Reviews

One big, missed opportunity.

I was quite excited to watch it. Waited till late night to get the right atmosphere and get the best possible experience. 15 minutes in I started to become extremely sleepy, and it was not because I was tired. Kim Kang Woo is stunning, but his beautiful face is not enough to keep me engaged, when all I see on screen is him walking around the building with a flashlight.

I am truly impressed how such a short movie that also has so many different tropes, time lines, and plot elements, can be this boring. The plot twists were predictable, the story told in a messy way, the protagonist was a massive idiot that truly did only one thing right.

They tried to be creative, giving a twist to the typical “black haired girl ghost” story, but it was so ridiculous, it did not work out - especially with this execution.

The design for the ghosts and scares was mediocre at best, simple copy paste of what we saw in other movies. Basically a snapchat ghost filter.

They did not use the place for their advantage - could have presented the place as a claustrophobic loop, but I never felt that.

Kim Kang Woo did a good job acting wise, but the rest of the cast was just comical. The screams that are so important in horror movies, mostly sounded like free stock audio.

To sum it up, it felt like they had an interesting idea, but no clue how to present it.

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Tearjerker + Amazing performance by Roy Chiu

Completed - 3/29/2022
Subjective Rating - 9.0
Objective Rating - 7.5-8.5

Without really paying attention to the tags of this movie, I thought I was going to watch a romantic comedy. Little did I know I would be crying my eyes out. This is a definite tearjerker.

A Cheng is a kind-hearted debt collector who fell in love with Hao Ting at first sight. I have never been a fan of love-at-first sight, and I'm not going to lie, the way he pursues Hao Ting could be viewed as stalker-ish and problematic as well. But once I got past these 'hurdles', I am fully invested in their love story.

I love A Cheng. What he went through in this movie breaks my heart. I cried so much after things went downhill for him. He's always been so kind to everyone he encounters. I want him to live happily-ever-after with Hao Ting. Roy Chiu (who plays A Cheng) is fantastic in this movie. His acting range is in total display - silly, kind, violent, betrayed, in physical and emotional pain, and heartbroken.

It's really hard for me to put into words why my gut feeling tells me this movie is worth my 9.0 rating. Maybe I was caught off-guard by all the feels. Maybe I was too impressed with Roy Chiu's acting. Maybe I am just watching the right movie, at the right time, in the right mood.

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Youth can be boring this film was not...

And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool is as fun as it's name... While youth in a small town can be boring, I know been there tried that not doing it again... This film was fast paced, fun, interesting and has a whole lot of beautiful shots as well as a bunch of unexpected humour.

When life feels meaningless and boring... there is nothing else to do but do meaningless s***... with your friends.

I love the brutal honesty and how well this portrays the feeling of boredom...

While I understand the artistic value of the shake camera and fast flashes of light with horrible sound, my sensitive ears and eyes (yes I am old) did not really appreciate seeing/hearing them.

I did however love the authentic feel this movie has, with the not so perfect people, and not so perfect voices...

So in short I would say this is more or less a short masterpiece doing one h*** of a job portraying completely average youths who just happened to Put Goldfish in a Pool...


P.s. I personally spent most of my youth in a big city but moved to a small town the a few monthes before I turned 17 and this brought back quite a few memories... But I will admit I never put goldfish in a pool... My grown up self loved it too mostly for this scene... " go out have sex... otherwise you will end up like us... still we are happy enough"

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Too short to give me a good scare.. too short to get attached to the characters..

Cast were great. Zombies looks good too. Story wise, there's not much to it. An unknown outbreak swept through the nation. Our ML and FL were residents of neighboring complex, both were just trying to survive the zombie outbreak.

And that's all there is. No explanation on how, why or what caused the outbreak. After their action/fight sequence w/ the zombies, they were lucky enough to be saved.

I felt like the story was too short. It didn't gave me a heart pumping sensation. Unlike other zombie flicks. Anyway, it's still entertaining enough to watch. Would I rewatch this? Maybe not intentionally..

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Action, comedy, mystery, romance rolled in one

Watched this back in 2020 lock down. Exit is the kind of movie that can be enjoyed by the masses as it has a bit of everything. It also has the thrills without getting too dark despite being a disaster survival movie.

The story builds up slowly by introducing the male lead and his family being frustrated and disappointed with him. Story moves to a site of a family function where the disaster happens and a mysterious gas leak occurs. The female lead and ML's love interest happens to be a staff working there. The situation shows the ways in which people react and try to survive in order to escape the deadly situation. Mostly panic as one can expect. And then there are some that go to extrordinary lengths to survive using knowledge and skill. This is what builds excitement.

Since the leads are rock climbers and are trying to escape, a lot of the action involves climbing, running, and jumping. This might be different from what people who enjoy action movies usually love (eg. Fight scenes, car chases, etc). There are some funny dialogues, happy moments as well as plenty of nail-biting scenes. If you prefer proper romance plots then you might be disappointed but you will get to see the chemistry between the leads given the situation.

I would definitely recommend people give it a watch!

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A wlw Chinese short film that will make you want more.

When will we finally get longer wlw historical Chinese fiction? I love those short films, but I dream of more. But we have to do with what we have and what we have right here is a very short, 4 min, short film with some known faces like Shengwei who you must have seen if you've ever fallen into the rabbit hole of wlw historical Chinese short films.

I am weak for good red and white colour coordinated outfits and this short film gives us that along with a taste of a larger story and a developing relationship between a stern general who wants to appear unaffected by this amnesiac young woman who stirs feelings inside of her and said amnesiac young woman (we do love a good trope in this house). There is so much potential, so much story that could be developed if only we had more than 4 minutes. There is even a cliffhanger at the end (which I hope will get resolved in a later short film or even better a longer show so we can get some backstory).

The costumes, as per usual in those short films, are visually appealing. The contrast in colours between the different characters works well and does a lot of the heavy lifting to help deepen the undeveloped story. I also wish they did not have to resort to contrived plot points to show some intimacy between the women, but such is the lot of queer mainland Chinese productions.

A solid watch if you're looking for your next historical Chinese short film of the wlw variety, it will make you yearn for more.

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A solid and cute short film about two best friends and a first kiss

I have been making my way through wlw short films for the past few evenings because I need more wlw content in my life and we still have to make do with very little. Often the quality is not there and the writing especially is lacking. Luckily for me, Korea and in this case 234 deliver.
The story is very simple, two teenagers, two best friends, two girls are chatting one afternoon and they are both stressed about their first kiss and one decides to take matter into her own hand to have some practice before her first kiss with none other than her best friend. And then, you know, feelings. The story is simple, but the film is short. A short film, especially one that short never works better than when it has a simple idea and doesn't try to do more than exploring that idea.

This film succeeds at that. It manages to be realistic about two teenage girls' experiences, about a baby gay panicking, and also to be very funny at times (one decides to play "the guy" who hits on the other girl and wants to kiss her). The actresses manage to do a good job (especially the scene mentioned in the previous bracket, I was smiling very hard).

The location is simple, a bedroom, but the production, as is expected of Korean productions, even the smallest ones, is pretty good. All in all, a solid short film if you're looking for your next wlw watch.

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After watching this movie I was left with one thought and that was "What the f*ck have I just watched?". I started this because Viki put this in the GL genre but let me tell you that there is NO girls' love in there.

But first things first – this is a five stories omnibus series about a woman who runs a motel and has a podcast where she shares some of the guests' stories there. But she shared just one of the stories there, I think? And the others she was just telling her coworker or a friend? It was messy. The only connection to all the stories was that all of them were sex related.

The first one was about a young couple that went to the motel to have sex for the first time together. It had some comedic moments and was cute and funny overall.

The second featured a man, who was on a business trip there and stayed in the motel overnight and he decided to get an erotic massage for himself but his girlfriend suddenly arrived there as well. That was weird but not that bad.

The third was the first, the "GL" one about two friends who both had troubles with their ex-boyfriends so they just went to the motel and brought the cheapest-looking sex toys with them and then kissed each other. Time skip to week later and one of them told the other that she is now in a happy relationship because her boyfriend has a big d*ck. Like what the actual f*ck! 😩

I can't remember much about the fourth one, it was a bunch of friends getting drunk and a guy having a crush on a girl. They ended together at the end I think but it was nothing memorable as you can see. 😂

The fifth one was about two people in their thirties, who both never had sex before and met on a blind date and then went to the motel to experience it for the first time. But the motel owner and her male coworker got trapped there and accidentally watched them. Then they went to have sex together too I think after the previous couple left.

Now that I write about it, it seems like such a dirty movie lmao although I think that the rating was 15+. But the story (or a lack of an actual story) was crap. So boring and just weird overall. I don't think that all movies must have some deep message but this didn't have ANY message at all. Seriously I don't understand what was the point of the movie.

My final rating is 5/10, just because some of the stories weren't as bad as other ones.

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Too short but sweet

This short film is such a sweet dose of cotton candy fluff...

As we see Mr introverted reporter learn how to dance from mr extrovert and bubbly dancer... And oh how much fun they have in less than 20 minutes we get to see this beautiful connection, gorgeous moments and a whole lot of awkwardness without secondhand embarrassment as these two leads interact in the sweetest possible way...

The leads are just the sweetest ever, but Mr Introverted reporter has 1 questionable friend and one friend who is as sweet as Mr. Dancer lead so most of the characters are lovable and mr annoying has like 30 seconds of screen time and is probably just there to show prejudice against male dancers... These 19 minutes offer more drama than one would think would fit in a short period of time considering most of the time is taken by sweetness but it is most definitely present making this both interesting and sweet...

I would defiantly recommend this to all who are in need of pic me up dose of sugar and fluff. And would love to see more of these two...

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Weak story plot and plenty of anachronisms

This is the case of an obviously expensive production with great cinematography, that fails due to its weak and inconsistent and not particularly original and engaging story plot and the inability of the director to recreate the era that this story is supposed to take place.
The casting was good but the scenes look like they were patched randomly together making the film look like it is made by two different story lines that come together out of the blue. The film also suffers from uncountable anachronisms that make the movie look like Mission Impossible going into Dr. Who!

Spoilers below:

The ML goes as an agent in Shanghai to support the local resistance movement against Japanese occupation .
The FL though is just a student who ends up cooperating with the ML agent out of the blue. How these two ended up together to play the married couple is not explained. It just happens in the middle of the film. And then the film turns into something else.

Now as I said previously the film suffers from uncountable anachronisms. Early on in the film we see the ML character changing his appearance with the use of latex make up prosthetics that didn't exist not even as an idea back in the late 30s in Chinese Shanghai. They appeared first as experimental and very expensive make up options in Hollywood in 1939 because Hollywood productions had the means, the people and the budget to have such kind of prosthetics. Where the heck did the ML character find liquid latex in Shanghai? And who applied this thing in his face by the time that this thing needs to be custom made??

Another anachronism is the selfi photo that one of the agents takes at some point in the film with a manual 35mm film camera. This is impossible simply because the camera lenses of that era didn't have auto focus options. You couldn't photograph yourself by simply turning the camera towards your face! And the 35mm films were not rolled into plastic cases fgs!

The karateka pro Japanese lady is like she escaped from an 1980's James Bond film. Her appearance, her hair, her behaviour all about everything on her are out of the concept of that era. Same applies to the agents/spies guys that follow her who wore black coats that closed with zippers in the front. These kind of minimal coats first appeared in fashion in TV shows like the 1960s Avengers, Barbarella and such things. These are very 1960's fashion elements unheard back in the 1930s.

The huge aquarium with the large glass panels, the white super modern Yamaha grant piano, ( Yamaha didn't produce white pianos back then and it didn't use the logo that is using now ) generally whatever is shown in the ball room scene is product of the imagination of the director but didn't exist back then. Either because they didn't have the technology to have it or because it wasn't in fashion.

Generally speaking anachronisms might work and enhance the visuals of fantasy films, but they can destroy historical fiction films. If the director wanted so desperately to include them, ( I want to believe that it was intentional and it wasn't a product of his ignorance) he should't have had specify in the first place, the era that this story is taking place.

Anyway...

5 out of 10 from me. MDL suggested an overall rating of 4 but I 'm giving to this film another point just for the sake of the cinematography and the expensive production.

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When women come to fight for women

Women are clumsy, bad drivers, physically weak, and many other things the world says. But it isn’t correct because NOT ALL WOMEN are these because there are women who had proven it wrong.

STORY -
This movie is led by a married and unmarried cop summing up as MISS & MRS COP. The scripting is done really well and fast-paced with a pinch of light humor. It is based on one case where women are drugged and filmed during rape. When a victim comes for a complaint and commits suicide, The two cops take it upon themselves to find out what happened. As the chase for baddies begins it gets beyond my expectations. The patriarchal society where male cops are celebrating their success doesn’t give any support to the female cops, forget the support they are fired. But as they are running out of time they still go after baddies without caring for themselves and fight them eventually catching them after a rigorous chase and fight.

the movie focuses on women but didn't put them like a MEN FIGHTING 5O which is so unrealistic. it is kept simple with a few shitty young men. And an innocent husband who tries to help despite being weak. it has a contrast of strong men who can't fight and physically weak women who can.

ACTING -
Ra Mi Ran (Park Mi Yeong) and Lee Sung Kyung (Jo Ji Hye) chasing and fighting the gang are WOW. Though they get exhausted and hurt they continue to take down the leader. LSK has a lean body and she really really suits the character who seems weak but has a lot of passion towards justice. RMR playing a middle-aged who has put on some weight after marriage suits well. Hawaiian shirts looked sassy on both.
Wi Ha Joon has wicked charm as the villain perfect fit with that blazing eyes and curvy smile.

APPRECIATION -
The action sequence is shot exceptionally well. I just loved them. The ladies are not the strongest but have a warmth of women who feel the pain emotionally and fight for justice. All the women, the hacker, the head Officer were just awesome.

My favorite scene from the is the LSK walking in the club and having eye contact with WHJ. I couldn’t get enough of this scene. The silent, slow and upbeat music, that club lighting was awesome. That setting, LSK walking, and guys watching are the appreciation of aesthetics.

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Typical High School Rom-Com

LIKES: The FXs (especially the one where FL head pops open and confetti sprays out) were really well done and funny. [I wish it was kept up the whole movie]. Kento did well in this role and the FL was okay too. She was a bit crazy, but not annoyingly so. I enjoyed the music too. The story is cliche if not typical, but it's a formula that works for an easy watch. Beautiful sky shots and scenery too, as well as locations picked.

DISLIKES: Production issues: Zooming in they didn't use a film stabilizer, so it was unnecessarily shaky. No real character growth in any of them, including supporting cast, except maybe the 2ML. I wish his story had been better developed. This movie would've been better as a short drama or series. They tried to tackle deep issues like depression, but it fell flat.

Overall an easy watch, best not to have any expectations for a real engaging drama. Solid 5/10.

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