Reviews

This is the movie that made me fall in love with Shu Qi. I have seen this movie multiples times and have loved it ever sense my first time.

The first action sequence is superb. Shu Qi hanging from a ceiling while killing the bad guys was awesome the first time I saw it and now. Really great fight choreography and action scenes. Loved the car chase thru the city and the shoot out in the car garage. It's a really good story too. The CGI doesnt hold up but eveything else is still great!

I loved this bad ass female cast too. Karen Mok and Zhao Wei round it out very nicely. I always recommend this movie to people who love actions movies and who have never seen Shu Qi.

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"If you keep on believing, the dream that you dream will come true." -Cinderella

Two of my favorite Chinese actresses, Zhou Dong Yu and Zanilia Zhao starred in The Palace. More Cinderella fairytale than actual historical tale but entertaining nonetheless.

Chen Xiang and Liu Li came to the palace as 13 year-old girls to serve as maids and became fast friends. Chen Xiang lost her earring in an abandoned garden on her first day, think Chekov's gun or Cinderella's slipper. Quickly fast forwarded 7 years, the two turned into Dong Yu and Zanilia, now twenty-year-olds still prone to giggling and screaming. Each had their dreams of winding up with a handsome prince no matter how remote the possibility. But in fairytales even remote possibilities can become reality. Chen Xiang met the 13th Prince once again in the abandoned garden only this time she wore a scarf over her face as they had a chaste memorable time. Liu Li, uh, banged into the nefarious 9th Prince. Before you could say mistaken identity the 13th Prince and Liu Li were to be married. Chen Xiang found herself becoming her friend's servant while Liu Li turned into a wicked stepsister to keep their secret.

Chen Xiang was the childlike, virginal, self-sacrificing heroine complete with a repertoire of giggles and screams. Liu Li with her lusty desires for sex and power went from fast friend to Fast Times at Ridgemont High turning evil at the drop of her clothes. There was never much of a reason for Chen Xiang to keep her secret other than to be the traditional martyr and long suffering heroine. I wasn't crazy about the portrayal of the young women. In this fairytale all women were considered pretty much alike and were designed to please men in order to have any security, which given the times probably wasn't too far off the mark. There was no shortage of examples of what happened to maids or concubines who failed to please. The fact that the 13th Prince couldn't tell them apart reinforced their interchangeable nature.

The costumes and sets were luxurious, with mood fitting lighting and exquisite cinematography. Every shot was beautifully framed. No pumpkin coach or mice, but there was a stunning CGI dragon and lots of luminescent butterflies. The actors were cornered into stereotypical roles but still managed to bring their characters to life.

Once the movie got past the giggling, so much giggling, it became more enjoyable for me, even when it dipped into melodrama and political intrigue. Being a fairytale all that mattered was the romance and Chen Xiang winning the Prince's heart through her kind and selfless acts. But it was a Chinese fairytale so that meant being able to avoid being beheaded, beaten to death or exiled in the process.


9/5/22

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I thought the story was very interesting. A King grooming young men to serve him while he falls in love with one of those young men which ultimately leads to his downfall and both of their deaths.

This is the first thing I've watched with the main cast and Joo Jin Mo was fantastic as the King. He offereed his favorite general and lover to his Queen so that she would produce an heir and this sets in motion the tragic Shakespearean aftermath that follows.

Hong Lim, the King's favorite beds the Queen at the King's request. He does so reluctantly at first but then he starts to have feeling for the Queen, be its lust or love (bad idea). The Queen being touched by a man for the first time experiences that euphoria you get from sex and intimacy which she wasn't getting from her husband falls for Hong Lim. Everyone behaves poorly and the King's jealously is his ultimate undoing.

Overall, a good movie. I gave 7/10. It was almost an 8 but while I thought the first 80 minutes were well done, the last half of the movie was a bit too sloppy.

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Not only is The Roundup a superior sequel to The Outlaws, it may be the strongest Ma Deong-seok movie yet!

PROS
+ High-energy plot pacing with many satisfying action and pursuit scenes
+ The added "globetrotting" gives the film a refreshing adventurous element
+ A sense of urgency is present adds a nice amount of tension to the thrilling plot
+ The casting and acting are top-tier (especially from the villain character)
+ MDS is as cool as ever and he has some kinetic and memorable fights
+ Even the sound direction adds to the action with each punch resonating a powerful "whoop" that shakes the room

CONS
- There is A LOT of blood and guts for an action movie with so few guns (maybe the future sequel could add more guns)
- Do not expect to be moved emotionally or anything, this is simply a highly concentrated action thriller with no drama

How many times do you get to see a movie that seems like it was made just for you? The Roundup is an excellent action/thriller that is easily recommendable to anyone that enjoys the genre.

Make sure you watch The Outlaws before The Roundup. While it is nowhere as action-packed or exciting, it does a better job establishing the characters present in this movie.

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I've come across some pretty horrible Korean movies and was trying to stay away from such but I saw a preview on top bad a** action scenes from Korean movies and seen a few snippets of this movie and it peaked my interest. I love love love action movies that involve some sort of fighting so yeah, I had to watch this.

I was a bit skittish about it but in the end I overly enjoyed the main two characters. Their chemistry was truly awesome. I think it was because there was no sappy romance in this anywhere. That usually kills the vibe for me.

There are a few take-aways from this such as how the main ML came to become a private investigator. I don't even know why they had this subject in the movie because he didn't really do any type of PI work. He just so happened to mysteriously know who to go to when he was working with who he thought was another private investigator. There was also a snippet of his life. One minute he's a PI but then we learn he had top notch skills in the military?? I wanted to see more of that.

The main female had no back story either. All we knew was that she was a sacrificial newbie for undercover work for the NSI.

There's one character who always seems useless to me whenever I see him in a drama: Kim Tae Hoon. How does this guy get cast in anything?? It's like his roles are just filler roles. It makes me think that when he auditions for something they will just put something in it for him to just fill that empty space they need to fill.

As I said, I usually try to say away from Korean movies because of how they're done but this is the second movie that I could re-watch.

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Not bad!

The main reason why i watched this movie was Kim Sung Kyu. I'm a really big fan of him and i was mainly curious about him. This movie was a little dissapointing for me i liked the first one more, but it wasn't bad!

Positive/liked:
-Byun Yo Han's performance...oh my gosh!! He was amazing and he definitely deserves an award for playing Wakizaka this good. This role made me love him more <3
-Kim Sung Kyu was good as i expected, such a talented man i love him.
-The cinematography was amazing
-The battle scenes were really good!!
-I'd like to mention the outfits as well, Kim Hyang Gi's hair...wow!

Negative/Disliked:
-Not giving enough screentime to Ok Taec Yeon and Kim Hyang Gi
-Park Hae Il's performance as Yi Sun Shin was really weak in my opinion
-Little bit mess script/story.

Overall a good historical movie, if you would like to get to know the famous korean admiral Yi Sun Shin's story, start with this movie then watch the Roaring Currents.

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Excellent Movie

As someone who never read the book (honestly, I didn't even know there was a book to begin with), I really enjoyed this movie!

One night, I was looking for a movie to watch while I did my routine nightly walk on the treadmill and stumbled across this movie on iQiyi. I will start off by saying I had zero expectations and boy, did this movie exceed my expectations!

I felt the most important thing to mention is that there was a background story, and an ending that will tie up all the loose strings nicely. All of your questions will be answered (well, most of them anyway) and you will walk away extremely satisfied with the ending, which is something I can't say about a lot of movies lol.

I've never seen the main actor or actress before but I thought they were both extremely well-casted and were excellent in their roles. The main actor reminds me of Ron Ng (an actor from HK). The lead roles both had amazing control of their facial expressions and I could tell what emotions they were feeling in the scene just by looking at their face. The action/fight scenes were all really well-done too. I'll be on the lookout for more dramas and movies from these two, that's for sure!

Overall, I would highly, highly recommend this movie!! It won't disappoint and the story will keep you at the edge of your seat.

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"If you don't change it yourself, one day it'll change you"

The only things special about Special ID were Donnie Yen and the bone crunching fights. The story retread most of the gangster clichés and struggled to be consistent.

Donnie Yen played Chen Zi Long, a deep undercover police officer. He's ready to go back to active duty but as always he's required to do one more job. He's trying to bring down Boss Xiong (Ngai Sing) but along comes his old buddy Sunny (Andy On) who has acquired his own gang and gone bonkers evil. Then much to his chagrin he's partnered with a mainland cop, Fang Jing (Jing Tian). Throw in a super tight relationship with his mom that takes up a lot of air time and Chen is afraid that he is close to having his cover blown which would put his mama in danger.

Special ID started out as a gritty gangland drama but then seemed to lose focus. The relationship between Chen and Fang seemed especially confusing as it went back and forth trying to decide if it was going to be a buddy cop adventure or a romance or antagonistic work friends. Without explanation, a lot of time was invested in Chen's relationship with his mother. The movie had a real identity crisis that never quite resolved itself. Thankfully, plot is not the priority in a movie like this. Donnie went all out for his fight choreography. His fight with Ken Lo was brutal and showed that Ken still has it, watch for him to go into the splits! As often happens, one fight multiplied and the next thing you know Donnie was fighting a knife wielding gang. His final fight with Andy mixed in some MMA grappling along with his martial arts, mostly it was a vicious no holds barred fight to the death. Bruce Law's car chase choreography was brilliant. While Fang Jing seemed out of place at times, the car chase with her and Sunny wrestling inside and outside a Land Rover at full speed was death defying and amazingly shot.

Donnie did an excellent job as the battle weary undercover cop, even when his character was passively dragged from one place to the next. Andy's Sunny wasn't very well drawn but he made for a serviceable Baddie. Jing Tian seemed far too slight to be the badass she was supposed to play, but made the most of the female sidekick role with all it's cringey dialogue. It was good to see old timer Ken Lo showing off some of his Muy Thai and Taekwondo moves early in the movie.

As I stated, there wasn't anything creative or consistent about the story but that's not usually the draw to a Donnie Yen movie anyway. The fights were deliciously creative and consistently good showing that Donnie is a master at what he does best. I just wish the story had been stronger so that I could have rated this higher.



9/4/22

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train to busan but on a plane?

Emergency Declaration is part political thriller and part disaster film, both of which are done good enough. Essentially it took it's time before moving into our main plot, which is good because it became easier seeing the different circumstances of our leads.

People in my local theater are either the most emotionless people in the world or weren't actually watching, I was jumping out my sit on the suspense scenes and crying on the sad ones.

It's a show of the human nature, how we react to situations that are life or death, and where true humanity stands out, that there are people out there willing to sacrifice themselves in the face of death. also how we should appreciate our loved ones, one moment they might be there but can be gone in an instant, we should make every moment count.

there's a whole bunch of political nonsense throughout that cuts off the suspense at times, especially prominent in the latter half of the film. it was good when we we're looking for where to land, desires of each country fighting but too much off it had me almost asleep.

this film when does good it's extremely good, but also when it does bad it's extremely bad.

This was an extremely stacked cast lineup with veterans Song Kang Ho and Lee Byung Hun to top stars Kim Nam Gil and Park Hae Joon, however nobody delivered a better performance than Im SIwan, more on this later.

(MINOR SPOILERS)
The film was a mirror of the COVID19 pandemic we are experiencing took to another, extreme level. it reflects how in the early stages, people that tested positive are divided and shunned by the mass, even blaming an entire race or continent for it, these moral ambiguities we're heavily present here.

Killing off our main antagonist less than half way into the film was gutsy but In a way made sense, but that extra angst knowing he'd still be alive along with the commotion in the latter half would have made this a much more suspenseful ride. despite the limited screen time and getting killed off, Im Siwan in his villain role was crazy good and terrifying, add that to his lovely features, it made the character soooo creepy.

Ending for me felt force and gave twists just for the sake for it, my tears during the farewell scenes felt like I was robbed off it and that cliche ending was the culprit.

(END OF SPOILER)


unfortunate how this ended so weak, could have easily been the best 2022 korean film. to answer my headline, though it has quite the similarities, I personally think the thrill and suspense of the 2 films are from different sources.

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Bittersweet love story beautifully told in a movie

The ML was in his forte not only playing a footloose and carefree teenager falling in love but a desirable and seductive male gisaeng. Watching him dance to entertain his clients made me wish I was there in person!

Costumes, props and sets were realistic and transported you back in time to Joseon. Scenery was gorgeous as well and it was a visual feast for the eyes. Story was pretty simple so you could focus on the romance and had its trademark Korean touch of a bittersweet ending with a little twist.

A good watch when you don’t have the time to invest in a multi-episode drama and want a little romance fix with a tinge of sadness. Pom Rak Khun is my takeaway from this movie.

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