Reviews

In times of vulnerability

I usually do not write reviews but on Dramacool someone quoted Melissa Vice's comment from Youtube and it is so beautiful and says it all that I had to add it here as well:
"I remember this movie when it first came out in 2012. I had a different outlook on the bittersweet ending that seemed more bitter at the time than sweet. But now, almost a decade later, seeing this with older eyes and a sense of maturity, this was actually the sweetest approach that Sun-Yi could have done for Chul-Soo. And that was that, she was setting him free at long last.
When it comes to the analysis of the movie, as teenagers, they used one another as a crutch for survival. Sun-Yi to cope with her depression and illness. Chul-Soo dependent on the bestial instinct of loyalty. Realistically, there was no way she could have taken care of herself and also Chul-Soo had he left with them. She would never had gotten to do the things she did. She would never have gotten to live fully on account of her declining health, which turned around for the best for her. And ultimately, she was not in love with Chul-Soo as he was with her. Over the course of time, as the years went on, an important lesson that showed Chul-Soo's humanity was his ability to learn on his own. Learning how to write. To read. And even--as shown in the end--to be able to be on his own and stand for himself.
Sun-Yi gave him his freedom to be his own person by releasing him of the promise she made. I feel like he too needed this circle to come to a close, and only then, he could really move on despite having done so long ago. He kept his promise because it was Sun-Yi and he held his loyalty to the only person who showed him care and affection. Him playing by himself in the snow, building the snowman by himself, is a powerful metaphor of his ability to finally be human now that Sun-Yi has removed the collar and leash. But the most important aspect to gain from this, she was telling him to go and live his life to the fullest as she had done. This was not a romance story, but perhaps more of a "coming of age" of two people who helped one another in their time of vulnerability and loneliness, and pushed one another to become better versions of themselves. Chul-Soo especially. He deserves happiness, and the most Sun-Yi could do within her power was to offer him shelter and security until he found it for himself."

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Good, but a little bit confused

Love's Coming is a good movie, very funny and the cast is very likeble (maybe some Gump's friends are annoying ). We root for the discovery of their love and smile when Gump and Nai are getting closer. Tha blackout scene was one of my favorites, the way Nai looks at Gump is so sweet.

But, not everything is working out in this movie. The beginning is very confused. The storyline in the future takes too long until we start to know how Gump and Nai become friends and how their feeling between them blossom. But it's certainly worth it your time to watch, and rewatch when you have nothing else to do.

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Expected So Much, Left Disappointed

Just watched the movie with no prior info about it, just that it’s a really great film (starring Ohm too). The first half of the film was pure magic and the storytelling of Phob and Dew was amazing. Unfortunately, things started going downhill for me the moment the reincarnation concept was introduced! Still held on to the last 15 minutes hoping they would make a twist to everything and end with a life lesson but the ending was even more incredulous.

Acting was superb and cinematography was great too! Just the story that doesn’t sit well with me and also the same reason why I could not get into Until We Meet Again.

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This film might bring you to tears, when you find out what's the actual message.

As a Park Hae Joon fan I must say, this actor sure brings his best to the screens.

I wish this movie wasn't so underrated. I think it deserves far more recognition than it has.

The story is easy to follow, it has an insane amount of realism and to myself it gave plenty of material to overthink about it afterwards. I think plenty is to be learned from this masterpiece as it shows how regret can shape out a person - or how missed opportunities ruin people and why you sometimes must listen to others instead of being stubborn. - It can ruin your life. So a simple mistake.

I also think that this movie brutally shows the truth behind success and also the truth behind schooling system in Asian countries not just South Korea. So - all the violence presented and put onto children in schools (because Asians are kind of obsessed with good grades and almost always put school before children's emotional needs).

I wish many people would watch this film as it has all of it. Cinematic effect, realism and overall a simple to follow and heartbreaking story. Not to mention good acting and casting.

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Okay but not great

So I completely skipped over the part that this was a melodrama and went into this expecting it would be a cute and fluffy romcom. When the movie didn't meet my expectations, the experience was ruined for me. I don't usually enjoy melodramas and I usually skip that genre altogether to be honest. So not even my love for the cast could make up for my disappointment.

As the biggest fans of Shin Min-a and Jo Jung-suk, this has been on my list for ages and something I was most excited to watch. As quickly as I caught on that it wasn't going to be a cute romcom, I found myself struggling to finish it.

Young-min, the husband is depicted as a man who is only interested in having sex with his wife Mi-young in the begining of the film. There's an entire montage of him constantly taking off his pants to do it with her while they are in the honeymoon stage and then as the film moves pass this, he becomes weirdly obsessed with wanting to sleep with every female he sees: his ex friend, his young naive coworker and female strangers etc. He goes through this unbelievable horny phase and almost cheats on his wife. This storyline topped with little things like peeing on the toilet seat don't exactly paint him like a great husband nor make marriage look appealing. Young-min's flaw is that he insecure in his marriage, this is evident when he makes up scenarios in his head, while on a movie date with his wife when they bump into a younger co-worker of hers and he gets jealous, thinking his wife is flirting. We also see further examples of his insecurities about himself in comparison to the wife's co-worker (their height difference, his career, the fact that he and his wife rode a bus to the cinema but the co-worker drives a BMW etc)

Mi-young, the wife is pretty perfect in my opinion and too good for him, let's be honest. She works as an art teacher, cooks for her husband and when given the opportunity to continue to meet up with someone from her past (her first love and ex boyfriend) she doesn't even entertain the thought because she doesn't want to cheat. Unlike her husband, who made out with his ex-friend/ his old crush at the first opportunity that he could (while his wife was sleeping over at her mum's place) and probably would've cheated if his old crush didn't stop it. I guess the only flaw the movie paints Mi-young to have is her nagging her husband about cleaning up after himself or lifting the toilet seat up when he needs to pee, but I didn't see anything wrong with that. Most wives would do the same in this situation and her nagging didn't come across as anything overly annoying.

I guess the point of the movie is to show that these two maybe not so quite suited for each other people somehow make their marriage work in the end. The film ends with the husband unsure if he's found the meaning of love but somehow content with his life with his wife and newborn baby.

Overall, its a movie that you probably watch once but never again. It wasn't my favourite but it wasn't terrible either. It was okay but not great either.

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Perfect Execution, Great Story

When I first saw the trailer for this film, I was quite interested and finally watched it, the beginning of this film might be a little confusing because the audience is faced with 3 different perspectives and are not related to each other but in the same timeline. but mid to the end of this film it becomes clear how the influence of 2 other side characters' perspectives on the MC story. When I first realized that they were in different time frames, I was quite surprised, because this film was packaged so well that the audience could not guess how the plot of this film would go in the future, plus the ending was quite sad for the characters Shikano Nana and Kosaka Rei. Another uniqueness of this film is that the 3 perspectives displayed have their own uniqueness, each pov from Shikano Nana, Hotta Kyapiko, and Miyasada Jimiko. but in the end it turned out that the three pov had a relationship with each other in the plot of the story presented.

Then I like how they shoot the cinematic, this film have very good cinematic quality and using appropriate color grading to match the mood of high school student with the drama that occurs in it. The cast in this film is also very good with unquestionable acting skills and is very in line with the personality of the characters played.

Special mention for this film because it brings up some important issues that are happening all around us but many people turn a blind eye to seeing it. Like a high school student who is depressed and slashes his hands, with no one to care, but instead the environment bullies him. Then the relationship between high school student and adults which in the end they only become adult escapes, and also one sided love(common drama theme).

Verdict, this film has a very unique timeline and makes the audience also wonder whether the pov has anything to do with each other or not, if there is something wrong?. Then this film raises several important issues that become special mentions in my review this time, although these issues are not the main problem in this film, but when this film raises these issues, I think it is quite good to have it. The drawback of this film is the ending, not everyone likes this ending. but in my opinion the ending shown in this film is enough to bring the emotions of the audience in watching this film.

To re-watch this film, I don't think so, because in my opinion a film like this is the type of film that we should watch the first time, when we re-watch it, the feeling given to this film is not as interesting as when we first watched it.

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Funny and Meaningful

I've been stressing with work lately, so I decided to light up my mood by watching Dance with me. And it definitely doesn't disappoint :)

This movie was chosen to feature during the Japanese Film Festival in Vietnam and I can totally see why, it is light-hearted, funny and meaningful (plus great music and dancing). The ending especially made me want to quit my job and just have the freedom to do something I enjoy haha. That's why I relate so much to the main character, who was portrayed really well by Ayaka Miyoshi, who is also good at dancing and singing, whenever she performs, I just wanna get up and join her.

Overall it is a great movie that you should watch when you're feeling blue and want to release the tension!

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Perfect

First his love towards her make me so emotional especially the last time he sacrificed for her when he was on the urge of his death. That moment made me cry . And the way she felt helpless to save him and pray to God while turn the knob of the clock to bring his life back . That part was too emotional.
Story was very good . Very unique way of using time travel and happy to see that she was felt for him all the time irrespective of his age .
His never give up attitude made the story romantic as well as emotional.
It is a movie so it has to be short story but I wish this story also has a drama of some 16 episodes because I wanted to see her parts when God gives her a chance .

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Same storyline

I already watch Korean version and Japanese drama of it so nothing new in this movis bit i like the story so I decided to watch it but it just the same no change in the story .
What I don't like in the story ," in the story " it means all three include . The way she followed him . He didn't look towards her ,never talk with her nicely . In return he disrespect her . So she should stop doing her .you can't force someone to love you . I know story was like this where the girl never give up until he has girlfriend but why her character potrait as silly one . She looked silly all the time . But rest all was good . I watched all three parts . Except one thing I had no problem with the story as well any mentioned version . That one thing I have already mentioned (above)

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Fascinating with lots of room for interpretation

This was an interesting movie because although it had gay/bi themes, it wasn't entirely clear if the characters actually had those orientations. The story is about method acting, which if you don't know, it's a style of acting in which you try to become the character *even when you are not performing.* There's a lot of room for interpretation in this one.

For example, we might wonder if Lee Jae Ha was homophobic, which is why he could not connect as well to his stage-character. Unlike most of his play works, he also doesn't write in his method acting journal, as if he is afraid to connect to his character. So can we interpret this as he is afraid of the gay feelings awakening in him? Is he just homophobic?

Young Woo on the other hand at one point says he's not gay, but he is only attracted to Lee Jae Ha, which we could interpret as him fully immersing himself in his role instead of being bisexual. However, it could also be that he is just demisexual towards men, and Lee Jae Ha happens to be someone he could connect to. So then was his kiss scene with Lee Jae Ha because he was method acting, or because he was actually attracted to Lee Jae Ha?

It's implied that Young Woo was secretly the better and more immersive actor. Another interpretation then is that Lee Jae Ha actually fell for Young Woo, while Young Woo was only method acting. Lee Jae Ha had a harder time making a distinction between the play and real life, while Young Woo seems to have a better understanding of those boundaries. At first we might wonder if Young Woo is the one who can't separate the play from reality once he sneaks into Lee Jae Ha's house in the end. He seems like he is hunting for Hee Won in the same way his character hunts for Claire. But when she's safe at the end, we realize Young Woo was in fact the better method actor, the one who could become his character off stage, while still maintaining the boundary between reality and fiction. He even arrogantly thinks of himself as better than Lee Jae Ha by the end. Lee Jae Ha thought he was mentoring Young Woo, but it was Young Woo who surpassed him.

The writer/director of the play says, "I named the play 'Unchained' because I think human love is individual. They're connected but the link can be broken." And then we get the following scene where both Young Woo and Lee Jae Ha seems to be sentimental about the play, and perhaps their feelings? Lee Jae Ha seems defeated, and he returns to his girlfriend (wife? can't remember), a woman who (from the beach scene) we might think is used to her boyfriend's infidelity through his method acting. And Young Woo's smile as he settles into the car is not that of an arrogant pupil overcoming his teacher. He seems disappointed that its over. Whether he is sad about the play ending, or his relationship with Lee Jae Ha ending, we aren't sure. Maybe both?

But if we think about that director's line again, "human love is individual. They're connect but the link can be broken." We might wonder, if we are supposed to interpret the story as the two had fall in love with each other, but once the play is over, so is their relationship, even if they still have feelings for each other. The play ends in a suicide-murder with Walter seemingly in love with both Claire and Singer. If the stories are meant to parallel each other, then we could interpret Lee Jae Ha was in love with both Hee Won and Young Woo. But, its also made clear that Young Woo has a better separation from fiction and reality, so we can't say for sure if Young Woo also felt the same way.

In my personal interpretation, I think Lee Jae Ha actually fell for Young Woo, and we are supposed to be unsure if Young Woo loved him back.

But what is the truth of the story? Lee Jae Ha was a homophobic actor who had trouble connecting to his character and was straight? Lee Jae Ha was a homophobic actor who had trouble connecting to his character as was bi? Young Woo immersed himself in his character, but never fell for Lee Jae Ha? Young Woo immersed himself in his character and actually had feelings for Lee Jae Ha? Did neither of them fall for each other? Was it one-sided? Did they both become infatuated with the other? When were the two method acting as their stage characters, and when were they being their true selves? So much is left unsaid that we can't really say for sure.

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Cute little melodrama that doesn't end right...

The setting, music, photography were all good for this time period and I enjoyed the feeling of actually being on a campus during the movie.

However, the movie expects you to believe that this intelligent young lady, Yoon So Eun (Kim Ha Neul) is not going to fight for her love , Ji Dong Hee (Park Yong Woo), who she had written countless letters to during his mandatory military service.

It also wants you to believe that the young college student is going to go the rest of her life without a boyfriend, husband and/or lover! Had the ending not been so terrible, I would have given it a higher rating than what I did.

The characters of Yoon So Eun and Ji Dong Hee were believable, but didn't quite measure up to two individuals who knew they liked each other; that is the second reason it didn't really warrant a higher rating from me. The support character Seo Hyeon Ji (Ha Ji Won) was sidelined with a broken foot for the entire first two weeks of the movie; then steals her best friend's boyfriend...don't buy it!

The only bad performance was Heo Seon Mi ( Lee Seung Min) but since she only had two acting performances during the year 2000 (her first two acting stints then), I am not going to criticize her, except she was kind of an anti-girlfriend to the main male lead in the 2000 segment.

Also, another reviewer mentioned that he or she could not stand the way Kim Ha Neul played the young female lead during this movie: she acted as any young-girl-in-love does, going goo-goo-eyed every time her crush came into view, then acted like she was about to faint, hesitated before talking, blushing, grinning ear to ear and occasionally saying something stupid (like she was in the ham radio club when she was spotted by her crush there; she wasn't).

Also her total about-face would never have been done by someone that in love with a guy, without a fight, best friend or not as her rival!

Nor would someone that intelligent live for so many years by herself, without finding another love; she was too intelligent to do that!

WATCH VALUE: definitely: RE-WATCH VALUE: NONE, unless you want to study how not to end a movie!

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Good Story, Great Cast

The story of this film is quite interesting because at the beginning of the film, the audience is shown the POV of "Tabata Kaede" who thinks that his friend "Hisano Akiyoshi" is dead, but apparently "dead" what is meant is his personality where Akiyoshi left Kaede. The storyline in this film is also quite interesting like a puzzle, because at the beginning of the story the audience didn't see all of Kaede's POV, but slowly began to reveal the actual plot. maybe the plot in this film also happens a lot in the real world (?). In this film, Kaede's revenge against Akiyoshi is shown well, how Kaede has a very severe grudge against Moai to the point of wanting to destroy the organization she originally created. Akiyoshi's character's emotions are also conveyed very well in the climax scene of this film. My favorite scene is the climax scene in this film, when Akiyoshi and Kaede argue with each other 1 on 1 in a conference room (I still often replay that part because I think the climax scene is very well played by Sugisaki Hana and Yoshizawa Ryo, the emotions are very conveyed to the viewer).

Cast in this film is very good, Sugisaki Hana as Akiyoshi has perfect acting and Yoshizawa Ryo's acting as Kaede is perfect playing a character who has a grudge and full of anger but on the other hand he is a pretty good character. I think so far Sugisaki Hana's films and dramas have never disappointed because she has very good acting skills. other supporting cast such as Shimizu Hiroya, Matsumoto Honoka, etc. are also very good at playing their respective characters.

Special mention for Nana Mori because of the perfect acting in this film, even though it is only a supporting character but the character played by Nana Mori is quite influential in the story. Somehow the cover on Netflix, even Nana Mori is not the main cast, but it doesn't matter because Nana Mori have very good at acting in this film.

I can't really comment on the music in this film because it's quite easy to listen to and fits the scene shown. But not the best music in a movie.

Verdict, the film is worth to watch because it has a unique plot (back to back) and also the plot is quite curious because of the POV that each MC has, as well as the use of Kaede's POV in this film is also interesting because from the beginning until almost the end of this film, viewer can be said as (Kaede Supporter), because everything that is shown is what Kaede thinks, but towards the climax everything starts to be answered one by one. Another special mention for Nana Mori's role in here, is quite good even though she is not MC but it really shows the relationship between Nishiyama Mizuki and Kaede + Akiyoshi characters.

N.B. Rewatch is highly recommended at the climax of this film, you won't know if you haven't seen it.

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Pro tip: don't look at the MDL cast section.

Welcome to the Strange Circus, where nothing is as it seems to be...

The first quarter of the film portrays the visually disturbing sexual abuse of a school principle of his wife Sayuri and eventually her daughter Mitsuko too. Everything—starting from the school halls to the manor, transforms in its appearance and becomes horrendously red and bloodied or white emptiness as we start seeing the world from Mitsuko’s perspective.

At this point, while I’m wondering how long the movie will stretch this storyline, Sono Sion makes this strange circus stranger as we now realise that this is an erotic novel written by a female author Takeo, being read out by the editors. Amongst the editors is the young assistant Yuji.

As the plot goes on, Sono Sion makes it even more bizarre and everything becomes a lie.

“Strange Circus” was all over the genres. It was at times a mere psychological thriller, then a complex mystery and later, a melodramatic revenge plot. This is perhaps testimony to the brilliant complex layers that Sono Sion has skillfully crafted. As one perplexing twist occurs one after the other, much akin to an acrobat in a circus, do we realise how truly complex this maze is.

Quite worth the watch but recommended only to those who can stomach the grotesqueness.

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Fight it out

Crows Zero is centred around the Suzuran High School and it’s internal power struggle wherein the crown is determined by teenage hand-to-hand scuffles. Genji is one such “crow,” as the notorious students of Suzuran are called. He is the son of a yakuza and it is his ambition to be at the top of Suzuran’s hierarchy. On his very first day he challenges Serizawa, the crow who is almost at the very top of Suzuran.

I went into the movie knowing that it would be chock full with action scenes and it was. The fighting scenes were quite exaggerated with characters dramatically spewing blood, spitting teeth and clashing against each other.

Such action movies have never been my thing but I wanted to try the movie which has spawned two sequels and a manga. Crows Zero had a lot of space for improvement. I for one do not want to spend 2 hours of my time watching hoardes of teenage boys fighting against each other with a mindless ambition. There was too much testosterone and too much blood and it wouldn’t be half so bad if there was a meaning to everything.

Loyalty and leadership were quite a central to the storyline but as the movie dragged on and stretched a storyline that would be more appropriate for a one hour movie into double of that, the message was lost and I was honestly just so bored.

There is a noticeable lack of female characters here and the few that you may spot are to serve as plot devices. The “damsel-in-distress softens badboy” trope was not just annoying but if felt out of place. The sub-textual love triangle between Tokio, Serizawa and Genji was a lot more entertaining to watch. ;)

Overall a watchable movie but I can’t rate it higher than a 5.5 nor am I motivated to watch the sequels.

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Short movie

This was a bit of disappointment, as they was so hype of to this movie on and trailer looked really promising.

So if you read the synopsis, there's nothing left for you to watch, except the intimate moments and the hot actors, The 24 minutes story involves a college student and a man who meet in a basketball court and becomes affected to each other and end up in a relationship.

I literally don't what else to say about this movie as the 24 minute short movie was literally all summed up in the above, so it left no imagination to the one watching it, or expecting anyting drastic to come out of it.

What I Liked
- acting
- production value
- the scenes of physical intimacy
What I did not Like
- choppiness, starts with them yelling at one another, then a guy is in bed, then motorcycle riding, then basketball playing...like what is going on???
- unrealistic responses/conversations, who doesn't ask what a person does for a job, it's one of the first things you ask someone. Also, if someone tells you not to do something don't they normally give a reason or wouldn't you ask what their reason is?
- the lack of communication between the two.

Overall - it's still watchable because of the acting elements and the exploding intimate scenes. So go for it because even if you don't like it, a 24mins piece won't hurt you.

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