin of the newspaper? It had no place in such a short drama. With the past story, the whole new world of possibilities has been opened, but close to nothing was explored. The dynamics between characters have changed, but it was not organic enough for me to accept, it was a normal progression in the story. Sometimes not explaining every detail and keeping viewers in the dark till the end is a better choice. Nothing's more scary than the unknown.

The mechanics of the Terror Bulletin were also questionable: Can the same bulletin be delivered more than once? Why would past bulletins work? And wouldn't the last episode "cheat way out" not only not save her receiver but also create more victims?

I have to say though, I enjoyed Shiraishi Sei’s performance a lot. The character was well written and realistic. It showed some flaws and the bad/questioning choices were almost made. The will to survive and the empathy in her were a nice internal conflict that had me shocked a few times.

That said, the ending disappointed me greatly. It should have ended around 31 minutes in the last episode. That would be a nice commentary on how selfish people are, and the fact one good person cannot fight it on her own.

Do I think it’s scary? No. Not only that, but I believe some of the deaths could be seen as funny for few viewers. I found them disturbing and weird, but they never frightened me. The plot got a bit messy closer to the ending, but it was an enjoyable watch with a few good pictures created.

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I’m not sure what happened in the whole show? I was in love with episode one, but later my enthusiasm died down. The last two episodes brought it back though.

I loved how over the top and slapstick the comedy was at the beginning, but as more episodes came out, they were less grounded in the situation and plot, and more of mini comedy skits. That's not exactly my type of a show progression, but I still enjoyed it.

I really liked the dynamics between Nott, Pun and Arm. This type of love line was overdone so many times, but here, a simple take on the story was perfect, since the surroundings were so crazy. Not only that, Nott’s character was quite well written. His “what is love” scenes were surprisingly heartwarming and deep. For a sitcom like this they, quite straightforwardly, talked about consent when someone is intoxicated. Big plus. Overall, lots of depth under all that silly comedy.

I must say, I was quite impressed with Yoon’s acting too. All the supporting roles were overacted (that was a stylistic choice for the comedy bits) so the tone down and more natural acting delivered by the main cast balanced it well. I actually wanted to rewatch some scenes simply because I liked what Yoon did with Nott’s character.

WARNING FOR VIEWERS! The whole show is quite an “acid trip” in terms of editing. There are many weird sequences with flashing lights and loud sounds. If you are sensitive in terms of visual stimuli, I would suggest skipping this show completely.

Overall, it’s a light (borderline dumb with some bits) show that should never be taken seriously. If you don’t like sitcoms, you most likely won’t like this too. It’s extremely unrealistic and silly, but that's the charm and the point of it. Even with some over the top elements, it has quite a few nice messages hidden between the comedy skits.

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The idea behind the movie was quite nice: telling a few horror stories and linking them with Kim Ji Won's character as a storyteller.

[ Haewa Dal ]
The best quality of this part is the amazing use of sounds and silence. While it does at times rely too heavily on jump scares, some scenes have built an amazing atmosphere with the use of strategically placed silence and slow motion. I was on the edge of my seat and wanted the scene to end because I felt all tense and needed to know what would happen. That's when they stretch it out with slow motion and ambient sounds. This setup was extremely effective.

What's more, I appreciate how the 2nd half of the story rather than going with supernatural horror, showed the true horror of reality and how terrifying people can be.

[ Fear Plane ]
I don't have much to say about this story. It was... boring. The idea itself was nice and it could be used to create an interesting thriller, it just did not work when framed as a horror story. The ending did not make much sense. Neither the human nor the supernatural aspect was scary.

[ Kongji, Patzzi ]
For such a short story there were simply too many elements and it couldn't end right. They should have picked either the rivalry between sister, the husband's story or the supernatural element and developed just one, but well... we can't always have what we ask for. The "scary" scenes were quite funny and ridiculous at times. Definitely overdone with how gruesome they were supposed to look.

[ Ambulance ]
Nothing worse than too much shaky camera in a zombie movie. The plot was as unoriginal as possible. The ending was extremely predictable from the beginning.

Overall, I believe they had nice ideas for all the short stories, but no direction at all. In all of them the human element was supposed to be the true horror. The ghosts and supernatural beings were there just for jump scares. The first story was directed the best, and I would recommend ending the watch on this one.

Since all the stories were directed by different people and plot wise have no connection to each other, we can easily treat them as short separate horror movies, instead of one production.

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While I usually love some complexity for crime driven dramas, the setting of this one made it impossible to enjoy.

My expectation might have had a big impact on how I view it. I was hoping for a rather simple plot with some amazing characters to dig deep into. The sad truth is, the plot was "complex" but full of predictable traits. We had some amazing characters that were never really used to their full potential. It would be much better if the whole story truly revolved around the kids, and no adult was connected to the cases. If we could get the "kids can do evil, kids are not all innocent" kind of scenario.

The whole drama should focus more on what is happening in school, but it didn't. The more the plot progressed, the more side stories we've got: prosecutors’ story line, an investigation by the police, adults’ politics, corruption.

If you set your drama in the school, you should use this place to its full potential, and that's what they did at the beginning. We’ve got to know the dynamics and rules of their school life, the background for the main characters, how they interact with adults, who is the top dog and how they use their power. But the further we got into the plot, the more unnecessary grown ups doing adult stuff we've got. The drama switched from being "school" to "crime/corruption" kind of story.

How amazing and tragic of the ending we would get, if they didn't show Beom Jin's father much. If we weren’t sure if he was connected to the case, it could have been only Beom Jin's view of it. And when we finally get that last court scene, he truly was just helping Soo Ah and there was nothing more going on between them. We could see how Beom Jin's obsession about his image ruined him and his family. How the lack of communication and keeping secrets can lead to a tragedy. It would have more heart and value. The true ending was simply disappointing.

Overall, the drama was kind of enjoyable, but definitely not because of the plot, but rather a few characters I liked. I skipped some scenes, especially the investigation ones, which I often watched at 1.5x speed. The trend of mixing everything in the plot and making it more complex than it has to be is really popular lately in dramas, and this one is not an exception.

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This was sweet and funny, but at the same time left me thinking: what the heck have i just watched?
It felt a bit like nonalcoholic drink when you crave some percentage. It was so short, it did not really have time to set the mood, vibe and hit me in any way.

I still appreciate how they managed to give some nice and relatable messages that can apply to many different contexts, not just a specific one presented by the customers. Universal takes that could make your life better.

The acting was also good for a short web drama like this. Especially impressed with Kim Wook in episode 2 and his quick and effective change of performance.

My biggest issue? Lackluster production. The music was too loud, the cat sounds were cute, but at some point overwhelming. I was bombarded with different auditory stimuli, I struggled with focusing on what I was watching.

That said, I loved the fake cat paws. That was probably one of my favorite small details from the whole show.

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Good execution of a basic story.

While the movie has high production value, good writing and great cast, it brings exactly nothing to the table. We have seen this story in a similar setting quite a few times.

These are always the same questions: What does it mean to be human? How far can we go to survive? What can we do for power and control? What makes some movies tackling these ideas stand out more than the others are cast/performance and the unique setting. Medical trials on clones is not exactly an out of the box idea. And with that, the movie is interesting and enjoyable, but easily forgettable. Sure, a few scenes showcasing Seobok’s special abilities were fun and more unique takes on the typical clone scenario, but surely not enough to make this production outstanding in any manner.

Gong Yoo carried the whole film on his shoulders. The performance saved a rather stereotypical character. On the other hand, as much as I like Park Bo Gum, he made me feel exactly nothing as I was watching Seobok. What’s worth mentioning - the small beef between Chief Ahn and Kim Cheon Woo was probably the most entertaining aspect for me.

The production was great. A high budget movie delivering high quality effects and action scenes.

Overall, a good watch, one that most would enjoy. Will I remember it to later recommend to others? Probably not.

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Expected a goofy horror, got a tragic tale.

I did not expect a semi-solid plot when I started this movie. The last 30 minutes makes the film worth the watch. Don’t get me wrong though, there is not much depth. It’s tragic, sad, and at times infuriating, but there is no social commentary about what happened, and the ending might seem a bit disappointing.

Still, there was a lot of potential. Especially surprised by well constructed plot twists that added layers to the story. It was also visually great - none of the special effects seemed cheap, no typical ghost with long dark hair creeping around. There was a clear vision on how the movie was supposed to look like and what story it was supposed to tell.

It’s worth knowing there are some triggering scenes in the movie - a few more clearly shown than others, but they might be too much for some viewers.

The acting was decent. Honestly speaking, except for Cheryl Yang, none of the other cast members had the opportunity to even start flexing their potential skills.

Overall, surprisingly nice, way better than I expected just based on the synopsis and my previous experience with randomly picked Chinese horror movies.

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So good and fun it should have been a series.

It still works perfectly fine as a movie, but there is just so much to explore and both the characters and connections between them could have been more deep and engaging, if this was more than just a movie.

I finished it, liked it, was entertained from the beginning till the end, liked the characters, even ones I was skeptical about at the beginning, and yet the last thought I had - I needed more.

The characters were too diverse for this length. I did not get enough well paced character development from Mikado Kosuke, not enough in-depth exploration of Hiyakawa Rihito’s trauma and how he dealt with it for years, not enough time to truly understand and accept Hiura Erika’s actions. I wanted more background about the past events for the 3 main characters. More conversation about the power of belief in contrast to the power of not believing.

So many cool concepts, ideas and stories that could easily fill a short series. The source material was made for it, and yet all we’ve got was a movie. A good movie, but it could have been great.

On the note of source material, I tried to read it, but the sexualization of the connection the main leads had was just distracting and a bit ridiculous. The sensual exorcisms just made me laugh, so on that aspect, I’m actually happy the movie changed things up. I would appreciate a clearer indication of the feelings they had for each other, but there should be a middle ground between what was in the manga, and how much the cut out for the movie.

Acting was great. Shison Jun’s emotional scenes got me good. Especially the one after he passed out. The build up of the emotions the character was experiencing in these few minutes was delivered in a perfect fashion.

What’s more - the film was beautiful. Maybe it just fits my aesthetics, but I loved every frame of it. I also appreciate the gore that was excessive at times, but not gross and cartoonish.

One thing I would complain about was the soundtrack going from church choir to old school games. At times it completely did not match the scene it was played for.

Overall, I would recommend it. If you know the source material and expect a BL, this ain’t that. But it’s a nice story that vaguely touches on some interesting concepts.

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Basic plot sandwiched between fun opening comedy and great ending action.

Been awhile since I laughed so much during the opening few scenes of a movie. Does not happen a lot that I rewatch action sequences. Both happened as I was watching Mission Possible, sadly only at the beginning and the end.

It’s a goofy and lighthearted comedy with a small twist that could have made it even better, if it was used to its full potential. I wish they used the duality of Woo Su Han more - it would serve for both great comedy and great action.

There is nothing truly special about the plot, but with action comedy, it’s not a bad thing. I honestly believe the complex plot should not be distracting viewers from the entertainment a simple comedy delivers.

Acting was great. Especially liked Kim Young Kwang’s performance. I knew from the start the character he is playing is not what he presents himself to be and the acting perfectly carried the “unexpected” situations.

Overall, it’s a simple comedy with simple characters and nicely done action and choreographies. I wish they pushed a little bit harder on the jokes, kept the slapstick from the beginning more present till the end. The middle part just felt a bit empty and stagnant.

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It’s just a fun compilation of different characters dying because they were unlucky enough to step foot in the cursed house. - more or less that’s the plot.

If this is your first Ju-On movie, you won’t get much history and background of the curse and how it was born. There are some hints, but they do not serve as a cohesive set up for the story. That said, I strongly believe we don’t need that here.

In horror less often means more, especially if we talk about the supernatural. The harder the story tries to explain things, the more convoluted and boring it gets. I appreciate how we get none of that here. Just a creepy lady with a creepy meowing kid killing people because they are pissed about their crap life. That kid… personally scared me more than the pro yoga mother rolling down the stairs.

It’s short, but effective for a midnight watch in a dark room.

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A whole bunch of nothing...

The movie was basically like these "haunted lactation explorations" tv shows, where nothing happens for 40 minutes, but then they exaggerate the reaction for the smallest whisper or a creak. It starts well introducing the case and building the atmosphere, but then it plateaus till the end and gets more and more boring with every minute.

Have to say though, the directing truly made it seem like a realistic reportage. Appreciate how each footage they showed made sense, and I never questioned "who filmed it?" - these small things that completely ruin the immersive experience.

The acting was also good. Because of the intentional often low quality shots and shaky camera, we could not really grasp the full performance with all its detail, but it was good enough for what it wanted to present.

They way they presented the story itself was painfully basic.

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