Reviews

A roller coaster of emotions beautifully crafted

Based on the director’s own life growing up closeted though has been done many times but this one I believe is the best one. For those of us who grew up during times in Asia where loving another of the same sex was taboo this one really hit hard. I felt like it was my story when I was a teenager. It made me go through that roller coaster of emotions, the happy times, the painful goodbyes, and the haunting music that lives with you forever. And yes when you meet later in life that friendship never changes, the bond losses a lifetime even when your both pulled apart. Your first love can be your last even later in life. The cinematography was beautiful, acting was incredible, you forget it’s a BL and more focused on the development of their friendship. Just like the priest was a pivotal role in Les Miserables (if you read the book) here the priest was also pivotal. Growing up catholic you carry that guilt and a healthy discussion and argument with God as well. When I want to feel good about myself and my past I would rewatch this movie. And reach out to an old friend just to say hello, how are you? Because til now his name is engraved in my heart.

Read More

A Heartfelt Journey of Resilience and Triumph

Warning - this movie does have attempted suicide.

Big World is a profoundly moving film that showcases Jackson Yee’s phenomenal performance as Liu Chunhe, a young man with cerebral palsy (CP) determined to prove that his condition does not define his potential. Jackson Yee brings raw authenticity and emotional depth to Chunhe, a character who seeks equality and the same opportunities as others, whether it’s attending college, securing a job, or earning a driver’s license. Through his unyielding determination, Chunhe demonstrates that no obstacle is insurmountable with perseverance.
The film masterfully captures Chunhe’s inner struggles, particularly in a heart-wrenching scene where he questions why he was born with CP, a condition that remains a medical enigma.
Equally compelling is Chunhe’s yearning for love. He knows it won’t be easy, but his understanding of the challenges doesn’t lessen his hope.
A pivotal moment comes during Chunhe’s confrontation with his mother, whose misguided attempts to shield him by isolating him and fixating on his disability only deepen his sense of being a burden. The raw emotion in Jackson Yee’s delivery when Chunhe admits to feeling like “dead weight” to his family is unforgettable, reflecting the pain of overhearing childhood conversations and enduring societal stares.
While Chunhe’s mother mishandles her protective instincts, the film doesn’t shy away from addressing these flaws. Her eventual explanation and apology toward the end offer a satisfying resolution, highlighting the complexity of familial love.
The conclusion, with Chunhe and his grandmother (his biggest supporter throughout the film) embracing a fresh start is both uplifting and authentic, tying the narrative together with hope.
Big World delivers a powerful message about resilience, personal growth, and the pursuit of equality. It’s a heartwarming, inspiring story that navigates life’s challenges with grace, leaving the audience moved and motivated.

Read More

Beautiful story with a beautiful message

I want to start by sharing part of a review a friend created on letterbox which is beautiful (just like the movie imo) and demonstrates how today we are forced-fed conservative and reactionary ideas masquerading as progressive ones under a fig leaf of liberal identity politics.

She writes: “male sex work is portrayed as being done for survival but it is made very clear that all of these men are pushed into this line of work where their bodies are commodified and their personhood is alienated because of financial need and capitalist incentive. the negative impact their sexual exploitation has on their psyche is communicated very well.” I think many supposed BL Directors who think it’s edgy to portray male prostitution as a cool, positive choice men make, could learn from this queer Director how not to flippantly portray people like Jet at the corrosive, dead end of the labour food chain under capitalism as enjoying their own exploitation! BL is political and as such cannot treat prostitution as an apolitical process, or the product of individual choice among the most oppressed segments of the labouring class.

I think Yon Fan, the Director who was also the Writer, did a very good job and I am now keen to look at the rest of his filmography since most of them seem to be queer stories including lesbian stories.

Some points of departure I want to raise given the discourse I’ve seen from viewers.

- It’s Not the Father; It’s the Son -
I don’t think that the father necessarily rejects Sam. That man loves his son. And as a parent, a loving - nay a doting parent, the first thing you worry for is how is your child, this sensitive, socially aware and upstanding young man going to be treated by the world and how will that affect the man that he knows his son to be. No matter what the dad’s level of shock or even disappointment, no matter how big or small his worry or his son’s future after he is gone, I feel he would have surmounted it; but Sam was so wound up in his own guilt, much of which is deserving guilt for unethical actions that violated the trust of a primary person in his life, which turns out to be all for nothing (spoilery) and that understandable guilt he carried also would not let him go back and make good on the irreversible harm he had caused.

This is the core of the story; how living a life on the margins doesn’t necessarily allow one to have superior insights into the human condition or the good life but can enmesh good people into a series of bad choices that limit not only their own future but those of several people around them for whom they actually have love towards and receive love from. If not for the cataclysmic events, which Sam’s accumulated actions precipitated, he would’ve been able to assure both his parents as a filial and responsible son. This is the true tragedy of the closet. Not primarily who gets to have sex with whom.

I love the way Bishonen utilises the devastatingly beautiful lady Kana, the Fujoshi in the mix, to remind us that to love is one thing but to be loved and to know that you are loved is *everything*. To ignore this aspect is to evacuate the meaning of the story from the point of view of the protagonists which is the story being conveyed.

- First & Second Cinema is Part of Today’s Filmaking Rot -
This brings me a discussion a few of us have been having in our Killer and Healer Discord about first, second and third cinema because people keep mentioning the degree to which Bishonen is good “for a low-budget film”. No it was good for a film - period.

Director Yon Fan does everything himself, he even picked up Sam for the cast as his lead actor quite randomly on the street; he didn’t even have a stable of experienced actors and as I’m always saying when the Director knows what they’re doing and has a story to tell that’s important to him, even a basic actor can portray that story because the most important, the bulk of the meaningfulness of the work comes from the Director’s creative vision and skill. Every scene, every bit of narrative said and unsaid, every frame that gets into the final cut, reflects the Director’s choices and intent. Director Yon Fan owns this story; hence it cannot be replicated or mass produced, which is the essence of revolutionary filmmaking and allows Bishonen to be evaluated from within a Third Cinema political space, just like all good BL.

If we compare Bishonen to what is coming out of the most highly funded, Thai corporate machine in terms of what passes for BL these days for example, it is clear that the more money that is put into BL productions, the more reactionary, the more fake, the more exploitative, and the more boring and insincere is the result.

Money is not only undermining the enjoyability, even the very watchability of the BL in countries where it has become industrialised, but it is also seriously destroying and separating the resulting productions from the radical queer potential of that genre.

Industrial, mass-produced culture is an oxymoron. Bishonen is one of a kind precisely because it is art, created not for profit (it made $18k when it was released) while the big studio movie Bros with a price tag of $22M flopped critical as well as financially and is no longer talked about, but Bishonen’s legacy will still be moving audiences who stumble across it to tears, to smiles and to complete empathetic recognition for at least another 30 years.

Read More

It wasn’t as funny as I thought but the second half was better
The acting was good and all in all not a bad watch

I didn’t get it until it was too late, but when the brother looked sad when she said let’s go bring the little girl
I was like shocked T_T that poor baby’s story hurt T_T I’ve heard stories like that, ppl need to be careful with kids T_T how could they miss her T_T it wasn’t the aunt’s fault but it hurt her the most T_T
They also I think didn’t explain what happened to his wife
Later it also made sense why the boy was going with the dad and the girl stayed with the aunt T_T
Or how the little girl would find her T_T


Anyways, I sused the security guard and mom sused the glasses xD tho I thought security guy went to kill the homeless guy
It was resolved well, tho seeing this plot in many movies and dramas…. Why don’t they just give good money to the people or even a new apartment in the new buildings….

Read More

Tbh the first half I thought it was a new Peter Parker reveal xD also for ppl who are that big on the poster, they only showed up in the later half
So overall it’s just another movie squeezed out of the og
ml’s fighting style was exactly like Jackie Chan but his acting fell super short, and it’s kinda sad to see him old but also admirable
The Conor guy had such sleazy first appearance that kept licking his lips every two seconds like those icky genz tiktokers ;/
The fl looked a lot like laroso’s daughter which kinda makes it feel like they have a type

Read More

Plot as annoying as the disturbance faced by the tenants

The first half of the movie was intriguing. A regular office worker buys his first apartment while slaving away at 2 jobs just to make ends meet hoping to cash in when the market value of his apartment rises. He has put up with so much, what's a noisy neighbour at 4am?

Then the neighbours come into picture and everything becomes a dumpster fire. While I understand the movie tries to recreate the frustration and distress faced by the male lead in the minds of the audiences but it was more irritating than just building tension. I never wanted to get through a movie faster than this one!

I couldn't STAND these characters and at some point that included the male lead. Nor did I care for the way the movie ended. It all felt super pointless.

If you love horror or thrillers, this is not worthy of a watch let alone a rewatch.

Read More

"There's a century worth of stories here and rubbish which makes it the filthiest river"

Suzhou River was a breakout role for Zhou Xun. She won the Paris Film Fest and Chinese Film Media awards for Best Actress. For her co-star Jia Hong Sheng it was a comeback film after a long battle with drug addiction and mental illness. I had mixed reactions to the blurring of reality and fantasy in this story set along the Suzhou River.

A narrator voices his story of struggling to find work as a videographer in the rundown area around the Suzhou River. One night in a seamy bar he’s asked to video the mermaid swimming on display. The mermaid, Mei Mei, and the narrator begin a relationship marred by her moments of sadness and random disappearances. She mentions the tragic love story of Mardar and Mu Dan and would he search for her forever as Mardar did for the missing Mu Dan. Thus begins the story of the doomed lovers.

I enjoyed the first half of the film more than the second half. In the first half it was distracting that the narrator continually inserted into the story comments that it was only a story and he was making it up as he went along. It was very hard for me to connect with characters when I was narratively jostled about. But at least the lovers’ story held some interest as two disaffected people finding a connection. The second half when the narrator became so enamored with his creations that he inserted himself into the story dragged it down for me, especially the enigmatic ending. By that point I didn’t care about any of them and their heartbreak and sense of loss became meaningless.

Zhou Xun did a splendid job playing two different characters. My biggest problem was that Mu Dan was supposed to be a teenager which made her relationship with Mardar on the icky side as Jia had a hardened adult face and Mardar had an adult criminal job. The narrator knew nothing about his girlfriend, Mei Mei, which meant the audience didn’t either. We never see the narrator. He and his camera are the observers. Scenes through the camera’s POV were very shaky, a style that makes me rather nauseated.

Aside from the shaky camera issues, the color scheme was often gray and even blurred as if watching through too much smog. Or like an old scratchy film never lovingly restored. The music at least effectively matched the scenes and emotions.

As I watched this film repeatedly being pulled out of the characters’ world by the narrator, I couldn’t help but wonder if the story would have felt more cohesive and compelling if the director had told the story straight instead of bouncing around in time and between reality and fantasy. It was hard to care about people who were constantly described through the lens of urban legend and then blended with a lonely storyteller’s life.

20 July 2025

Read More

Yk what, take this as a sign to watch it, c'mon

Tears overflowing endlessly, heart shattered into thousand pieces, soul crushed beneath the weight of pure, overwhelming emotion ༼⁠;⁠´⁠༎⁠ຶ⁠ ⁠۝⁠ ⁠༎⁠ຶ⁠༽. Watching that wholesome love story has left me feeling utterly powerless, as if my heart has been pulled apart by gentle yet relentless forces (⁠ノ⁠T⁠＿⁠T⁠)⁠ノ⁠ ⁠＾⁠┻⁠━⁠┻. Every tender moment on screen echoes deep within, stirring a storm of longing and sadness I can't quite control. Truly, I am drowned in a sea of feelings, lost in a whirlpool of bittersweet affection that leaves me broken and yet somehow hopeful.

Read More

I would make sake even if it kills me

This was not your typical documentary. The narrative was interesting, I had no problem following it but it was not linear at all.
The focus is as the name says it, not that much on the process of making sake but on the people from Nato region involved in this job. From toji masters, to apperentices , regular brewers and their families , we see the diferences in perspective,gender, responsability, impact and passion for a tradition transmitted from a generation to another. We get some information on the history of sake , earthquake that distroyed the area and festivals related to Sake.
"The brewing of sake is like fighting mytical fungi "
I especially liked the circular ending of the documentary linked with nature cycle.
On the negatives the pace is slow to very slow and the filming style and resolution are not good. But it was made 10 years ago , so keeping that in mind.

Would I recommend it? Only if you are interested in the topic and have no issues with slow watches, otherwise not.
7/10

Read More

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

TLDR; GO WATCH IT!

We follow along the protagonist Pae as he is forced to transfer to a new high school, with an ultimatum from his father to make to and pay for his university on his own — or else, he is to join their family flour mill, something he has no interest in. Frustrated with his situation, Pae is solely focused on just completing his last semester of high school with no longing for friendships or bonds. Much to his irritation, he is assigned to a deskmate whose first sentence to him was, and i quote (well, paraphrase), “A scientist once said that we only remember 150 friends in our lives. You are my 150th friend.”

This movie reminds me of the art that 'storytelling' is. You can tell your story in any way you want, but there’s a separate art in knowing how to introduce characters to the narrative, how to reveal information not yet known to the audience/other characters, how to take a good story and make it great with the way you present it. It knows how to make you feel, and my god would it make you feel.

Young Thai directors are lately killing in the game that is celebrated Asian Cinema; movies like these make me look forward to the future of Thai cinema.

I wouldn’t go in depth writing about the characters, and acting, and themes and so. You shouldn’t be learning of them through this written response to the movie; you should experience them. Long live, cinema!

Read More

Review of "Brave Citizen" – 10/10?

I watched Brave Citizen kind of randomly — I wasn’t expecting anything too special, but wow… I ended up loving it way more than I thought I would. It made me feel so many things — anger, hope, sadness, and honestly, a lot of inspiration. For me, it’s a definite 10/10💕 because it really left a strong impression and I can’t stop thinking about it.

The movie follows So Si Min, a teacher who starts to stand up against injustice in the school she works at. What I liked the most is that she isn’t some perfect superhero. She’s just a regular person who’s been through a lot, and even though she’s scared and unsure at times, she still chooses to be brave. And that’s what makes her so powerful.

A lot of times, when I watch movies like this, the characters feel kind of distant or too “perfect” to relate to. But Si Min felt so real to me. I kept wondering what I would do if I were in her place. Would I be brave enough to speak up? Would I take that risk? I’m honestly not sure — and that’s exactly why I admire her so much.

The film also really shows how often people stay silent when something wrong happens. Either because they’re scared, or they think it’s not their problem, or they believe nothing will change. And Si Min starts out that way too — trying to mind her own business — but eventually, she just can’t ignore it anymore. That’s what I think is the most powerful message in the movie: you don’t need to be famous or rich or important to make a difference. You just need a voice. And the courage to use it.

The acting was amazing, especially from Shin Hye-sun, who played Si Min. You could feel every emotion through her performance — her frustration, sadness, strength, and determination. It wasn’t overacted or fake at all. It was so natural that I forgot I was even watching a movie. It just felt real.

I also liked how the school was portrayed. It wasn’t some perfect, shiny place. It felt more honest — like the way schools can sometimes be in real life, with pressure, unfair rules, and people who abuse power. That made the story even more meaningful. Because when the problems are realistic, the solutions feel real too. And it really made me believe that even one person standing up can start to change things.

After it ended, I just sat there for a minute in silence. It’s the kind of movie that stays with you after the credits roll. And the best part is, it wasn’t boring or too serious the whole time. It had moments of action, strong emotions, and just the right amount of intensity. It kept me interested from beginning to end.

On my personal scale, this is definitely 10/10💕 — not just because it was a great movie, but because it actually made me think. It reminded me that bravery isn’t about being fearless. It’s about doing the right thing, even when you’re afraid. And that’s something I really needed to see.

Read More