This review may contain spoilers
"I'm 34 but you're still 18"
I got to know about this movie while writing my MDL'ers Favorite Korean Movies article. This movie was in the top 10 most awaited upcoming Korean movies section. At that time this movie had a orange poster which looked really cool and beautiful at the same time.So when this was finally relaesed it really created a lot of buzz. I mean literally everyone was talking about this movie. It was like talk of the town. I couldn't open my Instagram cause everyone was posting about this movie. My Instagram Fanpage was in a more difficult situation. All my mutuals were editing about this movie on the other hand I really wanted to watch it without any spoilers but I couldn't cause I had ongoing exam. Unfortunately Instagram spoiled the ending of the movie anyway I decided to watch this movie once my exam finishes.
Watching the trailer I felt like another movie in which the girl falls in love with her best friends and ironically the crush also falls in love with the girl. But it wasn't really about that..................
I really love that even though I knew about the ending how I love the story progress. It's really unpredictable. The summer scenes. The cute interactions.
STORY
About the last year of 20th century of Bo Ra's life which became a special memory of her 21st century life.
ACTING
I always feel like playing the role of high school students are a little different than the other roles. It needs a lot of emotions. Every and each actors acting really made everything feeling magical.
CAST
My first time seeing the leads. I have seen Kim Yoo Jung in Instagram reels and YouTube Fm but I never realized until this movie that she is such a great Actress. I think the casting was perfect as we can feel their chemistry with each other.
Although I have gave this 7 rating overall after thinking like thousand times. Everything was this movie was nice but does the ending even make any sense. So many unanswered questions. And it just ended like I don't know it ruined everything for me. It's okay for one time watching but I definitely will never rewatch this. They just ruined our summer vibe comfort movie. I wish he could meet the 21st century of Bo Ra.
Memories matter and stay with us forever.
~14/12/2022
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It had quite a strong first and last quarter, but the middle part left much to desire. It mostly felt draggy and confusing and not in the “I’m excited to see what will happen next and what it all means” type of way.
The lore is great, imaginative and presented in an interesting visual way, especially at the end. I just wish the storytelling was a little bit more tight. Suicide Forest Village did not create that tense atmosphere that would make me anticipate what’s to come. I was mostly passively watching, not exactly connecting to anything on screen, but not really being bored.
I think the biggest part in the downfall of the movie for me were the characters. If you have an interesting set of protagonists, even a slow paced film will be interesting. This bunch of young adults had little to offer in any aspect.
Without going into spoilers and being as vague as possible, I did enjoy quite a bit the design for everything that happened in the Suicide Forest Village.
Overall, not a bad movie and if you watched all the better titles, this is a good pick. but it’s not something you will remember after a month.
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This review may contain spoilers
Superb acting but rushed final act!
Plus/minus:(+) In the first few acts, the story is fleshed out nicely to show Xiao Qi's sacrifices to win over Young Ci.
(+) After the love is reciprocated between the two, the narrative shifting toward Young Ci's angle is also great.
(-) The scenes that led to the final break-up were rushed. It doesn't fit Young Ci's character to make the final decision over two scenes. The letter that she wrote and narrated did help sustain her PoV, but more scenes of arguments/discussions would have given much more weight to the break-up scenes.
Takeaway:
1. The absence of noticing mental health and therapy is again apparent in such love-themed movies to drive the plot. Not entirely sure how accurate it is with the reality in China, but the movie focused more on improving Xiao Qi's physical health after the incident. In contrast, his mental health was largely ignored despite having apparent effects on his surroundings. Young Ci also chose less desirable actions despite wanting to help Xiao Qi's mental health issue.
2. Greg Hsu and Zhang Ruo Nan are perfect for this show. It was a treat, and I look forward to their other projects.
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This review may contain spoilers
A movie with an IMPACT
I felt depressed after watching this movie. The whole premise is a twisted play of life in the dark sense.The one thing that stuck with me is that the character Xu Yi was violated and didn't get any justice. After watching the movie I felt li er & Zhang Yang have no right to make that final comment on Xu Yi's life or how his life might be now. Both of them played out his emotions like a play thing and expected everything to fall in line with their expectation.
The fact that Zhang Yang turned out the way he did makes it more unjustified. He ruined someone who trusted him and destroyed someone else and he gets to live the life he wanted.
Xu Yi ended up like that because of what happened to him but what happened to him were due to the deep emotional left by many others. His mother killed herself, his first love turned out to be trap set by his most trusted friend to destroy himself and the girl who had a crush turned out to be a silent instigator. His half brother succeed in destroying his younger half brother on many levels. His family(parents), his love life, his career and his future self.
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A FUNNY REALISTIC MOVIE ABOUT THE PREFERENCES OF OTHERS & LOVEEE
So, I've actually had this movie on my watchlist for a while since my friend recommended it, but I just got around to watching it. It was interesting from the start, and I really liked the main male lead because I've watched his dramas before. I loved scenes where the characters got to be open and honest about their sexual preferences since of course that is a main theme in thus movie. it was a great watch and the various themes displayed were well portrayed by the actors such as trust, respect, love etc. I think we all love happy endings not just me, right? of course this doesn't end on a bad/sad not. It was fun and entertaining to watch guys so give it a try. Rewatch value is a 10!!! Loved it!!xo
nicki
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The movie might be short and does not really present any plot, but it’s a good watch nonetheless. It’s weirdly tense for a short about mosquitoes and for some strange reason, it works.
The main character might take some drastic measures by the end, but honest? Can’t blame him. I was moving away from the laptop and being close to muting the tab because of the sound.
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Sex jokes, poop jokes, pee jokes - that's the content you will get.
This is one of the movies that left me wondering why it was made and why did the cast agree to do it. It does nothing to their career, there was no way on the planet they got paid a lot for it, as the budget itself seems limited, and not much probability of it becoming a hit.You know what the movie is mostly about? 3 people sitting down and talking about the most boring things ever and making awful jokes. Anything even remotely connected to horror happens in the last 15 minutes. I saw no real comedy in it either. It’s just full of nothing.
Sure, the performances were nice and the cast was solid, but what’s the point when the writing had nothing to offer?
Overall, just don’t bother watching. It's juvenile humor and poor storytelling.
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Nightmare for all women.
“It’s her right to live alone, not a reason to hurt her”.Putting aside who the stalker is, what is also unsettling is how all the men in her life were acting creepy enough to be considered a potential perpetrator. The whole movie had little to no moments that did not make me feel uncomfortable.
Honestly speaking, I did enjoy it more than the Korean version. For starters, the police did not seem as painfully bad at their job. I am pretty sure they had less involvement in this version, but that was a good call. Detective and investigative work should never be the focus of a story like that.
Then I also appreciate how the female lead made more reasonable and smart decisions. While I appreciated some mistakes the female lead in the Korean version made, because they made her more realistic, by the end I was a bit frustrated. Here, they were able to keep the realism without making her make questionable decisions.
What the movie failed at a few times were the transitions between scenes and sequences - some felt extremely jarring and confusing - that made me rewatch some scenes to make sure I did not miss something. It just felt out of place.
My biggest issue though was the ending - as over the top as the Korean version, if not more. It was going so well with presenting an unnerving experience women can truly face in real life, and then they had to make it more dramatic at the end, completely unnecessarily if you ask me.
Still, it was a great watch. The atmosphere was perfect and some scenes made me want to go around my house and check “just to be sure and safe” that ain’t no creep hiding somewhere. The performances were also solid - kudos to all the male cast for delivering that creepy factor. What’s more, I enjoyed some of the audio editing/mixing and the music picked for some scenes.
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BORING
I dont care about infidelity or screwed up storylines but this was SO boring to watch. They arent bad actors but theyre stiff because theyre supposed to be. The worst thing was how abrupt the cuts were. I do not know if it was a stylistic choice taken on purpose but its so aprupt that its hard to enjoy. They omit entire happenings of context and summarize that in maybe one line of dialogue told to some character. Like youre supposed to pick it on contrxtually. But it sucked a bitThe sexual scenes were very out there. That was good lol but everything else is an absolute meh.
Iw ill say, not a completely unrealistic story though. But doesnt make it less boring.
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It’s nothing groundbreaking or amazing, but it’s for sure an entertaining watch with some unexpected plot developments. The characters seemed like your typical university students which added some realism to a rather unrealistic, but enjoyable story.
I for sure liked the performances and was surprised to see some well known faces in the roles of Professor Choi and Professor Yeo.
It seems like a good watch for people who are not too good with horrors. It has some creepy moments, but there is also enough mystery and plot to get invested and focus on that. It’s also relatively short, so you won’t get exhausted watching it.
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This review may contain spoilers
i kinda had high hopes going into this bl and its 2am so i was just looking for smth to watch. the first half of the movie when xiao and lu are young was pretty cute even though it moved really fast. but when theyre older and meet again, it sucks. the lack of consent AND THE FACT THAT LU LITERALLY TORTURED XIAO AND ALMOST KILLED HIM IS A MAJOR RED FLAG. even though at the end they explain themselves i still didnt like it. the chemistry was kinda off too, as a gay guy it didnt reallt feel real. idk :)) Was this review helpful to you?
History Lesson???
I'm sitting here pondering over how best to describe The DMZ when there are only 3 speaking roles with very little speaking involved. The visuals are the driving force in The DMZ, and could be used as a supplement in a history lesson on the Korean War.Studying the Korean War lead me to dramas and movies from my favorite country (aside from my own country (USA) and those from which my ancestors came (Germany/France, Ireland/Scotland)).
I watched because I've been fascinated with the Republic of Korea's history. Watch purely FOR the history, and for the history of the black & white film. It's rare to be able to see outside of the regional area. You can find it on YouTube as of the date of this review.
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Poong woon died
Why does he have to die , interesting storyline, great movie , I love it and I cried , but I just wish their love was happily ever after but he had to die and they didn’t show us how he died or even say what happened to him 🥲😭😭 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I wish he was lost or something and there’s a part two of him regaining his memory and not him dying just like that , what’s the point then 🤷🏽♀️Was this review helpful to you?
Mecha Live Action
This felt like one live action adaptation of a sci-fi & mecha manga, the plot is all over and only briefly explained in the last minutes of it. The plot is a family broken inside, in the midst of a torn world, torn by wars and environment damage, the politics are more on the communist side, with strong control over the media and nation best wishes narrative.As people get sick by the dead nature consequences, scientists try to come up with solutions, one of them, Azuma, create one substance that by mistake brings dead people to life, they are called Neo-Humans, some of them gather to fight against the humans whom tried to get ride of them. Casshern is a Neo-Human.
The photography is chaotic, going from dark, game(ish) to strong red, yellow etc and the cgi is all over, as they try to show us the war machines, the surviving society & the contaminated nature. The characters has the anime aesthetics with colorful hair and quirky clothes. The editing and direction are very lacking, we have very little talking going on and the mindset is hardly perceived and only once again in the last minutes of it. It's hard to actually care for them if the edit goes from here and there in a chaotic order, add to this the extremely changes in the background cgi and the result is not the best. The ost is good and feel fit to the scenes.
Even tho the many bad points, once you start watching you just feels like keep watching, it's interesting enough, it has some action and mecha scenes with fair charisma and the sci-fi content is also good enough.
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