yeou_bi

I mean, it's on Netflix, I like Mamiya Shotarou and I thought it couldn't possibly be all that bad. But this was just.... Weird.

Edit: actually, now that I'm thinking about it, this movie was not just weird, it makes me a little angry. I don't dislike it as much as oboreru knife, but I don't like it either, and if I had known it was directed by the same person, I wouldn't have watched it.
Also, there are fun Japanese movies. Why does Netflix not pick up those for once?

Characters in Nojima Shinji dramas, as far as I remember, tend to have long monologues/dialogues in which they talk about life like they're Plato and his disciples. That's doesn't always work for me, but here it did because I think they showed an interesting view.
Like, I know that if you take it literal it's about pretty awful people in a pretty f***ed up situation, but to me that wasn't really what it was about? I think this drama is a snapshot on society and its values. Wanting to be a housewife/mother isn't wrong but that's not the issue. The issue are old-fashioned gender roles and how marriage is basically often seen as a business transaction. Like, if you actually pay attention to the lengthy dialogues, they really make good points. They talk about all these things. How women have to be docile, how to keep a husband by lying, how men feel entitled to cheat but won't allow women to (because "then they won't know whether the child is theirs"), how some people argue that keeping gender roles is natural (only to then admit that housewives only exist since the 20th century), how the country basically thinks that mothers are better at raising children than fathers and make it very easy for divorced mothers to forbid their ex husband's from seeing their children,... There are so many arguments that go beyond "woman abuses victim of human trafficking".
I understand that the premise is pretty awful, but to me that was also a comment on how it's possible that human trafficking like that exists and how easy it is for organized criminals to get away with literally selling off people? I mean, isn't that what we should get outraged about?
Also, I personally liked the ending because it shows that even the FL, a die-hard defender of traditional gender roles, realized that she isn't happy with being a housewife. She can't be a burden to a husband who she knows has no interest in supporting her emotionally, because he's on his holy mission to save the country or whatever. So what does she to? She eventually chooses a non-traditional relationship that is arguably messed up.

I didn't read the synopsis and knew nothing about it when I watched it. I guess because it's Chinese and on Netflix I hoped that it would have a unique story like The Wandering Earth, but the introduction already made it clear that this is a regular ol' "Humanity's Last Stand Against Aliens" kinda thing and I don't know, I think it was a fair effort? The story is straightforward and clichéd, the CGI is wonky, the hero is Good At Everything and the love story felt forced but.... Honestly, Netflix has a wide selection of mediocre movies and this was just one of them. Not the best, not the worst, totally good enough for a weekend at home.

Here's the thing: I'm not religious but I like movies about exorcism and that's normally not an issue at all. Movies about exorcism fall into the horror fantasy genre and they usually don't try to convert you but to creep you out. Here it somehow felt different. The main character repeatedly said that he did not believe in God, only to be repeatedly told that he did and that he only pretended not to believe because he was disappointed in God. And sure enough, after his hand kept bleeding and he saw all kinds of shit, how was he not supposed to believe, right? But it bothered me how that was presented because it reminded me of how people repeatedly tried to convert me. That bothered me because it ticked all the wrong boxes. I mean, a lost sheep that finds his way back? That is classic Christian lore, and that is not what I sign up for when all I want is a movie about gross, slimy exorcism.

I think it was totally decent it for what it was: An action flick with religion thrown in. But I totally agree with you. Both hero and villain kind of lacked motivations I could get behind.

The first movie of his I saw was Beautiful and I remember that I quite liked it, especially because it was so brutal and unforgiving. Then I saw Samaritan Girl, Time and Dream, and decided to not watch any of his movies anymore. Tbh, they make me uncomfortable because of the way he portrays females. His films are very good, but I guess it's like being allergic to a certain fruit. The fruit still tastes good but after you eat it, you feel sick, so you avoid it at all cost.

I know, right? At some point it felt as if the mandatory steps to every fight were a) get face covered in blood and b) get stabbed (or shot by an arrow)

Personally, I'm not sure if that's what it really was. I think he was attached to her in the same way he was attached to Hwi. They were family to him and in the end she was the only person who always treated him kindly. I think, by protecting her, he wanted to protect that part of himself that wasn't corrupted yet. But idk, that's just my interpretation

This was really good and I liked it a lot but I think I fell victim to my own imagination. Because it's that kind of show, I excepted a shocking twist, so I probably read too much into some scenes and thought that this was a story about an unreliable narrator. Everything was almost comically horrible, so I ended up thinking that it all just was in the ML' s head. They focused so much on him being a writer and having grown up poor, I thought he'd turn insane in his isolation and that he only made up the crazy murder plot. So tbh, this is really stupid but now I'm a little disappointed that it really jus was a straightforward story about a group of insane murderers who turned a good but weak guy into someone like them. Honestly, it's not at all bad the way it is, but... Idk. I've nourished my idea too much for almost the entire runtime.

I really liked the first half when you had all these bright and happy scenes of a father building his perfect little family and how those scenes were undercut by people calling him a liar over and over again to a degree that I questioned everything I saw. But the moment he died, things fell apart for me. I think the narration was unnecessarily cruel towards the mother. She had a shit mother, married a shit husband, was completely overwhelmed and lost it, but I feel like in the end the movie was kinder towards the father who did not do much to support her.And then it all just got so weird. The exorcism was cool to watch but I feel like the whole story just slowly fell apart and stopped being coherent. There were a lot of cool characters that I would like to see in their own stories rather than to see them all hashed together. Idk if this is because I'm not really a fan of horror, but I feel like even a horror story should at least have some sense of direction.

He's currently really losing me. I love Shimotsuma Monogatari, kiraware Matsuko no issho is my favorite movie ever, I liked Paco to mahou no ehon and loved Kohuhaku, so up until that point he was my favorite director. And then Kawaki happened and I was confused because I hated it... And now I've seen Kuru and the first half is great, but then it just gets super weird in a negative way. Idk. I'm still excited whenever he announces a new project but at the same time I'm scared.

I completely agree on Hwi's character development. I never not liked him but at times I wasn't even completely sure why he did some of the things he did, so somewhere in the middle I stopped caring a little. And that was especially extreme because I felt that Seon-Ho was a lot easier to empathize with although he arguably made some shitty decisions along the way.

Also, ahhh, yes, the constant fatal wounds! And let's not forget the blood splatters in everyone's faces the moment they stepped into battle! Both those things sort of felt like running gags at some which I'm sure is not what they aimed for

I think many people had that impression and I wonder if it's a little like The Untamed where the censors/producers absolutely would not have allowed the characters to be in an explicitly romantic scenario, so the makers just worked around it and made some scenes as charged as possible. Or they just really wanted to make an old-fashioned bromance and then realized that some scenes maybe could give the wrong impression. Whatever it is, while I do like the heroine, it does feel as if they only threw her in because some executive was like, "no one will watch this without a love story so come up with a girl who is, idk, a gisaeng or something"

What bothers me is how they dealt with Wang So's scar. Now, I don't know anything about beauty standards in Goryeo but it wasn't even the kind of scar that was very upsetting to see. Still, if it has just been that, I wouldn't have minded so much either, but I hated how the solution was makeup. The guy only gained his confidence by hiding something that was part of him and I really hate that message because in the end he covered it up at all times, even when he wore the mask. That's so in line with Korea's beauty obsession and I wished for once they had been like "this guy is super hideous (although honestly, he wasn't) but he deserves love despite his hideousness".

Just what I was thinking when So just threw the shreds on the floor and left them there lol

Japan. I also saw it in Germany about two months ago and there they said that it would first be released abroad and only afterwards in Japan, but I guess here the Japanese release date counts

Did anyone count how often Sun Ho eventually got stabbed/shot? Because at some point, every time that I happened I was like "aw man, AGAIN?"

This movie is extremely graphic and extremely uncomfortable to watch. Like, great chunks of the movie consist of being forced to watch how a man kidnaps and repeatedly rapes a girl. The description makes it sound like rapey porn, but I feel like they had to market it that way to sell it at all. Honestly, I'm not sure about the exact intention of this, but what it mainly does is show the psychological damage of rape to an extent I've never seen before. You see it all. How it begins, how she breaks, how she escapes, how people treat her afterwards, how it haunts her as an adult.

So, if anyone stumbles upon this and needs warnings, please read below spoilers

Those were my exact thoughts. For them to promote a foreign movie on a big scale (and not just in arthouse cinemas were they only show European productions) here, it has to be amazing... and that's how I knew I had to see it.