Reviews

"Nothing changes. Nothing."

Sword in the Moon was a 2003 Korean attempt at a wuxia complete with running on rooftops. Because even in a wig and sword drama there has to be a childhood connection, the two main characters were blood brothers who trained at the same school but ended up on different sides of a coup.

Yun Gyu Yeop has the nickname “The Butcher” and serves at the pleasure of the king. This king stole the throne during a bloody rebellion. Ministers involved with the coup begin being brutally murdered. It doesn’t take long before Yun realizes that the two people involved were his friends from another life. Choi Ji Hwan and Shi Yeong have nothing left to live for except their revenge after the king’s men and Yun killed everyone they cared about.

Sword in the Moon had the basis for an entertaining wuxia. The filming and editing let me down greatly. The director overused the shaky and nausea inducing camera style as well as too many blurry slow-mo fights. The film jumped back and forth in time, introducing characters briefly and rapidly and killing many of them off just as quickly. New players entered the game and then disappeared. This film might have benefited from telling its story more linearly. The main characters were not well developed and relied on the old friends/brothers to enemies trope. At one point it seemed Shi and Yun might have had romantic feelings for each other, yet it was with Choi that Yun road horseback in the moonlight through the tall grasses as grand romantic music played in the background. It honestly felt like Director Kim was told to cut 30 minutes off of the film and he stitched together an odd patchwork with a chisel hoping no one would notice the characters that came and went without reason.

If you are squeamish, it’s important to note that there were numerous beheadings and dismemberments. There were a few fights that weren’t ruined by the shaky, slow-mo camera. As the characters were given little emotional depth, except for Yun, it was hard to care what happened to any of them. Even the traitorous ministers and king lacked any menace or interesting details personally or historically. Sword in the Moon wasn’t terrible, but I would have better enjoyed watching an old Hwang Jang Lee kung fu movie instead.

16 January 2025

Trigger warnings: beheadings and dismemberments

A scene with NUMEROUS snakes

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“We don’t discriminate”.

The thing I got the most from this movie is the complete lack of education about trans issues we have, honestly globally. The lack of education leads to insensitive comments and questions. The intent might have been just a normal curiocity, some might even think they are being playful or joking, some that it's just teasing, but the effect on the person being asked? Rather negative. “We don’t discriminate”, but we also do not care enough to take a second and reevaluate if the comment we are about to make might be insensitive or worded in the worst way possible.

Do I think it is a tricky situation for people who fall into the “norm”? Sure. Everyone has their own limits, boundaries, expectations. Things they feel comfortable about, and things they hate. There is no guideline “how to treat a transgender person”, because they are all different, just like literally every human being is different. The same question can be viewed as rude to one, and completely fine for another. Still, some comments and questions are objectively a big no-no. Sadly, most people don’t know what they are and don’t care enough to find out.

As for our heroine - Hikari. What a strong character. I am not one with any type of anxiety, especially none that involves social interactions, but the way the movie was shot and structured, I was feeling anxious for her. I was also getting annoyed, angry and frustrated watching her interactions with strangers and how… inconsiderate they were. “I am curious, so I am asking, because I am an egocentric asshole who only thinks about their own needs, and not about other’s feelings” - this is how I viewed the majority of them.

On one had it was great to see her move forward even when she felt hurt. On the other hand I wanted her to just start hell and say a few “rude” words to a couple of people. Easier said than done though. Still, seeing her walk with a smile on her face in that red dress (amazing look if you ask me) was to some extend liberating.

I’m sure there are a lot of hidden meanings and symbolism going on, sadly my brain is not quite wired to catch the hidden meanings and the poetic, less straightforward messages. Someone with a more abstract mind would for sure appreciate the movie even more.

I feel like the review is more me just ranting about society, and less how the movie was. For that I'm sorry...

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Hope finds happiness

Very emotional Very heart touching. Hope is such a mature child.
I pray to God, every person suffering finds hope one day and have their happiest day in their life. All bad people will sure get their karma back.
I cried a lot watching this.
I loved this so muchhhhh.
The starting of the movie is so nice warm and cozy, it takes a turn in the middle this was so hard to watch. My heart breaks for hope and her dad. The father also suffered a lot. Although the criminal didnt get what he deserved. But the end was happy.
Our hope found her happy person. The names given by their parents to their kids are so nice "Hope and Happy"
The actor who played the father, did a very nice job and the child actress too. I loved her so so much.
This movie is based on a true story which breaks my heart so much. I hope all the people suffering, all the bad things happening in their life doesn't hurt them too much. Y'all can overcome this and theres much more happiness waiting for you. So please don't give. We can find our hope and happiness again.

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Guerilla warfare

Initially convincing Police Tactics as the final instalment of the series, all the stops were pulled out in intensifying the gangland war left unfinished by the end of the previous film, one that fully delivers on the Battles Without Honor and Humanity namesake. Instead of a unified assault, the battles of this film are more like guerilla warfare, as one side attacks the other and waits for the inevitable retaliation, drawing the ire of civilians and finally forcing the police to act. Of the sequels, this one is the most similar in tone and execution to the original, it also comes with a considerable amount of dark comedy, something unexpected from the series but certainly welcome. Fukasaku continually mounts his impressive direction, drawing a brittle atmosphere of blood splattering the camera, as the unsteady warmth which had temporarily united them, shatters to slivers as they all get forced to the wilderness. There's a double dosing of chaotic violence in this entry as everything comes to a head, darker, uglier and completely unsympathetic with everyone in a constant state of conflict that seemingly never ends. The cast is once again phenomenal, everyone feels so lived-in and believable, and there are too many standouts to name especially Bunta Sugawara at the centre of it all. Powered by the deep grooves of another fantastic Toshiaki Tsushima score; Proxy War was all about setting up the game, Police Tactics comes in, flips the game board and laughs as all the pieces go flying, rounding off the story in an explosively satisfying manner yet the War for Hiroshima is far from over.

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I threw myself on the sword.

The lewd, provocative synopsis of the film is diabolical to say the least and I found myself shaking my head at the fact the film existed. Not just as a straight up pornographic film, but as an honest to goodness attempt at creating an erotic movie with a worthwhile storyline, plot, and characters.

What prompted me to work up the courage to spend the 39 minutes needed to consume this piece of media was that it screened at two film festivals, one in USA and one in France, receiving somewhat positive reviews at both.

This move is exactly the type of low budget 'misunderstood' arthouse movie that pompous, wannabe movie critics would latch onto and laud as some sort of triumph and breakthrough in what is considered acceptable in cinema. I fully expect it to show up on the Youtube algorithm one day where a dozen movie review channels suddenly begin to talk about it because their algorithm dictates that it would get enough clicks to warrant the time.

Everything about this movie sucks. For something billed as 'erotic' I was sure left afterwards wondering where on earth this eroticism was, there was none of it in this movie. To the right person a woman pretending to be a cow(yes, she even moos), having her breasts 'milked' would be highly erotic, but maybe I am just not that guy because watching an old man feel up a womans breasts whilst she is surrounded by cow dung, and cows covered in dung, just aint exciting me. You know?

People who like this type of movie will always have an excuse as to why it's great and why you are a rube for hating it. They'll use every excuse in the book, and eventually arrive at saying that the fact you were prompted to watch it means the movie succeeded.

The classic cry of someone who has no standards and enjoys things 'ironically'.

If this movie were just pornography then it would have some merit by virtue of understanding what it was and being honest about it. But this film is no merit and no virtue. It sucks, and anybody who might pretend it has merit sucks. Yes I'm mad.

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mature wholesome love

Mi su had a wonderful character arc. Admittedly, she didn’t really grow until like the last 30 min of the movie, but better late than never.

Their romance was a little skeptical in the beginning, but it won me over by the end. It’s kind of weird that the ml kinda just kinda forgot about his ex wife at the end. I’m not sure, it might just be me.

The ml was such a good person. In real life, it wouldn’t be so optimal because his decisions are too selfless. It worked out because it was a movie, but he was too good to be true.


** major spoiler and profanity **

Okay so DID SHE HAVE THE DUCKING SURGERY OR NOT ?!?! THEY COULDNT HAVE SPARED LIKE 5 SECONDS TO CLARIDY THAT IT WAS A SUCCESS OR SOMETHINF. WHAT EVEN WAS THE POINT OF THAT PLOTLINE.

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by far a revolutionary k-bl

in this essay i will explain how semantic error is and will always be one of the best k-bls out there…
starting with the perfect adaptation from the novel to the incredible production of the whole thing, i literally can’t find anything i don’t like about it, after watching semantic error twice i decided to read the webtoon and i’ve never done that in my life, then the novel, and in between that i re-watched the movie/series a few more times.
and maybe i AM biased but jaechan is an excellent actor and seoham executed his character perfectly i feel like there were no other options as sangwoo and jaeyoung. they belong to their roles.
this bl had an interesting impact on the media, it still is ‘charting’ and to this day people keep finsing themselves going back to rewatch!
overall, semantic error is a fun, humorous but romantic and lovely movie/series!
if you’re in doubt about watching it, trust me, go do it Now!

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The most beautiful declaration of love in world cinematography

Chinese cinema, supported by European critics in the 80s and 90s and by the public in recent years, has been in good health for more than a hundred years.
Chinese cinematography makes about 400 films annually, covering all genres and themes. In its exhibition halls, this production occupies 60 to 70 percent of the projection time.
They also make just over a hundred television series and about 20 cartoons for younger audiences.
The awards from European festivals are repeated, and although the Hollywood Oscar resists, the European and Asian awards are almost never missing.
The development of childhood and adolescence, the daily life of the peasantry and the development of contemporary Chinese society are among the priority themes of the Asian giant's cinematography.
Stories about young people who love, study, work, live and make their way in life are present in the Chinese films of the so-called Sixth Generation.
From the hand of contemporary filmmakers, films such as 'As black as coal' (Báirì Yànhuǒ, Diao Yinan, 2014), 'I am not Madame Bovary' (Wǒ Búshì Pān Jīnlián, Feng Xiaogang, 2016), 'Mrs. Fang' (Fang Xiu Ying, Wang Bing, 2017), 'An Elephant Sitting Still' (Dà Xiàng Xí Dì Ér zuò, Hu Bo, 2018), 'That woman/Ash is the purest white' (Jiang hu er nü, Jia Zhang Ke, 2018), 'Long journey into the night' (Dìqiú zuìhòu de yèwǎn, Bi Gan, 2018), 'Farewell, my son' (dìjiǔtiāncháng, Wang Xiaoshuai, 2019), 'The Wandering Earth' (Liu Lang Di Qiu, Frant Gwo, 2019), among others.
Queer cinema is not far behind, and if in 1996 Zhang Yuan released 'East Palace West Palace', Cu Zi En filmed 'Jiu yue' (2001), Wang Chao released 'Xun Zhao Luo Mai' (Looking for Rohmer), Lu Po-wen presented 'River Knows Fish Heart' (2018), Luo Ye filmed 'Chun feng chen zui de ye wan' ('Spring Fever' / 'Nuit d'ivresse printanière') and Xu Fang Yi exhibited 'Kinematic Theory' and 'The Ambiguous Focus', filmmaker Tang Shi premiered 'Sentimental and Peaceful Today' ('The Raccoon', or 'The Reccoon'), with a script of his own.
Originally conceived as a degree project by professors of Chinese Literature at Peking University, the interest of an increasingly large group of admirers and benefactors made it possible to turn the short film into a feature film.
'The Raccoon' is a faithful reflection of the predominant Chinese personality as a people and culture: interactions that are not warm, although love and affection are still shown. It is part of the formal nature of relationships in Chinese culture.
Gu Xiao An (actor Weng Hai Bin) is a student studying Chinese Literature at a university in Beijing. One night he receives an invitation from his dorm roommates to sleep on the roof of the building to escape the heat. Xiao An lies down, and a friend lies next to him. In the early morning he feels cold, and when he wakes up he notices that his blanket (printed with bears) does not cover him, and next to him a person sleeps with his blanket. He pulls it to get hold of it and, accidentally, touches the erect member of the sleeper, who wakes up and shouts: "It hurts, it hurts". Xiao runs away with the blanket. When he gets to his room he discovers that his friend is sleeping covered with his blanket, so he took the wrong one. He hopes that because it is dark at night, the owner of the blanket has not seen him, but the next morning he is woken up by the owner of the blanket, Mao Cai (actor Wu Di), ready to get his blanket back. The entire misunderstanding is cleared up and when Mao Cai is about to leave, Xiao tells him that he offended, upset, tried to hit someone, and not an apology. Mao Cai invites him to dinner, as an apology. Thus begins a love triangle, as Lao Si (Deng Tian Xiong), another roommate, is in love with Xiao.
Xiao and Mao Cai quickly become close friends. Mao Cai is the first to approach Xiao. He calls her "my wife" to his friends. The friends tell Mao Cai why he dresses so elegantly if his wife lives in the front room and he sees her every day. Students govern relationships in the dorms. There is no presence of any professor or administrative official of the university interfering in the lives of the students.
Xiao sick with jealousy. Moments before he argued with the handsome and slender seme Mao Cai. He is confused by his feelings for him and doesn't want him around. He remembers that Mao Cai, to his question, answered that two years ago, in high school, he was in love with a girl, but they broke up when they graduated. Xiao is sad. Mao Cai is not among the visitors to the hospital, but later, upon returning to his bedroom, he finds out that Mao Cai was the one who picked him up, took him to the hospital, and bought his medicine. This makes him go look for him and they reconnect.
At another point, the cute and sweet Mao Cai tells Xiao that he reminds him of "his brother", who died years ago. He liked bear-printed blankets, he liked the same foods that Xiao likes, and he always walked behind Mao Cai's back, as if he were his shadow, like Xiao walks behind him. "I'm going to sing for you. I'm going to call you my brother". Hugs him. Mao Cai skips his class, and enters Xiao's. He tells him not to write, to play with him. The game consists of reaching under the table and touching the other's penis. A surprised Xiao scolds him. "Are you sick?". The teacher notices. She, the only teacher in the film, is cheerful and positive when she discovers the two boys holding hands in her Chinese Literature class.
Xiao asks him, always on the rooftop where they met and where they meet, why he wants her to call him "brother". And Mao Cai tells him about his parents' divorce when he was a child. He went with his mother to another city, and his younger brother stayed with his father. Xiao now doubts if Mao Cai is in love with him or if he just reminds her of her brother. And, hurt, he distances himself again. This moment is taken advantage of by the thin and passive Lao Si to approach Xiao.
The action is slow, but the film captures the viewer, keeping them interested in the events, often with the need to put a handkerchief close to their eyes. The film takes its time to reach intimacy quickly. It is in the manner of that great Asian and universal filmography that is Chinese: the protagonists meet to talk for hours over a long period. Then a shy, light hug, to give way, after long hours of conversation and after a long period, to a much warmer hug, and finally a kiss, as a prelude to the tender love relationship. That is the classic courtship employed by the Chinese methodological way: step by step and often tumultuous, as we continue to see among Chinese university students, in the last premiere of that country, in the one before it and in the one to come.
They reconnect again. They go back up to the roof to talk. They share the bowl of noodles again.
Mao Cai is jealous, because in the dining room he saw Xiao looking into the distance at Lao Si while he was looking for lunch for the two of them. Mao Cai will be acting in a play in which his girlfriend betrays him with another man. Mao Cai is the first to provoke Xiao: "Aren’t you worried about the female character kidnapping me? ". But Xiao replies: "It's good to have a sister-in-law. It's not bad to have someone taking care of me. To check if my future sister-in-law is suitable, I would have to go see the play…".
It doesn't end. A tormented and jealous Mao Cai, little by little, while listening to him, stopped eating, and as in his character in the play, he threw the bowl of food and left. He is already in love with Xiao. He no longer wants him as a brother. He desires it, longs for it as a lover.
It's the dress rehearsal. Mao Cai goes to Xiao's room to look for him so they can both go to the theater, but he has left early with Lao Si. At the theater, the two arrive holding hands. Mao Cai throws the bowl on the floor when he sees them and leaves the theater. Xiao thinks it's part of the performance, and applauds. He goes to Mao Cai's room. He finds out that he is in a bad mood and has not gone to rest: “Haven't you realized why Mao Cai is in a bad mood? "Shouldn't you have gone to the theater with him? ". Mao Cai's companions understand the reason for Mao Cai's mood, but Xiao is unable to understand.
They see each other on the roof. "Xiao, why didn't you wait for me to go to rehearsal? I don't know why, when I saw you holding Lao Si's hand, my heart hurt terribly. I feel like you belong to me". And after a hug: "Xiao An, do you still love this brother?". Mao Cai pulls Xiao over and they kiss.
Lan Xin, the young student and female character in the play, pursues Maocai. After the success of the play and a night of drinking, Xiao An and Mao Cai wake up naked in a hotel bed the next morning. Xiao says he doesn't remember anything from the night before, and Mao Cai throws himself at him and tells him that if he wants they can repeat what they did. That's when Lan Xin arrives to give Mao Cai the "jacket you left in my room last night." And he sits on the bed in which Xiao lies still, without getting up, naked, and tells him, before a disturbed Mao Cai, that the night before he got drunk and Mao Cai brought him to the hotel room, that he should be grateful to him. , and invites him to go eat together, the three of them. But Xiao doesn't go. And when he is alone he calls Lao Si. Xiao hugs him when Lao Si tells him how could Mao Cai leave him in that condition in the hotel. Mao Cai sees them hugging, from the doorway, with food in their hands, and leaves without them noticing. He didn't have time to go to eat with Lan Xin. He immediately returned to look for Xia. Throw the food in the trash can. Were Xiao and Mao Cai together? Were Mao Cai and Lan Xin together? At this point, Mao Cai admits to being in love with Xiao.
Apparently, Xiao believes that Mao Cai played with his feelings. That's why he is close to Lao Si now.
Lan Xin shoots a photo at Mao Cai and hands him her cell phone, but her goal is for Mao Cai to see a photo she took the day before of Xia and Lao Si in the hills "looking cute together."
Lao Sin and Xiao return from a walk. Xiao is sad. Mao Cai and Lan Xi wait for the bus to go to dinner. The four of them are seen. Mao Cai tries to talk to Xiao, but Lao Sin interferes: "if you already have the girl, why your interest in going after Xiao?" And Mao Cai hits him.
The next morning, Lan Xin calls Mao Cai from the ground floor of the building to go to breakfast, but he kindly and politely shows his disinterest.
Mao Cai calls Xiao. He awaits him in the stands of the university stadium. Arrives. It's cold. "As your friend, I'm tired. So let's stop being friends," Xiao suggests. And, when he turns his back to leave, Mao Cai gets up, hugs him from behind, surrounds Xiao's entire body with his arms, and the most beautiful declaration of love ever written in the history of cinema occurs: "Don't go." Let me tell you everything I feel. These days I haven't even seen you. I can't sleep at night. It's all you. Our chemistry, your way of lying, the way you get angry. …My mind is "Sometimes I want to go find you, but I think you want to see Lao Si. Looking at you and seeing you laugh makes my heart sad.
Here I am, annoyed with the translation. Parts of the monologue are lost or poorly translated.
Mao Cai turns Xiao on his heel, and the two look into each other's eyes. Shy, Xiao, lower your gaze. Mao Cai continues: "Do you hear me?" "Yeah". "Can you understand it?" Xiao looks up. Their gazes meet again. "NO". Mao Can, defeated, collapses his arms. And Xiao's voice is heard again, while, happily, he runs away from Mao Cai and he chases him, laughing, with happy music that plays for the first time: "I would like to hear your declaration of love again." "Xiao, idiot".
And as the credits roll, Xiao hugs Mao Cai, tells him he missed him, and will sing a song adapted for him.
Note: The structure of the review is very atypical in my production, but I am reluctant to review the film in any other way.

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Something is Missing...

I really want to give it higher rating like the others did but...something is missing from my angle so I'm not sure why... It is indeed a heartfelt story about struggles in a marriage and dealing with a child's emotion... I liked the movie with steamy sex scenes and some nice romance but I did not like how it ended with him leaving her without giving her the proper closure... To find closure, she flew to Finland hoping to speak to him but then found him in a restaurant eating lunch with his beautiful family... The saddest part was that he ruined her marriage by making her believe that he would leave his wife and that he is capable of giving her greater happiness... She left her husband to pursue a life with him but he left quietly just like that!!

Is this what many of the viewers call "reality"? He was a coward in the end disappearing without facing her and telling her the truth... What did I get from this story? You just can't trust a man who is still married. Period.

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"Something shattered"

Misumi Kenji’s Ken aka Sword was a hotbed of emotions that played out in a kendo dojo. Desire, jealousy, hate, rivalry, and the need to be #1 came to a head when puritanical Kokubu and hedonistic Kagawa butt heads while training for the national kendo championship.

Kokubu Jiro is named captain of the university kendo team. His job is to train the team for the All Japan Student Kendo Championship. Jiro takes his job seriously, of course he takes everything seriously. Too seriously. No one truly understands the enigmatic kendo star. He lives a highly ascetic lifestyle, eschewing music, tv, girls, anything that would take his attention and drive away from kendo. Kagawa is the opposite. He smokes, sleeps around, and finds pleasure wherever he can. His only desire is to defeat Jiro, and to do that he tempts him with worldly pleasures. As Kokubu drives the students for the perfection he seeks, Kagawa sews seeds of doubt about Kokubu into them. Only Mibu is devoted to Jiro. When the team travels to a temple for summer training, the private match of wills for the hearts and minds of the students will have dire consequences.

I’m not sure if Kokubu Jiro’s rigid and obsessive behavior was held up as an example to be followed or a cautionary tale. Determined to instill the same rigorous mindset in the new recruits, Jiro never let his foot off them. He constantly drove them harder and harder. The younger competitors needed breathing room and time to relax and have fun, something the tightly wound character could not comprehend. Jiro had no vision for the future, only the present which he focused all of his energy on maximizing. Kokubu failed to realize his students required at least a modicum of praise for their dedication. As Kagawa’s influence over the kendokas strengthened, Jiro’s unrelenting sense of perfectionism took its toll on him.

Misumi constructed a highly pleasant film aesthetic. Though filmed in black and white, the movie was stunning and edited well. Whether this story was about the clash of traditional ideals and modern morality or about what truly makes a man, I have no idea, maybe a little of both. I also don’t know if Jiro’s tunnel vision for purity of spirit and sport was being idealized. The dojo fairly pulsed with repressed emotions, extreme competitiveness, and in two cases a strong homoerotic atmosphere. In Kobuku Jiro’s mind he left no room for imperfection or failure. Without the strength to accept fallibility in himself and others, Kobuku set himself up for a pain worse than defeat in a kendo competition.

15 January 2025
Trigger spoiler alert below:





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2 suicides

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Wholesome but lacked something

The romance was sure wholesome and the the use of using sign language for communication was surely unique but the plot was really lacking...


The sister of the main girl was very important character mainly because of her large amount of screen time. Her story that she is a girl who likes swimming but feels pressured by her sister to do really well (go to the Olympics). Despite all of that her story felt so badly executed cause the fact that it took her nearly dying in the fire and a couple of days of separation and a 5 minutes talk to fix all of that was annoying. I felt like it was sooooo rushed to give time for the romance.

And yes the romance was cute however I felt like they didn't explore the main leads at all. Because the main guy and girl's personality felt so dry to me, there was nothing much I could even type about them apart from the fact they are adorable.

Random but why has Korean television have such a hatred for main characters having a physical disability, because it either instantly gets cured / eventually or it was just a 'misunderstanding'.

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Nothing gives a young soldier more pleasure than being a dog loyal to his master

Based on the novel "Military Dog" (軍犬) by Petit (Xia Mu Cong), the Taiwanese short film of the same name shows an intense virtual erotic encounter between a "human puppy" named Li Jun-Zhong and his Master DT, while offers a glimpse into the unique BDSM scene, the well-known human-puppy play in Taiwan, influenced by Japanese shibari (繩縛) and culture leather/kinky/fetish from the United States.
Based on his own experience in the army, which, in Xia Mu Cong's words, is a gigantic sadomasochistic place, 'Military Dog', a psychosocial thriller of obsession, directed in 2019 by Ping-Wen Wang and scripted by Yi-Hsun Yu delves into the strangest and most provocative areas of the human mind, while viscerally penetrating all the spooky moments that keep us up at night.
Film that won the Gold Award at the Outfest: Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2019, tells us about a soldier who wants to level up through an extreme method, which involves his Master DT: entering the world of BDSM.
Shocking and full of suspense... a little fun as the soldier follows his Master's instructions via video call, 'Military Dog' received high ratings from critics and the public during its screening at the 2019 Outfest LGBTQ Film Festival and 2019 Outfest Fusion LGBTQ People of Color Film Festival "Opening Night Gala".
One night, in the military camp, the young soldier, played wonderfully by Chun Yao Yao, an actor known for his participation in the LGBT+ themed film 'Dear Tenant' (2020), by Wang Li Wei, accepts the proposal of his Master DT to become his "puppy" to demonstrate his burning desire and tremendous loyalty and submission.
The cast also includes Tommy Wang, an actor known for playing Eric in 'Dear Tenant', Kevin in 'Gentleman Spa' (2019), and Xiao K in the series 'Dark Blue and Moonlight' 2017), all of LGBT+ theme, who plays Junior Soldier here.
In an exclusive sphere where any activity can occur, Li Jun-Zhong as the "Military Dog", and Master DT (although his face can barely be seen through the mobile phone, in an outstanding performance by Li Yun Tsai, actor known for participating in several LGBT+ themed films, such as 'Bao Bao' (2018) and 'The Story of the Stone' (2018), like "Master", blur the limits of pain and pleasure through control and submission, the look, the compliance with orders, the speed with which he must react if he wants to gain the acceptance of the "Master", the dangers he must run to satisfy the Master's demands in a place guarded by other soldiers on duty, the sound of the urine when falling, one's own touch, smell and breathing.
What make the story more fascinating are the young Taiwanese director's imitation of an instructor's training and the oath of enlistment, culminating in the pleasure of built-up erotic tension.
Full of passionate and kinky exploration along, DT is referred to as "Master" and "He" in the story to indicate a relationship between a caretaker and a pup.
Naturally, Li Jun-Zhong's pronouns "he" and "his" (with "Military Dog" as his pup's name) are presented in lowercase. The purpose of this conceit is, first, to show the respect, love and adoration of the human cub towards its Master; secondly, prove that DT is the only Master of Li Jun-Zhong.
At the same time, the film adopts combined first and third person points of view to refer to "Military Dog", celebrating the fluidity and versatility of his sexual identity. In the film, viewers are supposed to understand that "I" is "he" (lowercase) is "the slave".
The film gains vigor thanks to Eric Chao's photography with flat colors with little color saturation seasoned with dark night nuances, and a sharp, penetrating music by Thomas Foguenne.
'Military Dog' focuses on sexual fluidity and the metamorphosis of humans into "dogs" in the context of contemporary Taiwan. Captivatingly shot, the film subverts cultural norms by outing the underground BDSM scene and imagining the military as a distinct site of queer performance, creating a layered act of queering what is normal or "vanilla".
Furthermore, this important and timely work questions the universalizing claims of queer desire and fundamental notions of the erotic, the individual, and the body. The short film seeks to document the existence of the Taiwanese BDSM scene and new sexual identities. It also offers the opportunity to imagine a new politics of sex, one that projects a vision of our queer past and future.
Moving away from stereotypical representations of queer characters as a group of suffering victims, Ping-Wen Wang explores and showcases LGBTQ+ experiences using new approaches.
'Military Dog' reaffirms the high level of social acceptance of Taiwanese queer cinema, while promoting greater awareness of the LGBTQ+ community. This film is a demonstration that the film industry is evolving, progressing and expanding queer productions, responding to increasingly deep conversations about queer issues and recognizing their commercial potential.

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Low angst, but...

I had so many problems with this movie. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it might have been better as a series to allow for some character development. However, I almost turned it off multiple times because the FL was just so lazy, stupid, manipulative and controlling. I think she was supposed to be a happy character, even with hardships, but, for me, she just wasn't likeable.

ML was bland, and toward the end when you see all he did to be with her, he was controlling as well, bordering on creepy. Good looking once you could see his face without the glasses and hair in his face (last half hour, at most).

I don't like triangles. The 2ML served absolutely no purpose, seriously no purpose. He had a couple of scenes like there was going to be a point of him being there, but then he disappeared.

2FL - she didn't like the ML, she just didn't want to lose to anyone else.

Worst of all, the acting was over the top and cartoonish for a lot of it.

I can't recommend it, but it does have the fluffiness factor going for it.

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A Heartfelt Journey of Emotion and Connection

“Silent Love” is a deeply moving Japanese film that explores the quiet yet profound connections between individuals. The story, filled with subtle emotion and tender moments, beautifully portrays themes of love, loss, and personal growth. The characters’ journeys unfold in a way that resonates with the heart, and the ending, in particular, is both uplifting and poignant. It reminded me of the anime A Silent Voice, with its powerful exploration of understanding and empathy. Overall, Silent Love is a must-watch for those who appreciate emotional storytelling and the delicate art of human connection.

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