Reviews

Naruse's earliest surviving film packs a lot of heart into a short amount of time

Flunky, Work Hard aka Little Man, Do Your Best is the earliest surviving Naruse Mikio film. The film clocks in under 30 minutes but manages to pack a lot of story into the short amount of time. Comedy and tragedy are both on display in this 1930’s rural Japan slice of life film.

Okabe is a life insurance salesman with few prospects, doing the best he can to support his family. We know the family is struggling when he attempts to repair his shoe in an early scene with newspaper. Their hut lies near sewer pipes and in a foreshadowing move, the railroad. The wife may voice her displeasure at their financial circumstances but she works hard and deals with disgruntled neighbors and the landlord while meek Okabe hides. His precocious son, Susumu, keeps running afoul of the local wealthier kids. Susumu dishes it out as good as he takes it, making a name for himself. Okabe, meanwhile, is willing to demean himself in order to make a sale, even allowing kids to play leapfrog with him in an effort to win over the mother. In a pivotal moment, he argues with Susumu after his son has fought a potential client’s child, leading to dire consequences. Okabe’s desire has been to provide for his family and he wants to buy his son a toy plane. In the end, his efforts may have come to naught when he realizes what his actions have caused.

I know Naruse primarily through his films centering on a strong woman doing what needs to be done for herself or her family. In this film, he focuses on a father who loses sight of what was important while trying to make a living during the Depression. Though short, the film was entertaining. Naruse used a variety of camera effects to convey characters’ emotions. The version I watched had no music but I’ve come to accept this with these much older films along with the degraded film quality. The story was straightforward enough that the placards were hardly necessary but the few in the film were effective. Naruse gave us an insight into 1930’s rural Japan with this small family that has managed to survive the years. Though the ending may have been heavy handed, comedy, tragedy, and irony, all played their roles in this heartwarming film focusing on a struggling father and his love for his son.

1/26/23

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What the actuall butt

Honestly...this was so funny.
Don't get me wrong: I think the story could be quite interesting, only if it wasn't squished into 30 minutes. It has great potentional value for a BL series - something like Peach of time, but horror.
My main issue with the storyline is that Minwoo hasn't got a single understandable reason to curse Hajun. Minwoo was portrayed a bit manic and crazy, but I didn't get his intention and reason to do the voodoo sh*t to Hajun. Also we have no idea how did Minwoo get into voodoo or whatever witchcraft he is into.
The relationship between the ghost and Hajun is basically only sexual. They make it look like they fell in love, but it is nowhere to be based on in the film. I can't even tell that they had any feelings towards eachother. The sexual scene was...something else tho. It is veeeery veeeeeeeery in close ups. The butt detail scene actually made me laugh out loud. It was so close up!
I feel like this would fit very well into a whole series, rather than an amateur short film. The characters didn't get enough time to show what they're really like, the whole reason behind Minwoo cursing Hajun is nonexistent basically and the love between Hajun and the ghost is nowhere to be found.
Overall it could be really fun to watch while you're drunk and with friends, it has a potential in this way.
I would not watch it sober again tho :D

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So, it was not a comedy?

Halfway through the movie I truly had to go check the genres, because I could swear it’s a cheaply made comedy that was supposed to jab at some social issues and horror tropes. To my surprise, the comedy genre was nowhere to be seen.

Kuta did one thing well, and one thing only - they truly presented the characters as realistic and annoying social media influencers. They were surprisingly realistically written. Sadly the performances were mediocre at best, awful at worst. I mean, one side character literally laughed at the joke he was supposed to deliver for the viewers…

The directing was quite chaotic. The mix of found footage and normal filming is always annoying. You show me all the vlogs to give that feeling for realism, but then the other half of the movie is shot in a normal fashion? Either commit to the found footage or not.

The worst thing about this movie was how bored I was watching. The writing, directing, filming, editing… nothing truly holds viewers attention.

Overall, saying it was mediocre would be a compliment.

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Splendid as always

This movie aired at my local cinema and probably is still airing in several districts of my country. I am gonna give the review with as less as spoilers as I could.

Continuing the franchise of H&L, H&L The worst cross of course focussed on Oya boys since the worst series was meant to focus on Oya. As usual, the main theme of H&L is of course friendship-centered. And once again, as usual, the introduction for the new gang is perfectly cool and makes me swoon. I am not a NCTzen but I really love Yuta's acting. His eyes speak a lot. Along with other LDH boys, this movie is of course worth watching if you follow the previous series of this franchise. The thing that surprised me is Daichi Mikami as Lao is a professional fighter. Initially, I thought he was a new member of LDH.

For the OST, you have to admit that H&L franchise always provides superb OST that goes along with each gang and the situation. "Wings" is the made-by-heaven combination of 4 vocalists from 3 groups.

This movie won't let your expectation down at all. Worth watching as always!

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Curiosity Killed The Cat

I watched Jung_E several days ago and couldn't figure out how to express a review right away, so I rewatched the pertinent scenes again and here I am STILL not really knowing how to say just how bad this was. The pertinent scenes throughout the entire 1 hour 33 mins and 45 seconds (fade to black) maybe, MAYBE numbered 5 in total. Maybe a total of 15 mins in all holding the movie together like glue which has been dabbed in spots on a heavy sheet of metal which hasn't dried before being hung onto a sheet rock plastered wall.

The beginning held promise with what I thought was live action from our main female lead, Kim Hyun Joo (the mother). The CGI was on par with the best gaming experience on the market today. Then the reality of the plot was revealed. In the present as an adult, Kang Soo Yeon (the daughter), is overseeing her "mother's" combat ready machine generated "body & brain", that Son Young Sun (the grandmother), had signed over under the Type C contract when she was about 12 years old (played by Park So Yi) after her mother died during combat. The Type C contract allowed living and educational expenses for her granddaughter, Park So Yi, but gave the government complete access in how her mother's brain data would be used in the future. This would allow for her mother to "live on", albeit as a robot. By presenting the "level" families could choose from upon the death of a loved one, and the futuristic health care facility we are shown this was set sometime well past our present time wayyy in the future.

I won't go into detail about the apopcalyptic conditions of Earth except to say it was a wasteland of water covering to the mountain tops. The few citizens that were unable to be transported to a colony in space were living in dire starving conditions underground to escape the war above.

The premise of the movie, the use of the mother's brain data to be used in manufacturing squadrons of elite soldiers was never quite fully formed as we learn somewhere during this 1 hour+ disaster. The daughter, Kang Soo Yeon, apparently had utilized her education since she was 12 years old to become the project manager overseeing her mother's brain data (in the present time). The project was dismantled due to the failure of it being obsolete compared to that of the robotic soldiers of the enemy from 2 other colonies which were at war with all the other colonies and Earth. Thus, the story revolves around saving her mother's brain data instead of being scaped per the appearance for 3 mins tops, Uhm Ji Won, who was the head of whatever authority she represented.

Enter more CGI fighting until the end in which the daughter "freed" the mother, albeit the robot, upon Earth to roam to her "heart's delight", I assume.

Lord have mercy. I hate, really hate this was the last project of Kang Soo Yeon. This role didn't do her justice, and thankfully she has an outstanding list of awards for her other roles, dramas, and movies for us to enjoy and remember her by.

The extremely limited roles were exceptionally acted given what they were which was very little screen time. Beyond the mains, the others were planted mainly to say they were there ONLY. I agree with another reviewer that said this could have been a great series of 16 or more episodes. The story fell flat with 1 premise in the mind of the writer. Also, why the daughter at 12 had surgery for cancer for the cancer to return when she was an adult had nothing to do with driving the plot. The love between mother & daughter could've been utilized differently. The music was unexceptional in that I can't remember it at all even after watching again this morning right before writing this review.

Yes, I feel like I wasted 1 hour 33 mins and 45 seconds PLUS the extra 20 mins it took to write this review. If you're curious, well, you know what happened to the cat, right?

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Barcelona: a very public love with a whole lot of P's

"Is I know Ill never love this way again... " as the leading OST for a movie about a guy who falls in love with a girl two years after his girl fiend died... is either extremely mismatched or a way to keep the audience on their toes...

That said, this is the.movie about a person who has to deal with a whole lot of pain, pressure and penitence who meets a princess in a bit of pickle... Betrayed and soles , precarious (desperate but that word does not start wit a p so this is close enough) in Barcelona. Which marks the start of pretty much any love story, no wait there is just this tiny little detail... the princess looks just like the persons partner who passed a way... and is supposed to be very much dead. Making this otherwise pretty basic plot jut a little bit more puzzling... The person is also kind of dependent of the parents of his parted partner and has a whole pile of problems with his own parents...

Ok enough with me trying to fit in a bunch of ps... basically Dude is living a life set up by his dead girlfriend and is juggling his pride with studies 3 jobs and a dad who keeps digging whole for him. Meets runaway girl who has f** up and just needs a second (or 10th) chance. They help each other out with their issues and well things get complicated, love and lust blooms and things get even more complicated.

All is done really well in a beautiful setting, a whole lot of emotions and a plot that besides the whole look a lie thing actually seems constant and makes sense... Ok the OST does not make and there are some solutions that are a bit out there but for a rom com it kind of works. The chemistry between the leads is well known to be good and does not disappoint at all, there are some good fights, good conversations and whole lot of gooey eyes.

Kathryn Bernardo does a great job playing two roles as well as showing character development. and the story while full of cheese and cliches also has a whole bunch of I would not say unique, but creative twists and turns so I would say they tackle the issue of pressure, perseverance, second chances and moving on pretty well. So basically if you enjoy rom coms and the Bernardo- Padilia duo this is defiantly a movie you will not want to miss. If you are new to the duo, this is not a bad place to start.

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WHAT DID I JUST WATCH? lolol

What in the low budget porn Twilight is this?? It was a never ending cringe fest filled with horrible acting, god awful writing, and some abysmal plot lolol

The worst BL...and series in general.....I've ever seen. It's SO bad that it's kinda funny.

PLOT: The movie starts with Wine's creepy ass smile (you'll see it every 10min or so lolol) as he look obsessively over his "straight" boyfriend Tee. They have sex immediately...and 10 seconds later Tee starts the "it was just sex, I'm not gay" speech. Wine gets into a deep but short-lasting depression. Tee's best friends are a bunch of jocks who decide to humiliate Wine even further by pulling a prank on him. They said Tee regretted his decision to break up and was waiting for him in this creepy abandoned building (oooh come on!!!).

Of course the poor soul waited the entire day and Tee never showed up. He was too busy "having fun" with his friends....ignoring the fact that he is indeed gay. But, when Wine finally decides to give up on waiting after hours, he hears an eerie cry for help. Basically everything in this movie is an obvious DON'T DO IT type of situation......but guess what? They all fucking do it lololol

Wine finds this weird looking dude that is a mix of a Wish version of Edward with a splash of 20s Dracula with the widow's peak. Yeah.....you read it right. And of course the second thing Wine does is let this stranger suck his blood and they fall in love. Like, who wouldn't? lolol And it all goes downhill from there. All the way down....

CHACARTER / ACTING:

- Wine (Fluke) is a basically an obsessed psychotic twink throughout the whole movie. That's his gig. And serving a creepy smile for no good reason. His character is based on his relationship with 3 guys and how far is he willing to go for the sake of "love" (which only lasts a few moments with him lol)

- Night: Our weird vamp that, in the end proves himself to be very ungrateful lol

All the actors were pretty bad in this, not gonna lie. Not even one redeemable thing about this whole movie. If you wanna watch just for the weirdness...have at it. But it is pretty bad lol

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It was a cute romance between a blind artist grieving the loss of his sight and a bubbly barista who met through a street mural he was working on. I loved the imagery surrounding the ML as he broke down and as he fell in love. And the way that his paintings started incorporating color was so touching. It very much seemed to speak to not only his feelings for her, but also his acceptance of his new state as a blind man.

But I had two problems:
We could obviously see Tou becoming soft towards Iris, with the subtlety that could easily be interpreted as love. But Iris could just as well have been interpreted as growing a friendship with him. Especially with the absence of romantic moments and gazes.

Secondly, Tou's voice tapes come into focus a few times as important. Rather like journal entries. But while I got the sense that they were important, we weren't quite privy to how important, or why. I would have appreciated a touch more time with this element, or a better picked out excerpt from it.

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I decided to watch this movie to clear my mind a bit.

These are just a few minutes of frames from different places at night, put together into a 20-minute movie with the sounds of traffic in the background and a song at the end. I usually like to observe my surroundings when I'm outside so it wasn't boring for me. This film made me feel more at peace. Not burdened by anything.

Honestly, if you're looking for a deeper meaning in this film, you'll probably find it. It all depends on your imagination, what you expect from the movie at the moment and what is in your head.

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Lots of high flying kicks not encumbered by a coherent plot!

Cynthia Khan returns to the In the Line of Duty franchise for Middle Man. This 1990 film feels more like an 1980’s Hong Kong martial arts movie. Lots of fighting, very little plot.

Cynthia is joined by David Wu in this convoluted story that goes from Hong Kong to Korea. It involves the US military, CIA, HK police, and an underground information spy ring. Wu’s David is accused of spying and the race is on to see who can kill him first. He has to drag around the dumbest girlfriend ever for awhile until the writers mercifully divest him of her. Khan’s Inspector Yang Li Ching helps her cousin elude the murderous gang, CIA, and police so that they can hunt down The General and collect evidence to clear David. David is not the smartest seaman on leave making Inspector Yang’s job even tougher trying to keep him alive.

The thin plot only served to grant space for the fights, lots and lots of fights. Most of them were well choreographed with a minimum of wire-fu and cranking. Khan was quite proficient and believable as she athletically ran, kicked, leapt, slid, and even dangled off of buildings and ropes. She lacked some of the onscreen personality of say Michelle Yeoh, but was likeable enough in this role. Wu was adequate but not terribly charismatic. Lo Lieh, at nearly 60, showed up as the gentle godfather who still had a few moves left. A nice surprise was Australian Kim Penn, a real-life martial artist and member of the Hong Kong Stuntman Association who made a beautiful foil for Khan as they had one of the bloodiest girl on girl fights I’ve seen in some time.

Middle Man was an entertaining martial arts movie if you don’t pay attention to the plot and just enjoy the fight choreography. It’s rare that a female lead is allowed to carry a gun toting, fists and kicks movie, so I bumped it up a bit in my rating.

1/25/23

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The movie is a sequel that could've been added to the drama's ending and the viewer would not waste 1 hour and 15 minutes to get a fairytale ending. Although the movie provides an explanation as how the leading male recovered, it has a comical atmosphere and lacks a loving mood. The movie also brings back some of the cast from the drama but there is no real plot that can be considered a continuation for these characters. The most bizarre character is Xiao Qing Ting [Little dragonfly] which is obviously Luo Han Tong from the drama and there's no explanation as how he made it back to life after his gruesome death in the drama. Overall, just watch the last eight minutes of the movie to get your happily ever after ending!

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Philosophical flick with questionable details.

Jung_E is great as a starter for some interesting conversations, but it does not really dive too deep into the topics itself. What could have been a great movie that ends on a question mark, became a bit too mindless and random closer to the end, trying to give a “reasonable” ending that lacks reason.

What worked? It opened the door for many interesting topics to be explored and reflected on - what is free will, can you put a price on it, what makes us human. What I appreciated the most, even though it was not the focus part of the plot, was the conversation about human rights, and how much does it cost to have them - since, even though on less “dramatic” and smaller scale, it’s a sad reality we live in right now.

The acting - amazing. I wanted to hug Jung Yi, slap Sang Hoon and both hug and slap Seo Hyun. Kang Soo Yeon did an amazing job at showing all the strong, but concealed emotions the character felt. Kim Hyun Joo’s performance was simply raw and I loved every second of it - well, every second the character actually showed emotions.

Jung_E was also a visual feast. I am one to always complain about CGI, but here they truly ace it. The robots looked greeted, the CGI created environments were amazing, the blend of special and practical effects was perfect.

All the scenes that focused on the morality of the whole scenario were wonderful. Every time they focused more on the philosophical and psychological aspect of it - great, and I wish the movie kept that going till the end. But no, we need some brainless fighting scenes at the end, because they had to flex special effects. Last 20 minutes truly made so little sense the movie went from 9 to 7.5.

Then we have Kim Sang Hoon and how painfully underdeveloped and underused he was. This character had such a potential to present so much depth. The set up was perfect, the potential emotional reaction could have been great, the dilemma he could have felt. What did the writer do? Said “screw it and put it in the trash” as they delivered some of the most random development for this character, that they tried to justify with one line of dialogue…

I also wish they explored some of the rules a little bit more. They gave a few lines and hints how the world works, but I wanted more to make it more believable. Some small details just don’t make much sense to me, the longer I think about them.

That said, it was still a truly enjoyable watch. First hour I was just glued to the screen. I am a bit biased, because I love the topics concerning free will, ethics and morality. It was a rather slow paced, character focused story that tackled a few too many issues while also trying to entertain people with the unnecessary action.

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