Reviews

I just watched Parasite...

I just watched 'Parasite' and I'm still reeling from the experience. This movie is a masterclass in storytelling, social commentary, and cinematic craft. The cast, led by Song Kang-ho, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Choi Woo-shik, Lee Sun-kyun, and Cho Yeo-jeong, deliver performances that are both nuanced and powerful. Each actor brings their A-game, making their characters feel fully realized and authentic.

Bong Joon-ho's direction is pitch-perfect, using long takes, clever camera work, and a clever script to keep you on the edge of your seat. The themes of class struggle, inequality, and the exploitation of the underprivileged are timely and thought-provoking.

The film's use of symbolism, metaphor, and foreshadowing adds depth and complexity to the narrative. The production design and cinematography are also noteworthy, capturing the stark contrast between the wealthy and poor communities.

Overall, 'Parasite' is a cinematic triumph that will leave you both entertained and uncomfortable. It's a must-watch for anyone interested in thought-provoking, socially conscious filmmaking. Bong Joon-ho has solidified his place as one of the greatest directors of our time."

IF I GOT AMY MISTAKES PLS TELL ME

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Declaration of love and farewell with gay fairy tale ending

The holidays come to an end, summer says goodbye to return next year in a small fishing village in China. It is time to say goodbye to the beach, the heat, rest and, above all, to the person you love.
The camera follows the face of teenager Leaf (Xinyi He). You rush to brush your teeth and wash your face: you need to look and smell good. He has arranged to meet Qing Chen (Jianan Yang), his childhood friend, to spend the remaining days of the summer period in his company. His friend will soon leave for Shanghai to study. He also dreams of going to a university in that city or in Beijing or Guangzhou, but he must remain in the village by the sea to take care of his elderly grandmother (Xiaojing Liao). To get ahead, he has set up a small and thriving hair salon where locals flock.
The camera now "watches" Leaf and her friend from a distance. This is the way chosen by Meicen Meng, the director of the Chinese short film, 'Beyond the Green Mountain', to give visuality to the mood of the two protagonists.
That detachment that is farewell can be, perhaps, one of the most dramatic or significant moments in our history, because although sometimes goodbye can be accompanied by an optimistic undertone because it implies closing one story to open another, the emotionality is It appears through our tear ducts at the fact of seeing a person leave without being able to do anything other than observe how their silhouette fades with each step, before the uncertainty of not knowing if we will see them again in another chapter of our existence.
The faces of the two boys cannot be seen, since it is night and they are now positioned with their backs to the lens, while they talk about dreams, desires, the opportunities they could find to study or live in big cities, philosophical beliefs, gods. and goodbye.
The camera follows Qing Chen who can finally show his beautiful face. In order to reveal his repressed feelings and with unshed tears, he arrives at the doors of Leaf's humble house, but he does not dare to knock. It is evident that she needs to bring out all those hidden emotions that she keeps inside and tell them to the boy who is now back at her side, but her grandmother prevents this by inviting the visitor to dinner.
This film, made by queer people for queer people, breaks the patriarchal binary lens that has been dominating world cinema, to tell us how these two young people, who have known each other since they were children, merge in glances of fascination in each encounter, and they have been filling that void that haunts their lives, because it could not be without the presence of the other.
Although in more than one moment it seems that they are going to take the next step, it never happens, so the only thing they have left is to wait to say goodbye to the imminent departure of one of them.
Later, as they lie in bed, they look at each other's faces in the dark, but they don't dare to state their feelings explicitly, but Qing Chen expresses them subtly: "I will never be able to see so many stars in Shanghai." His words would rather say: "In another place, far from you, I will only find infinite darkness. You are the light of my life."
The film tells a story of pure first love through a pure narrative about these young characters who fall in love without realizing that loving each other romantically is even a possibility. However, feelings don't lie. To an untrained heart, these feelings are overwhelming. Confusion, doubts, insecurity and pain form a dark subtext. Love is pure, tender, sweet and beautiful, that is why the young Chinese director seeks to represent how love shines through the darkness that represents a goodbye or the two lovers being separated.
There are two days left until the farewell. Leaf, sitting on the beach, takes Qing Chen's diary, left by him in the sand. Unaware of his action, he is about to discover his most intimate secrets, but Qing Chen snatches it from his hands at the last moment, before hurting him to the depths of his being: "The damn villagers have no manners." He cannot express his regret for the hurtful words. Leaf doesn't give him time and runs away with tears of pain.
In this story about youth, friendship and love that blossoms in the summer breeze, the camera focuses again on Leaf's face as she brushes her teeth and washes her face the morning before saying goodbye. The ritual now will not be to reunite with Qing Chen. Perhaps the objective is to make visible the necessary act of releasing from within you the sadness that still persists and is reflected on your face. The bond between the two cannot end this way.
But he does not pay attention to the complaints of his friend, who persists in asking for forgiveness, when there are only a few hours left before leaving on his trip.
"I'm leaving tomorrow morning. How long will this childish tantrum of yours last?" Qing Chen confronts him. As they roll on the floor in a silly fight, a passionate kiss surprises them. They hug each other tightly. Their bodies orbit around each other. They would like time to stop. But Leaf reacts and abruptly separates. What will grandma think if she knows that I love another boy? How will she face the neighbors? Will she still be proud of me?
The next morning, Qing Chen, as if he were a sleepwalker who has not been able to sleep a wink all night, crawls towards the car in which his parents are waiting to take him to Shanghai. Almost about to get on it, a scream from Leaf stops him. In silence, the boy forcefully draws towards him the body of his former friend and now lover, and they passionately embrace.
With a beautiful Chinese landscape as a backdrop, the farewell between the character of Xinyi He and Jianan Yang is capable of causing a lump in our throat because of how significant it is that these lovers have had the opportunity to say goodbye and express their love, although it was the same way they communicated it throughout the film: through silence, gestures, emotions and looks.
Qing Chen's parents, a few meters away and who can't even see each other inside the car, will never know what the boys said to each other in that silent hug. Only they will know.
The piece, only 15 minutes long, reminds us that, regardless of aesthetic issues, filmmakers can resort to a powerful tool: our need to understand what we see, regardless of the language or the articulated word.
Throughout the film, which is nothing more than an immense and constant declaration of love, Meicen Meng weaves a visually evocative narrative that captures the internal struggle of the two characters in their struggle to discover and accept themselves, while exploiting our emotions by giving us perhaps one of the most iconic farewells of the seventh art.
With a powerful and healing representation of the community building inherent to the film's creation process, the filmmaker also explores emotions and universal intimate human connections, using characters traditionally little seen in world cinematography, such as two teenagers from a fishing village, who dream of loving and empowering themselves through studies and the realization of their professional and work dreams.
Perhaps much of the charm of this film lies in the fact that despite the palpable romance of the protagonists, at no point do they manage to consummate their love, not even at the moment of farewell, however, it underlies, latent, perceptible, in each scene. .
The internationally renowned Chinese queer cinema knows perfectly well how dramatic the farewell act can mean. That's why Meicen Meng, the award-winning non-binary filmmaker of that nationality, wrote, directed and produced her thesis film 'Beyond The Green Mountain', to address topics such as sexuality, love, self-acceptance and identity.
Due to its ethical and aesthetic values, it was chosen as one of the five finalists of the prestigious 2018 Coppola Short Film Competition by Gus Van Sant, a queer filmmaker of great international fame.
The film also screened at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the First Look Film Festival and was the winner of the Best Indie Short award at the Indie Short Fest in July 2019, among many other awards.
In this captivating cinematographic journey that explores in such a beautiful way the emotional labyrinths of its protagonists, humanity and human connections, it concludes with a dreamy and hopeful Leaf who directs her sight towards the sea, beyond the mountain that gives it its title. to the movie, as if he were looking into the future, before turning his face when he hears approaching footsteps, and drawing a smile on his lips: everything seems to indicate that his beloved is returning and, finally, they will be able to open themselves fully to love .
We generally associate goodbyes with the outcome of a story, and in most cases this is the case. However, 'Beyond the Green Mountain' goes to the other extreme and in the final scene conveys hope, the idea of ​​a shared future between our heroes. The comforting and tender fact of seeing each other once again contains a message: they both know that they will have a fairy tale ending.
I hope my review serves to motivate the viewer to see a film so recommended for its exquisite narrative and visuality.

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Wish there was more?

I don't watch movies a lot, but I decided to remedy that by downloading several.
Didn’t know from where to start, I choose this one featuring Vivian Sung, a particularly funny actress who never fails to make me laugh.

The movie begins with an adult Truly, the perfect ordinary office worker, overhearing her colleagues mocking her. She goes home and discovers an old book from her high school days, and suddenly, our beloved Vivian Sung appears as the young Truly. The entire movie unfolds as a flashback of her youth, allowing us to understand how she navigated high school as an ordinary girl, not particularly studious, with two best friends, a crush on Andy Lau, and an interest in Ouyang, the school's most popular guy.

The movie was a cliché, but oddly I didn’t mind it at all. While every element seemed familiar from old series or movies, I watched it as if I had never encountered the plot before. It was really funny as expected, and I wasn’t bored at all.

The main leads were really cute together, they had great chemistry and I enjoyed how their friendship developed—studying together, going out together, taking on missions, skating together, you name it. It really made me nostalgic for high school vibes.

Overall, it was a good movie, well worth the time. The positive vibes left me with a sense of satisfaction, and I have no regrets about watching it.

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Cringe Storyline, good Starcast! Had a High Expectation but this fails.

I am a big fan of Bright. I was excited about after watching its trailer. It was fun but I give it a 3.5 star overall, here's why? Let's talk about good things first:
1. Starcast is good: Bella as Risa, Bright as Tim, and Risa's ex Arun and his fiance Monica were good at acting. All the supporting cast was also good.
2. Culture representation: It revolves around Indian wedding, I wasn't looking for accurate Indian culture representation but they did it really well, and the fact that I found so many similarities b/w Thai & Indian culture.
3. Music and Comedy: it is a fun Comedy, Romance nothing serious and I wasn't expecting anything like sense. The song was also good.
now few things that I found cringe and couldn't walk past;
1. Very repetitive storyline: Pretending you have a bf in front of your ex, and then Arun confession to Risa when he is about to get married Monica, dude how uncertain are you? it is so cringe, & then Risa explains to Monica that it is not like that and He loves you and all... girl her fiance just confessed to his ex and doesn't have the guts to say that the wedding planner is his ex. That was not the most eye-rolling moment but Monica shows up to her wedding happily as if nothing happened was. Knowing what happened b/w them Arun's family was so chill.
2. Annoying FL: I like Bell'a acting and she was good at her character. I don't like her character Risa and found her annoying and immature.
Despite being a very cringe worthy repitative story, you can watch this movie for once. It was fun but not as expected.

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A valuable piece of film history

I love that for around 3 minutes in time I could step back into 1899 Japan and have a brief glimpse into the early film world. Momijigari was more of a documentary of two great Kabuki actors near the end of their lives in brief scenes from a famous play. It was still worth watching and surprisingly entertaining.

Danjuro played the princess who was actually a demon in disguise. He gracefully danced with his fans, a challenge with the wind blowing as they filmed it outdoors. At one point, one of the fans blew out of his hand, rescued by the stagehand. Kikugoro played Taira no Koremori who valiantly fought the now ugly demon with long flowing hair. The demon used a maple branch against Taira’s katana. I was particularly impressed with Danjuro’s hair fighting skills. The fight was compressed in a small area with the costumed stagehand picking up debris as the two took part in their fighting choreography.

Though filmed in 1899, it wasn’t shown in public until 1903 when Danjuro was too ill to take the stage and gave his permission. Kikugoro had already died at that time making it even more popular for people to see. It was then shown again after Danjuro’s death later that year. Though Danjuro was reluctant about having their performance filmed, the two actors’ legacies have been kept alive through these 3 minutes and 50 seconds worth of grainy film one hundred and twenty-five years later.

If you enjoy old films and film history, this is definitely worth less than five minutes of your time.

19 February 2024

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wholesome and fluffy, but not stupid...

Don't know why some are disapointed by this show.

It was nicely done, had a very nice catchy song and they acted all cute and very well.
Of course is hasn't that much drama, but the writing is not cringy like most thai shows. All is well balanced with lot's of fluffy scenes and some character progression.
The only slightly negative part are stereotypical "bad" parents, but in an asian culture that is more common compared to the "west" and understandable.

All in all, if you want to have a show which has a more light story with fluffy scenes tastefully done, I can recommand this show.

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Very amazing zombie movie!

I absolutely adore Korean zombie shows and movies because they’re all very different and fun to watch!

I watched this movie a longgg longggg time ago when it came out, I distinctly remember watching it hoping it for it to be scary as I was watching alone but NAHHH this was more heartwarming and intense than horror.

I absolutely despise the business guy omggg tho it’s been long since I last watched, I still remember this movie scene by scene, this is how good this movie is!!!

The child actor is amazing and awesome!
The acting is so catching and well done!

As a person who enjoys zombie shows, I’d definitely recommend anyone this movie first!

Also, to say about the zombies, they’re very fast and scary gosh

I remember crying buckets of tears on the last scene 😭😭😭

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A very well-crafted historical spionage actioneer!

After his journey in the United States filming The Last Stand with Arnie, Kim Jee-woon returned to Korea to make another notable blockbuster that he demonstrated how to handle so well in the past.

This time it is a period espionage and counterespionage plot, in a sober and serious, almost dry tone. However, fans of the director will be reminded in style and rhythm of The Good, The Bad and The Weird, with which it shares the fantastic protagonist trio, an excellent production design and some very dynamic and spectacular action scenes, a trademark of this director.

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