Reviews

Feels Like Watching My Own Love Story

This movie is for those of us who have unrequited love. For regrets that always haunt and for him we can no longer get back. Not to make us regret even more, but to remember why the relationship didn't work out in the first place. And hopefully we (and Xiao-Xiao) can move forward soon and achieve our dreams.

Watching this movie is like seeing my youth. I was once in Xiao Xiao's shoes and understand why he finally gave up on their relationship. In the end, their relationship turned into a toxic one that only hurt each other. Jiang Qin was too focused on pursuing Xiao Xiao's dream, that he forgot to be present for Xiao Xiao who was beside him. And when he finally realized, it was too late. Their relationship was too damaged to be repaired. The thing that hurt me was when Jiang Qin wanted Xiao Xiao back after he was finally able to buy a house. This further confirms my opinion that Jiang Qin never understood the real reason Xiao Xiao left him. Xiao Xiao (and his father) never asked for money or house. They wanted Jiang Qin to be there for them, completely.

I like the ending of this story, although for some people it doesn't have a happy ending. Seeing Jiang Qin and Xiao Xiao finally get to properly say goodbye, was enough for me. Because I never have opportunity to say goodbye to my Jiang Qin.

Dear Z, I know you won't read this. But I hope, someday if we ever have a chance to meet again you won't hate me too much.

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Toadily ridiculous!

The Guy with Secret Kung Fu looked like a lot of other cheap Taiwanese kung fu movies from this timeframe. Where this film won me over were the sound effects which truly had me laughing in many scenes whether that was the director's intention or not. They must have gotten a deal at Discount Sound Effects R Us and decided to use as many as possible.

Once again, the plucky Ming rebels are fighting the Qings. This time not only must they deal with the hated dynasty but also Sally Chen's fearsome Dragon Gang! Brothers/blood brothers Hung Wei Ting (Mang Fei) and Hu Ah Piao (Li Chung Chien) take down a bunch of Chin Wan Che's brown shirts when the Dragon Gang attacks Elsa Yang and her father on a boat. The Dragon Queen is not happy when her men are beaten nor are the Qing officials. Wei Ting is captured in town and his brother has to break him out. When they slow down to help another escaped prisoner the boys are captured once again. Wang Hsieh as a Qing official lets them loose hoping they will take down the Dragon Gang. It makes less sense as it goes along, but it gives the boys plenty of opportunities to fight and take their shirts off and the girls to be attacked or kidnapped and need rescuing.

The story becomes more interesting when a sorcerer played by Shih Chung Tien brings to life a half-human/half-vampire demon with super strength played by perennial giant Cheng Fu Hung. None of the brothers' kung fu abilities have any effect on him. Fortunately, he tosses them through the wall of the coffin maker's shop thinking them dead and the daughter played by Nancy Yen takes a fancy to them. She just happens to have a secret kung fu book! Of course, she does! It details The Dragon Fist technique and also has a recipe for defeating the demon! Holy Deux ex machina Batman!

The final fights are loads of fun. Sally Chen and her tricked out poison dart thrower, the Sorcerer, and Wang Hsieh with his Toad style against the boys and their newly acquired Dragon Fist moves accompanied by some of the most ridiculous sound effects ever were exciting.

Despite the movie being a Hong Kong production, I knew immediately it was shot in Taiwan. Per usual, the film relied on outdoor scenery, especially the woods and a field of tall grass. The movie was also badly faded as many of them have not been restored. Taiwanese actors and actresses populated the movie-Mang Fei, Nancy Yen, Sally Chen, Wang Hsieh, Shih Chung Tien, and Elsa Yang.

The fights, especially, the first one on two boats and the last ones in the woods and tall grass were quite entertaining. Other fights varied but were a step above kung fu posing. Li Chung Chien appeared in less than 10 films but made a good partner for Mang Fei. Sally Chen was the most charismatic villain with her poison dart gun and glorious dresses. Elsa Yang starred in a number of ninja movies and would have made a good foil for her but aside from Sally, the rest of the female cast were relegated to screaming, "Help me! Help me!" Wang Hsieh's Toad style was hilarious as he blew out his belly and hopped about all while toad sound effects ribbeted in the background. The good guys did some super leaping themselves, mostly filmed in reverse.

Truly, the sound effects were the star of this film, many anachronistically so. Plane sounds when the boys jumped and were thrown about, gunshots for darts, fireworks swirling, frogs croaking, pew! pew! laser noises, and also the standard swish and clash kung fu sound effects. The "demon" sounded like the Tin Man needing more than a few drops of oil from his oil can. The movie itself was badly edited making it quite confusing as it jumped in time and from scene to scene leaving important bits out. The print I watched had been chopped to fit a screen somewhere in its past making me grateful it was dubbed. Otherwise, it might have fallen victim to the subtitles running off the screen or being illegible with the light background.

The Guy with Secret Kung Fu-actually it was Two Guys with Secret Kung Fu-was not a great kung fu flick nor did it have great kung fu, but it was toadily ridiculous and entertaining in its own comic way. Only for the most hard core of old kung fu film fans. As always, these pre-1990 cheap niche movies I grade on a curve.

7/6/23

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Unexpected Ending

I went into this movie fully preparing to be sobbing by the end of it, as my past experience with Chinese BLs has lead to either death & despair, or death & the tiniest glimmer of hope.

This one technically has the death of one half of the main CP, but there is a twist that pleasantly surprised me, and had me smiling through my tears.

I always love a good reincarnation trope in a BL, and it was wonderful to see it here.

I've seen other reviewers talk about how the romance is rushed (which is a valid critique), but 1) the film is little.more than one hour long (so not much time to build a solid foundation), and 2) the "rushedness" can be hand waved away by the implementation of the "soulmates throughout all of time" trope, so I can personally excuse the 0-100 in 2 seconds romance because of that.

This won't be a frequent rewatch, but it definitely WILL be watched again because it's not too emotionally taxing, and the little bits of lore surrounding the different species (humans, mermaids, and dragons) was intriguing

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Beautiful Movie

Honestly I really loved this movie it brings out a lot of real life concerns and insecurities. I love how in this movie "Kyoichi" is truly trying to figure himself ouut and it shows that he feels the pain when he hurts Imagase and doesnt want to feel that way doesnt want to hurt him. I also love how for Imagase it shows how he loved Kyoichi in the past and has for a very long time. I love how that shows there is a deeper connection through his love then what was presented before knowing his background story. The Sex scenes between Kyoichi and Imagase were hot but very sensual and beautiful at the same time. They showed a lot of love and despair between the two. The background music was very calming and sensual I loved how it made the scenes more realistic and more relaxing. The acting for both characters was phenominal it was very beautiful and they got the job done. I would love to see the actors film another movie together. For rewatching this movie I would highly recomend rewatching this movie it helps you understand the real purpose of the movie it also helps you realise parts of the movie or those subtle meanings in the movie watching it the second time. I have overall watched this movie 5-6 times and every time I watch it I learn something new.

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Iconic

As headline says, its iconic.
Is it good? Yes, if you like Z-tales.
Predictable and I wish the jerks had worse endings.
I personally aint very fond of Z content but I endured this one, mainly because the acting was that good.
It was the perfect Z-popcorn excitement cine you watch with friends.

I wish the ending was a little bit better but all in all, it was quite good, again, its the acting that raises the rating, script wise, not as much .

Perhaps contradictive but it has 99% good re-watch rate as the Fx and all the small details you might miss the first round.
Another small interesting part is that the movie is 2hours long, which makes the story almost in real time (as a regular Soul-Busan journey takes ~2.5hours with the speed train), for that alone, it makes this worth watching.

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Bittersweet

This movie although having many erotic scenes has some pretty deep meanings in it. The lack of love and attention from parents results in many issues among women and men alike. This is very true for Sawako because she's trying to fill that void she feels from the lack of attention she gets from her father. The dialogue and acting is very nice and sometimes it's funny, and sometimes it's kinda philosphical. Then you throw in a little bit of those steamy romance novels in it and viola you have Te. There is romance in it but it's not a fluffy and sweet movie. It contains many taboo subjects such as infidelity and our main characters have a sense of realism in them as they are far from perfect. The main takeaway from this movie is how the main character Sawako discovers her inner self and grows as a person, and how she tackles her issues. And lastly....wow! This movie is steamy steamy!

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We're going to need a bigger boat---of butter!

Monster Seafood Wars could have been good campy fun if it had given me even one human to root for. I started out octo-mistic, but as it was, I was on Team Kaiju right up until near the end when a surprise hero came to the rescue and almost made the other 74 minutes worthwhile and I'm not squidding.

As someone who has seen her share of Kaiju films, I'm prepared to go along with almost any convoluted storyline they want to hurl at me. This one started with Yuta taking his father's offering to the priest for the annual blessing at the shrine when he's knocked off his bike and his offerings of octopus, squid, and crab are stolen. They end up in the river with ominous bubbles floating over them and the next thing you know, the octopus and squid are ginormous and fighting each other in the city's skyline. The news media names them Takolla and Ikalla. Turns out Yuta had developed SETAP Z which causes animals to become huge. He was fired for going over budget and coincidentally his formula was also stolen. Yuta is hauled into the police station and interrogated by a SMAT (Seafood Monster Attack Team---seriously) commander and his childhood crush who works for the defense minister. He and his ex-work rival and rival for Nana, Hikoma, join SMAT to determine the best way to rid themselves of the seafood infestation. Hikoma has developed giant vinegar canons (I can't make this stuff up) that will spray the beasts and weaken them. It seems to work but then the giant crab, Kanilla, appears and lops off a few octopus and squid arms. Kanilla is unaffected by the vinegar attack and it's back to the drawing board for our heroes, and I use that term loosely. The positive thing that came out of the fight? Apparently, Kaiju meat is enormously delicious. Every restaurant in town tries to get their hands on the rare meat and patrons swamp to the select places that do carry it.

Monster Seafood Wars' writing was more damaging than a Kaiju romp around Tokyo. Yuta, Nana, and Hikoma acted like petulant 12-year-olds throughout the movie causing me to hope they ended up as steak tartare for the beasties. In a scene that harkened back to the sexist 70's, the two males made a bet that whoever won got Nana. Girl was sitting right there next to them while they were pounding their chests. Nana wasn't much better, other than saying derogatory things to Yuta and having expensive dinners with Hikoma, she didn't do much for someone with such a haughty attitude. The boys did nothing but fight and hurl insults at each other, refusing to work together even for the fate of the world. Go Team Kaiju! The only thing that turned this film around for me---spoiler alert--- was Yuta's buddy who unleashed a giant chef robot named Jumbo Cook near the end up the movie to carve the Kaiju into sushi. The last ten minutes were actually good campy fun.

This film was extremely low budget which wasn't a problem for me. I've watched a number of super cheap Kaiju movies and enjoyed them. The sets and props were about as low tech as it gets. The Kaiju looked more like the inflatable stick figures used at car dealerships than guys in rubber suits. Worst of all for me, the focus was almost entirely on the terrible three and their childish behavior. Listening to them bicker for nearly 86 minutes was more painful than whatever the squid with the big eyelashes could have hammered me with.

If you grew up watching Saturday morning children's tv shows with guys in monster or action costumes dancing about and bad acting this may give you a sense of nostalgia. But even the most stalwart seafood lover might find The Seafood Bowl nauseating. Far from being ex-squid-sit, it was clawful.

7/5/23

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his was ok, nothing more. 1st have to point out the subs r bad (guess whomever translated, used google translate). so it's English but not related to whatever we see in the scene. let alone the Japanese dialogue isn't translated & if that wasn't enough, the vid kept buffering. so this took ages to finish (which wouldn't mind, if the plot was interesting). it had it's moments, but on a whole this was meeh...

i like Ma Dong Seok, think he is a very versatile actor in-spite of the look. but cause of his look, most of his movies r him portraying a human wrecking ball. which seems repetitive IMHO (been there seen that). also cause of his "Might" (even though he's human) seeing anyone stand-up after one punch from him, is ludicrous - like come on, there's no freakin way they weren't punched straight into an ICU

side note: what kinda shocked me, took me a while to recognize Lee Joon Hyuk (loved him in Stranger) here idk what the makeup artist did, but he looks bloated & bad.

about the movie/plot; a generic plot which was ok. wasn't blown away by anything. there were a lot pf plot holes if anything. the fights were brutal, but grew monotonous as we went from one fight to another. a one off

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Short but Packs a Punch

Wow, this was amazing. I never expected to get so much out of such a short video but it was very moving. It didn't feel like the relationship was rushed, it was outlined and felt comforting and real. I wondered if they both knew what the other did, it seemed like they were both hiding that aspect from each other until they were standing face to face on opposite sides.

I could feel the heartache he felt as he was looking at his partner standing against him. As someone who has protested before, I can feel his passion for his cause and I know what it feels like for people to misunderstand protestors.

The only downside was the ending, it wasn't really resolved. In a way that left us even more impacted but I really want to see what happened after this event.

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If you Live by the Sword...

The actors were fantastic and the action scenes with
Jang Hyuk really good. I have enjoyed their talent in
other shows.
I just watched Jang Hyuk in The Swordsman 2020 and that
guy has awesome moves. His character in Tomb of the River
(2021) has a project in mind and nothing will stop him,
nothing will get in hisway. He is like a steamroller. He
doesn't seem to have strong affections for anybody. He
is like a machine.
Please remember this is my humble opinion I share with
you. We do this because we very much enjoy these shows
and we love to share our views with others.

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the minuses; the vid i found kept buffering at the wrong times & half way through the subs get really weird (can understand but not 100% sure my assumption r right), also the quality is iffy at parts.

the pluses = the whole movie (i don't like sports, it bores me). u will Never catch me watching any type of sport where a bunch or people (regardless of gender) r running after a ball. the only sports i've watched to date (if u can call them so...) r movies/drama's themed around them. so as far as i am concerned, this was a gem of a movie.

usually in movies like this, the underdog comes out on top & does a 180 by the end - this is a bit different in that accord, but still really enjoyed this movie, very funny & yet touchingly realistic at points. don't think there is a character i disliked. there a load of character's with heartbreaking backstories & i teared up more then once.

know everyone was waiting to watch this was cause of the mains (which were the ones that brought this movie to my attention) but i loved that even though Park Seo Joon & IU r the mains (& do play a main role) they don't take away from any of the other character's screen time - everyone gets a time to shine.
a feel good movie for sure, wholeheartedly recommend & this going on my rewatch list 💖

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Use your words!

Aizen Katsura AKA The Tree of Love was a melodramatic love story with a plentitude of nice people who excelled at communication except for the two people who mattered most. But how else to keep two pleasant people apart except with timeworn misunderstandings and lack of communication? Katsue and Kozo would test the Tree of Love's blessing and patience to find out if it was strong enough to grant them everlasting happiness.

Gentle Katsue earns a living as a nurse supporting her daughter as well as her older sister. The problem being, that nurses have to live in the dormitory and are expected to be virgins---no married women! When Katsue is caught in the park with her daughter a fellow nurse convenes a late-night accusation party. After Katsue explains she's been a widow since she was eight months pregnant and had been forced to marry at eighteen, her fellow nurses declared solidarity with her. The hospital owner's son returns after his medical training and promptly falls for Katsue when she sings at his party. They begin seeing each other and Kozo makes what amounts to his declaration at the Tree of Love. His father has arranged a marriage with Michiko, an American educated young woman, whose father is also a doctor, a plan Kozo rejects. When he decides to travel to Kyoto so that he and Katsue can be together she agrees. Unfortunately, her daughter falls ill and she doesn't make the train. Kozo assumes the worst, that she's dumped him and doesn't contact her again. From there it's a series of more misunderstandings and near misses.

The romance in Tree of Love was pretty thin even though it was a popular movie in its time. As many films from this period did, it highlighted the plight of single women and single mothers. Few jobs were available to women, much less married women. Aside from having to work to survive, as a young widow, Katsue wasn't going to be most parents' first or tenth choice for a child's spouse. One of my favorite aspects of this story was the generous support of Katsue's fellow nurses. Not a jealous, spiteful woman in the lot. From beginning to end, they had her back which I found delightful as positive women's friendships tend to be scarce. Even Michiko, the possible fiancée, was understanding and kind, looking out for Kozo's best interests even if she didn't end up as his wife.

Tanaka Kinuyo was lovely as the gentle Katsue believably portraying a nurse and caring mother, a genuinely likeable heroine. Uehara Ken had little to do but sit around looking dashing, which he did well and Kozo was never cruel to Katsue even with the misunderstandings. Though it was billed as a melodrama, with people this beautiful and amiable, supported by Katsue's cheerleading squad of friends, this sweet couple didn't need a Tree of Love, more like a Tree of How to Use Your Words. If you enjoy older movies, Aizen Katsura is not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

7/4/23

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Good movie, worth a second rewatch

This is a gritty movie about espionage during war time.

Good:
1. The fight scene between WYB and Tony Leung's characters
2. the plot twist
3. WYB's acting improved as the story went on. He was a bit wooden in the early scenes.
4. The build up and suspense. It always felt like your favorite character was in danger of getting killed
5. The set design and costumes really made one feel that they were present in that time

Bad:
1. Non linear story telling made it really difficult to follow the plot
2. No linear story telling device also made some of the scenes repetitive for viewers

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Action Hero

From beginning to end Action packed. I totally enjoyed this movie.
I was searching Jang Hyuk's profile and found this movie.
He done so many genres and he is excellent here too.
The translation was kinda cut, so I don't know if I lost some
info on the way.
Happy I got to see Jang Hyuk in action. I've been
following him for years. He played a cool guy, almost expressionless,
saw him smile at the end of the film. Funny, he always
was drinking out of a cup. Reminded me of Robert Downy Jr.
always snacking on set.
I enjoyed this movie.

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