Reviews

Just My Personal Opinion — Neither Negative nor Positive, Please Respect It

“2gether: The Movie” is a cinematic adaptation of 2gether: The Series and Still 2gether, condensing the entire story of Tine and Sarawat into about two and a half hours. It includes a few new scenes and bridging moments, but for the most part it retells the same plot already seen in the series.

The film follows the couple’s journey: from their fake relationship that starts as a joke to their everyday life as an official couple. The structure feels like a large recap, which comes with both strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, it makes the story more compact and smoother, cutting out filler and secondary episodes; on the other hand, it sacrifices much of the context and little moments that originally gave the characters more breathing room.

From a technical perspective, the directing and cinematography are consistent with the original production, without much innovation. The added scenes are nice — especially those designed to give a more definite closure — but they aren’t enough to make the film feel like a truly new experience. The soundtrack remains one of its strongest elements, with Kan Goo and other familiar tracks immediately bringing back the atmosphere of the story.

Bright and Win deliver the same performances that viewers already know. If some people felt their chemistry was lacking in the series, the film doesn’t really fix that: the compressed storytelling gives even less time for emotions to develop naturally. They remain charismatic, but overall the result feels more like a “best of” than a new chapter.

Personally, 2gether: The Movie felt more like a product made for fans who wanted to relive the story on a big screen than a standalone film with its own strength. It’s pleasant, it makes you smile, and it does provide a clearer sense of closure, but it doesn’t add much for those who have already seen both series.

In conclusion, “2gether: The Movie” works as a celebration and summary of the phenomenon the series once was, but it doesn’t have the narrative weight to stand as an independent film. It’s a light, nostalgic bonus that will mostly appeal to viewers already fond of Tine and Sarawat.

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Silly, Sweet, and Surprisingly Fun

a romantic comedy that perfectly captures the spirit of early 2000s Korean rom-coms. It’s full of clichés, over-the-top situations, and slapstick humor, but also capable of making you laugh and giving you a pleasant, lighthearted experience.

The story begins with a completely absurd encounter: Ha-Young, a high school student, accidentally damages the car of Hyung-Joon, a wealthy and arrogant college student. From there, a 100-day contract forces her to serve him, creating a relationship filled with quarrels, provocations, and comic mishaps. The plot never aims for realism—quite the opposite. It embraces the absurd premise and uses it as the foundation for both comedic gags and unlikely romance.

From a technical standpoint, the directing is straightforward and nothing groundbreaking, but it keeps a lively pace that avoids boredom. The script is predictable and sometimes forced, with very obvious twists and dynamics that may feel naïve by today’s standards. Yet, that’s exactly what makes it nostalgic: this film is a snapshot of a very specific era in Korean cinema.

The performances add a lot to the story’s charm. Ha Ji-Won, despite playing the stereotypical clumsy student, brings genuine energy and makes her character endearing and funny. Kim Jae-Won embodies the classic “arrogant male lead” archetype, slowly softening as the story unfolds. While exaggerated, his character works in this context. Together, the two leads create enough chemistry to make their transition from enemies to lovers enjoyable and believable.

The soundtrack isn’t particularly memorable, but it fits the comedic and romantic tones well. There are no standout musical moments, but it stays consistent with the film’s lighthearted atmosphere.

Personally, I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece, but it’s impossible to deny that it entertains. I found myself smiling a lot while watching, and a few of the gags genuinely made me laugh despite the simple writing. I loved the ending—it was sweet, heartwarming, and left me with a positive feeling that lingered even after the credits rolled. It’s the kind of conclusion that makes you think that, for all the absurdity along the way, it was worth it.

In the end, “100 Days with Mr. Arrogant” is an adorable guilty pleasure: imperfect, naïve, and dated, but charming precisely because of that. If you’re looking for a light comedy with no pretensions, something to make you laugh and leave you with a lighter heart, this is the right pick. It’s not a film that will make history, but it carries all the carefree energy of a rom-com that knows how to deliver a couple of hours of genuine fun.

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Breath of Fresh Air, Mature Romance, but lacking a bit in memorability

Refreshing, mellow, and mature. A very comfortable watch, celebrating the small moments and the simplicity of falling in love with the right person. No villains. No huge misunderstanding/lack of communication. No beating around the bush. Very much a breath of fresh air.

However, the one thing that keeps it from being 10 stars in my mind is the lack of memorable impactful moments that stick in your mind and make you want to replay the scene over again after you finish. This film didn't have any of that.

Still, rewatch value is high for when you just want something cozy to cuddle up with.

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The movie had heartbreaking representation of reality and how the fear of being bullied leads to internalized homophobia.

Minha already accepted his feelings and is not afraid to admit it in public. He didn’t even try denying it when the girls were bullying him. The bullies beat him up and yet he still openly expresses himself because he knows there is nothing actually wrong with him.

Sangbeom on the other hand fears all of that. Perhaps because he was already bullied before transferring. For him coming out is harder because he fears he will get bullied again. The reason behind the bulling wasn’t told but it was most likely because he was gay and maybe thats why Minha said he doesnt want to know.

The pharmacy scene also showed how open Minha was.
One scene I really liked was when Sangbeom reached for Minha’s hand on the bus. it was at the very back of a bus in a small town and maybe that was the only place where Sangbeom could express his love in public.
That scene really showed that Sangbeom really wanted to show his love too.

But imo the communication was lacking. It is expected fron teenagers, but if the person you love gets bullied, staying silent is not the best option.
And the way he blamed Minha for it too.

I wish he just would’ve tried comforting Minha a little.
He blamed Minha for it and didn’t even try to tell him that he is afraid when Minha expressed his frustration and desire to hold his hand in public. Instead he just got up and tried to leave.


"Do you tink things will be better once we are adults?"
"-What do you mean?"
"I don’t know… but… we can make money and drink and smoke. And watch X-rated movies."
"-You’re so childish. "
"You know what I mean. There’s more stuff to do. "
"-You do that."
"What are you talking about? We’ll do it together or it won’t be fun. "

This scene showed that Sangbeom as looking forward to a future with Minha despite their struggles, while Minha stayed silent, because he didn’t see himself in the future at all.
This is why I personally think that Minha most likely committed.
Maybe he planned it for a long time because at the beginning of the movie he draws an illustration. At the end when Sangbeom opens his locker he finds a Peter Pan drawing.
Peter pan is a character that lives in the Neverland and never grows up. While the character Wendy grows up.
Minha could be Peter Pan because he won’t grow up if he died. And sangbeom grows up at the end.

My fav quotes from the movie:

"Who do you keep cutting yourself?
It will leave a scar."
"-Because I hate being alive."

"i want to walk holding your hand. why do you always let go?"

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ML amazing!

I watch this a few months ago and i really liked it. I watched with my brother and father and they really enjoyed it too. I couldn't help but be shocked by the show opening up with a photo of Minji from new jeans. Idk if this is foreshadowing or some sort of symbolism, but im kinda confused. I liked how this show shows how much of a problem a lot of men are and how much it is a big issue that women who are just living life, are harrased. The main lead did amazing and his acting was great! I enjoyed had they didn't sprinkle in a little romance and left it as an action. Overall, this movie was a great memory and i recommend.

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Great introduction with a chaotic ending | They butchered this movie so hard. dang!

Just a piece of advice—do not trust the recognitions and seemingly good reviews written in Wikipedia, it will only dissappoint you.

This movie started promising but ended up to be one of the most chaotic and disappointing horror film I have watched so far. I trusted Wikipedia so much and expected a lot from this film. The introduction was seamless and the way they set it up to be mysterious and interesting was very eye-catching, unfortunately, they didn't live up to the expectation and ended up choosing a route which led to chaos and absolute destruction of the movie.

I can still recall how excited I was during the pre-climax of the story (i.e. the countdown before the ritual) but was totally caught offguard and bewildered on what was happening after the ritual was disturbed. It feels like the production team themselves got no idea how to continue with the story that they decided to turn it into a group possession and a massacre.

It was chilling and horrifying, I will give them that. However, I simply cannot stomach how they made such a promising piece into a ridiculous one. This is truly disappointing, considering that this is a collaboration of a South Korean and Thailand production team which I assume to be veterans of their field.

Note: I totally accept tragic endings but not the kind of ending which seemed like it was turned like that because they can no longer squeeze any ideas from their creative juices. Geez!

Lastly, what's funny about this whole film is that the camera man always tend to be the one surviving or the last one to die. Their dedication in capturing every moment is admirable. LOL They always do their best to find and pick up the freaking camera instead of leaving to prioritize their safety. They're the backbone and savior of this movie. Without them this will not even turn into a creation. Haha!

Story - 6.0, They butchered it so bad. I don't know what they were thinking... I feel like they desires a failed exorcism/ritual but do not know how to make it all work out. Sad!

Acting/Cast - 9.0, I am quite pleased with the main cast. However, I do not think collaborating with South Koreans with such theme (Posession) is the best thing to do. Thai do produce great horror movies and this being a mess is telling me something...

Music - 8.5, Sound effects contributed a lot to the scare factor of the movie and I would say that the sound team did good on that area.

Rewatch Value - 1.0, Definitely, NO! You can never ask me to sit and watch a whole 2 hours+ movie and get disappointed again!

Overall - 6.0, The stories introduction was great and I don't know what kind of vision they have for the ending but they obviously doesn't know how to do it right reason why this film turned out like this. This is also the reason why people shouldn't be too greedy, specially if they don't know how to make it work!

IF you find my review helpful please let me know.

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On a quiet day, when I need to feel grounded in something purely human...

Perfect Days is not a film for everyone—but for those who connect with it, it offers something profoundly moving. It’s meditative, quiet, and incredibly human, focusing not on what happens, but how someone lives when nothing extraordinary happens at all.
The story follows Hirayama, a Tokyo toilet cleaner with a deeply structured, minimalist life. From the outside, he seems ordinary—routine-bound, almost invisible. But as the days unfold, so do the tiny, deeply personal moments that reveal the emotional richness of his inner world.
What makes this film so unique and powerful is its restraint. There’s barely any dialogue. The pacing is intentionally slow. But it’s in those silences, in the repetition, and in the subtle shifts in Hirayama’s expressions that you begin to feel what’s beneath the surface—loss, peace, nostalgia, quiet joy. The people who pass through his life—strangers, coworkers, even a niece—are few, but each encounter feels meaningful. It’s a film about being seen… even when the world isn’t really looking.
The cinematography is beautiful in its simplicity, and the use of music—especially 70s and 80s Western classics—adds a quiet nostalgia. It’s a character study in the truest sense: no drama, no twist, no climax. Just a man, his routines, and the emotion hiding in plain sight.
Pros:
✔ Incredibly raw, real portrayal of a solitary life
✔ Deep emotional resonance with almost no words
✔ Stunning minimalistic cinematography
✔ Honest portrayal of loneliness, dignity, and routine
✔ A final scene that says everything without saying anything
Cons:
✘ Very slow pacing—not for all viewers
✘ Minimal plot and dialogue may feel uneventful if you're not in the right mindset
Would I rewatch?
Yes—on a quiet day, when I need to feel grounded in something purely human.

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Food that heals

Ramen Teh aka Ramen Shop was a sweet, nostalgic look at the romance of a young Japanese man’s parents when they lived in Singapore. Masato set off in search for familial answers and a recipe that was inexorably tied to his mother. If you enjoy films with food, Ramen Teh may leave you hungry as Masato cooked his way through his mother’s recipes and visited the Singaporean food scene.

Masato works at his father’s popular ramen shop in Takasaki. Ever since his mother’s death when he was ten, he and his father have not been close. When his father suddenly dies Masato discovers his mother’s journal amongst his father’s belongings. Written in Mandarin, he’s unable to read it. Feeling a gaping hole in his heart, Masato heads to Singapore to find his mother’s brother who owns a small restaurant. Not only does he want help translating the journal, but he dearly longs for his mother’s Bak Kut Teh, a pork rib soup he’s never been able to duplicate. Miki, an on-line friend and Japanese food blogger living in Singapore, meets up with him and translates the journal. The journal includes not only his mom’s thoughts, but also her recipes. Masato finds his uncle who is overjoyed that his nephew has returned, but his grandmother will have nothing to do with him. Masato will test whether food can heal a broken heart and a broken relationship.

This film was very simple and predictable, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t heartwarming. The story often flashbacked to his parents’ romance and their early married days when Masato was a child. Food figured prominently both in the past and present. It was also a nice travelogue as Masato visited the places from his parents’ photographs in Singapore. After discovering the reason for his grandmother’s hatred of the Japanese, Masato visited a museum that had a display detailing the atrocities committed by the Japanese during WWII. Shaken after learning the disturbing details from the war, he realized winning over his grandmother might not be possible. But Masato had secret weapons on his side--being a grandchild and developing a special ramen recipe to weaken her resolve.

Food, especially beloved family recipes, evoke strong emotions, it is a connection to family and friends, binding relationships through taste and life-giving sustenance. Even the familiar smell of a simple meal can transport a person to a happier place and awaken faded memories. Masato traveled in search of family, a recipe, and that which was thought lost, creating something very special along the way. While Ramen Teh had a tendency to meander, the final course was the pièce de resistance and enormously satisfying.

18 August 2025

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Ghost In The Machine / I Bury The Living (?)

A jealousy and cuckolded husband “kills” his wife and then, in a macabre farce, carries her around in a hearse to extort money from her former lovers, but not everything is as it seems...

1964 was a remarkable year, which saw the release of this curious work by Hajime Sato:
It came after the untimely death of the master Ozu (which, incidentally, also coincided with the retirement from the screen of the extraordinary Setsuko Hara) and the release of interesting works that, curiously, also arrived in Italy:
Among the many, Teshigahara’s beautiful “Woman In The Dunes” (often shown on TV) as well as Suzuki's “The Flower And The Angry Waves” and “Gate Of Flesh” (among my favourites by the master), Masumura's ‘Manji’ (another personal favourite of mine), Shindo Kaneto's ‘Onibaba’, as well as works by Imamura, Honda, Shinoda, Naruse (who has been criminally ignored here for decades!) etc.

‘Sanpo Suru Reikyusha’ by Sato, known internationally as ‘The Glamorous Ghost’, also arrives in Italy but is released with a completely different title (a practice that is, alas, widely abused...) and becomes, for some reason, ‘L’ Amore scotta a Yokohama’, something like ‘Love Burns in Yokohama’…
But why, as many have pointed out, is the action set in Tokyo, what does Yokohama have to do with it?
Who knows!

Although difficult to categorise, but well analysed on various websites that have discussed it over the years, the movie can be considered a black comedy with a grotesque atmosphere, with decidedly surreal touches and some concessions to the macabre that place it, with considerable freedom, in the so-called “Ero guro” genre, with all that this entails…

Decidedly ambiguous in structure and morally cruel in its portrayal of the characters—all of whom are deeply unlikeable—the film truly seems like an allegory, or rather, as is often the case in many works from the Land of the Rising Sun, a parable about the destructive power of money which, when all is said and done, always leads to ruin due to greed and cupidity.

One of the film's greatest strengths is its ability to bring out the worst traits in all of its characters, who are largely devoid of humanity and feelings, driven by the murkiest of impulses, greed for wealth, coldfinancial calculation and abuse of power, taken to the extreme.

If the characterisation of the taxi driver husband (Kō Nishimura, with his extraordinary career) is a mediocre figure, lacking in scruples and moral integrity, ready to adapt and exploit the various twists and turns of the situation, he does not present any positive characteristics, his wife (Masumi Harukawa, also a veteran actress) is no less impressive, a treacherous double-crosser who coldly and lucidly exploits her (arguably questionable) attractiveness not for exclusive physical satisfaction, but purely for the desire to get rich...

And the supporting figures who gradually appear throughout the story are no less (obnoxiously) remarkable.

A grotesque comedy of errors, ‘The Glamorous Ghost’ inevitably ends up being compared to ‘The Comedy of Terrors’, one of the last movies by the great Jacques Tourneur, which coincidentally came out just a year earlier. Tourneur’s movie, it must be said, is certainly not unforgettable, revealing its main strength in its excellent and entertaining cast.

This work by Sato, a director perhaps hastily placed in marginal categories of Japanese cinema, on the contrary, thanks to remarkable black and white photography that increases the contrasts between light and shadow, contributing to amplifying the caricatural effect on the characters, his skewed, distorting shots, and moments of amusing surreal comedy (such as the trips in the hearse and the visit to the morgue with all the corpses awaiting burial) is still appreciated today, thanks to its somewhat macabre, undoubtedly unconventional taste, which may not be to everyone's liking, but certainly a faithful reflection of contemporary society, where everything seems to be driven by money and selfishness and where no redemption seems possible, as can also be inferred from the mockingly ironic ending.
7

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Right person wrong time

This movie is the fictional tale of a trope that is quite usual in real life that is "right person wrong time". Although Shu Yan and Yu Xuan were able to overcome their curse of time, it doesn't quite happen in real life.
Upon first glace, the story of this movie seems like a typical time travel story, where both the partners try to save each other, sometimes even sacrificing themselves. However, after a while, I had understood the moral, a little bit. The universe is always pushing people in and out. As much as it is fate, it is also divine timing of events that results in key defining moments of one's life.

For Shu Yan and Yu Xuan it was death. If they stayed together, they'd fall to their deaths. However, when they met at a certain time after they usually did, it was divine timing. Both of them had achieved something that they wouldn't have otherwise. They were able to overcome their demise by wishing on candles.

The movie was executed perfectly. The message was vague but understandable. Albeit a little sad, but thought provoking. I was happy Shu Yan and Yu Xuan got their happy ending as not many couples get it in the real universe. As they say, it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

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Charming

Really wasn't sure what vibe the movie was going to give off going in but was pleasantly surprised at the layer of light-heartedness that topped off a serious case. It did a great job with highlighting the concept of "beyond a reasonable doubt" and keeping the human aspect of jurors. Jurors from different backgrounds, those who are anxious to get to a resolution because of the time it's taking out of their own responsibilities, and a judge with good intentions but has also become more methodical from years of experience.

For only less than two-hour session, it was well-paced and well-rounded.

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