Wasn't electrifying
Whether watched under the title Frankenstein Conquers the World or Frankenstein vs Baragon, this movie was a letdown on both counts. I enjoyed War of the Gargantuans, the loose sequel to this film and had higher hopes for the origin story. All the scenes of decimated animals had me wanting to bolt for the door.During the last days of WWII a German mad scientist’s work is taken by the Nazis and delivered to the Japanese via submarine. An equally mad Japanese scientist in Hiroshima looks at the indestructible beating heart and envisions an invincible army of soldiers who cannot be killed. As luck would have it, as they were doing their experiments, it turned out to be the disastrous day of August 6, 1945. Fifteen years later scientists come across a feral boy who is eating people’s cats and dogs and bunny rabbits. He’s eventually captured and after some research is believed to be a Frankenstein. With an oversized brow, a terrible wig, gapped teeth, and unable to communicate he continues to grow the more protein he is fed. Meanwhile, an earthquake, unbeknownst to the citizens, is actually Baragon burrowing and causing havoc.
A feral boy who continues to grow until he’s over three stories tall and a giant burrowing kaiju with a glowing horn ought to make for an electrifying movie. Alas, most of the film was as dull as dirt until the last 15 minutes or so. The scientists continually waffled back and forth whether Frankenstein should be or could be killed. Most believed he wasn’t human so it didn’t matter how they treated him when he was shackled and caged. This could have led to an interesting moral discussion but they were unable to piece together a workable body of logic.
The miniatures for the most part were skillfully done. The trees being thrown had roots to good effect. The boar on wheels and puppet horse were funny because they were so unrealistic and made the scenes less problematic. Although I did not need to see a dismembered rabbit. The overlays worked for the most part when Baragon blasted through a dance party.
These are the hardest films to review because Frankenstein Conquers the World wasn’t awful but it wasn’t very good either. It was an interesting origin story for War of the Gargantuans but didn't reanimate the genre. Baragon would be seen again in 1968’s Destroy All Monsters and the mouthful of a title Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah-Giant Monsters All Out Attack in 2001. The latter was the best out of all the movies mentioned here. There were parts of an interesting story and the final fights were good (make sure to watch the international version which has an additional kaiju), it just wasn’t stitched together well as a whole. The writers could have used a hand but sadly it crawled off.
5 October 2024
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HEARTFELT
A movie with great actors, screenplay and writing. But heart aches to rewatch it. A decent thrilling movie for beginners. Loved the daughter - Father bond the film played by Gong yoo & Suan. The climax was soo heartbreaking but showed the side of a father who sacrificed his life for the daughter.The pregnant women played by Jung Yumi loosing her husband played by Dong lee was soo heartbreaking😭 .It does have rewatched value , still heart aches to rewatch it . A thrilling yet a heartfelt emotional movie
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Nailed it!
Kung fu, hopping vampires, silliness, and ghostly romance---what more could you ask from a movie called Mr. Vampire? It had typical 1980’s slapstick style humor. Some of the jokes haven’t aged well but many were still able to stick the landing.Lam Ching Ying’s Master Ko is in charge of stopping a deadly vampire with only two incompetent disciples to help him. One disciple (Chin Siu Ho) becomes possessed by an amorous ghost (Pauline Wong) while the other one (Ricky Hui) begins to transform into a vampire after being bitten. Matters are not helped when a greedy rice dealer (Wu Ma!) adds regular white rice to the sticky rice needed to deter vampires. Did that suck! Master Ko uses every trick in the book to destroy the vampire. Buffy had it a lot easier. All she had to do was stake the fangers or decapitate them. Ko has to use chicken blood, ink, talismans, coated wire, sticky rice, and a host of other magical spells to try and stop the nearly indestructible homicidal hopper.
Mr. Vampire was aided by Lam Ching Ying and Chin Siu Ho having some martial arts abilities. Chin was particularly acro-bat-ic. Kung fu veteran Yuen Wah played the vampire which added to the martial arts fun. There was wire work which fit the magical atmosphere. There was a grave mistake, I spotted the wires in one scene.
What I learned from Mr. Vampire: Sticky rice slows down a vampire. A vampire can’t see you if you hold your breath. If a beautiful person of the opposite sex suddenly appears and wants to take you home on a dark night, best to make a date for coffee during daylight hours to see where it goes and whether they can appear because they may not be the ghoul of your dreams. If someone grows long blue nails overnight keep the sticky rice nearby. Hong Kong has gorillas? lol
Mr. Vampire was fun, especially if you like hopping vampires/Jiangshi combined with martial arts. As always with these older films there won’t be the high production values and CGI you see in modern films. Though you will be able to see guys hop in unison and others get set on fire. Props to Yuen Wah who was able to take the heat and his performance to the neck level!
(Trigger alerts below)
4 October 2024
TRIGGER ALERTS: A real chicken was killed as well as a snake (they made soup out of it later). There were also rats in one scene.
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é melhor te conhecer do que sentir sua falta...
"a resposta final para o universo é que eu e o mundo só estamos te esperando"que fofo😭 eu vi um corte no tiktok sobre esse filme e fiquei muito interessada em assistir. e nossa, valeu muito a pena ter visto.
amo toda essa história de implicância, e o legal dessa história é que a protagonista é boa em todos os esportes!!! a química que eles apresentaram foi muito gostosa de assistir também. queria que tivesse mais cortes deles juntos (não teve nenhuma cena de beijo masssss) na universidade.
acho que o grande propósito do filme foi passado, de ser um drama divertido de ensino médio que te deixa com um gostinho de quero mais...
e o plot twist do final.......!!!!!! vc pensa que nãooo he fell first masssss she fell first but he fell harder, amo.
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Sensual, moving, gripping
Some movies in their attempt to be artistic become confusing, weirdly-paced and an overall chore to go through. Then there are productions that serve its entertainment purpose, but feel like fast-food for your brain. And just as fast-food, while you enjoy them, you don't really feel nourished in the end.The Handmaiden succeeds at blending the artistic with the popular incredibly skillfully. This movie is visually stunning, sensual and hypnotising while - at the same time - provides some of the best plot twists one could wish for.
Technically, it's pretty much flawless, with great camera work, amazing shots and editing. But in its craftsmanship it still remains full of soul and emotion, being one of my all time favourite love stories.
I respect Park Chan Wook as a director a lot. The man made some of the best movies in the history of Korean cinema. This - to me - is his best work.
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A bit silly, fun as a futuristic theme but zero explanation why only one group was so futuristic they even had a spaceship like shipThe aging is all messed up, the girl is 18, 2ml supposedly a bit older, but their real age gap is like 20 years
My mom did think he was 20ish but I was like now he’s 40s, so when he was talking about a crush or tried to flirt, that was disturbing
And Jackie with the other fl, she’s 36 now so she was like 29 real age, and she was a cop 13 years ago?
as a story it's 1d and predictable, and a bit ridiculous, he put her in an orphanage, so bad ppl won't find her, but stayed close for those 13 years? sounds stupid.. to make your child grow up alone fearing danger, but still staying close that anyone who'd follow him would see who he's looking at?
when i saw a clip on tv i thought they had a fight and he was staying close but she didn't want to acknowledge him cuz he was being overprotective xD
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Some aliens can't take the heat
Only a few years after Godzilla stomped through Tokyo and Rodan stirred up trouble, Japan had to deal with aliens. The Mysterians wanted to set up housekeeping on the island and to mate with Earth women. They had a giant robot and destructive ray while the humans had two plucky scientists.Shiraishi Ryoichi is convinced that aliens are lurking in the area around Mt. Fuji. Most of his colleagues think he needs a vacation, until strange events begin to take place in his village. When an underground alien fortress rises up for all to see scientists Adachi Tanjiro and Atsumi Joji realize Ryoichi had been right all along. The Mysterians blew up their own planet during a terrible war and are looking for a new place to hang out. They also need to breed with Earth women because they have been unable to reproduce healthy children on their own since their war. Needless to say, the Earthlings aren’t ready to acquiesce to the Mysterians’ demands and start to work on building a weapon to counter the deadly ray gun the aliens use.
This was another Toho film directed by Honda Ishiro with music by Ifukube Akira. The miniatures and overlays were all well done. This was before many of the miniature towns started looking like cardboard boxes as they stretched the Godzilla franchise out on smaller and smaller budgets. There were also some real-world military weapons and planes interspersed throughout the film. The Mysterians had one of the first big screen TVs, 10 years before Capt. Kirk on the starship Enterprise. Shimura Takashi, famous for his work in Kurosawa Akira films, played in several of these Honda films, this time as the lead scientist. Hirata Akihiko, the hero of the original Godzilla, played a more morally complex character in this film. As with other films in the early years of the Toho monster flicks, there was a moral lesson to be learned. An all out nuclear war would all but ensure humankind's destruction so another way of combating the Mysterians had to be found.
The Mysterians had its moments. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a giant laser fight in front of Mt. Fuji? Where the film lacked for me were the Mysterians. They were a little too mysterious in their colorful Power Rangers costumes. We never see their faces or hear their diabolical plan for world domination. Most of the film was from the scientists’ point of view and their assumptions that the aliens were up to no good. The film could have also used more of Moguera, the giant robot. For a 1957 sci-fi film, the special effects were sufficient as was the acting, surprisingly. I just needed a little more menace from the creatures who arrived from their blown-up planet via Mars, via the moon.
3 October 2024
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DONT LET THE 7.5 RATING (currently) DETER YOU FROM WATCHING THIS MOVIE!!
This movie is so precious. it shows an adult woman that seemingly lost her hope and dreams after being an adult for so long. in comes a younger woman who makes the adult woman do everything she thought she would never do.this movie is so heartfelt, you can clearly feel the sorrows of our main character, just crushed as she faces the problems in her life. the script writing and pacing is superb, not a second wasted. you feel immersed throughout the whole film, you can relate and understand why our main character is the way she is. You'll also gain a valuable lesson from this movie. live your life, look forward, have hope, dont stop yourself from dreaming, be youthful again.
I love how even if there was a love interest in the movie, the film wasn't centered towards him at all. an independent woman who is sad and deprives herself from the one she likes in fear of disappointing or burdening him. i wont say whether they end up with each other or not, but you find yourself rooting for our main character and she finally starts to take lead in her life! The movie truly was all about our main character. friendship, sisterhood. Finding back one's self.
the message in the film, really touched me. And the execution? DONE SPECTACULARLY. I find it hard to find movies i like because I take everything into account, and really... this film was just.... GAHHH PLEASE WATCH IT IF YOU ARE DUBIOUS FROM THE 7.5 RATING (currently as im typing this), I BEG YOU, after reading my review, please watch this. so little ppl have rated this movie and i was so shocked when it turns out this review will be the first. Please, this is a gem. try it out, you wont regret it.
i made an mdl account all bc i was so flabbergasted by the low rating and 0 reviews of this amazing film.
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"It was no dream"
Kwaidan is a 1964 film that contained four unrelated ghost stories. The film drew most of its material from Lafcadio Hearn’s 1904 book called Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Director Kobayashi Masaki crafted each stylized story much like a painting. The skies were often brightly painted backgrounds with each vignette taking place primarily on a soundstage. These were not terrifying or gory tales, more like eerie, karmic, Twilight Zone episodes.1) The Black Hair/Kurokami (B)
An impoverished ronin discovers what goes around comes around aka payback is a bitch when he leaves his loving wife to marry up and take a new position.
2) The Woman of the Snow/Yuki Onna (B+)
A young woodcutter is spared by a snow witch on the grounds that he never tell anyone he saw her. He learns the lesson to never betray a woman.
3) Hoichi the Earless/Miminashi Hoichi no Hanashi (B)
Blind, kind, Hoichi is a young monk at a temple not far from where an epic battle took place 700 years before. The ghostly Heike clan calls upon him to sing the tales of their failed battle night after night. He pays a painful price for his freedom.
4) In a Cup of Tea/Chawan no Naka (B-)
Can you swallow someone’s soul when drinking a cup of tea? A writer receives a proper punishment for writing an open ending to his story.
I enjoyed the stylized view of each of the stories with most having a stage production look and feel. They often appeared surreal, especially Yuki Onna’s swirling eyes in the sky. Each varied in length with Hoichi the Earless being the longest (maybe too long) and In a Cup of Tea being the shortest (maybe not long enough).
The cast for each story was strong. Nakadai Tatsuya played the naïve woodcutter and Kishi Keiko played the complicated Yuki in Yuki Onna. I love his wild eyes though he was the babe in the woods in this segment. Shimura Takashi as a Buddhist priest tried to help the blind Hoichi who was bound to his ghostly visitors each night. Too bad his character didn’t have a strict attention to detail.
Each of the four stories took a different approach to the supernatural though all of the main human characters paid a price for their encounters. Kwaidan had strong performances, taut stories, and a mesmerizing artistic appeal to it. There was an almost poetic rhythm to the moralistic storytelling. While these were technically horror stories, they were the type you could see people telling around a campfire, preferably with any powerful talisman available hanging around their neck.
3 October 2024
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A mediocre gangster movie.
Pattaya Heat is a movie that revolves around Thailand’s criminal underworld with the concept of a cat-and-mouse game. It has all the elements a gangster movie should have - drug lord, corrupt police officer, illegal business, revenge plotting, sex, profanity, betrayal, violence and a lot of blood - but somehow it lacks better storylines to make it captivating. The plots seem to have no proper structure. One moment it seems like a heist movie, then it becomes a revenge movie.Although the theme is nothing new and the story/plot is somewhat messy, the action and acting save this movie from being an absolute disaster. Like Hollywood ensemble movies, those big shots on screen together managed to deliver good acting, but no character really shines out. Most of the characters lack depth to make them interesting or memorable. However, Christine Gulasatree is the one who impressed me the most. Even though this is her debut film, she did a good job of capturing the essence of a cunning seductress.
Overall, it's a crime-action movie with the recipe of Tarantino's or Guy Ritchie’s movies, but the result is not even on par. It's just another mediocre gangster-heist movie we’ve seen before. A bit ambitious, but not quite there yet. Well, it's not bad, but not good either.
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more a soft porn than a drama
So this is a typical sexual explicit manga done in a movie...That's how some woman fantasize about guy relationships.
The ingredients are, a straight porn actor turning gay, a close-in person who has a trauma after the death of his mother, because his Dad told him he was gay, but loved his mother and he is the fruit of their love. And of course that dad has a younger partner. 🤣
The dynamics between the dad and his partner was the most interesting part of the movie. I could have lived without most of the explicit scenes except those story relevant. This is a low budget production, so there are only six people in this movie. So for example the bar feels very steril because most of the time it's empty, except when a makeup artist for Towa goes there.
The story is simple and of course pure fantasy. There is no drama except when the jelaousy kicks in, they break up, but of course the get together again because... fantasy. It does not really makev sense that Towa disappears for some time and reappears later one, especially because they never talked about their feelings and Takato never mentions that he does not like Towa working as a porn actor. It was an afterthought in the end of the movie but it felt shallow.
If you like such movies/series good for you, but for me, it was a waste of time. Half the time it's NC scenes and the other half is ok-ish. I'm more or less offended because such is not gay life and it should not be depicted like this. Bad enough that most mangas are like this, but it sells. It also shows the double standard in japanese society, it's ok to love yaoi manga, but the son should never turn gay. They did not even try to improve the manga by giving the characters and the story much more depth which could have been done and many series still do. So for me, it's a disappointing movie without substance.
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decent pink film
Overall: this is a 70 minute pink film (has several pretty explicit scenes). Aired on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/4764/heavens-candy-2023 There is an extra scene after the end credits.Content Warnings: peeping, past grooming, past pedophilia/non con
What I Liked
- dynamic with the leads
- the age gap relationship with the dad and the other guy was interesting.
- NSFW scenes were pretty well done
Room For Improvement
- voice over with a flash forward to start the movie
- wish they had taken out 1 character to really focus more on the leads and their relationship
- rushed ending
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be prepared to cry
This movie genuinely broke me into pieces till nothing was left. I really loved how there are some teachers that are able to understand students in all their issues in life. We deserve more teachers like these instead of ones that ignore students seeking help in all ways. But anyway, let's get back to the movie. This movie also shows that we shouldn’t give up, even if we receive nothing. In the end, you should be glad you are here today. It's okay to give up. It's okay that you're tired of being alive. Just remember, there's always someone who appreciates you.Was this review helpful to you?
A voyage of unexpected twists
Every coin has two sides,even science too.The advancement of science and technology has adversing effects if not put to proper use.One such story is The Soul movie.
Chang Chen and Janine Chang ,in the movie,take up a case which is very complicated and complex.What appears to be a murder case,after many twists and turns, finally unfolds as a case with a hidden dark conspiracy.
Thought the first half of the movie,may not make sense or may be sometimes tough to understand,but the second half really is very thrilling and quite suspenseful enough to make you glued to the movie till the end.
The actors were good ,the climax twist was really unexpected.
Overall a good movie.It may not be everyone's cup of tea,but if you want to watch,then you will not be disappointed.
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