Reviews

Great premise that failed to deliver

The kinds of stories that piss me off the most are the ones that had the potential for me to love the most. Great premise, not one but three female leads and great cast especially the veterans, Willy and David. Fun fact: Did you know they’ve both played BL characters before? Figure the GL/BL crowd will flock to here eventually, and y’all might be interested lol. Unfortunately, the execution fell flat. I’m not sure if it’s the directors, writers or the combination of the two just not being able to play on the level as Squid Game and Hunger Games which this story has elements of both.

I am giving this a 7, because it did interest me enough to finish it.

Strengths

Cast. As mentioned, they have an all-star cast who all did a really great job.

The Main Villain. There is one big baddie who is a mystery to the end. The reveal didn’t really surprise me. It made sense that it is this person, and I think most viewers would approve of it being them. Like the person didn’t totally come out of left field and not make sense for it to be that person.

Ending. The ending was satisfying to me. Some viewers may not like it. But given the story, I think it was the most appropriate ending for it to have.

Weaknesses

Camera work. My god it's terrible during the action scenes. Y'all complaining about the camera work in some of the KPop shows. Well, y'all haven't seen this level of bad. I couldn't see who was stabbing who.

Flow and editing. Before the games started, the flow of the story was all over the place for me. It felt like someone took clips from the actual story and slapped them together. I feel like a lot of things were missing in between scenes. We kinda know the girls are fighting to end corruption through 2-3m dialogues. There’s a scene of them fighting a lot of bad guys and it somehow ending. I mean how did they get there. Why are they there? When does the fight even end? It just goes on to the next scene.

Characters – Gonna go by the order they’re listed in the cast.

Fear. This girl is so dumb. You know how some male characters are portrayed to only think with their D. Well, this girl only thinks with her V. I’ll give her one thing though. Never in my life have I seen a female character only think with her V. Homegirl gets f*cked once by Irene and is totally whipped. Irene ignores her afterwards, but she remains smitten. Bear in mind that she’s only ever met Irene ONCE before while she sneers at the actual person who has genuine feelings for her and saved her life. I don’t want to ruin the story for those who haven’t seen this yet, but there is more dumb to her than I’ve already talked about.

Irene. Actually, she is the best character out of the three but unfortunately, they cheapened her like that other GL lead by making her have sex with anyone who wants to f*ck her regardless of gender. They don’t do this with their male leads (OldBoy) but why must every Asian male creator who has a female lead in this type of storyline gotta cheapen them by making them have sex with everyone? It’s like they will choose a female lead only for that purpose. Other than that, she’s the most complex character out of the three with a brain, and I actually like her. Smart and complex characters, whether they’re the heroes or villains, are my weakness.

Run. This girl is also dumb but not on the same level of dumb as Fear. I tend to like badass characters like Irene (sans the sex with everyone thing), but I think most GL viewers will like Run because she’s also “nice” and “sweet”. But for me, this girl risked her BEST FRIEND’S life to save the girl who she only met TWICE and didn’t care if she died. Had Fear’s friend not helped her, her friend would have been strangled to death by some kinda metal torture device and eventually decapitated. Later on, it kinda made sense why she did it but also not make sense. Because not hesitating to risk your BEST FRIEND being DECAPITATED over your guilt for some dumb girl just doesn’t sit well with me.

So there you go. 2 out of the 3 girls are dumb as a rock. But damn, their backstories were so good, and I wish they would have made the 2 girls more likeable and rational.

I think this would have been better as a Netflix series. Unless you have an exceptional director and writers on the project, it's hard to condense these kinds of storylines into 2 hours.

The premise and cast were both really good, but the execution just failed to deliver.

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If you lose your mother, don't watch the movie because your heart will bleed a lot 《ಥ_ಥ》

First, it is among the most emotionally resonant films I have ever seen.. Every kid should watch this movie,and learn to respect. We can all relate because of the current "Me,me,me" generation. Overall there is nice lighting throughout which relate to the mood, and setting is nice. Actors did great and I can't find anything to change in this movie. Plot is about stereotypical spoiledish kid that gets embarrassed about her mother, but in the end she put those moments aside and realizes that her mother has cared for her and loved her unconditionally, so she shouldn't be embarrassed but proud. Although this movie is a melodrama it has some happy and funny parts as well. I'm sure no matter where you are from you will definitely enjoy this movie.

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Basically the movie conveyed the social issue and the lesson that for love you don't really have to change yourself and you never realise what you actually have in life. We never appreciate people who are around us when we keep looking at others and those who we think highly about.

I love the bond between Xiao Xi and Han Bing. Wish they showed us more of their scenes and chemistry rather than totally focussing on (Huang Ke). He have more scenes than the actual Male Lead.

Other than that it is a cute story which has fictional parts attached. Best for a one or two time watch. Go for it if you want to see something light-hearted.

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An unexpected hero

I had fun watching this.

Story
After all the torture they put him through I thought he would gladly take revenge but he didn't. He is one of those characters who have morals and conscience.
The story is not developed enough and the characters don't have personalities.
It's fun to watch as something where you turn off your brain.

Things I liked
- The music.
- Creativity in fight scenes. They can't die so it's interesting to watch them fight. There are no limits, they shot themselves and start again.
- The concept of Ajin.
- Cinematography, it's pretty.
- The ending. It's awesome.

That's it. It's a pretty movie without much story and depth.

Things that could have been better
- The characters are one dimensional. They have no personality or character development.
- Nagai starts as a confused and weak guy but by the end of the movie he can fight and he is a great strategist. When did that happen?
We see him train but it's short and not enough to convince us that he can take on Satou who has way more experience than him.
- The sister subplot just takes time and makes no sense. She didn't serve any purpose in the story.
- Why is the bodyguard on human side protecting the bad guy?
- That one scene where the guy dies and Nagai is super sad. Why? Just why? I don't care about that guy, why are you trying to make it emotional? Why should Nagai care about him when he was one of the guys who tortured him. Just kill him and move on, don't try to make it emotional.
- Satou's plan. Why couldn't he just take revenge on people who hurt him? At the end he didn't do anything and that made me sad. I wanted the glasses guy to suffer.

Overall, a cool movie. I think it's worth watching.
It would be nice if there is a sequel because there is so much potential in the story.

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I had fun, but I'm biased.

Disclaimer: I'm not a huge fan of historical settings or adventure films and I watched this solely for the cast. I was excited for Sehun's film debut and I really like Soobin, Hyo Joo, Ha Neul, and Kwang Soo and enjoyed their previous performances.

It was a fun watch! I had some actual laugh out loud moments. A bit random with plot progression, but I liked it. The action choreography was pretty good. The acting was on point. The CGI was also a B+, it wasn't the best but it's not bad.

Sehun's character doesn't speak much but he's doing his job quietly and serving visuals. We stan. Soobin's character fell in love at first sight when she was brought on board. We relate. They end up together and their little moments are adorable ( wish we had more).

Han Hyo Joo and Kang Ha Neul had great banter and chemistry in the start when they are battling for ultimate control as a pirate captain and bandit leader. The pirate captain FL wins and our bandit leader ML has been whipped since the start so he accepts and goes along with the arrangement. They have their fair share of bonding and at the end, Hyo Joo seals it with a kiss.

Kang Ha Neul had a brief backstory that wasn't explored but he knew the villain Kwon Sang Woo beforehand and that whole arc needed more explanation and time.

Since the start, the movie was eventful, we just dived into the conflict with some text onscreen to prompt us. Not the best for an international audience who might not know the historical eras.

The leads' backstory and more screentime for Sehun and Soobin would've been great. Since this story is set at the end of Goryeo and the start of Joseon - some people/places only mentioned via text on screen could do better with narration.

Giving it a biased 9. (I guess objectively for me it would be an 8). If the story had been a little fleshed out, it would've objectively been a 9 but currently, it kinda feels like a chronology of events rather than a full story since so much happened in 2 hours and there were so many characters whose arcs weren't fully explored. But as I already mentioned, the cast and their performances propelled it towards a 9 because I’m biased.

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Been waiting for this one

As a person who has been anticipating this movie since it has been announced, I watched every bit of it with interest. Han Hyo Joo never disappoints me as she continues to drown herself in every character she gets with such ease, along with Kang Ha Neul.
Quite different from the 1st Pirates movie, this one had lots of comedic scenes that made me sit and giggle in my room all alone. Calling that a mentally unstable person lol.
Don't take the movie seriously, I'm sure the path it had was just simple and to be comedic instead of full of plot and lots of action.
So take it with ease and just enjoy the cast, the comedy, the laugher and fun scenes. They all did a great job.

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❤ 雪の華 ❤

This movie is one of my FAVOURITES!!!

Snow flower is a story about a girl Miyuki hirai who is physically weak from when she was a child, her parents had been to Finland to see the popular [Aurora] so she is dreaming to go too but with her prince. One day while she is walking someone robs her, and the guy that saves her is Yusuke watabiki who is one of the most Handsome guys ever seen in town. She immedietly falls in love with him, and starts following him to see where he goes, He works at this cute vintage cafe where she went but he aparently didn't recognise her. He gets in trouble at work and is in need to get money asap, Miyuki san hears his story and immedietly gives him the money in exchange to date her for a month...

After a month though he actually falls in love with her and goes with her to see the Aurora in Finland ❤ ❤ ❤
This is such a cute, romantic movie ❤ ❤ ❤

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Dun even bother considering watching this movie

I have watched Mojin series & Mystic Nine movies. I figured i might enjoy this.

One of the better parts of this show is, there is alot of action.... Nope, that's about it.

So it starts off well - Uncle Jiang & his nephew , Jiang Yu, who are well versed in the rituals of tomb raiding, lead a group of villagers in a ritual to help the village out of whatever bad spell it's under. So they go conduct a spiritual thingy on a tomb that houses a female & male kid (hence, Kiddie tomb). They all managed to enter this tomb (ala Mojin series style)... at the same time, a bride, Gu Ling, enters this temple place to get married. suddenly, Jiang Yu & his lead servant, Xiong Kui rush into this temple with a severely injured Uncle Jiang. Gu Ling manages to help stop Uncle Jiang from bleeding to death, but prevents Jiang Yu & Xiong Kui from getting a doctor because she says Jiang Yu & her should get married straightaway. She confesses under duress that they were betrothed since young & she needs the wedding gifts in order to save her younger brother (bonus points for filial piety here). Jiang Yu tells her no time for this, i need to save Uncle Jiang.... they rush out & meets Yu Xiao Man who brings JIang Yu to meet her boss/lover Zhang Da Shuai. This is where the movie starts to crumble. So Zhang Da Shuai forces Jiang Yu & team to bring him & his mini army down to tomb raid. And of course, groups of the mini army boys fall into the booby traps etc etc. Finally, only the core group enter this main tomb chamber after breaking free from the hallucination trap. They open up every coffin in this room & find themselves in the coffin except for Gu Ling. Blah blah blah, they run around like frightened headless chickens, escape from more traps & Jiang Yu pushes a screaming Gu Ling under the closing door (ala The Mummy pyramid scene), thus fulfilling the coffin scene.

The story line is so weak... it's alot of action but... too many scenes left dangling... it's like they had a budget & a set time for the movie but they didnt manage it so well.... how sad

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Good source of fun and laughter

This movie gave me tons of laughter. Almost all of the comedic parts came from Kang Haneul and Lee Kwangsoo and they both delivered well. None of the cast did awfully. Everyone did a great job regardless of how big and small their parts. Even Sehun who barely had lines and just stood at the corner did well. The fight scenes between Kwon Sangwoo and Kang Haneul is so great. It brought a lot of tension to the movie. Han Hyojoo did well too as the pirate captain . I wish they showed more of the back story between Muchi and Bu Heungsu especially how they became rebels and bandits. But overall, the story was nice and easy to grasp the flow. The special effects are so good too. This is a good movie to watch even kids would definitely enjoy it.

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Very fun movie to watch

If you are looking for something to watch that will give you a good laugh, this is the movie you are looking for. A fun movie to watch with the whole family.

This one is different from the first Pirates movie since everything is different.

The visual effects are better than the first movie and they made use of cg for the animals instead of using real ones. They've shown a lot of effects this time especially the fire, water, and lightning.

The actors are really great. All did their parts well even those supporting casts with little screen time. Everyone delivered well. Hands down most especially to Kang Haneul and Kwon Sangwoo. Their fight scenes are so good it will put you at the edge of your seat. Lee Kwangsoo is indeed really funny. Most of the funny parts came from him.

Highly recommended to watch.

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A fun and delightful pirate comedy flick

I had so much expectations with this because of the trailer which looked pretty well made with the special effects and the star studded lineup of Kang Ha Neul, Han Hyo Joo, Lee Kwang Soo, Se Hun and Chae Soo Bin. I am not a big fan of Pirate flicks but this one was a fun and a delightful watch packed with amazing physical comedy by Kang Ha Neul and fun back and forth dialogue between the characters which made it funny and effective. The special effects is both good and bad, the good part of the special effects is how they made the sea which for me was realistic and somewhat beautiful but let's be real here that some scenes especially in the animals the special effect was bad and jarring maybe I'm just used to high end special effects from western movies that's why when I see a bad CGI effect it bugs me but it didn't really made a big impact for me personally. The story is quite fast paced, which for some might not be their taste but for me it's ok here even though, I really wanted to see the whole world develop, the character backstories and the antagonist be more fleshed out. Making this a series maybe 6 or 8 episode would be a delight but as a movie, it's great as well. Kang Ha Neul is obviously the star of the movie, such a great actor but Han Hyo Joon, Chae Soo Bin and Kwang Soo was also funny and great as well. I wanted to see more of Se Hun, I think he was just used as eye candy in this film which I'm not complaining, his little romance with Chae Soo Bin was cute. This was a fast paced, funny film jump packed with great acting but with inconsistent CGI and a story not really well fleshed out due to fast pacing.

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An awfully ridiculous plot

There was so much of hype for this movie, but in the end it failed to impress me.
It's the classic case of "Great Cast doesn't guarantee you a good movie".

The cast of this movie was quite impressive and to be fair, all managed to do a very good job as far as acting is concerned. But when you stuff all these magnificent actors in one single movie, there's high chance that the script is not gonna do justice with all of them.
Can't blame the efforts of actors, though. Han Hyo-joo was very beautiful as a pirate, and so was Kang Na-heul with his witty lines and erratic behaviour. But the one who impressed me was Lee Kwang Soo. It seems like he simply can't leave behind his image of being a betrayer behind (*pun intended).
There wasn't much to do for Kwon Sang-woo and neither for Kim Sung-oh, which was kind of a bummer as I was really looking forward to their roles, only to be disappointed at last.

Now coming to the story.
It was just awful. Characters popped out of nowhere. There was no backstory for Han Hyo-joo and was very weak in the case of Kang Na-heul. It was just the plot of the previous movie, albeit with a bit of new ingredients. Let's compare it with its prequel:-
A Pirate - check
A disgraced soldier turned bandit - check
One evil general - check
One betrayer - check
And animals rescuing the pirates - check
The story might have been good if not for so much of stuffed characters. Chae Soo-bin's character literally had no importance at all.

At last, I will say some words for the VFX. It was childish graphics. Yes, the VFX certainly improved in the last act, but overall they were very poor and one can clearly see that there are just a lot of green screens.

Overall, I was disappointed with the movie, but the cast made it a bit enjoyable. Watch it for Lee Kwang Soo, Han Hyo-joo and Kang Na-heul. If you are seeking a good story, then don't go in that direction. Better to leave your brains aside while watching this movie, as this is certainly very logicless.

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Out of all the people you know, how many do you truly understand?

It's hard to put the film into words, my review probably will not justify how good the film is, however I'll give it a go.

House of hummingbird refers to our main character Eun Hee, who we follow basically every single second of the film as a hummingbird and her search to find a house she can call home.

How much time do we spend on relationships that doesn't matter, those that doesn't enhance ourselves as a person or at the very least understand the things that are unsaid. Compared that to the time we take care of ourselves or heal wounds that are barely addressed by us.

Director and Scriptwriter Kim Bo Ra is amazing, directing, lines, and shot guides viewers to understand how ridiculous the requests of the adults were, through the lenses of our main character. That's what unique and unconventional about it, focusing on a listener's perspective for most of the time, pretty much looking forward for her next project.

Though the film focuses on teen girl Eun Hee, I thought that the main issue at hand is universal. As a teen boy I can relate to never being heard or finding our places in life, that makes it wonderful.

It was a calm subtle film, though provoking and a social commentary it was never too violent or explicit. Which is honestly good because it is able to reach much younger audiences like myself. nothing extraordinary ever happens in the 140mins runtime however you cannot take your eyes off it.

One thing I love about the film is the use of symbols, things are shown figuratively and literally, with each scene having meaning and not just randomly placed.

Despite the long screentime, it never felt like it dragged on and was paced nicely. Emotions was captured nicely without using force and was tragic and sad solely through it's contents and story.

Scenes might feel unfinished, rushed, and incoherent at times but was purposely done that way to show the psychological state of Eun Hee.

It's about imperfect people including Eun Hee, trying to find their ways in life. This is not to justify such actions but some characters might seem as bad people but underneath is earnest love, just people with flaws and unable to express.

Eun Hee went through all that pain and at the end was still standing strong. How can tell yourself that something's impossible knowing that?

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not my cup of tea

I tried watching this twice before but it doesn’t catch my interest, but for the third time pick it up again to get bored and had to watch this on 2x speed. The story is slow-paced and the eerie is not haunting to give me goosebumps.
Because the story is developed on the son's trick who hides his father's psychopathic nature with the help of his girlfriend. Honestly, there was no haunting feel with that chopped head, maybe because I have seen more dead bodies than that. Keeping the head in the freezer is a simple thing because the dead bodies are kept in formaldehyde.

I felt bad for the doctor, his life turned upside down and he got framed into a crime he hasn’t done. He was not a likable character but the events happening to him were bad. I disliked how the cops treated him because they only believed in the testimonies and evidence. They didn’t do any proper investigation. There had been already deaths before his move but still, he got framed because this involved him personally. Isn't it their duty to find the killer?

The acting was OK, since I didn’t like the movie much, nobody impressed me. Only Doctor Seung Hoon is somewhat good.

As we all know music plays a great role in creating an atmosphere to haunt but it lacked here too. The silence was not natural so that part also didn’t work.

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Wow!!1 hour 55 min of bliss

New story? Nah,same old, friends to Lovers trope. Seasoned actors? Not even close.
Did I enjoyed it? Hell yeah
What is so special that I took time to write a review and convince you to watch it?Execution, they made everything correctly. Charming cast, right amount of runtime, comedy and pain balancing each other. Coming to leads, Caramel played by Belle Mariano will sweep you off your feet into Cara's world which is full of butterflies and unicorns. She loves Ino passionately and has eyes only for him. What if Ino also has feelings for her? Is it enough for her happiness?
Domino played by Donny is convincing. He's a bit complicated with all happenings in his life but nothing cara can't figure out. Sky and Iris complimented well to the story, they are second leads but know their place, to what extent they can pursue their love, when to give up. They are genuine friends helping them get better in life. Infact their presence only push Cara and Ino towards each other.
1st half of film is fluffy light, a steady 8. Story of Cara, bright sunny girl and her crush who also likes her. What is stopping them from dating? 2nd half became bumpy making me anxious but taking risk for good things is worth it. They focussed on healing and self-love. Cara needs to love herself and learn to move on. Ino needs to let go of his past and heal his scars, only then will be our perfect happy ending.
The meanings they gave to colours and their significance is cherry on top. I hope you enjoy this film as much as I do, on that note state of mind also plays role on how much story effects us, so don't be too disappointed if it didn't meet your expectations.

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