Reviews

Overall, a cute film about first loves with angst, drama and a few twists and turns thrown in.

Just finished this and true to form… the ending sucked 😂😂. I don’t know what it is about Korean films and dramas but they are so good… they just keep sucking you in until you get to the end and then 85-90% of the time, they just miss the mark. I mean like nose dive off a cliff miss. Not to mention the fact that I thought this was a drama and only realized it was a film when some one mentioned it and asked didn’t I wonder why I had been watching it so long.. I did not and after watching a certain scene, I was left wondering how the show would move forward for 9 more episodes😂😂 Good thing it was a film because I would have been pissed having watched 10 episodes of a drama only for it to end the way it did… 😡
The characters were likeable for the most part and a few got on my nerves at times but overall I enjoyed them and they played their roles perfectly. The story line was pretty good as well… made me reminisce on my first love and kept me interested.. until that nose dive of an ending. Overall it was a cute film about first loves with angst, drama anda few twists and turns thrown in.

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Madness that does magic

This is that kind of movie where the characters make all the dumb decisions and started the worst situation you could ever imagine, ironically it is exactly the madness that does magic in a sense of who can be the smartest out of all in this mind bending strategy war. What happens afterwards in the movie is pure magnificence, the legal indictment of its murder investigation is extremely detailed and the plot twist within it will ultimately blow your mind away not only once but multiple times. The acting performance is so intense it will pull you into a great deal of attention to determine the truth behind it, the amount of emotion and thrill it carries is unprecedented.

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Atmosphere that carried a vague plot.

Something we often get from Japanese horror - vague plot with good atmosphere, great music and sound effects and still images inducing panic response. That’s also what we’ve got from Pulse.

By the end of the movie we are offered little to no real explanations, and most are left to the viewers interpretation. Is this a commentary about the dangers of the internet? Is this a commentary about the human need for interactions and the terrifying portrayal of loneliness? It’s up to the viewer to decide.

The characters were rather bland. I kind of stopped paying attention to who is who at some point, and it did not really take away from the watching experience. I honestly believe them as individuals was not that important plot wise.

The thing I loved about Pulse was the atmosphere and built up tension. There are no cheap jump scares and all the horror is based on the fear of the unknown, perfect choice of music and the prolonged shots of uncanny images.

Overall, I would recommend it if you are in for a rather calm, but tense horror.

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DON'T MISS THIS IF U R A BL/BROMANCE & WUXIA FAN

VISUALS, CINEMATOGRAPHY, CAST, PLOT, ACTIONS... everything was on point. Specially the BL VIBES. Most people are saying it's bromance but it's definitely screaming out loud that it's a censored BL. It's gives off the soul-mates vibe similar to the ones we got in Word of Honor, Killer & Healer, etc. I personally never felt like it was a brotherly bond. It was more of an enemies to lovers trope. And damn! The graphics are just soooo beautiful! The Chinese city shown is one of the best and most beautiful city I've seen to date. The plot was interesting. The villian was hot! And the MLs are top notch actors. Overall, it's a must watch. Don't miss it.

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Shock. Tension. Laughter. Repeat

The words above are the phases I've went through in every scene in this movie. The soldiers are doing all sorts of crazy stuff and I'm quite worried that they might get caught. And when they're caught off guard, everything becomes hilarious. Then I'd burst out laughing. Sure enough, this is the comedy film I've been looking for ages.

However, I would like to give a disclaimer to the international viewers who are interested to watch this film. This might affect their viewing experience but I hope it won't affect tho. They might find some statements and gestures they (even I) don't understand. These are nuances that are uniquely Korean which also vary from the North and the South. In order to address this, I merely focused on their delivery to enjoy my viewing experience.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience to watch this film. Might watch it again when I feel sad lmao

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Tried too hard to be deep and complex and made a garbage movie

So I started the movie, really enjoying the ambiance and how it was filmed. But as I get further into the movie, I was confused about if the guy's ra**** is supposed to be the movie's love interest. But then I found out that Kai wasn't his ra****, but still, the things he said to him and how he treated him were not okay. That made the movie unnecessarily triggering. Including all the police scenes. And the dynamic between them was strange and so that was bad.
Also, it's like the movie refuses to see him as an actual victim. Like I can understand if they did that in a satirical way like that's how society actually treats men who have experienced s3xual abuse, but no; the tone conveys that he isn't one and shouldn't feel or be treated as such, and the real victim is Kai. (Kai is a victim but MC was one aswell.)
Also the rap is such a random and unnecessary element of the movie. It's so weird that rap is an integral part of the story. The rapping isn't even that bad, but it just comes across as cringe.
Overall the movie was bad and unnecessarily messy. I wasn't looking for a happy ending because someone who goes through that kind of trauma isn't gonna be all rainbows and sunshine in the end, but still, his death was dumb. The movie was just bad okay!
If you rated this movie high, something is wrong with you. It's like the aesthetic of the movie won you over and how it talks about serious issues, but the truth of the matter is: the movie was poorly written and thought out

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Loved Hawaii Pistol

Assassination (2015)

It was Jun Jihyun's birthday a few days ago so I thought of watching this old movie of hers.

The story is about a secret mission to assassinate 2 important people who favored the Japanese. And several factions try to outmaneuver each other to either prevent or succeed in the mission.

The movie is quite long at more than 2 hours but I wasn't bored!! The story is a little complicated because there were too many characters so I had to slowly watch to understand what was going on. It had lots of action, and double crossing, and deaths, and even managed to put in a little romance. The meet-cute at Hotel Mirabeau between Okyun and Hawaii Pistol is 😍

The main lead is Jun Jihyun and the men were great support, esp Ha Jung Woo who sometimes stole the scenes. And I finally watched JJ's famous court scene that is always reenacted in shows.

Rating: 9/10

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Sometimes Blood Isn't Thicker than Water

Chronicle of A Blood Merchant (2015)

Review:
I didn't read the synopsis, I always thought this was a comedy, but it was so much more. This was adapted from a Chinese novel by Yuhua and changed to Korean setting. Ha Jung Woo is the director and the star of the movie. It's about a guy, Sam Kwan, who sold blood to earn money to marry the prettiest girl in town, Okran. 11 years later with 3 kids, there are rumors that the eldest son is not Sam Gwan's biological son but is from Okran's ex-boyfriend. The movie shows the love between father and son. Even though they were not blood related, Ilrak basically grew up with the family and have always known Sam Kwan as his dad and vice versa.

The first half was light comedy but in the middle, when Sam Kwan found out Ilrak, who is his favorite child, was not actually his, he stopped showing him fatherly affection. It was heartbreaking to see Ilrak look so confused from suddenly being the favorite eldest son to a shunned illegitimate child, whose fathers (real and step) refuse to acknowledge him.

Four major scenes (and SPOILERS so don't read if you want to watch) that made me cry were when Sam Kwan told Ilrak to go away and not join the family's dumpling dinner and Ilrak went to his real father's house, asking for dumpling but he got rejected. Eventually Sam Kwan couldn't resist and found Ilrak crying and hiding in the alleys and brought him home. Another was when the real father was dying and Ilrak was being forced to say "Father come back, don't leave me" as part of a ritual, but then he sees Sam Kwan watching from a window and Ilrak starts begging for Sam Gwan to come back and take him home. Sam Kwan interrupts the ritual and takes Ilrak home. Then Ilrak falls ill with the same illness as his real father, and Sam Kwan almost died going town to town selling blood to earn money for his surgery. They finally meet in Seoul and their reunion was so touching.

I can't believe Nam Dareum was so young in this drama!! So cute and great acting, from him. He had great chemistry with Ha Jung Woo. And now in 2022, he's grown up and serving the army.

Rating: 9/10

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"The Shadow of a man can never stand up and walk on its own"

Kurosawa Akira had long dreamed of making Kagemusha. When Toho finally agreed to fund it, they were unable to finish financing it. In stepped George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola along with 20th Century Fox and Suntory Whisky to see that the movie was completed.

The story was based on real people and events leading up to the 1575 Battle of Nagashino. The warlord Shingen Takeda had longed used a double to protect himself during the tumultuous time. When his current double tired of the role, they found a thief ready to be executed who was his spitting image. When Shingen is killed the shadow has to take his place, convincing friends, family, and enemies that he is the real deal. Only a handful of advisors and guards know the truth. History would lead to a tragic end for the clan and the shadow.

This was not one of my favorite Kurosawa films. There were very few closeups and with a huge cast made it very difficult to identify people and their particular contingencies. Nakadai Tatsuya made a great foil for Mifune Toshiro in earlier films, but I found him lacking in this role. He didn’t have enough charisma and intensity to win me over. Despite the three-hour running time, little of it was spent on character development. Many pivotal scenes took place off camera. I had difficulty connecting with any of the characters and didn’t feel invested with any of them. They felt like distant obscure images.

The long still pauses Kurosawa used to great effect in his older movies became one long film this time. You have to be very patient to watch three hours of slow, quiet interactions from dozens of characters. If they had spent some of that time delving into the imposter’s feelings and life, giving me a better sense of who he was, I would have enjoyed it more.

Most of the battle scenes were underwhelming, often filmed in the dark. Two battle scenes used red lights in the background to simulate a castle burning, much as if it were a play on a small stage. Instead of seeing the action, a character was shown hearing the battle sounds. Even the final climactic battle left much of it unseen, mostly shown through the imposter’s reactions. I did find the final scenes of stunned, wounded horses attempting to rise to their feet deeply disturbing as the human carnage lay around them.

By all accounts, Kurosawa took liberties with the final battle. A ridiculously large rainbow over the ocean, while beautiful and unrealistic, was some distance from where the army would have traveled, but it did make for a nice shot. Kurosawa wanted to show the destruction of the Takeda by its enemies’ fire power even if some aspects of the battle went differently in real life.

In the end, as a body drifts past the clan’s flag, we’re shown that the currents of time are sweeping away not just the Takeda but a way of life as well. I learned several things from this film. There is a price to be paid for an unbridled ego. Blind loyalty leads people blindly to their doom at times. And never bring a sword to a gun fight.

Kagemusha didn’t have enough character development to make it a good character study and not enough quality battle scenes to make it a good war movie. In the end, I found it to be an impersonal, dryly told story at a glacial pace. Perhaps Mifune could have elevated it as he did other Kurosawa films, but that’s only wishful thinking.

12/2/22

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Just like the classic Kmovies

20th Century Girl (2022)

This movie reminds me of classic Korean movies in the early 2000s like Ditto, The Classic, Lover's Concerto etc about friends, youth, falling in love, and sad endings. I kinda guessed that Bora got mixed up with who Hyunjin was, since she didnt have a picture and it was hard when there were no cellphone cameras back then. Watching the movie I thought Hyunjin dodnt look THAT handsome for Yeondoo to fall in love that quick and turns out I was right 🤣

I love the girls' friendship, they were willing to sacrifice or let go of love for the other person. My only comment is I wished they showed a little more of what really happened to Woonho, not just one scene with the younger brother. I thought if we were still in the 2000s we will get a full heartbreaking scene where he was supposed to fly to Seoul but had a car accident and they couldn't meet in the airport or a terminal illness he hid from Bora or any other tragic ending that will make people cry.

Rating: 8.5

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This was insane

What the actual f did i just watched??! This was on another level, i heard that people were saying this was hard core but i never expected this. Tbh i was quite scared to even start watching this bc i knew this movie had really heavy topics that could get people triggered really easily but i really didn't expect this. I had to pause so many times to just let my brain process what i just saw bc it was insane, i could kinda see what was the message people who made the script wanted to give out to the world and i think their message kinda got to people but still this is definitely not for everybody, i even thought there for a second that im just gonna drop this movie bc it was a bit too much for me but i knew if i drop it now i will definitely never continue watching it so i somehow managed to finish it, i will definitely never rewatch this. Also actors did such an amazing job with portraying the characters it was actually insane.

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in short - wonderful

Very sad but in some ways also uplifting. Reminded me so much of my own times, recognising myself in both roles. So perhaps a series/movie for those who are being introspective.

Beautifully shot, great photography and this is perhaps the movie's greatest success. Sadly some of these shots linger a little too long and some are repeated more than once. Better seen in the movie version for this reason alone. Even so, the story is told as much by these visual shots than the acting out of the story.

An unusual plot for BL drama and a breakaway from traditional forms. The love is there from the outset and there is no chasing or feeling of unrequited love - though this is not expressed in any sexual way at the outset as this is very much a drama of innocence shattered instead. Ultimately the two leads come together and love is requited without undue drama.

A very interesting and technically beautiful series/movie.

In short, wonderful. Thank you

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Better than Expected

It’s was actually pretty good. Not what I was expecting from a movie centered around a kpop group’s concept. The acting was good enough to keep me interested in the storyline. Though I would like to know what role that little girl plays since she’s not a part of P1H??

Rewatch: possibly wouldn’t rewatch because it’s b an extended concept video
Story: interesting, but I wish it was completely

Acting: good for rookies especially idols who haven’t even debuted yet.

Music: usually I pay attention to the vibes of the music or the lyrics, but I wasn’t really focused on it. It meshed well with the scenes they were played in.

Someone else’s review on Viki said the MVs don’t conclude the ending, which sucks cause that’s what you’d expect for these concept videos. I’m not really one to do research and spot Easter eggs in MVs either, so I guess I’ll just be confused.
I wonder how much money FNC spent for the cgi, props, and actors cause not all of the familiar faces were from the company?

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