Reviews

Confused, but has the spirit.

This is one of the few things coming out of Asia that dares look at their fixation on women's bodies, even in the year 2025. For that, it gets some merit. Does it to it particularly well? Ehh.

This is a passionate project that feels very strongly about its issues, but it also fails to commit itself to carrying through, and it flubs the landing.

200 Pounds Beauty raises the question of women's bodily standards, sexism in the entertainment business, systemic shaming, pretty privilege and plastic surgery...while fat shaming and affirming those same things. It makes for a confused viewing experience.

The story line about Kang Ha Na's career resolves itself, the situation with Han Sang Jun does not. The relationship is the more poignant through line of the movie, Ha Na's love for this man who is kind to her face, but sees her as lesser. At no point is Han Sang Jun ever called upon to radically change his thinking, or to accept culpability for his attitudes and actions which have played across this woman's body like a warzone. He is a wholly undeserving partner for Ha Na, and the series shows its age and bias in the notion that she doesn't totally abandon him as a romantic prospect. He voices the same tired opinions as every other man- a woman must be beautiful to date him, but she can't have had plastic surgery to make herself into a beautiful object.

While this is an upbeat and often funny movie to watch, the undercurrent about female exploitation is quite dark, as is the production's inability to fully condemn it. Ha Na is surrounded by beautiful, untalented women; her talent only becomes worthy of attention and respect once she is beautiful; it is then which she is also no longer subject to being exploited by men around her, which is patently untrue. Beautiful women are at risk of more exploitation, beauty does not solve these problems. This lack of a critical eye and heart fundamentally cripple this movie, through it remains an interesting showcase in mid 2000's attitudes. For that reason, it is worth a watch.

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One might think “they should’ve done better”, there was a lot of miscommunication, unironically being deaf and mute isn’t just about the ability to hear and talk

The world is big, and people are privileged in health, education, love and family
But others aren’t, having something that becomes a burden a drawback, people with “disabilities” can lose their footing in life
Xiaoma felt unseen and unheard, so mumu was his everything especially after his wife left them and found another family
He was flawed because he was never given the same benefits as others
Just like how Xiao Jing felt unseen between her husband and daughter
Starting a family is a huge privilege and responsibility
It was like this in twinkling watermelon too, parents relay too much on their kids, they lose sight of their own behavior and it becomes a burden to those around them


This was really sad and heartwarming

I do have a problem with this tho
idk if the insurance scams happen that widely so that part felt a bit underwhelming with some of the conflicts
The bad guys purposely used “disadvantaged” people so I get them lying to him, tho his friend should've warned him
The friend wanted easy money and he had no guilt but xiaoma had too much to lose and no one to guide him, then he got caught up in the thrill of being able to make money for his kid, he lost sight of the most important thing, she was happy with him no matter what


I kinda assumed he was falsely accused for theft or something before starting this

The little girl was too precious ;( I also liked how they used real deaf people it made the movie feel more real and normal

And ofc my zhang yixing did such a great job, he’s neither a dad or deaf, but he learned sign language and used it even after this movie, and he was such a loving protective dad ;) he was so disheveled and raw and so emotionally expressive ;(

I do think most of the conflict would’ve been avoided if his ex talked to him instead of that aunt, She could’ve easily told him she wasn’t gonna take him to court

but it was also important to show how ppl easily take advantage and fool disadvantaged people
And honestly being poor is also a disadvantage in life, he had no connections to help, he got fooled by everyone and dragged in too deep

If amei didn’t talk, he’d have been falsely accused for life, tho I also think again his friend should’ve also backed her up


I also liked the aesthetics, the blue was like sadness and not belonging while they shined yellow to highlight how they were each others happiness
Idk shouldn’t he also get less time for “good behavior”? Honestly I was scared they’d kill him in prison
So I kinda wish they showed him in the future, it’s sad to think his daughter stayed in Netherlands(?) until she graduated college to come back home, so he didn’t see her for 15 years? I’d also assume he’d always be there when she got off work cuz he’d want to be around her all the time
So I felt that was a shame, both the long separation and not showing him in her future
The wife tbh stayed selfish, going to another country was beneficial for mumu but just like how she selfishly took herself out of mumu’s life, she continued to force mumu to be without her dad ;(

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A Fun and Heartfelt Surprise

The movie starts off a bit cheesy, but it quickly proves itself. It’s full of humor, exciting action scenes, charismatic characters, and—above all—a beautiful message about acceptance. A story that will make you laugh, get emotional, and leave you with a warm heart.

It's so refreshing to see a queer supernatural action-comedy film. Here's to more movies like this!

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"You always think you are different, but who doesn’t?"

No Major Spoilers, but I have tagged it as so anyway.

The spin-off doesn’t have a lot to offer as plot — we see a “comic relief” character’s point of view of the same world and characters, as he constantly believes the world owes him more. While ‘No One Like Me’ isn’t especially deep, it isn’t superficial either. I was forced to think, throughout the movie, of the amount of times I have felt the same, the feeling of deserving more and/or better than what I have. This drives the main conflict of the movie, along with asking the question of every “chosen one” fantasy — is fate already written or do we write it?

Surprisingly, this story treats the main character with a lot of respect. (minor spoiler) While we are made to believe the characters did him wrong, Xu Qian becomes the character who doesn’t deserve to “show” his face in this spin-off. The narration ofcourse is not fully reliable, as the main character himself admits near the end, since his worldview is tainted by his own grudges towards the world, (spoiler end) he still is not made out to be a joke. His view is potrayed with respect and care. Hence, you still relate with him, you root for him.

The original GoTD also dealt with the theme of “where does bravery end, and stupidity begin?”. This spin-off makes you question the same even more. It doesn’t debate at either side of the argument though, the takeaway and lesson learnt is fully yours to decide.

Liu Guan Lin fully, and easily, carries the movie on his shoulders. I’d imagine it’s hard to convince an audience to empathasize with you, for till now it has only considered you a joke. Yet he easily does it, from the very first scene. While He Hua didn’t have much to work with, her performance was enough to support the story move along.

Having talked of the things I liked, let me try and point some things that didn’t work for me.

1. The CGI remains mediocre, but that is true for almost all Chinese costume dramas, so I wouldn’t put it against this web movie which I imagine was done in an even smaller budget.
2. The pacing at times felt slow to *me* for a movie, but that could be my own lack of attention span.
3. This too could be a personal issue, but it took me quite a while into the movie to place the timeline for this plot happening in respect to GOTD.

All in all, a good GoTD nicotine patch that stands on its own legs, but I am not sure how memorable it is, or whether I’d ever feel the want to rewatch it.

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not your usual Thai GL drama

I wasn’t expecting anything different when I saw the poster, thinking it was another Thai GL drama with one of my favourite couple combinations but I was wrong.

I understand the creators wanted to add in the idea of multiverse but it was confusing (at least to me). the timeline jumps all over the place and I had a hard time following. I gave up trying to understand the storyline and just concentrate on the love stories between Kath and Lin in different timeline in the middle of the movie. Tearing at every timeline because I know something bad is going to happen at the end. I love tragedy romance ending and this does not disappoint. If you are like me, give this movie a try.

On the acting part, since I just finished GAP the series which is aired in 2022. comparing to then, I am happy to see the acting improvement in both Becky and Freen. more natural, and their chemistry is way beyond the sky.

but I am puzzled why they have to make Kath and her mom speak English in the show when they are in the states? I understand Lin had to since she’s with her space crew but Becky and her mom came from Thailand… so this part is slightly off to me imo.

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You Will Root for the Undersog

Based on mixed reviews, I almost did not watch this. But then Park Seo Joon and IU were in it and I like them both a lot. I needed this one after watching The Whirlwind Girl 2 and being extremely frustrated because she was so wishy-washy with her sport and competing. I loved that they never gave up. They kept on trying. That to me is the spirit of athleticism. I should’ve known with Seo Joon in it that it would be good like that because he picks those sort of roles. And I should’ve just trusted him. It’s a quick watch. It’s only a couple of hours. I wish it would’ve been a series because it was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but they did a good job with it in movie form.

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GOD DAYUM

I’ve never left a review before on this site, but as the title says GOD DAYUM was this good. I completely agree with all the praise and appreciation this film has received. Months later and I’m still thinking about this film, if you are reading this, just go ahead a give it a watch and thank me later! The leads in this film are phenomenal actors, the cinematography is superb, the atmosphere is brilliant and the story is incredibly sincere. I’ll recommend this to anyone and everyone.

(Check the triggers for this one though as it could be a difficult watch for some people)

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needs a ghost

There's a sort of Thai movie I often adore - an unrushed two hours, with the first half or so exploring the wee world they've created before they start to reveal its poignancy. Add in a ghost and maybe it's about grief and loss. Not crowded or heavy in the way of many western films, but gently making space for those emotions and surrounding them in kindness and warmth.

Love Stuck follows that general pattern - the set-up of two people wandering around the city showing each other cool things was perfect for that - but the delivery of its emotions in the latter half felt in your face and saccharine. Not the acting, that was fine. Or the way the Big Thing was telegraphed well in advance. But the music which was both cloying musically and had lyrics that spelled everything out - in English, granted, but it wasn't the way Thai production companies tend to use English lyrics. Some of the dialogue and other directorial choices. Thais usually do this sort of thing so much better.

I watched the US original to see if this remake was following its lead there. A few things really leapt out watching them back to back. One was how the early events they showed each other involved bad things happening to other people, which was commented on - "We really shouldn't laugh at other people's misfortunes" "But it is objectively hilarious" (they weren't). Does it say something about Thais and US Americans that the Thai remake chose to stay well clear of that? I'm an outsider looking in at both cultures so I don't know. Given how much else the movies had in common, it felt pertinent. Also the amount of casual destruction the US pair wreaked to amuse themselves.

Another bit I don't know what to make of is that while both wrote the young woman as the smarter/better in school of the pair, the US version included language like "Mark was right"/"I was wrong" from the young woman, with no reciprocity from the young man, and had the solution to their problem solved by his early input, information gathering and suggestion + her working alone to bring it about whereas the Thai handling let it be her smarts + them working together. There was more, including a bit in their romantic arc. All in all, her being smart was a threat to the man in the US version but not the Thai.

The music in the original wasn't so obvious about what we were supposed to feel but the beginning was more cynical. It's like they (Amazon execs? director and screenwriters?) just picked up the entire emotional arc of Love Stuck as a whole to move it away from the cynicism (that much is understandable for a Thai remake) even though it turned the second half poignancy to syrup. I'm at a loss for how else to explain or understand this. I've not seen anything from Thailand make its emotions so trite or saccharine. Perhaps the whys are US corporate execs looking to cash in on interest in Asian dramas? - the English language lyrics does suggest it was intended for a US audience.

Thai filmmakers and scriptwriters can handle emotion so well. Why they didn't in this, why it was more cloying and thus superficial than the US original feels very strange. From the other comments and some of the reviews, it works for many. But I can't recommend it. Not when there is so much better cinema from Thailand.

This needed a ghost - metaphorically - and the grounded, gentle Thai way of revealing the layers of emotions in this sort of story.

(Mid-level marks for "Story" because I had nowhere else to specify that my criticisms are about the way it was handled, rather than the plot itself.)

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DISTASTER hits AFTER ANOTHER DISASTER

Disaster strikes with a zombie outbreak, following an already devastating famine.
I have watched many movies and series in this genre—Hollywood, Asian, Western. They all feel the same with only slight differences. It gave me a vibe similar to Resident Evil ( i mean from cgi)
The cinematography was fantastic, and the CGI was impressive.
I like the concept of an infection spreading from toxic fish and the scarcity of food driving people to explore every possible way to eat and survive. I also appreciate how they showed that water made zombies stronger, as the virus originated from the fish.
The problem was that it was ridiculously amusing how the hero always managed to make it through.It was good that the ending was happy, and the hero should survive after saving his loved ones. However, you could make it more realistic, as he seemed to endure every possible thing that could have killed him—not only surviving but also being burned, cooked, and engraved.
You can watch it when you have nothing else to watch, just for enjoyment purposes.

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You have to shut down your brain sometimes...because it did not make sense

Disclaimer

What I am writing here are my views and thoughts about this movie. Some of you may not like it. That does not give you the right to try to come at me with your opinions on why this movie should get a higher or lower score and why it is better/worse than I think it is. You have your own opinions, and I have mine. Kindly respect that.

All right, start off by saying that I only decided to give this movie a watch, as I needed a movie beginning with the letter Z, and this was coming out on Netflix. I will say that it started out reasonably well with the story and the acting. We see why they have become zombies (answer: eating fish in a wasteland country, which they thought was safe). The graphics for this movie...oh wee! Thailand truly outdid themselves in that aspect. And while I was confused when the zombies began to mutate (I actually shouted, 'What the f$%k is even going on?!!), I saw from the comments section that it was a fish mutation. This then made sense to me, as they did eat fish, which began this whole zombie outbreak.

Now, it's from here that I am going to mention what stood out to me in a negative way. First, I will start off with the obvious. This man is fighting these zombies, most of the time, with his bare hands, as he is a Muay Thai fighter. At most times, I was basically asking myself, 'So none of those zombies can hold onto his hands and bite him?!! He's THAT good at Muay Thai?!!! ' I mean, it just seems unrealistic to me. But, apparently, this man is invincible, as later on, not only is he trapped in a car surrounded by zombies, but the car BLOWS UP WITH HIM STILL ALIVE IN IT. And he miraculously comes out unscratched and whole. Another time is when he is on the rooftop fighting off the zombies; the building blows up. And at the very end we see him – STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE and alone in the wasteland with the mutated zombies. This just doesn't make sense to me. Is Sing a superhero like Superman, and we just haven't found his weakness? Because how?!! How did he survive these two events and still be in one piece and alive!!!! Just doesn't make sense to me.

All in all, it was an interesting movie. The way it ended, if they wanted to, they could make a sequel, which then I will know not to think of what impossible things are going on in this movie but just enjoy the flow of it. And I would like to add that I saw a comment saying this was the worst zombie movie they have watched. I would like to introduce that person to a Filipino movie called 'Izla'- that was a pack of nonsense. I would like to end this review by saying that even with these few flaws from the movie, I was still entertained.

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Emotions you're not ready for.

I went into Moneyboys expecting something light — maybe emotional, maybe tender — but I wasn’t prepared for how deeply it would unsettle me.

Don't expect it be romantic drama. No! nope! It's to scars you. You sit there wondering their life choices. It’s a study of emotional repression, guilt, and the cost of surviving in a world where love is either punished or exploited. It’s slow, quiet, beautifully shot — but behind every pause and silence, there’s a scream waiting to happen.

The protagonist, Fei, is deeply flawed — emotionally distant, running from the past, and slowly unraveling through his relationships. He can't get over past inturn he's absent in the present. Unknowingly hurting people around him.

All the characters are written well, Lai, Long and Fei.

There are no big confrontations or perfect resolutions. Characters drift, disappear, die, or simply break. Every moment feels intentional — and every silence lingers. The ending left me hollow in the best (and worst) way.

Worth Watching?

Absolutely Yes — but go in knowing it’s not here to comfort you.

It’s here to ask:
What happens when love is buried beneath guilt? And is survival ever enough without forgiveness?

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Cool superpower fantasy drama with GOT7’s Park Jinyoung as a baddie

I am a massive fan of GOT7 so when Park Jinyoung announced his involvement in this movie, I was game to watch it with my ahgase friends. We watched on 12 June and my seat no. was G7 ;). Overall I enjoyed this movie.

What I liked:
1. Supernatural power - I liked the idea that supernatural power stem from donated organs. Their powers were cool - I especially liked the magic eyes!
2. Wan Seo characterisation - It's wonderful to see a teenage girl given powers of superstrength & agility. I loved her action scenes.
3. Yoo Ah In - I have read stories of his scandals but never watched his work until this movie came out. I must say that he had great stage presence. I was drawn to his performance even though he had lesser screentime than Ahn Jae Hong.
4. Park Jin Young - Jinyoung teased ahgase about his body at GOT7 NESTFEST Concert in Bangkok. Damn, those abs! Anyway Jinyoung did well as an antagonist even though he didn't have much screentime.
5. Dynamics - There are 2 father-daughter dynamics in this drama: 1) between Wan Seo (protagonist) and her father, and 2) between Yeong Chun (antagonist) and his daughter. Contrasting dynamics that were fascinating.

What I disliked:
1. Antagonist arc - I felt that they could do more with this arc if the running time had been extended. It's fascinating because it is related to cult and its leadership.
2. Screentime - With a big cast, it is hard to give equal screen time to the leading superpowered characters. Nyeo (yoghurt lady)'s power seemed the least useful in the group imho that I still couldn't figure out the relevance / importance of that superpower.

Favourite scene
When the team defeated antagonist

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This is the first time I’ve related strongly to a fictional character

I’m going to preface this review by saying that this movie is probably not for everyone. If you’re starting this out thinking that it’s gonna be a typical romcom, then there may be instances where you’d be weirded out. Or worse, you may even think that it’s boring. You’d probably have to be at a specific point in your life to really feel this movie in your heart.

It just so happened that I was at a specific point in my life when I watched this movie… and it spoke to me so eerily that I felt like the writer just peeked into my life and decided to make a movie out of it.

For the most part, it’s a character driven movie than it is a romcom. At first, they presented Yoshika as an adult that is still heavily caught up on her high school crush. But as the movie progresses, it shows that it’s about Yoshika’s yearning for connection. A connection that she badly desires, but lacks the courage to pursue. Because of it, she just ends up living everyday passing by people she’s dreamed of having a conversation with, and just imagines a world where she was not the way that she is. It presents the loneliness that comes with introversion—not in a straightforward way—but in a creative manner that you might miss it if you’ve never felt that way in your entire life.

Performance-wise, Mayu did not just act to become Yoshika; she BECAME Yoshika. She perfectly encapsulated all her quirks, and seemed to have a firm understanding of her character. The movie itself had a really slow-paced feel to it, which I personally liked. Overall, I give this a solid 10.

(I’ve watched this a long time ago and this is actually my favorite movie of all time, I only became active in MDL recently which is why I only got to review it now.)

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Heroes never die… LITERALLY

First of all, this came out even before Zomvivor LOL.

Anyway, I really liked the unique take on the zombie virus where they got it from an anglerfish. The VFX were pretty great too especially when the zombies mutated into looking like an anglerfish nearing the end. The action scenes looked crisp most of the time. The movie definitely served flesh and blood.

What I don’t like is how obvious the protagonist halo was on the main lead AKA Singh. The guy just wouldn’t die even when he was just strolling around the hospital lol. I also don’t like how loud the kid’s voice was like it’s a mystery how the zombies didn’t swarm him after all that shouting.

Anyway, since they made the ending like that, I’m expecting another season? Maybe the location would be different (I’m assuming Ziam happened in Bangkok since it was mentioned in the movie)

Anyway, a good take on a zombie film from Thailand.

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