Reviews

Ironic story

Whether it's the narrative structure, character development, or the balanced interplay of humor and pathos, everything is masterfully executed. The story's premise isn't groundbreaking—similar plots can be traced back to Gogol's The Government Inspector in 1836, which exposed the corruption of high-ranking officials.
Yet this film goes beyond mere satire of modern workplace slogans like "996" and "optimization." It raises a profound question for our era: How should society treat those deemed "inefficient" in the face of progress? The answer it offers is collective resilience—we must weather the storm together.
Even with its utopian ending, the film's substance is undeniable. It forces a reckoning: Do we become willing agents of self-exploitation, or dare to pursue our ideals?

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My Review of the Movie Revelations:

I watched the film over two days. It falls under the genres of horror, mystery, and fantasy. At first, I was intrigued by the poster—it gave off a strange and gripping vibe that made me want to understand the meaning behind it. However, by the second day, I found myself confused due to a lack of clarity in several key points.

The movie is interesting and manages to keep the viewer engaged, building curiosity about who the villain truly is. But halfway through, the amount of unexplained mystery becomes overwhelming. It leans more towards a Western horror style rather than the Korean touch I expected.

There were several logical gaps that felt overlooked during the storytelling. For example:

The criminal was wearing a sensor bracelet—typically, any attempt to remove it should trigger an alert, yet no one seemed to notice in the film.

The villain suffered multiple severe injuries, including falling from a cliff, hitting his head on a rock, and being thrown from a high place—yet he only died after falling from the seventh floor. This defied logic.


Although the film includes religious themes, I want to clarify that I have complete respect for all beliefs. My criticism isn’t directed at the religion itself, but rather at how the concept was executed. There were too many inconsistencies that made me lose interest and excitement about how the story would unfold.

In summary:
Revelations has a captivating premise and an intriguing visual style, but it suffers from weak storytelling logic and unresolved plot points. With more attention to detail and narrative clarity, it could’ve been a much stronger film

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Hideko the Bus Conductor is a short Naruse Mikio film from 1941 starring the then seventeen-year-old Takamine Hideko. Filmed during WWII Naruse managed to avoid any outright propaganda in this largely effervescent story about two bus employees trying to save their jobs.

Okoma is the young conductress on an old, dirty bus. The driver and her friendly colleague is Sonoda. The two love their jobs even as the company they work for is being edged out by a new company that has cleaner, more modern, and faster buses. Their passengers tend to be poor or in need of a largely empty bus. Passengers bring baggage, children, even chickens with them. Okoma comes up with the idea of acting as a tour guide along with her other duties to liven up the ride and draw in more customers. The two bus workers ask a visiting writer that Okoma had helped out to write them a script. Ikawa is more than happy to pay back the favor he owes Okoma and sets to work writing the script and teaching her how to speak like a tour guide.

Takamine Hideko was delightful as the good-hearted conductor. In one scene they stop the bus so she can deliver a gift to her mother who scolds her for spending money. She had no problem sharing her meager earnings on something for her mother yet at this stop she had to trade out her badly worn cloth shoes for her traditional geta. Fujiwara Kamatari played the congenial but slow driver willing to go along with Okoma’s ideas. He took her ideas to the boss as it was unacceptable for Okoma to present them to the toe digging, lemonade drinking, back stabbing leader. Natsukawa Daijiro as Ikawa supplied the two bus workers with creative and legal advice. More educated and cosmopolitan, Ikawa came to their aid when the bus company boss crossed an ethical line and pressured the two to do the same. The trio of comrades were affable and easy to root for.

Naruse made use of the rural scenery as a silent fourth character. Most of the roads appeared to be dirt with the bus kicking up a trail of dust behind it. The opening sequence and jaunty music reminded me of Mr. Thank You (1936), another film dedicated to a bucolic bus route and happy driver. The copy I watched was sadly in need of restoration, like peering through murky water that caused the faces to be badly obscured. I would love to have seen the countryside more clearly as well.

Hideko the Conductor wasn’t deeply profound, nothing exciting happened, yet Naruse once again showed us regular people choosing to make the best of difficult situations. He also provided gentle laughter, friendship, and a twinge of pain on the scenic ride.

5 June 2025

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Interested in Supermoon?

I'll be honest, I rarely ever watch any trailers before watching a show or movie. And this time was the same. Saw the poster and went right into watching it.

This movie's theme is more leaned towards Memories of Youth, Space, etc. To have a highschool first love like them, unfulfilled wish. A good movie to watch when you want something light and good.

Xu Nian Nian, played by Liu Hao Cun, a new student who transferred in their school, smart and athletic. She performs well academically, and she's good at sports too.

Yang Yi, His obsession with Space, stars and Universe. He can do anything he want but too lazy to work hard, until he met Xu Nian Nian. He actually started to study more to get close to NianNian.

They're bickering a lot, and it's hilarious actually. Cause that bickering is so fun to watch. Friendly fire turned to a basketball match. And the whole competition was entertaining.

If I gotta say what I was surprised with in the Movie it was this, I thought throughout the whole movie that Yang Yi fell first and he fell harder, But plot twist, at the end suddenly everything changed and every scene connected like dots, and showed that NianNian saw him first and fell for him first and she fell harder. Her feelings were not noticeable at first but reaching the end they became clear.

Things I liked the most in the Movie:
1. Never thought I'd see Song Wei Long in a skirt and a ribbon on his head.
2. The Bus slap scene. Lol that was funny.
3. How Yang Yi's eyes widened when he realised that Xu Nian Nian knows how to play Basketball, to be honest that was the moment he knew he fucked up.
4. When XNN contaced YY to meet up, and he agreed with a single text, like they haven't been apart at all, and it's the same as it was a year ago.

From my point of view, it was definitely a good movie and I'd recommend you to watch it!

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...

2gether is like my first love if i had a heartbreak i will go and watch 2gether.. i'm confused so i will watch 2gether....
i can watch 2gether forever i love they chemistry and my key to bl is this series or movie but 2gether is like my healer i can watch this whenever i need and its gives me the chills like watching 1st time
And this is not the best drama but its a good and nostalgic movie..
The chemistry of Sarawatine is best like and the story telling is good they rewinded us all 2 parts in one movie which is kinda intresting plot and when sarawat gives tine guitar picks just skips my heart beat so overall its good

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Meeting and partings

I wanted to enjoy the idea of this movie. However the pacing and emotional core personally weren't built strongly leaving a somewhat lacking experience.

The main gripes I have with the movie was the way the story played out. Each character had reasonable reasons for you to feel like it matters but for some reason I felt a total lack of chemistry between everyone. I'm not sure what it is but all the couples didn't feel like couples. Kozue and Tsuyoshi had a really surface level romance that felt like it was just going from scene to scene.

The best example would be how they reminisced about them meeting each other. I felt like Tsuyoshi couldn't make me feel like it was an actual memory. Their banter was like it was meant to be playful digging but it didn't feel as if they knew each other for that long. The worst part about this is the emotional scenes at the end don't really hit because you don't feel that love beforehand from these scenes at the beginning.

Ruri, Akira and Ryunosuke also had this same issue. I'm not sure if I'm just not getting Ren Maguro's range yet seeing as how he's so popular, but I felt like he barely had any real connection to Arimura's character in this. I think it might have to do with again the scripting and general transitions from scene to scene. Akira felt really one sided and just sorta there. No real reason for them to even be so in love, next to making Ruri feel needed. Which is not a bad thing but in this movie it does not come through.

Arimura as well felt off more then usual. I didn't feel like she was her usual depressed character. She seemed to be struggling with the direction and line deliveries. Again I think this came down to what the director wanted. I don't feel like they understood relationship building. Kei and her also had barely anytime to set up their relationship and their fight scene was extremely poor. It felt so undramatic!

Music was also really off in this movie for me. They kept playing the John Lennon song in place where they wanted reactions but it ended up just being sorta annoying. I also felt like the movie had an extremely mellow Soundtrack that didn't help the movies scenes. There were also scenes that should of had music but didn't, like the home chase scene. It was very head scratching.

The camera work was fine. I could see they tried to infuse some unique angles to make it more interesting, like the first time they went to Akira's house with the overhead sweeping shot and the train ride home in the Final scenes. But either then that it was serviceable. The colour grading was good.

I think the main problem everyone will have is how the plot unfolds. The focus from story to story I think hurts the flow of this movie. I don't feel like it was balanced. Most of the time it was only Akira and Ruri's scenes. But as I mentioned these scenes didn't convey well enough what was going on between them. So then the rest of the movie also suffered due to lack of cohesion and connection. By the end of the movie it's hollowness is apparent due to the unbalanced use of screen time. Nothing really resolves. I wanted to really get a message of: "someday we will surely meet again, no matter how much time passes."

It was really off when Yui was at the grave with Tsuyoshi. The reveal felt out of place due to the previous scenes lacking any sort of indication that this happened already. I know they were trying to do a surprise reveal but it felt super flat. Like when Ruri convinced the father that it was her. They missed a super opportunity to redo the special hand bumps to reiterate its her! Something as simple as that would of helped immensely. You still get a few tears here and there but it's mostly at the thought of what is happening rather then the act itself. Callbacks in a movie about believing in reincarnation are really important to get that heart string.

I think personally I would retool much of the movie and interactions so they could match up better by the end.

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"A record is there to be beaten"

A Tale of Archery at the Sanjusangendo was a rare period drama from director Naruse Mikio. Filmed during WWII, Naruse managed to side-step overlaying his film with heavy propaganda. In fact, the lessons involved were of sharing information and being okay with another’s success. “You don’t need to be in a hurry to die.”

Seventeen-year-old Daihachiro has been secretly living at an inn under the care of the owner, Okinu. His father had once held the record at the Sanjusangendo Temple archery contest. His record was broken by Hoshino. Pressured to win back the honor, his father tried but failed, committing seppuku afterwards. For the past five years Okinu has been pushing Daihachiro to excel at archery so that he could win back the title. The poor kid is starting to crack under the life-or-death pressure, not helped by ronin attacking him. Out of nowhere, a skilled samurai appears at the inn offering his protection and help with Daihachiro’s archery training. It seems almost too good to be true…

I enjoyed this shorter film by Naruse featuring archers. Daihachiro’s doubts and people calling him a coward could be wearing. His doubts were understandable though. He was a teenager being asked to break a record and failure could tarnish his father’s death which would also lead to his own. Okinu was shown as being overprotective but at the same time her actions could be leading to the teen’s death. Into this pointy deathtrap sauntered in Kanbei who was completely unflappable with a word of wisdom for every crisis. His identity was revealed early on to the viewer. He stood ready to protect Daihachiro even from his own family. Most importantly, he tried to teach the boy what real honor was and that competition wasn’t a death sentence. My biggest complaint would be the awkward dumping of 20 pp of exposition on the viewer during the first six minutes of the film. After that, the pace of the story evened out.

AToAatS was simplistic yet also entertaining, largely due to Hasegawa Kazuo’s smooth samurai that understood honor went far beyond holding records. Tanaka Kinuyo’s role could have been played by a number of actresses, she of course, gave the limited character a modicum of emotional depth. Daihachiro was the last role for Ichikawa Sensho who died at the age of 29. While this was a departure for Naruse, I found it interesting that much like in other films of his, unruly family members were put in their place while the odd person out found their independence and own path. Worth a try if you are a Naruse fan and want to see a different effort from him.

4 June 2025

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Kid in that Mysterious Village doesn't AGE!? An Interesting watch!

To my surprise, it's Very Interesting to Watch!

A Good Horror story with Supernatural entities!
It's exactly like Scary Folklore Horror stories that are shared in villages
Or like the Horror Ghost Stories that we share at nights in childhood in group meets n get scared for no reason :) and I love such horrors!

***
EVERY SCENE from the beginning IS MYSTERIOUS and EERIE .
No jump scares (like usual horror movies) but Scary enough!

The premise of the plot is interesting to watch but COULD BE BETTER.
Anyways, a good horror to pass the time.

The Story is about Past Mysteries of 30 primary school kids in a village, missing 30 years back.

The Mystery and the Suspense of what happened in the past and what & who are those kids in the present, are well maintained.
The Horror of the supernatural entities visiting, is Scary enough.
(Imagine, U meet a supernatural entity in human form, one day :O -- Chills in the spine!😨, right? Haha )

*** STORY:
The movie starts with a kid being killed and in his autopsy, a strange truth is out that all his internal organs are missing.

The Main Lead is a reporter to cover this strange case.
When he meets the examiner for information, both of them experience something strange - the kid's dead body wakes up from dead, runs into the alley and vanishes.
Further investigation leads to the past mystery and that the kid is one of the 30 missing school kids and he hasn't aged from past 30 years :O

Then, the actual scary story begins :)
What happened back then,
who are those kids,
why are their organs missing,
why is everyone abandoning the village,
why only few elderly parents stay in the village,
why are the kids visit their parents every year only after the rains etc.

***
Direction, Pacing and Story Narration are Good (Suits to 2000s movies)

Special Mention:
I found it funny that ML n FL met just once and travelled to the mysterious village for a day and the next day, both of them moved in together -- Fastest Love story! 😂

*** WHAT DISAPPOINTED ME:
1) Plot is too simple, I expected something more Gripping n Compelling Storyline.
U can predict about who those kids actually are.

2) I expected that there will be few scenes showing what happened back then, how the kids met such eerie circumstances and lost their organs etc.
To my surprise, there is absolutely no scene about the Past or what happened 30 years ago.

***
My RATING is 8 / 10.
(Since it reminded me of ghost stories or folklore stories, monsters in human forms mingled with humans etc, that we share in childhood to scare each other :) )

Horror Genre Lovers, especially who love to watch every type n a variety of Horror concepts, Watch this, U'll not be bored! :)

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A Woman's life was never easy

I watched the movie at the 16th Festival of Chinese movies in Paris on Tuesday May 25, 2025, pending another screening on Monday June 9 at the cinema Pathé Les Fauvettes.

The movie depicts the hard life and lack of choices of a woman assigned to work in a factory specializing in dyeing fabric while pushed into two unsuccessful marriages and painful births over a hard period (the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s to the mid-1980s), it leaves an impression of a grey life, even if the end is more hopeful with the protagonist Kong Xiu publishing stories in a newspaper, against the odds. The movie was released on Women's Day, March 8, 2024, in mainland China.

Wang Chao, the director, specializes in the portraits of the underprivileged in hard circumstances since in "Orphan of Anyang" trilogy (which he wrote himself, but "A Woman" is adapted by him, also as screenwriter together with Dong Yunzhou, from the semi autobiographical novel of Zhang Xiuzhen : My Dream, as befits the theme of the festival which is "Adaptation of literary works into Chinese cinema").

This movie can be compared with the one about the tribulations of Xiangling Sao in 1956 "New Year Sacrifice" (adapted from a short story by Lu Xun) and of the classic 1934 "Goddess" (about a woman who sacrifices everything for her child).

Despite Mao's saying that "women hold up half the sky", doing so was not an easy task, even after the 1949 Liberation and the advent of the New China, when villagers still subscribed to early marriage to get a son who would keep alive the family line, while a daughter in law was regarded as only useful to cater for the elders and work in the fields. Especially during the Cultural Revolution when a factory worker, although also a needed category, was at risk of being politically scolded, slandered, or worse. Surviving the hardship, keeping up her spirit, and finding new hopes, Kong Xiu (played very precisely by Shen Shiyu) becomes a minor icon to be respected.

Yang Jinxia (played by Zhu Dongqing) was her first husband, obeying his mother who despised the daughter-in-law and forced him into divorce, keeping the son and leaving the daughter to Kong Xiu. Liu Hanzhang the second, crippled husband and father of her third child was played by Wang Xuedong. Yu Qingbin played as the timid factory electrical engineer Wu Beichen, who finally took courage to pursue Kong Xiu when she did not need a husband anymore.

The final images of Kong Xiu visiting her first husband tilling a field, and hearing that her elder son has been sent to boarding school, before she turns to the small bordering riverbed, become a stony wasteland, are bitter sweet.

The name 孔秀 also reminds of a hero from the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but the fate of the woman in the movie is kinder than that of the commander of Donglin Pass who was beheaded by Guan Yu.

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Soulmates <3

So here I am again, not good with words thus won't use such heavy/formal words. 0.1% World. This movie tells the love story of a man & woman they got to know each other because of an accident that connected their bodies and mind to one another cause of Brainwaves and magic as we know. Even though the theme might seem absurd at first but it's a fluffy rom com movie.

An Yi, the female lead played by Zhou Yi Ran. She is an Assistant Architect living in China, working hard since she graduated, just wants to live a good life, hard working and young, but struggling and got rent to pay.

Gao Ang, the male lead played by Patrick Shih. A Piano Tuner, living in Germany and working hard to become a Pianist, holding grudges lol, if she did something he will definitely return the double.

Initially after being interconnected they were bickering a lot, trying to ruin one another's plan at every chance they got and that is without even meeting each other.
And both of them kinda resorted to self harm to fight one another is truly hilarious, and how he realised her heartbeat was rising and he just did a workout and BAAM! a self defense move got her senior in pain on the floor.

Gao Ang, after spending some time with eachother, even hanging two clocks, one for his timezone and another for hers. That scene had me smiling. And her being considerate and wearing gloves, these details melting my heart.
Sometimes if you can't win someone's heart they might not be the one for you, and it was good that She realised about the toxic relationship and broke up.
He tried his best not to cross the line.

The movie places more importance on Self love, like only if you love yourself others will also love you.

The Casting is really good, I haven't seen her before, but Patrick really took the limelight from my pov, good acting to be honest. Became a fan of his.

The music is also good, the background music and ost both are good. Along with the acting, both leads did a good job.

The lines I liked the most:
• The Greatest Happiness is that,
The Person You're Waiting for, Is Also Waiting For You.
The Person You Care About, Also Cares About You.
The Person You see, Can See Through You.

•It is said that in your world,
70% of people know you.
20% of people use you.
6% of people hate you.
4% of people like you.
But only 0.1% of People see you.
She is my 0.1%.

And for a fast pace movie like this one, it was good that only ml and fl were given the focus and no other characters so they had more time together.

The only thing I didn't like was adding his friend who was in a coma, like he had 5 seconds of screentime while conscious, otherwise he was on a hospital bed and he passed away, so I don't think that there was much need for him anywhere in the movie. And it didn't get any emotional touch even if he died.

But overall a really good movie and I'd definitely suggest this one to watch.

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I was just crying the whole movie and my eyes hurt.

I was just expecting to watch this and laugh since we have Jo Jung-suk as the main character who is almost always funny with his characters, but instead I ended up crying from 30mins in the movie until the end. Do Kyungsoo was also really good at acting, something about his acting feels really natural. Park Shinhye as always never fails to deliver, even though she is just a supporting role. Honestly, it is a star-studded cast with a good plot. The fact that I enjoyed it even though there wasn't any romance involved (I mostly watch romcom) means that it was really well-written.

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Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils

This is a complete narrative that creatively adapts the classic Chinese allegory 'Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils.' The protagonist Chen Guilin, embodying a 'chaotic good' moral stance, dispenses vigilante justice before achieving redemption through submitting to legal punishment—'a life for a life'—a resolution deeply resonant with Chinese values. The film excels cinematographically, with particular praise for its editing and score. Though lacking formal music theory knowledge, I found myself profoundly synced with the composers' intent.
Initially, some plot points gave me pause: that policeman's unexplained benevolence toward Chen Guilin, the mother's choice of suicide, or how Chen Guilin kept fighting after a abdominal stab wound. But on reflection, these all serve the film's internal logic—stylized choices prioritizing thematic cohesion over rigid realism.

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Passable as a skit, but fails as a proper story

Passable as a skit, but fails as a proper story. The premise is something I fantasized about in second grade - so cringe-inducing I can barely stand to read it, let alone watch it adapted into film. This movie exists in the worst limbo: neither authentic nor absurdist enough, neither riotous nor profound. At the very least, it should have articulated its core message clearly like Hello Mr. Billionaire did. Instead, audiences will chuckle mindlessly and forget everything afterward. Such wasted potential - it could have delivered a poignant truth: that parenting, whether too lax or too strict, inevitably becomes mutual destruction.

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