Reviews

Train to Busan with dogs.

They did not even try to make it original. It had the same framework as Train to Busan, that included the copy paste father-daughter relationship, but no heart and execution the former movie had.

It's honestly sad this is one of the last projects from Lee Sun Kyun. Maybe if it was my first monster disaster movie, I would enjoy it more. Sadly, in the sea of other similar movies, it does not stand out on any level. The writing is mediocre, which leads to mediocre performances (there is a limit to how much acting can improve poorly written characters). The CGI was decent during some shots, and bad in others. The ending completely lacked any impact - be it in emotional or entertaining value. What's the worst? It completely lacked dynamic. Everything was gray, covered in mist and they did not utilize the place at all.

Anything good? There were a few fun scenes that made me chuckle. That's probably it.

Overall, it's just painfully mediocre and I do not understand how so many well known actors agreed to star in it.

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"If you're not good, we need mutual understanding"

I went into The Great Buddha+ blind thinking it might be about a spiritual journey. Uh, no. This film had numerous lewd jokes and comments and pretty much audio porn. It looked like a low budget art house movie filmed mostly in black and white. The title was not false advertising as there was a big brass Buddha at the center of unsavory events.

Belly Button lives hand to mouth, eking out a living by collecting and selling recyclable materials and junk. Too poor to drink, he eats one meal a day consisting of food thrown out in the evenings by convenience stores. He is pretty much at the bottom rung of the social ladder if he’s on the ladder at all. Fortunately for him, he meets with Pickle every day at his friend’s night job guarding a factory that makes among other things Buddha statues. Belly Button orders the passive Pickle around, the only person he can tell what to do. Pickle’s boss, Kevin, isn’t nice but is also the object of their envy with his wealth, Mercedes, women, and powerful friends. When the tv breaks down in the office, a bored Belly Button suggests they watch the dashcam from the boss’ car. Turns out Kevin has a car sex fetish which provides hours of amusement for the down on their luck friends…until they see something they shouldn’t or at least wish they hadn’t.

The film hammered home that Belly Button and Pickle were poor and powerless, out of the reach of justice. When they died, if they were lucky, their chalk line would look like a man and not a circle. No one truly knew the other. Men like Kevin weren’t held accountable for their actions as the courts were run by and for the wealthy. The other oft used image was the dashcam. The only color in the film was through the eyes of the dashcam lens. The witness of even heavily edited dashcam recordings was the reality of the nightly news and life. The director provided narration sporadically through the film, sometimes for the better and sometimes as a spoiler of coming events. My biggest problem with the film was that many scenes dragged on for far too long and side characters who added little were often introduced.

The Great Buddha+ had interesting concepts and even inspired a few laughs. The messages overall were bleak. Pickle and Belly Button had come to the conclusion that the only way their lots in life could change would be for the worse. Fate had not been kind with the families they’d been born into. The titular brass Buddha observed all the dirty and sad goings on with a placid face. Sometimes a flower can bloom on a pile of trash, sometimes the flower just gets stepped on before it can bloom. The Buddha may have been hollow, but did karma get the last laugh?

1 May 2025
Trigger warnings: Partial nudity, sexual content, lewd comments

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A Thriller That Keeps You Guessing Until the End

I write really long reviews but here's a summary. Keep in mind this is just my opinion and I don't mean to offend anyone ❤️

❗SPOILERS AHEAD❗

The Good
Twist After Twist After Twist
This movie knew how to mess with your mind in the best way possible. The plot twists had me questioning everything, just like Jin Seok. When his brother came back acting all strange, I was sure Yoo Seok was the villain. I had my own theory board going, but of course, I was wrong. And that journey to the truth? So worth it.

Edge-of-Your-Seat Suspense
The suspense in this movie was chef’s kiss. From the pencil inches away from Jin Seok’s eye to the creepy room with those weird noises—every scene had me on edge. What made it even more gripping was the feeling that everyone in the movie knew what was going on, except for us. No slow build here—it was intense right from the start.

The Psychological Element
Jin Seok’s mental struggle hit differently because, honestly, it’s not just fiction. When you experience extreme trauma, your brain sometimes blocks it out as a coping mechanism, even creating fake memories. That’s what happened to Jin Seok. His guilt over the family’s accidental deaths was so heavy, it was buried deep in his mind. And when the truth finally came back? Yikes. It’s fascinating in a deeply unsettling way.

A Tragic but Perfect Ending
This might sound grim, but when a character gets what they want and then dies? That hits. It’s tragic, sure, but also poetic. Yoo Seok’s mission was finally complete, and then he ended his life. It felt like a tragic, full-circle conclusion. The whole movie started with tragedy and ended with it—perfectly tied together, in the most haunting way.

No Time Wasted
One of the best things about Forgotten was how it didn’t waste any time. No slow build, no dragging out the plot—this movie got right to the point. I watched it with my dad and stepmom, both of whom hate slow movies, and even they were hooked from the beginning. That’s how you know the pacing was on point.

The Bad
The House Was Just… There?
Why was Jin Seok in that house? I get it’s part of Yoo Seok’s trap, but it didn’t really help Jin Seok recover his memories. He didn’t start remembering until after he left. The house felt more like a weird psychological manipulation tool with no real payoff, rather than a meaningful part of the plot.

Lack of Flow
I love a good mystery, but Forgotten took it too far. The twists worked because they blindsided us, but the clues were nonexistent. We were trying to solve for A or B, only to be hit with an answer we didn’t even know was possible. The kidnapping? Juicy, but pointless. And the brother’s personality switch was just confusing—didn’t tie into anything. It was like they were so focused on making him suspicious that they forgot about the bigger plan.

Plot Overload
This movie couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. The two major plots—the kidnapping and the murder—competed for attention. They ended up just getting thrown at us in phases, with no real resolution. The kidnapping took way too much focus, especially considering how insignificant it turned out to be. Maybe they could’ve focused on one plot or expanded the story to give everything the attention it deserved.

The Trailer Lied (a Little)
Not a huge deal, but the trailer totally sold this as a "my-brother-isn’t-my-brother" thriller, and that wasn’t even the main plot. It definitely misled me, but I’m glad the movie still held up despite the bait-and-switch.

Final Thoughts
This movie is one of my top-rated thrillers. It hooked me from the start, with twists and a hauntingly poetic ending. A solid 9/10 from me.

But once you look closer, the cracks start showing—like the multiple main plots fighting for attention, and the kidnapping arc that didn’t really go anywhere. It’s one of those movies where the first watch is a rollercoaster, but on a second go, you’ll catch a few eyebrow-raising moments.

Still, no movie is perfect. Forgotten delivered where it counted. It’s the kind of thriller you wish you could experience for the first time again. And if you do rewatch it, just don’t think too hard about the plot holes—gasp dramatically, pretend you didn’t see them, and keep the popcorn coming.

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"who you are [to me] is someone who leaves....to Arthur you're someone who stays"

I started crying at the point (1/2 way) when Teo Yoo's character, Hae Sung, enters the lobby of a NY hotel on a quixotic quest to meet his first love, Nora Moon. The soundtrack kicks into high gear with slowed chords and intense swelling volume. The flashbacks previous to this had simply the discreet continuous background hum of NY, Seoul and Toronto which is never bothersome. After abt 20 minutes points of music begin to well up through it , starting while HS is on his military service.

Great movies have a series of carefully framed and placed lines which reverberate backwards reinterpreting the scenes beforehand, and forwards to color what is to come. To quote them is often to misinterpret or spoil a movie, so I use one to just point to the frame of the story, only a very mild spoiler.

The lines above are from the very first scene of the movie, but they are unheard until the scene is played out in realtime later. Hae Sung sits at a bar in NY with Nora and her husband Arthur Zaturansky, the night before HS returns home to Seoul. He and Nora chat casually in Korean, using references to drama plotlines to knit together their different understandings and feeling,s about their meetings and partings, now and in the past. Arthur can only vaguely follow their conversation, but he (graciously) trusts Nora and I think partially understands that a continuing friendship that includes him might exist.

Because both Nora and Arthur are writers, HS's interactions with them are both more and less perilous. More because imaginary scenarios have the emotional power to destabilize emotions, but less because a writer's curiousity confers a sort of double vision of recording and thinking about lived emotions while experiencing them, which slows reaction times. Teo Yoo's emotions (as HS) wash across his face but Greta Lee's face (as NM) catches light while she looks at him and we think -- is he flirting, does she resist it, what are these feelings? The movie is in English, and she is the POV, the way we see HS. As viewers of kdrama the juxtaposition of the felt lives of Korea and the US hurts to watch, just as within Nora Moon the collision of her past and present hurts.

Teo Yoo is an interesting actor in that he is fully bi/tri lingual, and intelligently so -- it makes him especially able to navigate these cross-cultural scripts. The soundtrack was composed by two members of a band called the Grizzly Bear -- why do I know this? Because I was sure the composer/sound editors had to be Korean, they were so dominantly in emotional control, so I looked them up and they werent. The cinematography is gorgeous. My favorites: a Staten Island Ferry ride, the bar scene and the flashbacks to childhood in Seoul where the mess of electrical lines above the streets reminds me of the innocence of 2006 Seoul in One Fine Day.

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Strictly speaking from someone who has not read the manga, the movie is generally cute. The teacher/ student love position will likely be a source of contention for people before you even get like 20% into the story. If you can get over that, this is a pretty decent movie.

I will say you can tell that it feels like exposition is missing due to the speed of character interactions. Like Suzume and Yuyuka becoming friends so fast. Or Mamura liking Suzume feeling like the build up was missing. Especially during the Christmas scene, it didn't feel like it make any sense why he liked her. There was no build up to show that next to a few lingering looks. You hooks argue it was just implied but it wasn't strong enough in my opinion. I'm assuming there's scenes in the source material that shows that. So being one of the main relationships, it felt underwhelming. The relationship between Suzume and the Sensei also felt the same. Not enough definition of why. So this being the main story kinda broke the immersion.

Yukichi's confrontation with Satsuki also didn't feel strong because he spoke as if we had pretense to his and Suzume's relationship. We saw nothing of Yukichi's interactions with Suzume's to indicate if this was true. He totally felt like a throwaway character especially because they never really revealed what him and Satsuki talked about near the end.

Mei for me was definitely the right person to choose for this main role however. She's the perfect person to play a naive but emotional character. She has this perpetual look of confusion. Definitely felt like a manga heroine. She was ahead of everyone in terms of acting capability in this movie. She felt the most believable. There were tons of scenes with awkward interactions but for the most part Mei kept it grounded.

Now let's talk about the cinematography. It's very well done. The one thing about Japanese movies is when they do lighting well it has a totally different feel to western movies. The sense of a special moment or place in time getting captured in isolation was featured really well in this movie. The Christmas tree scene or the night time conversation between Mamura and Suzume come to mind.

I suppose this may also come from the manga panels framing key sequences to emphasize their importance and translating it over to live action. But there are some really pretty shots in this movie. It helps the movie's overall appeal since some of the relationships don't truly have good reasoning.

The music is very cute as well. I can't really remember much of the music but I can tell you it made me cheerful. The race theme was very dramatic though! And the ending theme is very bubbly.

I think if you are just looking for a nice movie to throw on, this would be a good candidate.

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Trust

Bravo to Park Jin Young for his outstanding performances, I said that because he played a dual role. Even though Il Woo felt some type of way about his twin’s disability, deep down he really loved him. This movie will expose a lot of darkness surrounding the characters that are being portrayed in this film. You will experience an emotional connection between Jo Woo and his brother, plus his brother’s best friend. I’m just sorry that it took me so long to find this jaw dropping movie!! I would not be surprised if this movie received a lot of awards for not only acquiring an outstanding cast and crew etc. It will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat!!
Thanks to all the subbers for giving me the opportunity to watch such an incredible movie!!

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"To those we remember fondly"

While looking for something to watch on the Criterion Channel, I stumbled across a short film by Wong Kar Wai. He made Hua Yang De Nian Hua (listed as Fa Yeung Nin Wa on MDL) while prepping for In the Mood for Love. Numerous old Chinese films thought lost were discovered during the 1990s in a warehouse in California, USA. Wong used the archival footage and spliced together images of glamorous actresses in a variety of roles and set the short film to the song Hua Yang De Nian Hua made famous by Zhou Xuan.

Edited beautifully, the film flowed easily to the rhythm of the song that also used a clip from “Happy Birthday.” There weren’t any words, but it was gratifying to see a short film dedicated to women and their roles in Chinese and Hong Kong films. Dancing, smiling, crying, moments of love, sorrow, and violence were highlighted as well as some truly gorgeous costumes. At less than three minutes, definitely worth a watch.

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A Limbo of Emotions

What did I just watch? I am not sure. First i though that this is an art movie. Then, because of amateur acting, i thought that i am watching a student project, but at the end, this appears to be an experimental Indie movie about people who stay in an unknown Limbo of life. There is no story, and even the events that happen are deleted with the change of perspective so the story doesn't really matter. There are some elements of religion and even supernatural, but mostly we observe the characters who are stuck in their emotions.

In favour of the movie, this is a complex and unique watch, and the runtime is short so the viewers will stay engaged, but be ready to enter - together with the characters - into an Unknown. There are only questions and no answers here, only a glimpse of a light at the end of a tunnel.

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What a ride

The movie kept my stakes high. The plot, the cinematography, the thrill, the action everything felt very optimized. It felt extremely realistic, which in movies like these, are hard to achieve.

There was no unnecessary drama in between. The emotions felt perfectly right. I love the fact that even though there were main roles in the movie they blended so well with the side characters it never felt like the movie revolved around them. Which again made it extremely realistic. I love how they didn't make only one person become the "hero" of the movie, sacrificing themselves while saving other. They all tried their best, whether it was the crew operators at the train, the officers working in the headquarters, the crime department, rail engineers, even the politicians. All the people who worked in the rescue team did a fabulous job at portraying the Calamity, the hidden stress and the emotional devastation. It was truly mesmerizing as a viewer how they managed to capture everything so to the point.

I loved how they give so much attention to portraying the actual rescue operation instead of unnecessary drama so at the end when a little dramatic scene came up it perfectly mingled with the rest of the events. Over all it was thrill ride for me. If I ever go to Japan and get on a bullet train I might rewatch this movie just for the thirll.

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Why did it feel so cheap?

From writing, directing, filming to acting and editing - everything felt cheap and mediocre. Which is somehow surprising, since the cast is actually rather good, filled with well known supporting actors.

The plot was extremely basic and predictable. I'm confident halfway through the majority of the viewers will understand the mystery behind the house. The structure of the plot was also extremely messy. The opening scene logically makes sense, but the way it was "blended" to the story just felt off.

Not one character was well developed and that includes So Hui. Detective Nam should not even exist, since he did not bring anything to the table. In Gyeom's introduction was good, but the way his connection was explained was not. Hye Ran was there to fill the screen.

Overall, I was rather bored. I did chuckle a few times, but for completely wrong reasons.

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Honestly I kinda like it, I don't know why, I just like it.

It's objectively not that good of a movie, but it felt like the soul in it managed to touch me I guess.

The acting was alright, I think the FL did great though I might be biased and the humor is surprisingly good at times.

The cinematography is alright but I can't remember the music.

Usually with these aspects in mind I wouldn't like a movie so much, but there is just some magic in it I guess.

I recommend watching it when you're feeling lost and to not expect a romantic story.

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✒ ☠ Pawnshop Ghost & Garbage Girl: Dark Knight On Fire ❣ °8.9° °outstanding°

He came outta nowhere… TMFN opens to a 2 month police sting in which only the police get stung.

Won Bin (Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War) is Cha Tae-Sik, the “Pawnshop Ghost”. He lost a wife and child. A child ended up finding him. Kim Sae-Ron (Heaven's Garden, Bloodhounds) portrays Jung So-Mi, the child - Garbage Girl. She's yet another brilliant K🇰🇷kid actor. Her performance is world-class. We are treated to some truly scary psycho bad guys, regular Joe cops, and some Kpop hairdos. Screenwriter & director, Lee Jung Beom, also brought us Samjin Company English Class.

TMFN is a 2010, 119 min release that is rated 90 on AWiki / 💯 on RT. My son has only seen a couple Kdramas. He joked in the beginning of this show that many Korean actors in this film look like Michael Jackson - or perhaps MJ was trying to look Korean? (Korea does have the most beautiful male leads in the world, imo). He quickly settled into the story, though, as the film is fantastic.

So-Mi has a mom who is only 25% there. Most of the time, she's turning tricks and taking drugs. So the little girl often visits the ghost, eh, /guy/ at the pawn shop. He doesn't talk much, and he doesn't seem overly friendly, but she knows he's decent. He frequently feeds her and buys all of the random junk that she sells him. So-Mi's mom doesn't trust him, though. It's obvious that there's something a little different about him.

That police sting? Just when the police were on the brink of making a huge arrest, a rogue criminal element came in and took everything from both parties, the police and the target of their criminal investigation. These criminals got away with lots of drugs and ALL the money. Now, everyone's after them. The police and the jopok (mafia).

So-Mi's mom is caught up in the net and dies while she's being questioned by jopok thugs. They haul off So-Mi to child traffickers. It's heart😳breaking. All of these kids are put to work. Some are sold. Some of them are used to harvest organs. Stories like this are worldwide. Millions of children go missing every year. It looks like this all really goes on. Pause your busy life for a moment and reflect on that…

Tae-Sik learns what's happened to So-Mi and he hits the trail to find her and bring her back. From this point, the film is reminiscent of the excellent movie, Man on fire, starring Denzel Washington. The bad guys have no idea who's coming for them. We're all gonna find out.

The craftsmanship is excellent. Film is a visual medium, and this is a man, and a film, of few words. The story is mostly told visually. You'll have to put down your phone! When he agrees to “run an errand”, things suddenly take on a blue glow / turn a neon blue outside. The director uses a blue filter over some scenes. The color blue is associated with trust, dependability, and stability in Korea. The color palette is, otherwise, heavy industrial grey, which suits the subject matter. Handheld camera work in the action scenes builds tension and excitement. We follow him right through a 2nd storey window down to the street. Hold onto your hat!

TMFN is the perfect Friday night flick. It's inspiring, scary, exciting, and fulfilling. It's also an excellent choice as an introduction to 🇰🇷Korean programming for your unexposed friends and family.

As the film ends, the sun is coming up in Seoul🌇. Warm light bathes the screen. Strength lends strength. So-Mi will live, and So-Mi's life will never be the same.


QUOTES📢

The ones living for tomorrow get f💣d by the ones living for today.

I only live for today. I'll show you just how f💣d up that can be.


〰🖍 IMHO

📣9 📝8.2 🎭8.5 🌞3 🎨7.5⚡9 🎵/🔊6 😅0 😭6 😱5 😯5 😖8.7 🤔5 💤0 🔚8


Age 17+ for Rated R language; Drug trade torture; Torture of a woman in front of her child; A body that was organ-harvested. Rated R - restricted

Re-📺? Did

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A Love That Gently Breaks You: Under the Hawthorn Tree

Watching Under the Hawthorn Tree was a deeply moving experience. The performances by Zhou Dongyu and Shawn Dou were absolutely phenomenal — there’s nothing to criticize. Their appearances suited the characters so perfectly. Shawn Dou especially stood out with his warm, honest smile and bright, youthful eyes — he embodied the kind-hearted, genuine boy that Sun Jianxin was meant to be. His presence was both beautiful and quietly powerful.

The cinematography and direction were simple, but that simplicity worked in the film’s favor. The framing, the stillness, the restrained camera — everything felt intimate and sincere. The director did a brilliant job bringing subtle emotions to life.

This is the only Chinese romance film that has made me cry this much — and not just quietly tearing up, but sobbing. The scene where Jing Qiu and Sun lie together in bed, talking softly, was unforgettable. Sun tells Jing Qiu that one day she’ll have a child, she’ll be a mother, a grandmother. Jing Qiu asks, “What about you?” and he says, “If you live well, then I live well too.” That broke me. I cried. And when the final scenes came, I couldn’t hold it back anymore — I cried out loud.

Their love story was “just enough” — never overdone, never exaggerated. It felt real. It was tender, grounded, and delicately portrayed. I especially loved how Sun loved Jing Qiu — in every little way. How he couldn’t help but sneak out with her behind her mother’s back. And then, when Jing Qiu finally tells him she’s thought it through, that she’s ready to do whatever he wants — Sun, like any man deeply in love, of course wants to take that step. And it was one of the rare moments of raw honesty that Chinese romance films don’t often portray — that desire rooted in love. But then… he sees she’s not quite ready, and he stops. He respects her. That moment felt so human, so gentle, and so powerful.

Sun’s love for Jing Qiu was quiet, careful, respectful, and utterly genuine. Even in his final days, he gazes at the photo of them that he’d taped to the hospital wall — clinging to that last thread of love.

Sun passed away. And Jing Qiu would go on with her life. Life must go on. No matter how beautiful or tragic a love story is, it too will sink into the river — just like the hawthorn tree, and the land where they first met.

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