Reviews

A double switch to brighten our lives

This 2013 Filipino screwball satirical comedy film, starring Zanjoe Marudo and Cristine Reyes, tells the story of twins Brando and Brandy. Despite the physical similarity, both are very different from each other. While the first is heterosexual and has no ambitions in life, the other is a friendly gay who has a career plan.
Brandon is attracted to Erika, Brandy's best friend, but she breaks up with him after realizing that Brandon has no plans for the future.
The homophobic Brando cannot accept that his brother is gay, so he decides to distance himself from him and make his own life independently. To do this, he will plan to start a car repair business and become a mechanic. Brandy, for her part, sets out on her own path to try to make her dream come true.
Eight years later we see Brandy become a successful interior designer, while Brandon still struggles to make ends meet.
Based on real events, the plot delves into each person's journey along their respective paths. Everything seems to indicate that they will never unite again, until one day, their mother begs them to put aside their differences and reconcile. Moved by her mother's plea, Brandy goes out to find her brother to make peace, but suffers an unfortunate accident that leaves him in a coma.
While Brandy remains in the hospital, Brando learns that just before the accident occurred, his brother was putting the finishing touches on negotiating a multimillion-dollar design deal with a client.
Fearing that Brandy will lose the multimillion-dollar business, Brandy's two close friends convince Brando to pull a double switch and pose as his gay brother. Then he will make the second most important decision of his life: So Brando, the straight, homophobic, tough and sexist, becomes the gay Brandy!
This is where the fun begins with Brando juggling Brando and Brandy.
By usurping his gay brother's identity he will not only allow Brando to solve all of his financial problems. It comes with another surprise: It will also give him the chance to patch things up with Erika (Cristine Reyes), Brandy's good friend, who he's always been in love with!
But it doesn't all end here: pretending to be the gay twin will mean that while he tries to prevent a multimillion-dollar business from failing and, in the process, get the love of a girl, he will look at the person he has always hated with different eyes, and acquire a new appreciation for him. by living your life.
In this world gone crazy, with Brando taking on Brandy's cheerful personality, what real chance is there of life returning to normal for the twins? Will Brandy wake up in time, discover the switch her twin flipped, and save the situation?
With a script by Olivia M. Lamasan, Joel Mercado, Enrico C. Santos, Danno Kristoper Mariquit, Kriz G. Gazmen, Kathy Despa and Ays De Guzman, and direction by Wenn V. Deramas, the film features the now Filipino star Kokoy DeSantos will play the twins as teenagers, while Maliksi Morales will play the young Brando and Brandy, and finally Zanjoe Marudo will play the twins as adults.
Filled with comedic moments, 'Bromance: My Brother's Romance' is Skylight Films' first foray into the comedy genre. Even in serious situations, they look for hilarious and over-the-top reactions, which makes it fun to watch.
Zanjoe Marudo achieves a brilliant and natural performance by playing, interchangeably, Brando and Brandy in three different roles: gay man, straight man and straight man who pretends to be gay.

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Blast from the past

After the first, rather impressive Timeline movie where the plot actually justified the title, the three directors made a second one. This time it is just a simple omnibus movie featuring four stories. I watched it on youtube in appalling quality but since it had never been officially released, it is better than nothing!

The first story: Mind Reader is a typical early thai bl which takes place in high school and where pretty boys are followed around by fujoshis, girls and trans fans screaming. Amidst that noise, is Sun attracted by Boss's popularity and almost unaware that there is Kit, a boy with a crush on him. It is very cringy but the romance is cute and sweet behind the superfluous cringe. I almost dropped the movie because of it.
It stars Kritsana Boonroth as Sun and Phattaparong Chaibal as Kit.

I liked the second story the best: The Memory on Page 53. Nan is giddy with delight to go on a trip with Phu who had just broken up with his boyfriend. But this trip reveals the memories they are both trying to avoid remembering. They actually dated and broke up 5 years earlier.
This was a beautifully filmed story. The director Artistaya Bangpao filmed nature, their feeling and memories with sensitivity. The actors have great chemistry. The editing is amazing: the past and the present trips mixed together showing that nothing had changed in their feeling. The only issue I have is with the story itself: we never find out why they broke up since they were and obviously still are in love! I would love to see a longer version of this story by the same director with the story expanded and more details given.

The third story, Non-Verbal features a deaf character Ohm who meets the eyes of Tan (Chinoros Duangrat) and their gazes lock. But a misunderstanding almost ruins the beginning of a love story.
This is the shortest story in the movie. Fortunately they did not drag out too long the misunderstanding. The novelty is a deaf character who is on his guard because of his handicap and is quick to jump to wrong conclusion. Tan clears the issue quickly with the help of his doting, no nonsense mother.
Directed by Jitthinund Yodwongsakull

The fourth story circles back to school from the first one. Nine, a boy from that school, gets attached to Nong, a middle aged trans woman who holds a stand selling fried bananas Nine likes. Nong is affected by Nine's attention since he reminds her of her sister's son. Man, a boy from school who has a crush on Nine, finds this relationship suspicious and does everything in his power to ruin it. We eventually find out that Nine is the long lost nephew but the damage has been done and Nong moves away.
This was a good and a bad story at the same time. The good was having a trans main character (when in 2016 trans were just used as screaming over the top comic relief in bls). The very bad is the possible romance innuendo which was never really cleared and the conclusion we get to draw from her reactions in the last part is that there was more in her feelings that met the eye!
Cast: Jennifer Panot Ruangratanachinda as Nong and Natthaphong Charoenchaisombat as Nine. Directed by Passapong Throngprasit

The film was written by Passapong Throngprasit and Artistaya Bangpao. The stories are of different quality and each director's style is obvious. I definitely want to see more of Artistaya Bangpao: his direction is the most accomplished. The music is unremarkable pop songs which have the merit of talking about each story.

Unlike the first movie where the stories ended up being connected on a few levels here only the first and the last stories are loosely connected with the same highschool. As for the timeline, from the title, there is the influence of the past in present in the three stories (not the 1st one which is firmly anchored in the present)!

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Once you watch it, you'll be blown away. This is an experience you don't want to miss.

I have never witnessed a more stunning display in my life! This couple's relationship is the epitome of purity and cuteness. Every aspect of their bond is simply beautiful and adorable! His bashful demeanour around her and how he runs to her every time he sees her is too much for me to handle! I must confess, that I did not fully comprehend the intricacies of the Emperor and Dream Weaver and their family's powers. However, I remain hopeful that Part 2 will provide further clarity. Regardless, this masterpiece was undoubtedly a 10/10 and I cannot help but blush every time I think about it!

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KOREAN ARROGANCE AT ITS BEST

The only valuable thing ( rarely achieved in Korea cultural thief dramas) is the representation of the Ming armor, mostly accurate that the news was even spread on Chinese medias.

But it's the really the 1 only thing valuable.
Historical inaccuracy both in historical fact and depiction of the reality. Japanese are depicted as cowards, and Chinese are greedy and arrogant. I should mention even the problem in speaking in Japanese and Chinese ( a student can speak way better). "Lao Ye" in a non-confidential relationship is unbearable to listen, and the depiction of a modified relationship from mutual respect to contrast is too stupid.
The big problem is that the depiction is like Korean army pretend to be able to defeat Japanese army on their own, in a showing act of supreme arrogance while it was them to ask for help to the Great Ming Empire, their sangguk, their master and owner.

The whole drama diminishes and degrades Yi Sun's sacrifice because Korea is too arrogant in their own depiction.
A show completely to miss, because it only show arrogance.
But don't be surprised, don't you know Korea created the whole world, as they themselves are convinced?

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amazing acting and a good action movie

the acting was amazing from the ML to the child. The child actress surprised me. I love the action and fighting sequences. Be aware, a lot of blood. Man was bad ass.

It’s a lot of blood and fights, but also a lot of emotional scenes.
- Like before she was kidnapped, when she was talking the him in the alley, about her mom and other things. My eyes got teary.
- Also, when we saw the accident of his wife death, that was so heartbreaking. It was horrible when we saw the blood running out the car…. Also,
- when the doctor said her mom was dead, the villain face said everything. His eyes were expressive, I just knew he wouldn’t let the doctor cut her eyes out. ML face was also heartbreaking when he thought she was dead.
- their reunion ❤️😭😭
- the ending scene, I was cry so bad.

I absolutely love the bond between him and the child

The mom’s death and the poor kids, that was hard to watch too.

Overall I think it’s a great movie. Good acting, fighting scenes and still really emotional

I recommend this movie

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Talking and communicating are two different things.

This movie is not about the deaf culture; it’s a story of a mute-deaf couple. They are two people who are different in many ways, yet they fell in love and got married. Two people with different perspectives on life, struggling to keep their marriage. The premise of this movie is ironically showcased that there’s a huge difference between talking and communicating by showing people who are mute and with hearing impairments suffer from a lack of communication in their marriage, just like any normal couple would. In other words, poor communication is a problem between people, and it has nothing to do with one’s disability.

Janine Gutierrez and JC de Vera succeed in showing the emotional struggle and tension of two people in a troubled marriage. The facial expression, their gestures, and the way they express every emotion are good, showing the beauty, pain, and chaos of love where no spoken words exist. However, ML and FL do not appear to be as fluent in sign language as those who are deaf and mute and who have ‘spoken’ with sign language their entire lives. It’s understandable that they are actors who learn sign language for the movie, but if you're going to portray a character with a certain condition, at least make it convincing. Even the child actors playing as their children signed more fluently. So, ML and FL succeed in one part and lack in the other. I feel like if they had actually cast PWD actors in lead roles, it would have made this movie better.

This movie has good plots, but the storytelling pace is inconsistent. The present day and the flashback are vaguely moving back and forth without much change in appearance to distinguish the different timelines. There are some loose-end plotlines as well, making the flow go flat toward the end.

Above all, I praise this movie for its ingenuity and authenticity while presenting the complexity and conflict that we often see in everyday life without really focusing on the disability. It’s one of the rare depictions we’ve seen on the big screen. However, the execution is rather flawed, and the good concept alone is not enough to make it a great movie.

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Funny and Adorable Story

This story showed that fate always brings the one that are meant to you.. In life, you encounters with people, falling in love but if its meant to be with you, it will.. Sometimes you never know your love one is actually closer than you can imagine.. It was interesting and fun plot ^_^

Masaki Okada was hilarious here xD It totally different roles than he ever had.. I can't with him xD While Kiyohara Kaya as a college student totally fit her.. This movie didn't use physical contact to show the love.. Just reminiscent childhood memories that brought back the feeling from him, and the girl trying to make moves yet knowing the situation so just look from afar.. They showed two different perspective from both and delivered it beautifully.. It was well written plot ^_^

I really enjoyed watching it.. Highly recommended to watch ^_^

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China's "Miracle on the Hudson" - you gotta watch this!

Here's what I learned from miraculous plane landings, such as the one made by Captain Sully of US Airways Flight 1649 (Miracle on the Hudson) and Captain Liu of Sichuan Air Flight 8633: You need extraordinary airmanship to land your passengers and crew safely during these unexpected emergencies, and most essentially, you must remain very, very calm when everyone is panicking around you. (And they have a very, very good reason to.)

This movie was so excellently made, and it is on par with my other favourite air-flight disaster movie, Sully. But rather than center it around an overly dramatic hearing about Sully's actions (which was far from what really happened in reality), The Captain kept it simple - it focused on the events leading to the cockpit accident how the crew kept everyone calm, and how the pilots finally landed the plane despite crazy weather, the mountains and a busted gears.

However, we don't really get to know our passengers very well; the film gave some of them a backstory or two, but it's never deep enough for us to truly care for them. (I even wondered why we were given introductions to some of them.) The focus is sharply on the pilots and the air attendants.

Time moved so fast that I was stunned that I was at the end of the movie. Not a single minute was boring. (I mean, honestly, how could it be boring?? LOL.)

At times, I thought the soundtrack was overly dramatic, but I forgave that because there were really touching moments such as the flight control manager's teary eyes when he thought the plane was lost, or Captain Liu thinking about his daughter as he flew the plane through a treacherous storm.

On a side note, I also enjoyed the movie's little touches of culture here and there - what I assumed was Tibetan language, the Sichuan-accented Mandarin and more.

As a Malaysian, I couldn't help but think about our ill-fated missing plane, MH370 and the tragic fate of MH17, shot down over Ukiraine, when watching this movie. The year 2014 was Malaysian Airlines' annus horribilis - we had two major air disasters months apart.

Perhaps this is why I enjoyed Sully and The Captain so much. It gave me the happy ending and closure I and many Malaysians craved for MH370 and MH17.

An excerpt taken from my original review on my blog: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/02/18/the-captain-movie-review/

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Watch the movie before the series

Movie vs Series - Watch the movie first before series.

This review is a combination of both the series and the movie.
So let me talk first about the pros and cons between the two.
Pros:
Movie:
Is short and is not full of angst and the heartache part is relatively short which is understandable since it is only an hour and 42
Series:
We get to know all the characters and their backstories. We get to love, hate, and then be okay with some of them. The story was properly expressed and we can properly root for the main lead and their second leads about their life.
Cons:
Movie:
The story overall was not properly expressed and I felt that with this kind of story, it must not be just an almost 2-hour long movie. Some characters are just there because they are "needed" to be there but are not necessarily part of the movie's overall story. Also, there are so many skips in timelines (maybe because this is a movie and they need to keep it as precise as possible, and maybe because I watched the series first). So maybe for those who are going to watch this movie and series, I would suggest to watch the movie first and then the series for a more satisfactory watch. Also, I felt that the casting for the movie did not match the characters. Like for example Miki and Koreda. Also, the acting of ML and FL (for me) is a little off. I just can't seem to sympathize with them or their characters at all.
Series:
I know it only has 10 episodes (and before I watched this, I asked if it has a happy ending because I tend to not watch if it's not), and in terms of drama - cdrama- in particular, 10 episodes is relatively short but because it has at last 3 episodes of pure heartache and slight angst (these are the episodes where I start to hate the second leads, especially the 2nd FL) that I had the urge to just skip it. and watched the good part. But as they say, no pain no glory, so I pushed through it (barely) and hated the 2nd FL and felt sorry for the 2nd ML. But I have to say, the 2nd ML has it coming. He knew that the FL was still in love with the ML but still pushed and pushed the FL to marry him. And the 2nd FL, I just can't understand her logic at all.

Do not get me wrong, I still like the movie but because I started with the series that the movie felt so rushed and add to it that I did not feel the connection of the cast with their respective characters. Take for example the ML in the early part when he was hospitalized. In the series, you can see and feel his frustration that he can't work but I did not see that in the movie. Another example is when the ML is doing the "I will let you go because I only make you unhappy" scene/speech, in the series, it was so heartbreaking that I felt what the ML is feeling as well as the FL, and I cried with them but I did not do that in the movie.
However, let me say this, the ML in the movie has a beautiful smile but then again as well as the ML in the series. He even has a beautiful crying or trying so hard not to cry face because he was so happy in Episode 10 when FLs father said "Please make her happy".

So if you are going to watch the series first, I suggest not to watch the movie at all. It will leave you hanging and feeling to watch the series all over again! hehehe

Also, I love Chako!!! Though Kenzo is cute...hahaha..

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18/02/2024

As it is around 1 hour and 40 minutes or so it isn't like it has depth compared to a drama nor has full on character development, but it is still good nevertheless.

Arthur Chen looks a little different in this compared to Lighter and Princess and Ever Night - more so than Ever Night.

I liked him in L&P and grew to love his character in Ever Night and wish he had done Season 2 instead of Dylan Wang. But things were not meant to be...

Yesterday Once More has a Ground Hog day feel to it so expect it to be in line with dramas like: Reset. What I mean by that is - being caught in a time loop or point in time (past) with a chance to either change it or fix what wasn't right so that the future alternates for the better.

This movie is fine as movies go, but I prefer Athur Chen in dramas.

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