Xiaoshimei's Strategy Guide for Winning Her Shijie's Heart
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If you can survive the painful sound mixing, you may enjoy this one.
Right away, it's clear that the sound mixing isn't great and that makes it hard to sit back and enjoy the ride. The music is louder than the dialogue, yet somehow the cutesy Xiaoshimei's screams were more piercing than the music. Combined with the dissonant sound effects, it just made my head hurt, which is a real shame.That being said, it's still a cute story with a fun concept. We have seen the stoic/serious character partnered with the childish/cutesy character many times before, so it's at least nice to see a hint or two that the childish/cutesy act is being played up more than usual to gain sympathy and affection. By the end, I found myself wishing that this short film had been given a slightly longer runtime so that aspect of the plot could have been fleshed out even just a little bit more. Maybe then there would have been a bit more chemistry between the characters, although the actors both made a very commendable effort with the limited time they were given.
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This review may contain spoilers
Ian always love Kelly
Xiao Xiao is not the same person anymore when Jian Qing wanted her to be with him. Sad that they couldn't be together - what she wanted he couldn't give to her. Not destined to be. Their hopes were not the same anymore. He wanted to provide for her, and she won't let him when he had the money and home. She wanted a different kind of love I guess, or I am speculating she wanted him to be happy and successful not as a husband and wife, but just being friends at the end. He has his own family now as a father and a husband to his new wife. His regret is that he doesn't have that right to be friends with her anymore. I cried for them when they were in the rental car. That scene was so sad, my heart was heavy. So real.... regrets in life and separation were too much.Was this review helpful to you?
Escapism, featuring cute girls with swords.
As far as this genre of short films go, this one is a standard offering of good vibes, pretty visuals, and girls loving each other while dancing with swords. What it lacks in plot it makes up for in aesthetic. It's enough to make you wistful and perhaps long for such sweet moments in your own life. We, the audience, are the casual bystanders who just so happen to be privy to these two characters peacefully living their lives, wholly unaffected by the world around them. This is the essence of escapism and sometimes that's all you need.Was this review helpful to you?
Gorgeous visuals make up for everything.
If you read "set within the universe of the martial arts MMORPG Justice Online" in the description and worried that you were missing important context, fear not!I have never played Justice Online - and I hear that it's a premium only game anyway - but if you've played one wuxia-themed MMORPG before you get the basic idea. It is an eye-catching world of fantasy and martial arts, where the characters belong to sects that compete in trials/competitions and train to be the very best so that they may one day be harbingers of justice.
Fortunately, you don't need to know anything about Justice Online or the novel it is based on to get swept up in the atmosphere of this short story. Instead, you can sit back and treat yourself to a collection of scenes where a student and her teacher bicker about anything and everything. The dialogue seems to hint at some kind of emotional love triangle with another character that isn't featured - perhaps a reference to an NPC or an in-game mechanic, but it didn't affect the narrative beyond piquing my curiosity a bit.
Overall, the hair and costumes are immaculate, making this non-story worth every second of screen time and honestly I would recommend it for that alone. The short film itself has the same energy as a fan project and I can't help the nostalgia it gives me for the days when I enjoyed playing games like this with my friends.
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The Young Master and the Tea-Picking Girl
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Great visuals for a cute teaser.
Have you ever crushed on someone so hard that the only way you could think to end the pining and get their attention was to be as dramatic as possible?This extremely short film is a sweet music video with some light fanfiction romance vibes. The titular Tea-Picking Girl saves the Young Master's life, they grow closer as the Young Master recovers, and then eventually the Young Master must leave. There isn't much to grab onto, but the subtle framing of certain scenes - a look here and there - leaves behind fascinating implications (intentional or not) about what might have led up to their first meeting on the road.
Unfortunately, the whole story is left up to the viewers' imagination, but for a quick online project this is pretty fun! It is written and feels like a teaser for a longer project (or like a fan trailer for a well-loved work of fiction), though it can be appreciated on its own humble merits. For one thing, even though the characters barely speak, their mutual attraction is undoubtedly clear and the ending does have a slight bit of closure. For that, I think we can be grateful.
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This review may contain spoilers
Good
I like this movie. It has an interesting story about gambling. And gambling is all about trust and luck, and they portray that really well in this story.Now to Kaiji. He is a gambler, has no money, has a bad life and is in debt. He runs from one misfortune to the next misfortune. He is too nice and people manipulate him with the idea that he can change his life. In reality, bad people use his desperation for their own entertainment. He is smart and that helps him a lot. And what I really like about him is that he fights for others. He is too nice and complicates his life when other people would make different choices. It is interesting to see what he does next. But we don't know much about his life at all.
People often complain that the actors are overacting, but I don't understand that point. This movie is an adaptation, so the actors act like the characters in the manga. The acting is good most of the time.
Overall, I can say that the movie is very well done and I can recommend it to everyone. The games are also great and very interesting.
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There is an extremely cute rabbit. Need I say more?
While it helps to watch the prequel first for the extra bit of context it provides, the opening line is meant to fill the audience in on how the characters ended up working together, so you can follow along just fine without it. Regardless, I would still highly recommend it for the beautiful cinematography and strong meet-cute vibes.As far as character dynamics go, the rabbit spirit is cutesy and the doctor is cool as a cucumber. The story starts in media res with the rabbit spirit apprenticing under the doctor, treating the audience to a sweet collection of scenes that establish how much she cares for humans. Over time, we see her grapple with her own heart as she learns how humans feel about spirits bringing tragedy to their mortal lives. As the doctor steadily puts the pieces together, she is able to offer her own perspective as a human and a physician who is tasked with protecting human life.
In the limited runtime this short film has, it is able to use these character interactions and limited exposition to effectively weave a story about the importance of trust in a relationship and how love breeds the desire to keep our loved ones safe.
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Unfortunately sequel not living up to my expectations: disappointing
I really loved the first movie and I am quite disappointed by this sequel. The story took a turn that I did not appreciate as it focalised much more on external events and people being obstacles to the main romance, as well as some over-the-top melodramatic tropes than on the development of the master-servant relationship itself.The plot lost completely its appeal to me mostly in the second part of the movie, as the angst was coming foremost from quite soapy elements and much too quickly. There are 2 endings to this movie and I'm not fan of either of them due to the scenario becoming quite bonkers.
The main actors kept doing a good job but I was less invested in their couple. I think it is more likely linked to the scenario than to the cast but I was less enthralled by their chemistry together as the script gave them what felt like less opportunities to show nuances.
The music did not really stand out to me and the production was quite in line with the previous movie: standard and more what's expected in a series than in a film. As in the first movie, the subtitles unfortunately keep being appalling.
I would not necessarily recommend this to people unless you have seen the first movie. If you loved it and are curious about what happens to the characters, and do not mind some over-the-top narrative choices, you might give it a go to and see for yourself!
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More than More Than Blue
I knew I had to catch this when I saw the trailer - Chen Feiyu and Zhou Ye make such a visually appealing couple PLUS it’s directed by the same guy behind more than blue? I was sold.YX and SY were childhood friends who lost contact over the years, but rekindled as adults. The premise of the show is simple but with some elements of surprise. It’s about trying to change ones destiny/fate and encourages the audience to cherish their loved ones every single day. Since there are some elements of fantasy, it’s important to not question some of the illogical bits cos it is what it is.
I really loved this couple and going through the different iterations of their everyday life (whilst trying to change fate). But without revealing too much, their chemistry is off the charts in my opinion and they’re so sweet together! Both ML/FL’s acting was commendable.
Music - only 2 main tracks. Comparable to similar shows, it’s always played in a timely manner in the most heart wrenching way. Remember to bring some tissues!
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Not for me
I'd say give it a try and don't go by what I say. I write reviews mainly so I can remember what I liked or disliked about a show.When I saw the cast for this movie, I got so excited. I mean, really! However, I had to drop this due to coarse language, female objectification and continuous sexual references, talking about sex, thinking about sex, etc. There are just certain things I choose not to subject myself to.
Kim Woo Bin is true-to-form and looks really cool with all his hair combed forward. He usually plays characters that are pigs, and you shouldn't like him, but there is something just so sweet about him.
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Movie of the episodic series Love O2O without all the filler
Condensing 22.5 hours down to two hours, you're going to lose a lot. Missing was a lot of character development, but we also lost all the unnecessary silliness, extended game play, and multiple mean characters. I enjoyed the movie from this standpoint.The acting was pretty good, and the couple was cute together. I like it anytime a man sees a woman and is fascinated by her first.
There were a couple of sweet lines, a major swoony kiss, and a happy ending. It felt abrupt to me, but only because I had just finished watching the 30-episode series.
It's a cute movie to watch between more in-depth content.
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The Story of the Demon Cult Leader and the Decent Miss
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A short but sweet palate cleanser.
As far as Cultivator x Demon wuxia romances go, this short film does a decent job of delivering its own take within the confines of its budget.The title removes any surprise that the plot twist may have provided, so the story ends up being less about a hidden identity and more about an underestimated woman trying her best to prove herself in a male-dominated trade. She may be childish and naive, but she has a big heart and a strong will that never cracks. Watching her play off the demon cult leader's more stoic personality is a treat and it's a shame that there wasn't enough time to really develop their budding relationship.
The ending leaves behind more questions than answers and the holes in the story are glaring, but overall it is worth the watch.
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it was so good at first, until it wasn't.
Honestly, I love this at first. It's such a good choice for you if you want to get hurt by those "sad" movies you are always looking for. But then I realized that its ending was so unnecessary, such a waste. I don't think there's a good point for the writer to twist the plot at the end, they twist from a great start - a colorful and bright opening - to a waste of ending like the efforts that the characters bring all the time ended up fading away with a pointless ending just for wrenching viewers' hearts.It will be a great movie if they execute them with another plot, the brighter one. Because sad movies aren't always the best.
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An attempt was made, but unfortunately falls flat.
Imagine if, after Rosaline scorned Romeo, she suddenly decided that she was jealous of Romeo's new love affair with Juliet and went out of her way to pick on the poor girl instead of just talking about her feelings... You still wouldn't have the plot of this movie, but it's the closest you're going to get!Instead, this is a collection of melancholy moments that use Romeo & Juliet as set dressing to convey a high school story about love and loneliness. Typically with media centered on high school kids putting on a Shakespeare play, I end up wishing that the entire story could have just been the play because the final act production tends to be far more interesting than the character interactions leading up to it - and, while the version presented in this movie is no great shakes, it brought forth a lot more entertainment than anything else the writing had to offer.
The pacing is deader than Romeo and Juliet, but at least I can appreciate that the characters are allowed to be awkward kids. There were more than a few moments that didn't feel properly explained either through subtext or exposition, but the second the movie suddenly broke into a stop-motion segment it officially lost me.
Admittedly, the story clearly tries to take Shakespeare's dialogue and juxtapose it with the feelings of present day teenagers in an effort to show that the more things change the more they stay the same. It's unfortunate that the movie doesn't seem to show any deep understanding of the play's themes, but evidently that wasn't the point. Just like Seon Hwa, the audience is expected to float along in a haze for the nearly two-hour runtime as the characters contemplate what it means to be in love.
Whether a tragedy or a comedy, I just wish I had been allowed to see an interesting love story unfold, but there was so little romantic chemistry anywhere to be found. The main friend group had the most believable chemistry and were more enjoyable to watch whenever they were casually hanging out.
Overall, the cinematography tries its best to be pretty and sometimes succeeds. It just couldn't make up for the rest of the elements not coming together despite everyone's best efforts.
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Sweet and relatable
As always, thoughts and opinions are my own and not intended to offend :) (lets be honest, these are just my ramblings)I felt like this was a little different from the previous Strongberry shorts I've watched - and I liked that. This wasn't just fluffy and sweet, it was calm but with this feeling of loss as an undertone. Two men who once had a relationship coming together to help one another in a non-flirty, just platonic way was nice to see; that's not to say that there is no romantic feelings bubbling, but it felt like there was a possibility being recognised but not acted upon. I hope that makes sense!
This is another film I would love to have a longer version, or even just a follow up.
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