Reviews

Just so much fun

There’s nothing that particularly stands out in this movie, yet it keeps a constant grin on your face…..and seriously we are in the end of May 2025 and there’s been a bunch of real tepid Asian dramas this year.
Imagine desperately searching for something worthwhile to watch - and this movie from 10 years ago, with all its teenage hormonal sexuality , and 3 heartthrobs in their early days lights up your screen ……… oasis!!!!!

The lead actors were great but the supporting cast stole the show.
The director, the parents of WooBin, the chinese restaurant owners…..spot on comic timing!!!

Be warned there are a lot of sexual innuendos….but such a great movie about 20 year olds.

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The Buddha Assassinator once again teamed up Mang Hoi and Hwang Jang Lee as adversaries in another made in Taiwan kung fu flick. Unlike Hell’s Windstaff, this film was far less entertaining and didn’t utilize the fighters’ skills.

Here is where I usually give a snippet of the plot. Even though the prolific Ni Kuang helped write the script, it lacked coherency. There were the usual Ming rebels, though Mang’s clueless Hsiao Hai didn’t seem to be in on their plotting. The rebels were pretty much forgotten at one point and the conflict then centered around two competing fighting styles. The Sleeping Lo Han style and the Buddha’s Fist were both taught by the same master, but the school split in two with the Lo Han students joining the Qings and the Buddha’s Fist crowd following the Mings. The Prince wants to wipe out all of the BF’s practitioners including his old classmate crazy monk San Lu.

The story was slow and boring for most of the film. The fights and training sequences weren’t great either. Finally, with about 30 minutes left in the film, the action, if not the story, picked up. Lung Fei and Hou Po Wei had a nice spear fight against the unarmed Mang Hoi. The Martial Arts Director of the film, Chin Yuet Sang, played the crazy monk. He had his own fight with Hwang Jang Lee before Mang Hoi tagged in. Mang was affable enough but didn’t have much screen presence. One of the more acrobatic fighters, Mang’s high flying was rather limited. I’m not sure why they would hire one of the best kickers, if not the best kicker, Hwang Jang Lee, and then not let him cut loose. The final fight was highly choreographed dance steps, faster than some others from the era, but still rather stilted. All in all, it was pretty disappointing.

The movie used many of the sets from Hell’s Windstaff. There was also a running gag about Hsiao eating any puppy or dog he ran across. The shaolin monks were petty and mean. Hsiao wasn’t very bright. Aside from Hwang Jang Lee’s sinister presence as the Big Bad, the film didn’t offer much. Only for fans of the actors, not the worst old kung fu movie by a long shot, but definitely forgettable.

25 May 2025

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An intimate view into the life of a North Korean loyalist and massacre survivor

With a shaky cam, home video style of filming, Yang Yonghi takes you into her family home in Osaka and documents her interactions with her aging Zainichi* mother.

The documentary opens with a startling intro: Yang's mother is a survivor of the Jeju 4.3 massacre. And although the documentary starts and ends with a focus on this event, the documentary isn't really about the massacre itself.

Much of the doco sees Yang spending day-to-day family time with her mother while also trying to figure out why her mum has made the decisions that she has made. A key focus is Yang's simultaneous understanding and perplexion around her mum's decision to send her three sons to North Korea.

Initially, I was a little worried about the run time. Two hours is a long time for these types of home video style productions. But there's clearly been a lot of thought put into the narrative structure that balances well the family quotidian and the political themes.

The big weakness of this doco, I feel, is the animated sequence past the mid-way point. The purpose of this sequence is to provide background into the Japanese colonisation of Korea and the eventual split between the ROK and the DPRK. But this comes far too late in the program and, given the ground already covered at that point, feels repetitive. It would have been far more effective near the beginning for those unfamiliar with the history. The animation itself seems muddled with different styles that gives it a uni-student feel.

What this doco does deliver well is intimate insight into how family relations are bound up in broader historical and political dynamics. It's touching and sentimental without straying into romanticisation.

*Zainichi are Japanese citizens with Korean heritage.

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A Nostalgic and Surprisingly Deep Coming-of-Age Romance

I went into this film not really knowing what to expect, other than the fact that it was set in high school and featured Dahyun in her acting debut, which I was curious to see. I haven’t seen the original version, so I won’t compare it as a remake. Instead, I’ll judge it on what it tries to be: a youthful, emotional, and time-spanning coming-of-age story.

What surprised me the most was the scale of the film. It starts off feeling like a light and wholesome high school romance, but it gradually unfolds into something much bigger: an epic love story that travels through time, filled with bittersweet moments and life-defining decisions. It captures the feeling of growing up, of childhood friendships and first loves, and how small actions can shape our futures in ways we never expected.

Yes, many of these themes have been explored before, but this film executes them with genuine heart. The characters may not be deeply complex, but they are memorable and distinct. You grow attached to them. You want to know what happens to them, because they reflect parts of ourselves... Our immaturity, our regrets, and our nostalgia.

I found the movie incredibly relatable. It stirred up emotions and memories from my own youth. It reminded me how decisions made in a moment, often immature or emotionally driven, can have lasting consequences. Especially when we’re too young to fully grasp their weight.

The soundtrack deserves special mention. It beautifully enhances each stage of the story, fitting the different time periods and emotional tones perfectly. The music helps carry the emotional arc with subtlety and charm.

In the end, it’s a film about love, growing up, and the unspoken things that shape who we become. A quiet, nostalgic surprise and a strong debut for Dahyun as an actress.

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Reality of women

This movie is abt women who had made mistakes for smth they had to exchange with. I love the storyline. I love how they capture women's prison life and how their child is important no matter what the circumstances or outcome they will always choose their child. As we all know Zhao li ying, queen herself did a rly good job at her acting i love how she portrayed a mother being herself and the hardships she endured in order to survive. I love every single one of the portray of the character. But it would've been better if they give more details on supporting women backstory. I didn't rly get to see Guo aimi backstory, neither how other ended up in jail. But overall i love this movie and I felt empathy and sympathy to all the single moms out there.

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The girl I liked then, was our dream and youth. I am still living that dream.

As a boy who is now living a life of an adult because my age is 28 years. But still to this day I feel best when I think about my childhood love, whom I loved from class 4 till today. This movie depicts the feeling of childhood love in such a way that you will never feel empty, the ending is handled so brilliantly that you will definitely learn something after watching this and you will complete the movie with a smile on your face.
Acting of the Main Leads is great and support cast did well with their part. Music and especially the songs are the cherry on cake they will mesmerize you. There are so many small small things to notice but in the end if you have loved someone and you are a fan of child hood love stories then this is a must watch.

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A delightful movie about how cinema came to China.

This movie is delightful and deservedly won praise when it was shown. Being familiar with the history of Chinese cinema and the famous 1905 early movie Dingjun Mountain, directed by Ren Qingtai (任慶泰) a.k.a. Ren Jingfeng (任景豐), who was assisted by his cinematographer Liu Zhonglun (劉仲伦), I found it endearing to see these pioneer's life and hopes be portrayed in this movie, including the photograph taking of Empress Ci Xi, and the risks of handling the earliest film strips.

Writer, producer and director Ann Hu's 35mm debut Shadow Magic (2000) won both the Chinese Academy Award and Presidential Award in China for Best film among other international prizes. The film premiered at the 2000 Sundance film Festival and released by Sony Classics in 2001.

Synopsis : "Beijing, 1902: an enterprising young portrait photographer named Liu Jinglun, keen on new technology, befriends a newly-arrived Englishman who's brought projector, camera, and Lumière-brothers' shorts to open the Shadow Magic theater. Liu's work with Wallace brings him conflict with tradition and his father's authority, complicated by his falling in love with Ling, daughter of Lord Tan, star of Beijing's traditional opera. Liu sees movies as his chance to become wealthy and worthy of Ling. When the Shadow Magic pair are invited to show the films to the Empress Dowager, things look good. But, is disaster in the script? And, can movies preserve tradition even as they bring change?"

The movie has a fuller Wikipedia page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Magic#cite_note-1

The director also has an interesting story :

Ann Hu / Hú Ān 胡安 born 胡小平 (Hú Xiǎopíng) in 1956, grew up in Beijing. After finishing middle school, she was assigned to work as a waitress but studied by herself in view of passing college entrance examination, when those exams resumed in 1977. She next studied English at Beijing International Studies University in 1977 and came to the USA in 1979 to study at New York University as one of the earliest students to go to the United States after the Cultural Revolution. She stayed there as a businesswoman, working in an international company, shifting carer to study film making at NYU Film School after meeting Chen Kaige in 1987.

In 1992, she wrote and directed her first film, "Old Stories of Mountains and Rivers" 《山河旧话》
In 2000, her film "Shadow Magic" 《西洋镜》 was released in mainland China, and she won the 37th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Award for Best Cross-Media Adapted Screenplay.
In 2005, the film "Still Beautiful" 《美人依旧》 directed by her was released.
On December 4, 2020, the family inspirational film "Confetti" English title of 《五彩缤纷》("Colorful"), inspired by her struggle to help her dyslexic daughter, written and directed by her was released in mainland China. It was also shown abroad in 2021.

Douban page : https://www.douban.com/personage/27515319/

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90 minutes of nothing...

I know I am not the target audience for this kind of movies but I watch them just to get some "comprehensible input " practice for japanese cause the dialogues tend to be really easy.

would I recommend this movie to anyone?
yes, probably my 13 old self.
this kind of supercial, cutesy movie would have been my shit at the age, but know as an adult I cannot overlook stuff...like acting or plot.

the story is really simple.
a girl confesses her love to a nerd who rejects her. heartbroken she talk about her struggle to the most popular guy at school and together decide to "play" a one sided love.

she basically starts a game where she stalks the popular guy for fun just to forget her previous love.

of course we all know he liked her all the way from the very beginnen and that slowly she LL fall eventually for him as well.

the plot is fine but tl what's annoying is that the movie is so mid. there is no highs ..never.
it is not particularly sweet, or funny, or cute or whatever.

the ml is also a big issue. his dead pan acting was so bad I kept laughing.
on the other hand the FL was marvelous.

would I recommend it? I mean.. this is literally a nothing burger. totally forgettable.
if you don't want have anything to watch and just want some white noise in the background give it a go

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really good movie but it didn't quite hit the mark for me.

if you saw that movie with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler you more or less know what we are talking about.
a guy asks a girl out, set girl Is unable to form new memory and he tries hard to make her happy every single day.

spoiler alert

unlike the Adam Sandler one we don't get a cheesy happy ending.

the first complaint is that the reason why they start dating is idiotic. in order to save a friend (a friend we won't see any more) a guy ask a girl out without really feeling it just to please some bullies. I don't know what this is all about but it sounds really dumb.

from the very get go we know he is gonna die. the film spoils it for you when the FL while cleaning her room finds out an old note book.
some people don't mind to learn these kind of info beforehand but to me it kinda ruined it all a bit.

their love story is really sweet but in the movie we don't find much out about any of the characters except for the ml family background which is there for plot reasons like bonding with Izumi over literature interest or "correct" Maori s notebook.

It also took me some minutes to get accostumed to the couple cause I saw them in a different dramas where the ml was the FL gay best friend.🤣
that aside they have good chemistry.

even though I knew he was about to die somehow, his disappearence wasn't build up
in a good way. it was to sudden. we never see him suffer or struggling.

the best and emotional part is definitely the second part of the movie when they start "erasing" the ml for all the notebooks. that was really emotional to be honest.

as I said we don't get a cheesy happy ending but somehow taoru Kun manages to keep living in Maori s "muscle" memory and notes.

definitely an enjoyable movie. sad.. but not devasting cause they missed the climax I guess.

maybe it's just me.

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It reminds me of someone I met in the past

I found it a little bit rushed at second half of the movie and towards the end, but overall, I loved this movie. It’s a beautiful story. I cried a little at the end, when Kawana read Itsuki’s letter at the hospital.

Maybe I relate to the story a little bit because of some personal reasons. I did meet a guy who used to be so talented and confident until he had an accident. Before he used to be the big man in his family, then had to totally depend on his family to take care of him. His situation was worse than the female lead. He used to travel the world and did many great things and others relied on him a lot. Just like the male lead, he couldn’t accept the fact and he was very miserable. His ex-girlfriend left him to marry someone else right after that, and he held a grudge against her. I met him through my close friend and three of us hung out for a short while. I didn’t have any romantic relationship or feeling for him though, but I think he had a crush on my friend. My friend was the one who stayed in touch with him and suddenly one day they stopped contacting and we stopped visiting him. Watching this movie makes me wonder how he is doing now. I hope he’s happy, wherever he is.

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"Fish get depressed if you put them in square tanks"

Miao Miao is a 2008 Taiwanese coming of age film about two school girls who experienced both the rush of joy and the pain of first love. Not nearly as deep or devastating as it could have been Miao Miao splashed along the surface of life and relationships.

Ai ignores her father and the breakfast he cooked for her like she does every morning. Once again late for school, she brings a cake she made to share with her friends. Her love for baking hasn’t transformed her very limited skills and her friends don’t exactly dig into her creation. A new foreign exchange student catches Ai’s eye. Miao Miao is studying in Taiwan for the year before returning to Japan. The two hit it off, their bond deepened by Miao Miao’s advanced baking techniques. The two girls visit the site of the bakery where Miao Miao’s grandmother met her first love, only now it’s a used CD store owned by a moody musician. Chen Fei religiously wears headphones and ignores people as much as he can. Miao Miao falls head over heels for the reclusive musician who scarcely acknowledges her existence. He is nursing his grief and broken heart over the loss of his love. Ai is discovering her own burgeoning feelings for Miao Miao. The three young people attempt to navigate the precarious path to and from love.

This film had potential as the girls’ friendship developed and then had the obstacle of Miao Miao’s crush. Not all people know how to maintain and nurture a friendship when one person’s attention becomes focused on a love interest. The stress on the friendship was increased as Ai wasn’t just jealous of the time Miao Miao spent attempting to catch Chen Fei’s attention but jealous that her friend was romantically interested in the brooding store owner. Sandrine Penna and Ko Chia Yen gave their best given the limitations of the script. The source of Chen Fei’s angst was shown in flashback with a strong performance by Chris Wu Kang Ren as the lover. Fan Chih Wei’s performance was not nearly as inspired.

The course of first love is rarely smooth or a straight line. Sometimes even admitting to feelings that might be rejected not only by another but also society can make the journey downright rocky. Though dealing with heartache and unrequited love, Miao Miao didn’t stumble by becoming melodramatic. It would have been nice if it had taken a more scenic route off of the well-trod path it insisted on keeping to. Neither groundbreaking nor overly deep, Miao Miao showed that the best remedy for a broken heart was friendship, even when that relationship caused the pain in the first place.

24 May 2025

Trigger warning: If real life scumbags are a deterrent for you, I discovered after watching this film that Fan Chih Wei has not been good to women, including assault.

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Ip Man is more than just a martial arts movie—it’s a story about quiet strength, integrity, and resilience. Donnie Yen completely embodies the role of Master Ip, turning what could’ve been a standard biopic into something powerful, respectful, and emotionally compelling.

The action choreography is phenomenal—fast, clean, and brutal in the best way. But what makes this film resonate is its emotional core. Set during the Japanese occupation of China, the film uses its historical backdrop to explore themes of national pride, dignity, and survival without feeling preachy. Ip Man’s calm, unwavering presence contrasts beautifully with the chaos around him.

While some of the historical elements are simplified and the nationalistic tone may feel heavy at times, the film earns its emotional moments with sincerity and skill. It moves quickly, never drags, and balances action with character in a way that many martial arts films don’t even attempt.

Pros:
✔ Donnie Yen’s defining role—quiet but magnetic
✔ Clean, powerful fight choreography
✔ Strong emotional tone without melodrama
✔ Excellent pacing and direction

Cons:
✘ Some historical liberties taken for dramatic effect
✘ A few characters are underdeveloped

Would I rewatch?
Yes—especially for the iconic fight sequences and the grounded emotional impact that lingers afterward.

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Living Deep in the Closet

As its name suggests, 'Depth' (its pinyin is shēn chù) is a Chinese film that addresses the complexity of being gay and living deep in the closet.
The 2022 short film portrays the story of Yi Ran, a gay boy played by Zeng Huaiyi. Through this character, Chinese screenwriter and director Ding Yuhan explores internalized homophobia. Yi Ran lives out his sexual identity by working in a bar and pretending to be happy with a girlfriend, played by actress Lu Meishan.
But the sudden visit of Zhou Mu (played by Shang Guolong) disrupts Yi Ran's life, and when feelings explode and he can no longer control his desire, his closely guarded secret may be exposed.
'Depth' problematizes the issue of sexual diversity and the lack of acceptance of one's own sexual orientation. Its 10-minute runtime is sufficient to expose the typical behaviors and negative emotions of closeted gay people, such as fear, shame, disgust, anxiety, low self-esteem, and avoidance or denial of everything related to their homosexual orientation due to the fear of being rejected.
Yue Zongao's beautiful cinematography and Xu Qiang's photography contribute to reflecting internalized homophobia, which is nothing more than the rejection or non-acceptance of one's own homosexuality.
The final images serve as a metaphor for the fear many homosexuals suffer from recognizing their sexual identity.

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