Reviews

Long review, just like the movie

I avoided this movie for SO LONG, to be honest, one of the reasons was – the movie is almost 3 hours long. I found it on youtube, uploaded ages ago, so the fact that it will be available at any time was one of the reasons I was not in a hurry. I watched Thai BL movies and series – so many of them, so the expectation from something made in 2007...they were very low. And some more new, and fresher were straight-up rubbish, let us be honest. So I avoided it a bit.
BUT... Once I started, I had that „Dew the movie“ vibe, even though they have absolutely nothing in common... I was shortly hooked and almost 3 hours passed like 45 minutes, and not a minute more. The weirdest thing is that I caught myself praying for a happy ending like a teenage girl that I am (definitely) NOT. And the ending was... well I tried to find the right words, and BITTERSWEET was something that fitted it perfectly.

What I loved:
• Acting, boys were great
• Music was fun. It is not my cup of tea, but it nicely followed the youth, the emotions, and the overall storyline

What I didn’t like:
• Some deep issues were merely touched so I would skip some details from the story if I do not have enough time to tell them with the depth that these details require
• Ending. I love the complexity of a tragedy or unfulfilled love. The whole concept of the one that got away, secret crushes, and all the forbidden loves type of stories are my jam. I like a bit of sadness at the end. But this time was different, either I was becoming super soft and emotional, or … the ending sucked.

I understand the symbolism of the Christmas ornaments etc…I just do not understand if this ending was intentionally made to be easier for the straight and homophobic audience, or what…
I love you, I told my mom I prefer boys, you love me back, I kissed you first…but I cannot be your boyfriend. Well, it might be a teen thing, again, it has been a while since I was in their skin experiencing my first gay crush…I might felt differently back then. I do not know!

CONCLUSION: I liked the movie, I am thinking about it. I think if the movies and the series that came after 2007 analyzed this story close enough there would not be bad series today. I felt like Love of Siam has a stronger story, stronger emotion, and the stronger impact than the tones of BLs that came after. Thankfully, that is changing now.

Overall, I can say that I would be proud that in 2007, in my country I had an opportunity to watch something that resembles Love of Siam. But that was not the case!

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A disappointing, empty, pointless documentary

A documentary is not fiction, but it's still meant to tell a story. Blackpink: The Movie does not. Instead of any cohesive through line it skips unpredictably between backstage clips from their tour or online concert, to concert performances, to art-house style films for each member, to group Q&A, then back to concert clips and so on. There's no emotional rise or fall, no overcome conflicts, not even much of a sense of accomplishment. Even the interviews are low on information content, instead being mostly a mix of emotional self-expression, thanking the fans, and wishing to see them soon.

By contrast Blackpink: Light Up The Sky tells a clear story, of the rise of Blackpink from pre-debut through to their 2019 Coachella performances. Skip this and watch Light Up The Sky instead.

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Light fast-moving action making this very enjoyable movie

This is the second installment from the Demon-Subduing Division series, fitting nicely into the Chinese Fantasy genre. Though it is part of a mini-series setup, it can be watched as a standalone movie, but watching the first movie may help to clarify some of the finer points of the movie.
This is one of those movies you watched for enjoyment value; it is fast-moving combined with CGI, humour, and a good storyline, making it quite enjoyable to sit back with popcorn and your favourite drink. It is helped along with good acting from all the cast, which has pretty good on-screen chemistry.
The CGIs in this movie are okay, I have seen movies with worse CGI, though it is not easy to conjure up monsters and magic barriers from thin air, so it works for me. Thankfully the CGI is not overused in this movie, making it a good supporting role unlike some of the other movies in this genre.
Overall definitely worth a watch, especially if you are a fan of the Chinese Fantasy genre.

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The whole movie? 5 friends playing a game on the roof of a high-rise for 90 minutes straight. That's it. That's the movie. And yet, I wasn't bored, not even for a second. Oh, the twists and turns! And just when I thought I knew what was going on, the story took a sharp left and off it went again!

Gosh, when Yuichi exposed the traitor among them! And then, when he revealed that he lied too and what he lied about! Everyone's shock and horror! Everyone's! Even the hidden game masters' because that they didn't expect! And then, when Tenji joined Yuichi - and gosh, just how he joined him! - and off they went together to the last game and just when I thought that Tenji could not be redeemed, there was yet another twist and it went back to Sawaragi and... and... and...

I'm so smitten with this movie! Yoshizawa Ryo as Yuichi and Yamada Yuki as Tenji are simply incredible here. The scene between just the two of them at the end of the game, mwah! I can so understand why they love acting together, their chemistry simply crackles! And the way they can both turn from innocent into devious from one second to the next, wow!

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Very underwhelming and boring viewing experience.

Lazy writing, meh CGI, plot and tropes you've seen hundred times over, flat characters.... I could've forgiven them all and given this movie a neutral rating if not for one thing that drew me mad.
Exoticism.
Now, if you have seen lots of Chinese costume dramas and movies you'll know 99% time the styling is not even 70% accurate to actual history which is fine, as long as you use your artistic license in a sensible and consistent manner and doesn't pretend to be what you are not.
But here, all the side characters were dressed in a way that resembles the Mongol Khan era fashion but only the female lead was dressed in a dresses that resembled Western model of "princess style" that had little to no similarity with Chinese styling. To appeal to whose palette?
To me it seemed like movie makers thought if they dressed the princess in a way that is more authentic the viewers wouldn't find it compatible with their idea of "pretty", especially viewers who are unfamiliar with C-content/only came to watch because of Dylan Sprouse.

So yeah, I was thoroughly unimpressed. Do not recommend.

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Really a buddy movie

Chae Yeong, the female lead and hero, is strong, talented and damaged. Her father has given her a code to live by. She has a strong sense of right and wrong and doesn’t care if anyone understands her. Her loner she’ll is cracked by Jong Goo as pitiable weakling who wants to be more. Her shell is shattered when Hae Seong sees her as the way to turn his life around.

I read a comment about the story being disjointed with a lot of lose ends. That is a misunderstanding of the focus of the film. All of the lose ends were explanations of the personality and life of each loaf the 3 leads. It was well constructed, well written and a very interesting story. It is an great film about bullying. The fight scenes were realistic and believable. However the most impressive aspect of the film were the emotions. Each lead did an excellent job of conveying their character’s emotions and that is why I would gave this a 10

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Junho in a double role

This is a small and lighthearted indie (?) film. It's an easy and nice watch. I've always preferred this type of smaller films to big productions.

Junho is great in the double role as the world weary disillusioned artist Nero and the boyish naive student. There's criticism, even satire, of the artworld. The characters all face major challenges which makes this work well as a drama but luckily the way the stories are told is not too depressing and the ending is optimistic. The female characters are left rather shallow but since this is not primarily about romance, that's fitting.

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A cold male lead and shy female lead
I've seen tons of dramas/movies with this troupe. So i thought, this can't be as bad as others said. So i just watch it without any expectations.

But things just goes with weird logic in this movie.
I mean what kind of parents would teach their child that 'man that treat her nicely are bad people'??
Also ML were a total jerk, he doesn't tease her, he's practically bullying her. And their so called friends, Keita and Koyomi, wasn't a good help either. They look more like a spectators rather than a friend.
The whole love triangle was too rushed. I thought the 2nd ML would help the FL to overcome her shyness or anything helpful for her. But no, he just become her tutor pick her up from school and had a meaningless beef with ML.

However can't really say that I don't enjoy this movie, i mean i could see my 12yo self would love to be the like FL 🙄
Despite all the weird logic, the cast did good with their characters. There are some bad acting, but you could just skip that. The ending song was good.
I won't recommend it to anyone. But if you're curious and still want to watch, the 2× speed option is gonna be really useful.

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Tongue-in-Cheek Police Comedy/Parody!

This is a movie not to betaken seriously, as the cast themselves make 'references' in the dialogue that this movie is NOT to be taken seriously!

The police woman Yang Yang (Zou Yang) does everything conceivable that a cop would NEVER do; especially with a narcissistic police boss, Mr. Huang (Naisen Hou, not listed on MDL as an actor), and a high school teacher, Wu Xie (Wen Zhou) who is not the innocent high school teacher he seems to be!

The movie follows Yang Yang as she protects Wu Zie and looks for the missing girls, breaking every protocol written into a police manual while doing it!

I like the fast-paced action in the different segments, the shootout which reminded me of Leslie Nielson in the (American) Naked Gun movies, the music, the cinematography which also contributed to the comedy and the support cast, which made both main leads look good in the film.

All you have to do to 'change' a female's age in a movie is to redo her hair, slight makeup adjustment and her clothes; again, this is a tongue-in-cheek movie, as Heirs From Another Star (2014) is.

As the other reviewer wrote, she had seen another movie 'like this on'.....I see about 3-4 former police movies being parodied here, both Asian and America.

This movie was simply meant to bring laughter and a hour and 20 minutes of happiness to its viewers!

Don't take this movie seriously.....and watch it whenever you need a good laugh...

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Mongolian Ping Pong is a charming slice of life film about two families living in the vast, verdant, Mongolian steppe. The great adventure for three little boys begins when one of them finds a ping pong ball floating in a stream. Not knowing what it is, he goes in search of answers. Ultimately, he finds out vaguely that it is a ping pong ball, and that ping pong is the national game, and the small white orb is the national ball. The seven-year-old makes the leap in logic that he has THE national ball and must return it to Beijing. The problem being, neither he nor his friends know where Beijing is.

Much of this film is wrapped up in showing slow, flowing shots of the terrain, an endless sea of green, distantly bordered by mountains. The boys live in a world without electricity and running water. There are no phones, video games, or computers. One father buys a television, but even using his long herding rod as an antenna with cans and cooking strainers attached, can't get a signal. Climbing, exploring, riding their horses, playing with sling shots, and contemplating the mystery and responsibility of their new found treasure fills their days.

The strength of this film is in its hospitality and letting us be guests, sharing for a few brief moments, in a world foreign to most of us. There are no great conflicts outside of the ping pong ball, although it is obvious that a creeping consumerism is beginning to invade the old way of doing things. For the most part, it is best to simply immerse yourself in the warmth and curiosity of these children and enjoy the expansive beauty of a solid green sea.

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The Ending Is So Sad!

I thought this was going to be a movie about a train accident!

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got to watch the movie....

It is not so much as a SCARY movie, but a psychological movie.

However, it keeps you on the edge of your seat and as I have said before, the difference between a good movie and a GREAT movie is keeping you on the edge of your seat and you forgetting that you are actually watching a movie!

Imagine being on your way to your ex-wife's place with your child, and everyone is being turned into zombies?

That is exactly what happens in this movie to Seo Suk Woo (Gong Yoo) and his daughter, Seo Soo Ahn (Kim Soo An) as they travel on a high-speed train toward Busan, which turns out to be the only safe place for all the few people left on their train who have not been infected yet; the director has your attention from the moment the first 'infected' climb on board the ill-fated train and he keeps your attention until the survivors reach the safety of the Busan outskirts.

The movement of the film from one couple to the other is expertly done, with your attention never

Suk Woo is a self-centered man whose relationship with his daughter is more than "strained"; he believes that his work is more important than his daughter, who herself sees him (rightly) as self-centered and egotistical.

What is so ironic about Suk Woo is that he learns to be selfless toward his daughter and others, way too late!

What I like about this film is 1) that it doesn't give the 'infected' or the survivors super-human strength or powers; the survivors take the kind of precautions that a normal person would if they were in the same situation. Also, the 'infected' also do not have any super-human powers, but lack the ability to be able to do may things that a normal person would be able to do (which makes the survivors' job that much easier!

2) characters that developed over the course of the movie (imagine what a series about this could do!); all except one character grew due to the disaster, although a series would have allowed for more development of the characters and a look at the backgrounds of the different main cast members (I personally would like to have seen the background story of Yong Suk (played by Kim Eui Sung) in this setting.

3) the fast pace of the events taking place; no one has time to do much except react to each individual situation that presents itself.

4) we see all three main couples, the high school couple, the couple expecting a baby, and the father /daughter duo, willing to sacrifice for the women in the film ...in different ways.

5) To a lesser extent, toe story of the two elderly sisters (Ye Soo Jung and Park Myung Shin), being a minor story, but as you will see, an important one for the final outcome of the survivors, is itself worth waiting for.

6) The music (which i am learning to pay more attention to as I watch more movies) is minimal; in my opinion, the ringing phones replace much of the music as being most important in this movie.

7) the survivors are almost eliminated at the end; only a grieving song saves their lives as they emerge to safety at the end of the movie.

What I dislikes was 1) the fear and apprehension of some of the survivors as a small group emerges from another car inhabited by the 'infected'; what is ironic, the small group are the only ones to come close to surviving: had they all co-operated, more would have lived to make it to safety. They acted as the villagers in the movie SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), helpless to do anything except the wrong thing!
2) the anti-hero Yong Suk (Kim Eui Sung) who is a well-known actor but I have never seen in any movie before...his greedy obsession with reaching Busan led to the deaths of many of the support and main cast members. I will be watching for him in other movies from now on!
3) some of the other survivors acted selfishly, causing the 'infection' of other survivors. All could have made it had they cooperated along the way!

By the way, I have never seen Gonge Yoo act before, but his best scene in this movie is his last one, without a doubt!

A "SPECIAL MENTION" should go to the captain of the bullet train (Jung Suk Yong), who made it possible for the last survivors to get a chance to escape to Busan, and the director for allowing him that privilege; he remained col and collected while others lost their ability to think clearly!

All in all, passing up this movie would be a grave mistake!

The cinematography was excellent, from the zombies (the mass support cast most of which are not listed individually) to the main cast members appear to portray their characters well; and work together toward making the movie seem realistic and such a blockbuster!

RE-WATCH VALUE: Definitely!

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Green Dragon Inn is reminiscent of old westerns where the powerful landowner/mine owner has a no-good son who is finally apprehended by the law and is thrown in jail to be tried and hung. Minions with torches and six-shooters show up at the jail to bust the boss' son out. In this case the upright official carries a sword and instead of a jail makes it as far as the Green Dragon Inn with the local warlord's murdering son.

The righteous official upholding the law in this movie was played as stiffly and unemotionally as possibly by Yueh Hua, whose stony expression never changed. Fortunately, Lo Lieh swaggered onto the scene as an interested party, with a more compelling performance and kung fu. Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan (yep, that's her whole stage name) popped in from time to time to shake things up with her sword and kung fu. This trusted trio bravely vowed to uphold the law in the face of overwhelming numbers.

With the exception of Polly's and Lo's, the fights felt overly staged at times, but were entertaining enough. The action was fairly non-stop. Oftentimes the story is overlooked, Green Dragon Inn's was simple but engrossing. This movie had a bad case of "run out of film" ending. If you watch a lot of martial arts movies, especially Shaw Brothers, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Green Dragon Inn had two problems that had nothing to do with the story or acting. In the version I watched the film had been ruthlessly cut to fit different screens. Much of the action, fighting and reaction shots were missing if they happened near the edges. This version was also dubbed. I'm pretty sure the same guy voiced all of the men's lines. As bad as dubbing is, in this situation, subbing would have been worse as the words would have been cutoff. I've seen movies where that happened and it was very frustrating. This movie is good enough with a famous enough cast to be remastered and restored to its former glory.

If you enjoy martial arts movies, especially from Taiwan, this is a good one to try. Even with the problems I mentioned, Green Dragon Inn was still a fun way to spend 90 minutes.

*As always, I grade these older niche movies on a curve.

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quick explanation why you should watch

So I will begin by saying that the comments here are very 'this would have been good if-' type of thing. I just finished this movie and won't beat around a bush. The ending was both predictable and you wouldn't see it coming at the same time. All in all it was not completely satisfying to make you lose all the built up suspense that is why many people blame ending for this. I wish it ended different but I am also amazed by how different ending it was compared to other movies. Usually they drop the suspense by ending and decide to ether make it happy or unhappy one, but this movie kept the suspense going until last seconds.

I try not to put out any spoilers out here because I hope this will be the reason why you decide to watch this instead of listening to others and not give it a shot. This lowkey became one of my favorite asians movies AND I AM GLAD I WATCHED IT WITH LIGHTS ON. This is one of creepiest movies I seen, it was well executed and always kept the right atmosphere on.

Did you see movie Grave Encounters? It will have similar moments from there which I honestly love because it takes traits from The Stone Tape theory and more.

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