Reviews

Ugh!

1. Yuki deserved SO much better than Akira.

2. The fact Akira randomly dumped Yuki after ELEVEN YEARS and married a whole other person for several years before taking off his clown makeup and standing up to his mother...

3. Akira literally ruined his whole life like tf?! This plot ruined the whole relationship for me. He did not have to destroy Yuki like that. 😭

4. The ending was very mixed emotions. Bittersweet and depressing. I was still reeling over the last 40 minutes of Akira throwing a grenade to his life.

5. I wanted to love this and feel like I got too caught up in my feels to enjoy the rest of this movie. 😂 He could've broken up for a couple years and been single. Accepted a job somewhere. Anything, but what he actually did. & the seven or eight years it took for them to get back together... nah nah nah NAH.

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"Something big is behind this!"

In the 1970's sexploitation was rampant and Hanzo the Razor was an excellent example of it. Despite the copious amounts of spewing blood and overall lightheartedness, the underlying theme that rape is okay and something to be enjoyed has aged badly in a world where women now have a say and are able to write critiques.

*Because of the nature of this movie, I use some male anatomical terms*

Hanzo is honorable and incorruptible, a pike in his higher up's sides as he berates them for accepting bribes. After his confrontation over oath taking Hanzo has himself tortured so that he will know how prisoners feel and then pounds his penis with a wooden stick. After that he works it out in a burlap sack filled with raw rice. When he has thoroughly exercised his third leg which had to have been at least 18inches/47cm long, seriously how did he not pass out from all his blood headed south, he stumbles across a clue that Kanbei the Killer has escaped his banishment. He frames Kanbei's lover who is now his boss' mistress for murder and hauls her in for "questioning." Omino is stripped and bound. Hanzo begins his special interrogation of Omino with his Mr. Winky, stopping intermittently so that she will answer questions and beg him to continue. He later questions another woman while she is hanging from a net giving an all new meaning to the term 'whirlibird'. She, like Omino, was sent into the throws of ecstasy from his huge and talented member and told him everything he wanted to know.

The case showed the corruption of the court and magistrate's office, but the case itself was limp. It simply gave Hanzo the opportunity to cause some spewing blood deaths and chances to interview women with his super ding-a-ling. The thing to keep in mind about the women he interrogated is that they hadn't committed any crimes. One might have been harboring a fugitive, but by that time the fugitive was dead. As much as he worked Little Hanzo out, it made me wonder how many women he questioned a week. Did he interrogate male suspects the same way? Kung fu specialists learn to pull their equipment in, but apparently in Japan it's hardened into a weapon.

Hanzo the Razor, yeah I don't think they were talking about his sword, had some humorous moments. But the utter lack of consent and warped view of rape and women overshadowed anything positive about the film. Hanzo was known to be honorable and a man who protected the people. I'm just not sure how honorable rape is.

9/19/23

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Why isn't this labelled as a comedy?

I cannot explain how frustrated I am with this movie.
I knew beforehand that it was based on true events, and by the poster, plot summary and tags, I thought that this was properly handled and portraited. However, not only the pacing was awful, and with various clichés, but in the first half they even had humorous bits?!

Think about it: it was like a movie version of Vincenzo. In this drama they also deal with serious matters in a humorous way, like their critic on chaebol's money power, but instead they replaced them with Italian mafias. However, the big difference and why it was well received, is that Vincenzo was marketed from the beginning as a comedy (amongst other genres) while Toxic wasn't. And it shouldn't have, but it was.

So, to me this is not only an insult on the victims' story, but also to the viewers' intelligence.

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A must for fans of PP Krit

I must admit that I was sad when it looked like PP Krit - after the sensational success of his collaboration with Billkin in ”My Ambulance”, ”I Told Sunset About You”, which is my favourite BL series of all times, and ”I Promised You the Moon” - was going to focus on his career as a singer. When I heard that he would be starring in the short film ”Rerun”, I was so happy, and I wasn't disappointed.

PP Krit plays Kit, the curator of arts exhibitions, who falls for Chou (Napat Siangsomboon), an artist. They find out that they have a lot in common, and Chou promises to have Kit curate his first solo exhibition. However, when he actually has his first exhibition, he has someone else curate it, and subsequently he breaks up with Kit. When they meet again, Kit pretends that he is okay, whereas Chou says that he isn't okay without Kit. This is where the movie ends, so we don't know whether the two of them get back together or not.

The entire movie breathes a mood of angst and sadness, and somehow the viewer senses that this relationship isn't going to last. The cinematography – semi-darkness in many scenes, with an indistinct sound - underlines the fragility of the leads' relationship. The production quality of this short film is very good, without even minor flaws. The movie was produced by PP Krit's company, "PP Krit Entertainment".

As a fan of PP Krit, who is my favourite BL actor, and who I would always want to protect, because he appears to be so vulnerable, I was tempted to hate Chou for dumping Kit, prioritizing his career over his love, but then Kit doesn't even try to fight for his love, and so it would seem unfair to blame everything on Chou.

Napat Siangsomboon is an experienced actor, and he displays Chou's attraction to Kit, but also his ambition as an artist, and finally his yearning for his ex-lover convincingly. PP Krit avoids being over-dramatic which the plot may have tempted a lesser talented actor to do. Whereas in the break-up scene Kit seems to be more hurt than Chou, PP Krit manages to convey in the final scene that Kit in fact is stronger than Chou. I always found it hard to imagine PP Krit being paired with another actor than Billkin, but he has obviously matured enough to move on.

This movie isn't a feelgood comedy – in fact, it's sad and angsty as I mentioned before, but it's a beautiful little piece of art that no one should miss, and of course it's a must for everyone who loves PP Krit as much as I do. The fact that the short film was watched on youtube by 200,000 viewers within 24 hours proves that it was not only me who was longing to see PP Krit again.

You find all my reviews, including those of series from countries not covered by mydramalist like Vietnam, Singapore, and Myanmar, here: https://www.wattpad.com/user/DominicKebre

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We open the film with the male lead realizing that his movie showing on love and loneliness is putting people to sleep. No one seems interested in what he has to say. Yumi, a ticket seller at the venue, mentions that it might be because there's no people - and she volunteers to act in his next film. What happens next makes reality and film bleed together in a rather beautiful manner that kept me watching. Is the new film reflecting reality? Is reality mirroring the new film? Are the two indeed different but conflated to us real-life viewers? I can't say. But it resulted in a pretty, calm, and mellow short film which I did quite enjoy. But it was definitely a more atmospheric/vibe sort of watch, rather than a story-centric sort of watch.


"Why do you shoot a movie?"
"Because it's pretty."
"Then you only film things that are pretty, do you?"
"If you care about something, then it becomes pretty."
And that does seem to be the general idea behind the film.

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Very enjoyable, great performances.

This was a great little movie. Note that it starts off in B&W, but switches to color shortly. While in large part a comedy, it deals with a few serious matters also, and does so very well. The performances of the two leads portraying each other were superb, in my opinion,...their mannerisms, vocals, and responses to different situations. Side characters were present, but not really developed much. I think this was the right call, as the time was much better spent focusing on the two main characters. I tend to really like Japanese cinema from the early 80s, and this somewhat quirky little film epitomizes it. Thumbs up.

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One of the best movies with a excellent acting I've ever seen!

I am unable to be interested in watching movies since a long time. I watch like 2 or 3 movies a year but I could watch this movie in one go. The emotions and acting made me cry a lot throughout the whole movie. The main lead did an awesome acting (I want to say this 1000 times) , I could feel his emotions deeply. The little girl also slayed her acting. Not to mention the whole supporting characters did very well too. The story was very well written. I'm not good at writing reviews but had to write it anyway cause it's too good! Thanks a lot to the whole cast and crew of the movie! I found this movie a very inspiring and motivational.

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Slow, non-linear story, but still engaging

Desert of No Return was a slow paced, non-linear (very non-linear) story about two people in dire financial straits who hooked up one night leading to tragedy. The film felt dragged out by bouncing back and forth in time and telling the story from both main characters' points of view. Soo Eun's story was far more compelling and Ha Yoon Kyung did a superb job bringing her to life.

Tae Shik is a divorced father who lives with his mother and can't make ends meet providing for both households. He collects junk from sellers and illegally from abandoned houses. His ex-wife takes every opportunity to denigrate him as well as people on the street. He goes with a friend to a karaoke bar where girls are provided for companionship. Soo Eun wants to own a nail salon but is short of the cash needed. She is in a loving relationship with a female musician and promised to never sleep with the clients during the "second round." Tae Shik and a reluctant Soo Eun end up in a hotel room which sets a terrible chain of events in motion.

Tae Shik was a man incapable of properly handling adversity or confrontation. If there was any effort to make him sympathetic it did not work with me. The more I discovered about him the less I empathized with him. All I learned from the film was that even ahjussis can be deadly dangerous if provoked or steal from you when your back is turned. Soo Eun made a choice she paid for in multiple ways. Though she worked to be a good human being she lost everything due to a desperate decision. The film bounced not only between the two characters' points of view but also back and forth in time which could be confusing.

Tae Shik's story tried to explain his rage which Jo Sung Ha portrayed well. Ha Yoon Kyung brought out Soo Eun's vulnerable side as well as her fierce side. She was beautiful whether made up or sans free of makeup and gave a lovely performance as the doomed young woman. The music was quietly moving though I disagree with her lover, even musicians have to pay their bills.

I didn't particularly enjoy the first part of the film but found myself engrossed in Soo Eun's romance and story. Many synopses made her out to be a prostitute. I don't think one time brands a woman for life. I felt the ending was unsatisfactory, but that could be because I do like my endings tied up with a bow one way or another. Had the rest of the film felt as complete as Soo Eun's story I would have enjoyed it more.

9/19/23

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Curious concept and cute fantasy costumes are the only good thing here

To be honest most of my rating went down because of the ending, had they dealt with that differently this would have been a passable 5 surprisingly. It would have been one of those bad movies that are still surprisingly entertaining with its many flaws.

I went with very low expectations and only started watching it to kill some time, only by the preview I already thought it was going to be cringy and bad, and I was generally not wrong, but surprisingly I did find it more entertaining than expected because of the plot.
The whole vibe this was giving me was school play, flashy costumes, everything clean and staged, exaggerated acting or amateur acting and so on, even the premise is kind of weird since it's mostly Cinderella but Red Riding Hood is there just because. It's fine, I could get at some points not even themselves were taking it too seriously, especially towards the beginning. They didn't seem to have high expectations and nor did I have them, so I just chilled and watched.

Plot became interesting with the crime and the changes to the different characters compared with the most known story version of Cinderella but then they just went with a classic detective Conan move of revealing everything at the end instead of taking us with them for the ride. I enjoyed Conan when I was a kid but it would get repetitive and boring after a while because he would only solve everything in the last two minutes bringing evidence that no one, not even the spectator, knew about. This was very similar in that respect and I could still have given it a general pass if it wasn't for that victim blaming right there.
Sure, Cinderella shouldn't have done what she did (especially with her sister), BUT the guy was assaulting her plus everyone else knew that guy had been doing it for a while to other women as well... sure, he was powerful but considering he was not in good terms with the prince either you would think that power would be deminished by that single fact and she would get a sentence based on the nuance of the situation. Either way, I'm going here on details when the movie didn't care much for them at all, what makes that ending as bad as it is. Moral of the story is don't defend yourself when a guy is physically assaulting you I guess.
Although moral of the story is don't judge people by their physical appearance according to them, but they all had thick makeup on (maybe just me but especially the prince, wow, it was not subtle at all), hair with a tone of hairspray and pristine clothing, including Red Riding Hood eventhough she wasn't even a local. I guess at the end we got the message that we shouldn't discriminate against people with face scars and freckles, what is already an achievement considering many people in Japan think freckles are ugly.

I'm only giving it a two because the concept wasn't that bad even with the whole cringe fest of everything, but that ending and its morality deserves a zero.

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Does this movie actually deserve a 10? No. But it was really enjoyable and interesting to watch. And I wanted more of it. I wish it was a series instead. So, the 10 I give is not because this movie is a 10 but because the enjoyment it gave me is 10/10.
After watching it I really wish Japan would adapt more of those webnovels and manga based on western fantasy where everyone is Japanese but has English names and set in fictional western based countries. They could just be fun little series and I would really enjoy watching them a lot. Korean ones would do too but they can be more serious and Japanese ones more light hearted. There are so many great stories in those webnovels, webtoons and mangas. I wish I could watch them as live action series.

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Overall cute, but Ando was the protagonist

To be honest, while watching the film I wondered whether Ando was the real protagonist of the story or not.

To begin with, Ninako confessing her feelings at the beginning of the movie was refreshing and cute. I really liked her and Ren's character. Mayuka's character wasn't as bad as I expected, I feel sad for her because it seems to me that she still loved Ren a lot when she decided to break up (I think that she even mentioned that, didn't she?). When it comes to the other characters, except for Ando, they're so forgettable... Neither Ninako's friends nor the boy who confessed to her had so much screentime. I don't know about the original work, but I believe they should had more opportunities to support her or show the boy's crush on her.

On the other hand, when it comes to Ando's character I found him quite annoying almost for the first half of the film. Even though, I think he's the most important character there? He had his own trauma and character development, he was the obstacle for the protagonist to date and also the person who made them date at the same time. It was as if the story was about Ando's unrequited love stories. I came to like him at the end of the movie, but if it weren't for him I don't think NinaRen would have had that story...

Anyways, overall it was a cute shojo movie to watch. I enjoyed it, though I'm not into triangle-love-stories.

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Lovely. This is why I support the "Public Domain" movement (and CC-BY and CC-BY-SA as well), it gives writers the freedom to create new stories based on characters we are already familiar with. It gives us the "legal right" to present the "what-ifs" and let other people enjoy the adaptations.

A must watch if you are a fan of fairy tales and curious about the what-ifs of these stories. Recommended for family watching, especially with the coming holidays. It may be a modern adaptation but it still have moral lessons in it just like the originals.

Now, when are we going to see the sequels?

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As crazy as it is, i find it good and I THINK I WANT MORE

At first i thought i was watching the wrong kanna hashimoto movie, but then i realized it really real hahahaha like what the fuck of fever dream this is... I guess it was my mistake too since i didn't look at the tags and i just immendiately went head on to the movie after seeing kanna hashimoto.

But yeah beginning of the movie might be rough cuz of the anime acting and all of its cringeness, but you'll get used to it and find it really funny and interesting.

I think it has its own charm, once you'll stuck with it. It's really a nice unique spin of the princess fairytale

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