Reviews

Road to Empress is an astonishingly good FMV that sets a new standard for the genre. Despite being priced much lower than most other FMV titles, it delivers exceptional quality across the board — from the impressive acting and diverse cast to the beautifully designed film sets that bring its world to life.

What really surprised me, though, is the English translation — it’s by far the best I’ve seen in any Chinese FMV on Steam. The dialogue feels natural and immersive, allowing the emotional weight of the story to shine through without the usual awkward phrasing you often find in translations.

The setting is absolutely captivating, and while most of the choices don’t branch the story very far, the core narrative is so strong that it hardly matters. The pacing, atmosphere, and tone are all spot-on, keeping you engaged from start to finish.

My only real complaint is that the game currently ends without a proper conclusion, leaving us waiting for the upcoming prequel. Hopefully, the developers continue this project, because Road to Empress is a perfect example of what a great FMV should be — cinematic, emotional, and full of personality.

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A love story that goes beyond the stars

“Out here in space, there’s someone who’s always rooting for you”.
A perfect message for me at the moment when I watched the movie, and also now, 4 months later, when I added my review for it on My Drama List.

This is a beautiful love story that is literally across the starlight and universe, with beautiful voices from Kim Tae Ri and Hong Kyung, and a vivid, magical and sparkling animation style like thousands of stars in the sky.

I also love the theme song that is composed and performed by our main lead Jay. It perfectly fits the vibe of the film.

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Ann Hui’s Visible Secret had a competent story at its core, but the implementation of it failed. Perhaps through editing problems, apparently the mass transit authority objected to parts of the story, or just poor choices, there were some issues with the story. Shu Qi and Eason Chan were charismatic enough to keep my attention through much of the film though.

Fifteen years ago, a man fell under a tram and lost his head. The old death haunts the present as the ghost possesses various people to exact his revenge. June (Wong Siu Kam) is able to see the dead out of her left eye. She and Peter (Wong Choi) hook up one night and become engulfed in the vengeful apparition’s plans.

Shu Qi was luminescent in the role of the young woman who could see the dead. Eason’s character was all over the place, never sure if June was supporting him or part of the malevolent ghost’s plans. Sam Lee was Eason’s best bud Simon who tried to keep Peter employed. Kara Hui played a mother possessed by not one, but two ghosts and gave a thrilling performance.

Visible Secret wasn’t a scary film in the classic horror style. It ended up being a story where the living and the dead inhabited the same spaces with little in the way of telling them apart. People were often possessed, sometimes for nefarious purposes and sometimes because they wanted to see old friends. The film’s vengeful headless debt collector didn’t quite match up even with Washington Irving’s tame Sleepy Hollow. The titular secret was highly visible and not so secret. Unfortunately, the unevenness of the story encumbered what could have been an interesting tale of entwined spooky, if not scary, lives lost and filled with regret.

29 October 2025

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Pedicab Driver is one of Sammo Hung’s more popular older movies. I wasn’t as enamored by it, but there was one fight that made the film worth watching despite all of the ogling of women’s breasts.

Lo Tung (“Fat Lo”), Mai Chien Tang (“Malted Candy”), San Cha (“Cake”), and “Rice Pudding” are four buddies who drive pedicabs. Mai meets a young woman named Hsiao Tsui when he runs into her and romance blooms. Lo begins a romance after threatening Ha Ping with a torch who happens to work in a shop in his auntie’s building. Despite the rocky beginnings, true love takes its course though conflicts arise. Hsiao has a dark past and the local triad boss (John Shum with a huge gold grill) wants Ha Ping.

The film begins with a big workers’ brawl and soon after has a car vs pedicab chase. The chase ends with the best fight of the film. Old school Shaw Brothers actor and martial arts director Lau Kar Leung and Sammo fight with fists, kicks, and Lau’s specialty---weapons. Lau was 53 and Sammo was pushing 40 but you’d never know it from their speed and agility. I found the choreography highly entertaining. The middle of the film sank into romantic melodrama before the murderous fights began giving Sammo a reason to clean house at the Triad lord’s. Sammo fought perennial baddie Billy Chow while Mang Hoi (criminally underused) took on Chung Fat. With Sammo, Mang Hoi, and Brandy Yuen choreographing the fights, none of them were disappointments.

There were things that did not work for me. The story was uneven, with characters disappearing and reappearing. Ha Ping’s boss pushed her hard for a romance. I don’t mind age gaps, but the nearly 60-year-old Sun Yueh constantly creeping on 28-year-old Nina Li (his employee) screamed “Me, too” moment of harassment. The camera focusing on women’s clothed bouncing breasts for long lingering minutes was uncomfortable. Ha Ping was pretty, with no other backstory or development, as if that created enough of a character to fight over.

This film, like so many Hong Kong kung fu comedies, started out light and fluffy then devolved into something resembling the Manson Family Christmas* before the final funny credits that erased the horror of the prior losses. Sammo Hung fans will likely not be disappointed as the big guy put on quite a kung fu show. As always, I rate these pre-1990s martial arts films on a curve.

29 October 2025
*Scrooged (1988)
Triggers: The final fights were bloody if you are squeamish

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मैले यो चलचित्र हेर्नुको एक मात्र कारण टिकटकमा देखेको भिडियो थियो। मैले सोचेको थिएँ कि यो एउटा राम्रो रोमान्स चलचित्र हो, तर म एकदम गलत थिएँ।

चलचित्र सुरु भएको १० मिनेट भित्रमै मैले थाहा पाइसकेको थिएँ कि यो कथा मैले सोचे जस्तो होइन। यस कथामा सहपाठीहरूलाई धम्की दिने र नाबालिग केटीहरूलाई वेश्यावृत्तिमा संलग्न गराउने जस्ता सामग्रीहरू छन्। म यो चलचित्र हेर्दाहेर्दै यति आश्चर्यचकित भएँ कि मैले आफूलाई सोधेँ - “म यो के हेरिरहेको छु?”

सन् 2009 मा रिलिज भएको यो चलचित्रको कथा कमजोर छ। यस चलचित्रमा काम गरेका अभिनेता र अभिनेत्रीहरू राम्रो छन्, तर कथाको कमजोरीका कारण कथा एक दिशाबाट अर्को दिशातर्फ यसरी जान्छ कि हेर्ने मानिसलाई अप्ठ्यारो हुन्छ।

चलचित्रको अर्को ठूलो समस्या यसको लम्बाइ हो। मलाई बुझिएन किन यो दुई घण्टा लामो बनाइएको हो। ईमानदारीका साथ भनूँ भने, यसलाई एक घण्टाभन्दा बढी हेर्न गाह्रो हुन्छ। यदि यो चलचित्र एक घण्टासम्म सीमित गरिएको भए, सायद केही हदसम्म मन परिन्थ्यो पनि। कथाको गति सुस्त छ, र कलाकारहरूले संवाद बोल्दा बीचबीचमा यति लामो पज लिन्छन् कि दृश्यहरू निस्तेज लाग्छन्।

मैले सुरुवातमा यो चलचित्रलाई एउटा रमाइलो प्रेमकथा ठानेँ, तर अन्त्यमा निराशा मात्र हात लाग्यो। यदि पहिले नै थाहा भएको भए कि यसमा यस्ता परिपक्व र असहज विषयहरू छन्, म यो हेर्ने थिइनँ। टिकटकको एउटा क्लिप देखेर म भ्रममा परे।

म यो चलचित्र अरू कसैलाई सिफारिस गर्दिनँ।

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Kpop demon hunters

I did not expected it here, eventhough I know there are some animated production, more like the fact that it's american one but at the same time it is mostly connected to Korea so yeah it makes sense.
Well I actually loved this movie, I even rewatch and it is probably the only production I rewatched this year (athougth Newtopia is tempting so much). The biggest advantage of this movie is music and vocals, it carried - and it reminds a lot of kpop songs so it makes sense that kpop fans loved it (we all know that Golden is like I am by Ive, Your Idol gives Ateez or old BTS vibe, How it's down and Takedown gives Blackpink and Everglow). Also Baby reminds me Suga, no matter what anyone says, he is Suga for me XD. Story is nothing new but pretty well made. Animation is really pretty. Animals are cute. It is funny and I believe that for many will be overhyped but as far as I did not wanted to watch it (because of that reason, I mostly do not try hyped things, they need time when I get hyped or a really long time) I have to agree that it really is a good movie.
And no it does not really need second movie, but still would work. I am sure of one thing if it was longer as it supposed to be many people who cry about shortening would not like it in full lenght.
Side note: rating acting here is a little bulls*it

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Exploring the darker edges of eeriness, sexuality, and bizarre, horror-esque art with unconventional layers of psychological deviance, Rampo Noir is challenging as it is horrifically disturbing, presenting the writer's fiction in radical ways, hoping to push boundaries but never quite succeeding. Partly due to the violent, sadomasochistic sex scenes that often crop up, but also because it's not always immediately clear what the filmmakers are trying to say, thanks to their ponderously slow approach. There's only so much time you can spend on artistically rotting corpses and auditory excess before you're going to annoy someone, but the film remains consistently refreshingly and cinematically striking with an unabashed eroticism and willingness to plunge into the dark realms of Rampo's work. Each director breathes life into their own respective take on the material, all have a unique visual style, which help draw you into their strange worlds, be it exploitation or arthouse; each segment carves its own identity, although, admittedly, some more to my taste than others, with the high points being the two segments that bookend the feature and, ironically, come from the two newcomers. Suguru Takeuchi delivers a full-on avant-garde experimental and introspective short, full of evocative imagery in what is a beautifully surreal and breathtakingly stunning, if bitterly short, dive into existential dread. Atsushi Kaneko, meanwhile, more well-known for his status as a mangaka, makes an impressive directorial debut with the finale, blending his usual sensibilities with a lush cinematic intensity and plenty of darkly comedic moments. That being said, the other two segments are far from a slouch. Adapting his third Rampo tale, Akio Jissoji's usual keen eye for composition and signature stylistic flourishes turn his short into a mesmerising fever dream. Hisayasu Satō, meanwhile, delivers a grimly gruesome tale, taking Rampo's work to its most grotesque extreme, containing mutilation and plenty of bodily fluids. It's presented with an unusual use of light and colour, as unsettling as it is provocative, a visceral commentary on physical and emotional dependency. Despite the mismatched feel of the whole affair, Rampo Noir's hallucinogenic approach to narrative and visuals is nothing short of invigorating.

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Taking punk to a whole new level and meticulously tailored to weigh on its audience, 964 Pinocchio is an exhausting watch; the constant presence of screaming, yelling, grunting and whining bears its own unique sense of torture. A raw, hand-tooled vision that unfolds with visceral and stomach-churning intensity, Shozin Fukui throws shades of disturbing, comedic, messed-up, revolting, and mesmerising at you all at once in a breakneck charge through a brutal and uncaring post-industrial netherworld. The filthy, grimy aesthetic and relentless wallowing won't appeal to everyone, as it screams in your face and refuses to apologise for any of its repulsive imagery. However, the film presents a compelling concept to you, delving into it wildly once you're settled in, bearing all the hallmarks of an endurance test, complete with frenetic editing and off-the-wall acting choices, with mental anguish far exceeding physical tolerance. What 964 Pinocchio lacks in polish or budget, it makes up for with a visual intensity matched only by the sheer, uncompromising determination, hysterical pacing and the utterly demented insanity of its soundscape. It has an undeniable charm, but what exactly that is, is for you to decide.

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Boasting a title only 90s Hong Kong cinema could conjure up, The Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead is both enticing and misleading, yet tenuously sums up the basic premise of what could be thinly labelled as a plot. Everything comes thick and fast. Opening with a Bond-esque title sequence, we are under little illusion of what to expect. A gratuitous mix of sex, violence and martial arts, the film is dumb, messy and loaded with excessive nudity, but if you can get past the cack-handed execution, you'll find yourself in for a wild ride. Director Lu Chun-Ku delivers plenty of bright colours and hyperactive camerawork with a vigorous exuberance to the proceedings that ensures the film never sits still long enough to be boring, no matter how confusing the story gets. The film just careens through a half-dozen genres, like a priest with a short attention span, delivering a delirious mess of supernatural sleaze, wire flying action and sexploitation horror; the balance is very askew. I don't think the filmmakers were inept, just horrifically misguided to the point of hilarity. The cast ultimately end up losing out to all the boobs and gore, so I don't really blame some of them for phoning it in. Donnie Yen, Ben Lam and Ken Lo do get the opportunity to show off, however fleeting it might be, while Sibille Hu is around for about ten minutes, mostly to complain and swear a lot. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what I say about The Holy Virgin Versus the Evil Dead, even if it doesn't contain any of the latter part of its title; it's worth the price of admission for said title alone. It's stupid enough fun to forgive its glaring shortcomings with enough stylistic flourishes here and there, plus copious amounts of boobage, to keep an otherwise low-budget production from falling apart at the seams.

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