Reviews

Si Wan was the best part of this

I loved the concept, but the movie fell short of its potential for me.

Si Wan was the only amazing part of this really. I was left disappointed since much of the thriller, maniac vibes that could have been included with a deeper background story of his character simply werent there. There should have been more time spent on him, and less on his victim, since it wasn't necessary.

Also more action instead of an incredible build up for a predictable ending would have been nice.

Still a cool concept, but if you're looking for a message relating to technology and its impact on our lives, which i expected, it's not there either.

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a Christmas carol and the way it is written

I overal like this movie and believe it deserves the praise it got, the problem that I had with it is it's way of the direction of the disabled brother In him being the victim, also I feel like some aspects in the story weren't fully fleshed out and there where definitely scene that weren't needed and was just there to be there. the story was compelling in why our main character wanted to get his revenge and his mindset and perspective but leaving out key view from other characters that showed have been more prevalent to the story and where it was going. I wished they had more focus on how the Sa of the twin and other student at the school had affected them and how it affected the relationships around them. I know not every thing can be put into a 2 hour movie but I feel like if we the viewers are to find out about the characters misfortune we should get more insight on them even if it's from themsin character it's still possible by using the the MC lack of understanding ofwhat was going on to his brother as an advantage of portraying the twin. It's fine if people don't agree with me, this is just my view. so don't take it so seriously.

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"Be happy"

The Last Ronin was inspired by the story of the 47 Ronin, featuring the 47th ronin, Terasaka Kiechimon and the loyal retainer Seno Magozaemon. The story picked up 16 years after the 47 ronin avenged their lord and subsequently committed seppuku. Both men had carried out orders from the 47’s leader, Oishi, which caused many to think of them as deserters and cowards. This samurai film had almost no fights, but rather delved into the emotional makeup of what it meant to be one of the surviving ronin and their ideals of duty and honor.

Terasaka visits an old woman, the last on his list of Asano retainers, to tell her the story of the 47 and to give her monetary assistance. As a messenger, Terasaka had seen most of the battle and had been tasked with sharing the story and rendering any help he could give to the now scattered Asano clan. As the 17th year ceremony commemorating the loyal samurai approaches, Terasaka heads to Kyoto to wait. Along the way he catches a glimpse of his dearest friend, Magoza, who was thought to be a deserter. What Terasaka and the rest of the world don’t know is that Magozaemon changed his name and appearance and has been raising Oishi’s surviving child, Kane. The 16-year-old girl has caught the attention of a wealthy merchant’s son meaning her days as Magoza’s ward may soon be coming to an end.

This film was on the long side for a slice of life samurai film. Thanks to Yakusho Koji’s stellar performance as Magozaemon, it didn’t feel too long. The story was a feel good ending for the survivors and retainers of the doomed house. But keep in mind, a samurai happy ending may not be the same as a viewer’s happy ending.

While the story was solid, if predictable, the primary reward for sitting through this film was watching Yakusho at his best. He put on a master class of how to convey a wealth of human emotions without overacting and without words. There were times his facial expressions broke me. I rarely cry watching movies, but tears welled up halfway through this film and continued for twenty minutes afterwards. Yakusho reached into my heart and expertly persuaded me to care about Magoza. Miyauchi Hitomi’s gentle manner conveyed how attached Kane was to the old servant. “Will I love anything as much again?” The rest of the actors were all top tier as well, though poor Sato Koichi was stuck with a truly awful and distracting wig.

If you are looking for a samurai film filled with sword fights, this isn’t it. Most of the film revolved around Magoza and the girl he’d tenderly raised for 16 years. Letting go is never easy, for the “parent” or the child. His mission had been to see that Kane was happy and well taken care of and in that, he completed the assignment beyond what any parent could have hoped. I can’t say that I agree with or fully understand the unwavering loyalty to a lord, even beyond death, but if there ever was an excellent example of the samurai spirit, Seno Magozaemon was it.

“Footsteps that vanish one by one
A dream within a dream, alas”

16 April 2025

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Best 105 minutes!

Summary: Love, love, love it! I want more! Never a dull moment from the beginning. Lee Sun Bin and Kim Young Kwang are amazing in this movie. Yes, it’s a short and sweet “movie,” an action comedy packed with lots of both Chinese and Korean dialogue and misunderstandings, and a nod to Red Velvet. Lol. I was trying to find the soundtrack for this but it seems difficult. The sequel is also equally difficult to find. I liked that they threw some Cliffs Notes as well about Korean politics and laws on firearms, accidentally educational. Lol. High on the re-watch list for me. :)

Details: At first, I was cringing so much with how incompetent Woo Su Han seemed to be as a private detective but it was great to see him and Yoo Da Hee shine, as they were haphazardly and hilariously using their wits to chase down bad guys. I was impressed by the fast-paced and sometimes funny fight scenes.

I do wish there was more of a love story and feel they spent too much time on a supporting character scene at the end that could have been used for the romance portion. I also wish there was more development with the leads’ backstories. Aside from those thoughts, I can’t believe they packed that much action, informative dialogue, and plot development into the less than two hours of movie! Great use of my spare 105 minutes. ^_^

The ending was a little strange with some loose ends but perhaps it was meant to lead to a sequel, which has yet to be released by now (in 2025). Lee Sun Bin already move on to another great drama in The Potato Lab (which is unfortunately a long drawn out show). How do we get a sequel out of Mission Possible, people??

Side Notes:
- What exactly happened in Woo Su Han’s past that got him dishonorably discharged from his special unit?
- What is Yoo Da Hee’s background to make her so resilient and powerful against opponents?
- Why couldn’t anyone find the missing special agent that was supposed to support Yoo Da Hee?
- Who is the Russian informant and why are they significant to the story?

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Attempt at a dark comedy

The plus of the movie is a certain unpredictability of the story and the interesting idea of moral dilemmas concerning what happens to Mickey. So I really liked the final point that the movie makes switching the title of the Movie, but still, the manner in which the movie is made was just so absurd and parodical that it was unpleasant to watch for me most of the time.

It is hard to comment the acting also. Robert Pattinson was certainly very good, Steven Yeun was fine and Anamaria Vartolomei is very beautiful. The rest were comical beyond my understanding. I was put off by the actors trying so hard to represent the presidential candidates of the USA. I have seen many great imitations of Trump, but this one was the worst, just a strait mockery.

Seeing most of Bong Joon-ho directorial works I can see the pattern - a social political satire with highlighted class divide and raising awareness on some important issues. I commend it and I still look forward to more of his movies but this one was a little over the top for me.

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My April 2025 recommendations challenge

Watch this for my April 2025 recommendations challenge by TianD.

Story about M, a young man who decided to drop everything to look after his dying grandmother. However, it is not out of love that he took the role of a devoted grandson but for a hope of substantial inheritance worth millions.

M got the idea from his cousin, Mui, who got the biggest inheritance from her grandpa after she took care of him during his final days. So, hoping to get the same result with Mui, M is going to great lengths to become the apple of his demanding grandmother’s eye before time runs out.

At first, M was indeed doing it half-heartedly & his grandma knows it by heart. So, M goes to Mui again to learn about ‘the fastest’ way to win his grandma's heart. Mui 'teaches’ her way to M. So, slowly but sure, day by day M is getting closer to his grandma.

But was all M efforts taken into account by his grandmother? Will M get the inheritance he hopes in the end…?

That's pretty much the story without giving the spoiler. Now what I like and don't.

What I like:
+ Told a story about the bitter truth about the reality of family and money:
> Where sometimes filial and desire for inheritance overlap.
> We really can't measure the love of our elders or between siblings to their mother with younger generations the same.
+ In the end M did learn about his grandma loneliness & really did all the grandson has to do with his whole heart.

What I don't like:
- How the title is kinda misleading. I think it's better with the other version, The Chinese Family. Reading the title I kinda hope they help each other to gather the money for their grandma.

Overall this good movies that really tell the truth between expectations & reality in the family. And also how to genuinely put ur heart for ur family

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MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. YOUVE BEEN WARNED

Every single second of this movie was worth it. Two pure souls who do everything in their power to help each other navigate through and endure the pain that life throws at them.
Hayasaka's selfless act of hiding his own pain so that he could help the girl who he just met. This shows how pure and innocent he was. He was because he was going to die soon, about to commit suicide, but seeing Sakura looking forward to "going to heaven" he made up his mind to make sure that the time that she has left on this earth, she cherishes it.. And his determination and devotion paid off Sakura did say "earlier, i wanted to die as soon as possible, but now i want to live. Even a day, a minute, a second longer is enough. But I WANT TO LIVE" shit this had my heart.

The way Sakura knew that Hayasake too is on the verge of death, he is scared of death, yet he is devoting the little time he has left to her was everything. The way Sakura helped him even after she herself died was everything.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the parallels(?) shown before and after Sakura's death. I am talking about how when Sakura was in the hospital, Hayasaka visited her and brought flowers and then Amy (SakurAI's friend) did the same when Hayasaka was in the hospital (after Sakura's death)... I honestly thought the drawing book scene was the end.. meaning Sakura's "after death" message to Hayasaka was over and now we would see Hayasaka living the best life the way Sakura wanted him to(which he did)...but no there was more and it was fucking beautiful. The INSTAGRAM POST, IT was literally everything it showed how hella much Sakura loved hayasaka. It showed hoe Hayasaka made her life do a complete 360 (from wanting to go to heaven to wanting to live ) that instagram post literally made me cry like shit.,

And i CANNOT talk enough about the Gerbera thing... 6 gerberas 3 gerberas omg both of them loved each other so much..They completely altered each other's life in the little time they had together....ohh and i guess Amy also fell for Hayasaka considering she painted 3 gerbaras on his nails but well Hayasaka never knew it because he thought she just drew those gerberas without knowing the meaning behind it (as he mentioned in his instagram post)...Oh and the ending told through Amy's pov was also really meaningful.....


wahhhhhh i really loved this movie PS im bad with names dont mind me..heheh

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Started INTERESTING but Ended as a NOT SO IMPRESSIVE ONE!

Movie and the Series are Not Related.
The common point in the movie n the series is that both are about Rumoured Haunting Ghost stories in High School, shared by the students, late in the night for fun n to pass the time but the haunting actually happening 😂

***
Movie started VERY INTERESTING with GOOD Horror Suspense n Jump Scares👌🏻 but ended with a NOT SO POSITIVE IMPRESSION!🤷🏻‍♀️

The Second Half of the movie is BORING.

***
A group of High School students / members of school's Marching Band on one night in the school, Each took turns to share a haunting ghost story rumoured in their school.
There are 4 such stories.

(All these 4 high school haunting stories are very simple, just like rumoured ghost stories that we enjoyed gossiping about, in secret whispers with friends in school days and getting scared for no reason 😂👌🏻
Same Vibe, screaming for no reason! 😂🤭
Simple but Scary for no reason back then😂)

Later, those 4 students are haunted by the ghosts, same like how they said in the stories.

Here these haunting scenes are VERY GOOD. The horror vibe, the scary suspense, those Jump scares, all are GOOD n will be loved n enjoyed by Horror Lovers 👌🏻😄

And everyone in the friends group together, started solving the haunting stories to ward off the ghosts peacefully, by finding a solution to each ghost story.
From here, the movie got BORING.
The Ending to each story looked PLAIN, Rushed n Boring! 🤷🏻‍♀️

***
There's a 5th ghost story (the last one). It gave mixed feelings - not impressive, not bad!🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Everything looked simple but a bit confusing at times with the characters.

***
Instead of as an Anthology of 5 Different Unrelated Stories happening one after the other,
Here the movie has all 5 Different Haunting Stories Unrelated but Connected by all friends Sharing, Experiencing the Haunting that is happening in parallel n Solving all stories, TOGETHER.

I liked this idea of writing the intertwined stories , All in One!
(stories are not related but everyone experienced it at the same time).

***
Good to see few known actors😄
Acting n Direction are mediocre🤷🏻‍♀️

Overall, can watch this for fun n to pass the time😄
Not Very Boring n at the same time, Not Very Good🤦🏻‍♀️😂

***
My RATING is 7 /10.
(7 for the initial interesting horror suspense n jump scares - Good Horror Vibe👌🏻😄)

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"My hobby is making you upset"

Naruse Mikio wasn’t afraid to have his female leads shun societal norms. He also wasn’t afraid to bring the tears and the pain. With a title like, Yearning, I’ll let you decide which category this film fell into.

Reiko has single-handedly saved and restored her late husband’s family story. Even though he died during the war six months after they were married and the original shack was destroyed in an air raid, Reiko felt the responsibility to build the store up. Her mother-in-law and two vipers for sisters-in law were happy to let her do all the work while they benefited from it. Her brother-in-law, Koji, 11 years her junior also benefited from her hard work by going to college and then becoming a slacker who spent his time and the store’s money on booze, women, and gambling. The little shop and others like it are being threatened by a new super market that can sell items cheaper than they can. The Morita sisters-in-law are planning on cutting Reiko out of the family store as the profits dwindle and new plan is hatched to save the business. More threatening to the family is when Koji declares his love for Reiko.

Takamine Hideko gave a beautifully complex performance as Reiko. Her wonderfully expressive face conveyed emotions Reiko would not allow herself to speak. Kayama Yuzo made a stunning Koji, handsome, with a primal maleness. There was no doubt why Reiko would be swayed by his desperate declarations. Koji also fiercely defended Reiko’s place in the family and in the store. The music, longing looks, and awkwardness all conveyed the terrible yearning of Reiko and Koji. While it was perfectly acceptable for ancient old men to wed teenage girls, a relationship between a woman a decade older than a man was unthinkable. Koji might have been willing to face society’s scorn but traditional, reserved, Reiko was not so open to the idea.

Yearning tackled the changing economic landscape, family dynamics, and a forbidden love. Naruse, as always, crafted an aesthetic film and multifaceted female lead. Takamine and Kayama gave heartbreaking performances as two people so close and yet so very far away. Along with, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, this Naruse film has now become one of my favorites of his.

"I wanted to stay here because you are here."

15 April 2025

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XIAO ZHAN IS NOT GUO JING

STORY
As adapted from classic book "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" this movie doesn't bring the original story that we remember, most of scenes hand-picked based on theme not mirroring the original book. The main is to get it colossal, going big exaggeration scenes about war which definitely missing important elements to get where the story end to. Hate to see it twisted and missing all the important details. With focusing on Genghis Khan, the Mongol army marched westward to defeat the Jin dynasty and then planned to head south to eliminate the Song dynasty. Skilled martial artists from various schools of the Central Plains were involved in the fierce battles - this is far from the book - Jin dynasty is the traitor from ambition and greed of Guo Jing's sworn brother Yang Kang and his step-father Jin Prince Wanyan Hong Li but without mentioning these traitorous characters - the script writer(s) made up story connection to fill the gap or tie the dots and unfortunately it fails to grasp the beauty of whole concept of the book 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' as to why this is such a beloved classic. But I kind of understand too, with so many adaption/version of this novel into dramas/movies since 1958, the Team wants to focus it from different angle - so different than previous productions but I feel like they fail to capture it's manifestation.

ACTING
For sure Xiao Zhan isn't Guo Jing. Guo Jing is a bit retard, naive, innocent, slow, big boyish strong young man. Guo Jing isn't a handsome youngster unlike Xiao Zhan, his honesty and loyalty that pull Huang Rong heart. The previous drama The Legend of Heroes 'Hot Blooded' actors are more similar features (Ci Sha as Guo Jing) in the book. Guo Jing doesn't have commanding present of him, he follows what Huang Rong says because she's the genius one while Guo Jing is the physical force/brawny. Although Xiao Zhan doesn't have much of make-up on, he lives by his reputation 'pretty boy' so we can't see Guo Jing in him. Xiao Zhan leads all men in the country as man-perfection but Guo Jing is just a down to earth man - in some scenes Xiao Zhan is being male-idol Xiao Zhan not slow-Guo Jing. I think that's the mistake. The girl playing Huang Rong is alright, I like the hairdo and make up - pretty basic and minimal. It's good....don't need super neat hair and flawless make-up where they're at Gobi desert.

OVERALL
It hits and miss. The producer forget important part to be colossal movie, skipping early chapters to straight to the end chapter of the book, a colossal without (or little) beginning. Its bigger but not better. Not a good movie, scale 5 is generous.

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Take responsibility, but for what?

Something bad happened, but you don't know who to blame. And if you know who, then you don't know how. And if you know how then you don't know why. Paralyzed by indecision, regretful of the past, fearful of confrontation. You can ignore it but that risks the consequences of your indecision. You're not a kid anymore and there's no curriculum to life, that's scary.

An uncomfortable watch, or maybe I'm not used to watching slice of life/drama stories, but a really good one; I needed to watch this.

P.S. The lead has an anxiety disorder, not discussed or diagnosed but it really shows in the way he acts. I find it to be good representation.

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