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The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom
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1993 versions of this story were better, in my opinion...
I agree with everything said by the first person to write a review here: The Butterfly...There was also too much 'choose your side' moments in this movie; to would have been better to stick to the original story rather than add to it, as this one tried.
The 1993 versions placed more emphasis on the love story rather than the political story, which I believe were better.
The two main cast were great, in their acting and in their showing attraction/affection to each other, but the director tried to "rush" the love portion of this movie.
Some of the other support actors, although they were sufficient and all, had their parts re-written in this version of the telling of the great story from which they it came. Although, they did their parts well, and added mostly to the overall theme and support to the movie and the main cast, the script itself that they followed left many holes that no one even tried to fill nearer the end: first they were wanted; then they were forgiven.
The other main problem is that the director, Jacob Cheung, couldn't decide whether he wanted to make a martial arts/'carve-them-up" movie, a love story movie or a political movie; and since he tried to do all three, the movie failed miserably!
This could have been a great war movie, if properly developed; a great love movie, if properly developed; or a great political movie, if properly developed. However, none of these options were fully developed and that is why most reviews on the Internet give it a low rating, as I am.
It seems that all Chinese movie are pushing the "either you are For Us (China) Or Against Us" mentality over the last decade: I wonder if President Xi or the infamous party he belongs to had anything to do with this turn toward the "FUOAU" mentality?
I don't think that I really have to answer that question: President Xi became most prominent political leader in China, since 2012, two years before this movie was made.
I loved the cinematography and music, probably because I thought it fit well with the scenes where it was added: I did like the ending music as well.
I loved the costumes and such, giving it an appearance of a time when most in China were all poor, except the Palace people.
It is important to remember WHY the people were so poor then: greedy Ming Dynasty politicians...
I disliked how the events were rushed through; more time should have been spent to fully develop the scenes and the cast members and their outlook, giving us a better understanding of WHY they did what they did...
For example, first Wudong disowned Liang, then they offered the fight with him; no discussion of his actions in between the two actions or why they changed their minds.
What is funny: most reviews say that the red pills (delivered by Liang) killed the emperor and Liang becomes a wanted man; in reality, the head eunuch and not the emperor took the red pills, so why does everyone keep saying that the red pills killed the emperor?
I want to give a special mention to the character of Ke Ping Ting (Tong Yao): she seemed to be the only cast member that wasn't out for money or power; she simply wanted to be loved and begged Liang not to kill her father, chief eunuch Wei Zhongxian ((Ni Dahong) after the incident in the palace ; she is the ONLY ONE that actually thought about someone else besides herself, besides the male/female main cast, in this movie!
Today's directors should take lessons from the late director Akira Kurosawa, and his Seven Samurai movie: develop the movie and don's leave any loose ends in the telling of it!
Even though The Butterfly was right in her assertion, I still think that this is worth a re-watch occasionally.
RE-WATCH VALUE: moderate, but there are so many better love movies to watch out there!
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The worst movie ever
Trigger warning: Just about everything...You know what it would be like to watch a "Freddy the Frog" rewrite by Khaled Hosseini? The movie "Sin" is basically that. It's about a hotel receptionist who meets an alcoholic and they start having a relationship. Along the way, there's tons of drinking (which would be an excellent explanation for the screenwriting), homophobia, arguing, affairs, yelling at God, hospital visits, more homophobia, more arguments, domestic disputes, attempted suicide, more hospital visits, and even incest. You can kind of see the pattern.
The only reason the story gets a 6/10 score is because it's at least interesting. The rewatch value is 5.5/10 because the movie is so bad, it's funny. Maybe it would be a fun movie to prank people with by showing it at a party.
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Really beatiful story but ...
It was lovely story, it is.They really click each other so perfectly, it's unattainable in real life as in my eyes. So much fun to watch.
(Spoiler ahead)
But .... at the end, it was like my heart was taken out.
I'm like "Nante, Zenzen Wakanai" (Why, I can't understand at all). I really don't understand why they break up after such small problem.
I know marriage is not like in just relationship. But they click so much, it's very very hard to get, and they still love.
I really don't understand at all.
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In a small city on the Mongolian border in China stands a statue of an Englishman. Unlike so many white savior stories, The Children of Huang Chi is based on the real life of George A. Hogg, an Oxford graduate in economics who ended up leading 60 war orphans safely to Shanshan 700 miles/1000km from where they started in Huang Chi. Writer James MacManus visited the town and interviewed survivors making the basis for this film.George Hogg was played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers with more or less success. For me, he is an acquired taste. Hogg was a reporter stuck in Shanghai away from the action. He managed to make it into Nanjing masquerading as a Red Cross driver. He got there in time for the massacre and ended up nearly being killed for taking pictures of the atrocities. He was rescued by a communist guerrilla, Chen Han Sheng, played by the charismatic Chow Yun Fat. West Point educated in engineering, Chen was very good at blowing things up. When Hogg is injured, an American nurse, Lee Pearson, played by Radha Mitchell, suggested Chen send him to Huang Chi to recover, learn some Chinese and take charge of 60 orphans hiding out there.
What Hogg found when he arrived in Huang Chi were 60 boys, malnourished, suffering from various diseases, and barely sheltered. Devastated from the loss of their families, they did not welcome Hogg with open arms. He was just another foreigner. Hogg wasn't thrilled to be there either. With some encouragement from Lee and few other prospects available, Hogg began slowly improving conditions at the estate and winning the boys' trust. As the boys healed, they were faced with one of two eventualities-the Japanese who were nearing the estate would practice their scorched earth policy on them of Kill All, Burn All and Loot All which the boys had already survived once. Or, one of the Chinese armies would conscript the young boys to fight. At this point Hogg knew he needed to take the boys as far north as he could. With the help of Lee and Chen they began the boys' long journey through dangerous territory to the Gobi Desert.
As a co-production of China, all the characters were on equal footing. This wasn't a story about a heroic white guy who saved China. It was the human story of a man who saw the needs of 60 boys and stepped up and did what was necessary, what was right, as did the other characters trying to help them and survive the invading Japanese armies. More meaningful than even the movie, were the interviews during the credits with the real-life boys, now old men, Hogg helped.
The scenery and cinematography were beautiful. The stunning shots of the mountains, lakes, and desert were suitable for framing. Though understated the score fit the scenes perfectly.
Even though the film touches on the atrocities committed on the Chinese civilians, this is not an action movie or thriller. It's a story of courage and love, of building relationships and family. It's a story of love for the children who had suffered and seen more than anyone should have to. It's a story of how people stepped up and put their lives on the line for those children. At its heart, The Children of Huang Chi, like the statue erected in his honor, was a love story to George Hogg and the devotion he had for children not his own.
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that being said, this didn't make me feel like i "got my bang for the buck..." it's was meeh, as remembered everything and it (ironically) was rewatching something i'd seen, so nothing new or riveting let alone butterfly inducing this time around, which can be seen as a plus or a minus depending on the viewer - it left me passive. (yeah the hinted proposal was cute, but was waiting/more curious to see the parents reacting and that came to not ).
will say enjoyed seeing Tine, and think after watching countless drama's, rewatching the edited footage emphasized how good of an actor he is - cause watching this - it was evident that i loved his character not only cause the actor is good-looking, sweet and charming. but cause he Can act. and cause of that, his character was not only more relatable, but likeable.
this was fine for a one off - wish the majority wasn't the past and there was more of a plot to this movie, then the little we got at the end. that didn't amount to anything other then a vague "happily ever after".
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Concrete Jungle is an obscure Hong Kong kung fu flick and rightly so. Even for a martial arts movie it lacked a coherent story. Worse yet, the movie has not been taken care of and is in terrible shape. CJ looked like someone took the movie reel and dragged it behind The White Truck of Doom, taped it back together with masking tape, spilled coffee on it, added white subtitles on an often gray background and then just for grins cut both sides of the film causing 1/3 of the subtitles to not be seen. The scenes shot at night were almost completely dark with green wavy lines running through them. The dialogue and music were also garbled. If you can get past the visual and audio defects, you'll find the storyline defects just as bad.
Not being able to see all of the action and read all of the subtitles did prove a challenge. There's a reason I couldn't find a synopsis on any site. To sum it up-Lo Lieh's character Chen, was driving at night when he saw a woman, Yu Shih, being assaulted and stopped to help. He ended up in a fight against Michael Chan (never given a name except Villain that I could tell) and his goons. Lo Lieh battles them off, killing one in the process. The woman refuses to go to the police because she doesn't want to upset her fiancé. Later the police inspector questions Chen, telling him if it was really self-defense, he needs to provide a witness or he may be prosecuted for murder. After that Michael Chan takes every opportunity to stalk or attack Yu Shih. Inexplicably, she always manages to escape. I say inexplicably because she runs like a two-year-old who hasn't figured out how to use her arms and legs and is just about as clever as a two-year-old. When Chan isn't terrorizing Yu Shih, he and his men attack Chen at every opportunity. This villain has a very full schedule. Even though Chen is constantly having to fight the bad guys whether at work or walking down the street, he never stops to try and figure out what is going on and how to stop it. It's like he's on a conveyor belt of fights he can't get off of. Chen is rapidly seduced by a beautiful woman, a danger sign he can't see, which brings the thrust of the plot finally to the forefront. Most of the movie involves fighting, running-lots of running to nowhere, and shots of Chen driving his car around town. The writer and director had no idea how to connect scenes and even less about character development or story logic.
It's a martial arts movie so I must comment on the fighting. Most of it was rudimentary at best, some fights were better than others.
The only positive thing about this movie for me was Lo Lieh. Even in this horrible mess of a movie he had screen presence. The actors did the best they could with the abysmal dialogue and ridiculous plot.
Unless you are trying to watch all of the movies from this golden kung fu era or all of Lo Lieh's movies, I'd suggest you avoid this chunk of concrete.
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something unexpected from koreans, but well executed
When i first saw its trailer, i was like strucked by the topic they took and considering it was just a 2 hour film, they nailed many things. Character development is op and acting was awesome too, sometimes the expressions felt a bit pale but its ignorable. The story was surprisingly good and just dont ask about the main fl and ml, both were just totally invested into their roles. Other than that if you want to watch something interesting and are not disturbed/hate the topic then you will totally like it (Note: Not a family movie.)Was this review helpful to you?
I didn't think I'd ever love a movie this much
Absolutely beautiful. From the beautiful themes to the acting to the wonderful soundtrack to the almost ridiculous, yet heartwarming humor, it is a perfect movie for me in every aspect.I've never cried, laughed and smiled this much watching a movie.
It's the kind of movie that makes you glad to be human and alive.
This is actually my all time favorite movie and every time I feel life gets me down, I rewatch it and every single time, I love it perhaps even more than the last.
The way the story inspires you to live and never give up in an almost hopeful, simple, but innocent way just makes me tear up even thinking about it.
I am not one to say a movie is perfect easily, but it would be a crime to not call this one. It's imperfections just make it that much more beautiful.
There's just so much earnestness and heart in this movie and it really shines through.
I'll always be grateful for the comfort this movie had provided and will continue to provide me in my worst days.
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Only worth your time if you want to see Ji Li doing a fantastic job of crossdressing.
Never have I ever seen a movie I wanted to give 10 stars for the actor for willing to do all that, and minus stars (if it was possible) for everything else. As a movie it was absolute crap, terribly made, horrible characters, crude storytelling..... it maybe had a little bit of heart, which made it possible for me to sit throughout it all, in addition to Ji Li. That's about it.It opened up the discussion about at least 5 social issues but never really followed through with any or provided satisfying conclusions. Heck, it didn’t even have a proper ending.
It was simply a cheap movie made with intention of getting some views via some bad gender jokes and other nonsense, so do not go into it expecting anything further.
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Kind of a Repeat
I was so looking forward for this to come out, and I was a little disappointed, in the sense that they basically recapped the to series and narrated the movie, I had expected a much more understanding of the things between them, and see how they grew from where there were to was happened.Nevertheless Bright and Win still extremely hot and considering I am watching them in the ongoing F4 you can see such a difference in there characters etc ...
So there is not much to say for this review, I do suggest watching the series instead though. The ending for me was awesome, still trying to figure out if that was a marriage proposal or a life long commitment (thinking)
The movie obviously is focused on telling the story of Tine and Sarawat, and how they ended up a couple, with all the highs and lows. For that reason, the side couples just… get together without much explanation in the movie. Since, as I mentioned before, the target audience knows everything about how Man/Type and Mil/Phukong ended up together, that’s not a problem. I really liked the final song.
The movie receives extra points for the cute baby and puppy at the end.
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WOW What A Topic !!!!!
Let just start with the subject of the movie was very surprising but the story was great. The 2 main leads are great the way they meet and start agreeing on helping each other, if you want to call it that. I did like how they were supported with each other and share there feelings. I love the leading female character was strong and took charge and that she was the master dominating him. The chemistry was magnificent. Is a subject not to many talk about but you know is happening. The editing and direction was great. The actors performance was a 10. It kept you smiling and a little giggles and embarrass in front of male friends. Love it.Was this review helpful to you?
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I never been SOOOOOOO FRUSTATED!!!
This is a 2016 Japanese movie about Dora and associates running a badger game scheme to extort victims out of money. One day though, their target looks like an ordinary guy, but he turns out to be a yakuza.The Yakuza hired Zebra, a company that works to give revenge for those who got unfortunate.
What I love is, this movie should be turned into drama instead. It can talk about the clients per episode, The premise is kinda similar to Jigoku Shoujo but way darker. If Jigoku Shoujo makes the sinner suffer to pay for their crime alone by taking them to hell, but the victim also has to pay for their grudge...., this one committed to never kills their target, but make sure they'll suffer tremendous pain for the rest of their life.
I love the scenes where Aka burned a penis of a rapist and another scene where Dora tattooed an idol's whole face and upper body coz he makes one of his juniors lose his ability to sing.
I'll talk about what I hate..., how messy this movie is.
The company that works in the darkness, like Zebra (if it really exists), for them, trust will be everything. I'm confused enough on why the Yakuza pays for Zebra service while he is supposed to have all of the resources to do this kind of dirty work.
My confusion falls even deeper coz Zebra betray the Yakuza (YKZ) coz they consider Dora can be a great collector. Zebra not only betray YKZ, but also prepared him tied up in a room for Dora to beat him up to death.... This also means that Zebra already planned to betray YKZ, right? BUT FOR WHAT PURPOSE!!!
Zebra is the most unprofessional low-quality company, lol. It sells its client information, even each member selling each other's personal information... the boss indeed has no skills in managing his HR.
Dora really has a very messy character. He is a man who is cruel enough to break a man's finger one by one and killed him with bare hands... He's not even asking about his friend's well-being, including Aya, after they got tortured, but doesn't have the heart to kill Aya, a woman who betrayed him.
Then the story moves into a scene where the company told Dora that the one who hired them to "destroy" Dora is not YKZ, but Aya.... for AGAIN an unclear reason... and AGAIN, Zebra betrayed its client by leaking their information to their target... how... "professional" this company is....
I lost my respect for Dora, and this movie when it creates a situation where Zebra has Aya's face destroyed, by who's order? Again unclear, let's say they do it for Dora..., though Dora never asks for it... Dora then "sells" a woman named Amikawa, to a stalker, just to make the stalker help him to kill Aya and stop her pain. Amikawa has a family with a comatose son and Dora drugs her and makes the stalker rape her in front of her husband, Koji, which leads her to kill herself...
I'm in confusion... If he only has his heart for Aya? Is he a psychopath? Dora even ignorantly said he never expect the woman will kill herself. HOW IN A WORLD?!!!! You drugged and raped a woman in front of her husband and excuse that you never expect she'll kill herself? This Dora doesn't even have common sense. Is he even have something called a brain?
So, what's in the movie about? Is it about Dora who gets betrayed by his own coworker? Then the movie is better to focus on his effort to chase for Aya.
Is it want to show Dora's journey to become a heartless person? Why? He is heartless already. He's even a bully.
After his wife's funeral, Koji seeks Dora then beats him up. At the end of the movie, the Zebra's boss said "Don't be defeated, learn the meaning of hopelessness" which then Dora made it happen by killing Amikawa's son and said "I have successfully collected"... Do I have to remind the writer who messed this up first? Koji is supposed to be the one who got his revenge. Dora is a low total low-functioning sociopath!
And what happened to the company's mission to "never do any murder?". I also wonder why Zebra never gives any penalty to Dora for making them lose their Doctor, also to Aka for selling Dora's information to Koji..., but hey, as I said above, the boss is way too unprofessional that all his people are just as unprofessional as he is.
Don't get me wrong, I love the psychopathy and sociopathy genres. The Silence of the Lambs, Old Boy (extremely genius), Basic Instinct, Saw... I love SMART WRITING about them. I love to see how twisted their minds are like in Criminal Minds, also the cool though it's unreal like Dexter.
This kind of idiotic, totally hate it
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Jasmine is my hero!
The ending of this film has to make this one of the most realistic war films I've seen. It shows the horror & brutality of war in a 'simple' scene showing civilian casualties. I suppose this film could be seen as propaganda but as China was the underdog in this scenario I think it would have been very moving & filled me with patriotism at the time. The final scene is extremely moving & very interesting historically & technologically.This is the only feature-length silent film I've seen so far that I would consider watching again - although it isn't completely silent as it was dubbed with a few songs & some sound effects.
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Many red flags with a quite creep guy vs. a sweet guy who just wants to have confidence while cute
Shortly said:Momose is forcing himself onto this Yashiro, multiple times. Trying to blackmail and manipulate him into getting his own desires fulfilled.
First, when they met he got very close and insisted on talking and out in public even, where anyone with a secret like this would get very startled, eh didn’t consider Yashiro at any point really.
And he kept forcing himself onto him even later in the school and then ended up taking advantage of the situation of other people coming near them to kiss him,
bc Yashiro wouldn’t dare to do anything to get exposed dressed up in a girl’s uniform.
He later when at his home, forces himself over and over until he gets a rib on him unable to get away, forcing himself onto him with rape attempt,
even when he says stops multiple times he doesn’t listen at all, but only seems completely blinded by his own desires.
And only stops when he starts crying out loud and begs saying he is scared over and over. Which normally in irl this would most likely leave a trauma scar on someone experiencing a situation like that.
Momose is a very creepy and scary person, there were so many red flags and crossed lines in this movie.
Made me feel disgusted bc Yashiro should never have apologized and asked for forgiveness for changing his mind later on, as he says he does
-Everyone is allowed to change their mind doing anywhere and anytime before and in a situation.
I honestly can’t believe Yashio would actually let a horrible selfish guy like this back into his life…
What I otherwise got out of this movie…was that Yoshiro didn’t believe he was cute? But really wanted to and that is kinda what Momose could give him,
To make him believe that he was. And all of him not just only when he dressed up. Which no one else knew of but Momose.
It honestly seemed like Yoshiro just wanted to feel pretty and confident.
While Momose had a deep fetish…? Or that he just got an eye-opener up for Yoshiro looking cute, which he liked very much?
I am not sure what to say about this part...but
there seems to be hinting that Yashiro is transgender, or maybe just a crossdresser or something else in terms of non-normative gender? just too bad we didn't get a more clear answer on that i think, as it seems kind of half-like done. But perhaps that is the meaning of the story that it was more about the two of them?
But it is nice to get that genre in there as we don't get to see that so often in movies.
Not sure what good there even is to say about this movie??
uh, the actors looked good, the acting was good, the music was ok.
Oh and yes, that they otherwise portrayed the two guys who otherwise don't seem to be gay, but fell for one another, so it is not your typical portrayed type of gay, which is really nice to see in a movie!
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