Reviews

A treasure hunt story with zero adventure

Overall: I was expecting either a Lord of the Flies situation or a bunch of guys going at it but didn't really get either. If you want a Lord of the Flies darker vibe maybe try Dangerous Drugs of Sex, The Shortest Distance trilogy or Double Mints. And if you want steamy scenes, look somewhere else like: My Rosy Life - His Rosy Passion, Sweet Curse, The Day Began Yesterday...

Content Warnings: 1 fight, 1 instance of blackmail/manipulation, a couple of very brief full frontal shots mostly dimly lit, mention of something that happened off screen

What I Liked
- ummmm, a bunch of shirtless guys on a beach with some nice tattoos
- the base idea of finding treasure is fun (but this is definitely not The Goonies)
- I actually liked the note at the beginning that said all the actors were over the age of 18 and participated voluntarily

Room For Improvement
- it was odd that they started the story with the group of five. They should have started off with Archie telling the story. When it flashed to his boyfriend in the present, I had no idea what was going on.
- many instances of things that make no sense/are unrealistic. Why does a group going on an adventure bring five plates, spoons, a guitar but no water/little food? How on earth would they have built that structure - with what tools/rope? Archie saying he got them food and they were starving when a previous scene showed them happily eating cooked fish is another example.
- they also shared 1 brain cell. Burning your shirt to do something that you can just wait to do in the morning makes no sense.
- the subtitle towards the end should have been "off" not "on" and that seems really extreme. Also odd that they didn't show that part, Archie just stated it.

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Retro Horror

Mother and Daughter running away from domestic violence and trying to restart their life meet new and dubious neighbors as she finds a cheap leasing apartment from a nice real state agent, but why the leasing is cheap?

I don't know where they record the drama but it feels like an old, low budget, New York horror movie. The plot was full of possibilities, specially in the supernatural side, when they change content by the end of the drama it would be really surprising if they have done a better job in set the mood (and if you haven't watched that many horror movies).

The photography and directing was the main source of the lacking, sometimes the camera focus was hard to deal with, how they set the scenes with the "scary" parts was a joke, for example. The acting was also lacking for the main actress(Barbie), the child acting was just okay, Hu Ge was probably the second character with most lines, but we barely see his face expressions, once again I say, the directing and photography was awful during the movie. The makeup is bad too. The OST was doable. I don't think I should recommend anyone to watch this, feel free to choose to do or not. You can find the subs on opensubtitles . org page and translate them online for you favorite language.

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Since I loved the directing in "Better Days" I checked this out. Same actress too. Beautiful cinematography, great acting, but horrible script. To make it short: I was annoyed by this movie throughout. I hated it for many reasons, mostly because the women were so weak and dependent on the men, while at the same time it seemed like they were in love with each other. They had a very intimate and complicated friendship. But then again, if you think about it, the male lead, who was bland, boring and unappealing was somehow the cause of it all. Who was loving who? They were hurting each other and themselves constantly for no good reason. Depressing, really. Good news though: The movie redeemed itself at the end, mostly because they put the male lead aside, and didn't go for a cheesy happy end. 8/10 to be fair. My enjoyment was maybe 4/10. Rewatch value ZERO. But despite me being annoyed by the movie: the director is crazy talented. There was not one boring moment. It was pure art.

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Predictable but good enough to watch at least once

Show Me The Ghost wasn't as scary as I expected, maybe because it was mostly a comedy movie (MDL didn't even put a horror tag in this haha). It was funnier than it was scary, in my opinion. If I wasn't an avid fan of horror and mystery films, I probably wouldn't have expected the "twist" about the ghost haunting their house which was obviously recycled from other horror films. Still, it was a fun movie to watch overall and a good one to see when you're absolutely bored or craving for a horror film that won't keep you up at night thinking there's a ghost lurking under your bed.

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Because consent isn't a thing to him??

So I stumbled across this and was curious, as most would be, I guess...
But not even that far in, red flags were going off constantly like a freaking pinball machine.
Lets count, shall we? (mind you I'm writing this as I watch, follow me on this journey)
Also keep in mind, heavy spoilers, I watched this so you wouldn't have to. lol I also haven't seen the anime (and don't plan on it) So this is my thoughts on the movie alone.

Red flag one, Blackmail is NOT consent. I repeat. BLACKMAIL IS NOT CONSENT!!!!!! before you EVER try to do ANYTHING, always talk about dos and don'ts. Talk about limits. Discuss safe words. Discuss soooo much!! GET CONSENT!!!!!!!!!!!!
This scene was completely disturbing and disgusting. Okay, she's stuck in the suit she was curious about. You're hormonal -- but that does NOT give you the RIGHT to mess with her because she made a MISTAKE! Doesn't matter what "hot" noise she is making, doesn't matter a damn thing what is happening. SHE TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH HER!!! and you did it any damn way after you demanded she show you how she looks in the outfit. It turned my fucking stomach hearing her say over and over "don't touch me" -- and you fucking did it anyway.

Red flag two, To make matters worse, when it's all said and done, he said "I let her off because she started crying. I guess I'm too soft to be a sadist"... are you fucking joking? Even sadists get consent. You don't just read a porno and go "welp, I'm a dom and this is how I'm going to be" that's not how that fucking works, you douchenozzle!

Red flag three, the collar bit pissed me off because not only was it not discussed, it's not just a collar and it's not something you take for a test drive. It's not to be taken lightly. Between that dom and sub, there is a bond of strong trust. A collar isn't just something you buy one day because you just want to push someone out of their comfort zone for your own pleasure... I mean, unless you're this dickbag who only wants to get this rocks off. -_-

Red flag four, when they finished said collar walk, mind you, this whole time she has been saying the collar had been hurting her and he still didn't offer help -- she asks if she can take it off, which he ignores and says "you're not satisfied are you?" which she says she is and he legit turns to her and says "You're lying. Your face says you want to be abused more" --- ..... dude.... are you serious? Even if she was lying, YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO HER!!! Gosh damn do you know what no means? At all? Because 50 minutes in all I'm STILL getting from you is toxic rape-y vibes. *scoffs* "Your face says you want to be abused more" -- I want to fucking vomit.

Red flag five, right after the whole "you want to be abused more" takes her to a bathroom and tells her a story of one of the sports groups running around said bathroom doing guy things and then tells her to lift her skirt and if she doesn't, he won't let her out. Yeah no... That's not sexy. That's not dom. That is not consent. That is forcing someone against their will and that, dear dude, is sexual harassment. You're a sick fuck. Especially when he had the last say of "this is what you asked for".

Red flag six, Piss play... oh joy, here we go. Again, no consent. She needed to use the bathroom and he asks her if she can hold it for a bit. That's it, no context or say of what is going to happen at all. Takes her up to the bleachers and just says "this is it" when she asks what, clearly needing to pee and can hardly hold it, he pulls the disgusting 'You still don't get it?" gee, dumb ass, no. She doesn't because you didn't SPEAK with her about this! You never brought it up to even ask if she was okay with it!
and AGAIN - A-FUCKING-GAIN he pulls he "you can go to the restroom but if you do, that'll be the end of this" when she doesn't want to use it publicly. *screams in frustration*
"I said it before, I'm not forcing you to do anything" that is total BULLSHIT! because you ARE! You're holding this over her head that if she doesn't do something, things will stop or you won't let her get away from the situation. All this shit. What the fuck!!

Red flag seven, and honestly should have been mentioned way before this but all the times he thinks excitedly to himself "she's submitting!" makes me want to throw him down a flight of stairs. She's not submitting, you never give her a choice. Trust me, I've had to piss that bad before, she would never make it back to the bathroom in time even if you let her. You getting excited every time you FORCE her to do something isn't a great thing. You're literally a predator. and it never fails that he tells her "you can trust me, I won't look, I'll be a look out" like he isn't looking over his shoulder at her to get his pleasure view. Ugh (PS, I wish she would have pissed on his shoes)

I was going to give him props for getting consent for the rope play.... until he was like "now let's go outside with it on" -_- Again with the no communication.

What can I say about this whole movie? I wish I never laid my eyes on it. It was cringe and actually could be triggering for a lot of people out there. The whole story line was all kinds of fucked up imo.

Also, I know not everyone will agree with my rating/review and that is understandable. But this is honestly how I feel about it. Did I overreact? Maybe. But I would rather overreact than under-react about serious things like this.

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I feel like I'm being over generous with that 8 stars. Lol I really feel like 7 would be better.
I didn't like the movie but I didn't hate it either.

I kept seeing this in my recommendations and though I'm a huge zombie junkie... the plot and cover art just didn't seem like it would be all that great. For the most part... it kinda wasn't, sadly. I hated the male lead... so so so much. I get he is a sweet dude, that's cool and all... but it's literally the end of the world and you're still not wanting to shoot anyone because of the law?? News flash buddy, the law had it's face eaten off. TF even? Lol
So when everything always went down, the girl always seemed to be the one to save him.... always. and it annoyed me to no ends. You're literally being protected by a teenager.... who doesn't even have a gun. But yeah. Go, you, I guess?

Props to the last few minutes when he actually grew balls and started shooting people. Completely and totally unrealistic single handed, but again, do you, I guess? You'd think that would make me a little happier but it didn't. Lol I guess mostly it took up to that before he started firing. Like he didn't even shoot the dude that shot the girl that had been protecting him the whole time. I already didn't like him but kept wanting to give him the benefit of a doubt... but after that scene, I don't care what he did. I lost all hope for him.

For a weak lead to stay a weak lead is a new one for me.

Also just want to say, I mean the characters, not the actors. The actors were amazing hence the 10 stars for the, ^_^

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I know that this was the last movie released but since I knew that, sure, it would be poetic but also dark and depressing - or at the very least sad - I decided to watch it before The Final because I didn't want to end my Rurouni Kenshin watch on a sad note. Ergo.

And it was truly amazing, like all the other Kenshin movies. And also very necessary, at least for me personally, to see what Kenshin was like before, while he was still a killer, how bad it was for him, what a toll it took on him. It was necessary if I wanted to truly grasp why he stopped killing and why he would never do it again, even when doing so would seem reasonable or justified. The contrast between the Kenshin before and the Kenshin later on is staggering.

The love story was heart-wrenching. On both sides, Kenshin's and Tomoe's too. Because they truly fell in love even though they never planned to. His heartbreak, her need to protect him at all cost... Yes, I cried.

I've seen complaints that there weren't enough fights or whatnot but from my point of view, it was very well balanced, the character driven story and all the killing. I think that if there were more of it, it would've become cartoonish because, well, sword fights are very bloody. So.

Only one movie left now...

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The Borne Identity (North) Korean style, in other words completely different...

This movie has been on my radar for a long time, and it is good it douse have a few iffy elements that I felt un sure of making me wonder was I supposed to laugh at this and is it okay to laugh? But overall it is rally good dealing with so many interesting issues in less than two hours without getting messy, is actually pretty impressive.

The acting here was really well executed, having many of the characters portray a wide range of emotions and characters switching in between... Showing great range and is what makes this movie interesting and most definitely worth watching. It is also interesting how they use color and weather to go between comedy, action thriller modes during the movie. an element I truly appreciate.

I may write more later, I may not, but bow I finally get the whole green suite so, if only for that I recommend this.

P.S they also made great use of an umbrella, and those who know me here know what that means,... and about the ending Ill put it in a comment tagged spoiler.

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Simple romantic movie set in historical times

There's really nothing outstanding on this movie but the plot is pretty straightforward. I am impressed that they were able to compress a decent story in a 2-hour movie specially that this is set on a historical period. Most movies that I watched set on historical drama either have an incomplete story or doesn't makes sense at all. At least this one is pretty reasonable. Of course, political/power play is a part that won't be left out on historical period shows. This one also have that but not as heavy as most historical period movies/dramas.

The casts has a lot of familiar faces specially handsome faces but there were just characters that I don't really know the purpose like MinHo (don't get me wrong I love to see his face on the screen it's just that his character is unnecessary but that's just my opinion.) The acting for the rest were just so-so, not too bad to criticize but not too good to commend as well.

There's nothing much I can say about the OSTs as I don't really remember if there's any. It was a worthwhile watch but I don't really re-watch movies specially those set in historical periods. If you just want a short historical romance story this is a feel good one that you can definitely choose.

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A father is forever a father, but a mother saves the day

"Chronicle of a Blood Merchant" is really a good movie, it tells a story of an ordinary man, Heo Sam Gwan, that wants to marry the most beautiful woman, Heo Ok Ran, in the village. However, eleven years after they get married and have three sons, the rumor starts that he is not the father of his first born son, The heartbreaking story begins after it is confirmed that his first born son, Heo Il Rak, has a different blood type than his blood type. Heo Sam Gwan becomes enraged and ignores Il Rak and wants Il Rak to call him "Ajeossi" instead of "Abeoji". I do not want to tell the story, but all characters in the movie act and perform so well to deliver this heartwarming story. The young Nam Da Reum that portrays Heo Il Rak, interprets his character so well with Il Rak's quiet demeanor, and accepting the cold treatment from Sam Gwan. As usual Ha Ji Won that portrays Ok Ran and Ha Jung Woo that portrays Sam Gwan tell the story and take care of the loose ends beautifully. I would recommend "Chronicle of a Blood Merchant" without any hesitation.

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And once again, the power of friendship saves the day. This series might be about gangs but, well, it's as much about gangs as Sailor Moon was. It's true! Cobra's even a blondie!

But seriously now. The cinematography of the gangs riding to war was a thing to behold, when they teamed up and rode together to kick the Mighty Warriors' and Kohaku's collective butt! Goodness gracious, that was a thing to behold.

Also, as much as I adored the drama because it allowed the story to go deeper and wider and whatnot, I think I prefer the movie take on the whole thing because it felt much more concise and there weren't as many repeated flashbacks.

My favorite is still Cobra, Yamata is as protective of Cobra as ever, Murayama is still smitten with Cobra and they all still follow Cobra's lead so... nothing changed - and I love it.

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