Reviews

heart wrenching but a little long-winded?

i didn't watch this in one sitting, since my limit is probably 1 and a half hours of attention. i imagine that if i did, the immersion would be greater, though i think i would have gotten slightly frustrated at the pace, though i think that could very much be intentional.

we watch the children grow, over the span of what we can assume is 1-2 years. grow, that is, with no light but the sun, water from the park, and scrap food from the convenience store. shoes become too small, clothes become tattered, and akira becomes a shell of the boy he could have been, whilst taking the role of a parent for three younger children. we become witness to neglect that may be fictional, but whose basis is very real. our minds can't help but to imagine happiness and freedom that their mother is experiencing, all the while the children are suffering for her irresponsibility. i could probably write a 10,000 word essay on my hatred for her and almost all other adults in the children's life, but i don't think that'd be particularly helpful, so i'll refrain.

there's a lot of beauty in this film, mostly thanks to the cinematography and the rawness of the acting, most likely due to the loose script (i highly recommend watching the documentary on the making of this film). akira's rare smile was healing, as was seeing the children finding joy in growing plants in ramen pots, or eating their favourite candy. the setting of the flat feels claustrophobic and suffocating, and the shots outside really are a breath of fresh air. the children's utter joy at just being able to walk outside is extremely bittersweet, when they are greeted with the apathy of the outside world.

the juxtaposition of akira's resignation of the dream that their mother would return, and yuki's hope that her birthday wish of her mother's presence would come true is noteable. experience has withered akira's soul into that of a pessimist, while yuki's naivety has a small flame still burning until her final breaths.

yuki's death was as equally devastating as it was relieving. what was in her future? it seems that she was hardly registered as a living person, what could the world give her, other than indifference? nobody knows that she existed, nor that she died, except from us, the viewer, and the family of 'nobodies'. of course, her not existing on paper did not mean that she did not, but it did mean that only her present did.

i've heard that this is based loosely on a particular case, though i'm sure that, unfortunately, this film will resonate with many who've been abandoned, temporarily or permanently, or children who were forced to grow up too fast, in any manner, especially for those who have had to grow up for the sake of those more vulnerable than them, who have done nothing but sacrifice. i hope for all akiras, kyokos, shigeru and sakis, that an apology and compensation owed to you by the world is given in some way, and that all the 'freedom' given to those who embody the role of the mother in this film is proven to have a heavy cost.

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how to be brave

This drama tell us about a story that most of us having trouble maybe in some or everyday of our days. Let me explain...

1. The trouble of fat woman. Yeah our world is cruel, especially to a fat woman. We can see in the lift how every fat woman expected to be self-aware that they need to be get off, even when they not the last person who get into the lift. And the world is perception never good in a fat woman, we woman sometimes getting reminded of that everyday with every thing around us hoping for a slim woman rather fat one, that sometimes makes us very unsecure with our own body.

2. Everything have price. Like the 'rabbit' said, we sometimes don't know what price we must pay for something & only realize it when everything already too late... From the first the 'rabbit' already said everything have price, I already scream to my screen, 'What the price...?!' But our FL never even bother to ask that. Yeah we human sometimes never even consider what the 'price' we have to pay for something 'magical', we just hoping for the best & just jump into it.

3. We need bravery. Our ML & FL have classic problem of friend that falling in love with each other but too scared to confess and change the status. What if is always became the question. But in here also there are they're bad thoughts play the role, all the misheard & bad assumption make things worsen for our couple. In love, or maybe in anything in our life, sometimes a little bravery make a big important impact in our life.

I don't know this better or not. But how about if in the end the FL wake up & all the story that happen in the drama happen only in the dream.... Hehe....

Overall I quite satisfied with Guan Xiao Tong & Johnny Huang here. Quite good movie to spend ur afternoon...

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Not for anyone who has suffered trauma in their life

When I first watched this movie I was drawn to it by one of the commenters the music was pretty good. I was confused about the young man and what he was being kidnapped tortured and into the bondage thing. But the movie shows about the ghost of the kidnapper and the young man who was being tortured past. Throughout the whole movie they learn to confront their demons. The kidnapper is trying to show the young man how to live his life through pain and pleasure. The more pain and pleasure he feels the more alive he feels. And the more pain he feels that's when his survivor instinct kicks in. The young man suffers a severe loss and everything in his life spirals out of control. Even though the kidnappers job is to save people's lives he was having a hard time living his after suffering a similar loss. Finally when the young man goes free and knows the truth. He finally wants to live in a set free. And in the process he helps the kidnapper get free of his demons as well. He was held prisoner for how long how many days was conditioned. I mean in the end he ends up helping the kidnapper. I was thinking he was suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Could be but you can tell by his expression and the way he communicates with his kidnapper who said him free that the young man is actually free. I know the torture and bondage and rape scenes were pretty intense. But that's because the actors did a really good job and the music helped to. But I was really enjoyed the ending. Because they really helped each other. And I have rewatched this like three times already cuz I really enjoyed it. And it actually looks like they're having sex it is. It is a very good psychological thriller the acting is very good because the torture scenes look so real. After the second time over watching yet I kept thinking I couldn't imagine doing that in front of the cameras how many takes hesitant to do that. Because it looks like it's actually like soft p***. This is not for the fate of heart I give it a 9 out of 10.

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More Questions Than Dancing

Step Up: Year of the Dance is a 2019 Chinese dance film that follows two dance crews from different social classes, who then combine forces to defeat a prolific dance crew from the United States. The plot sounds riveting... but it was very much the opposite.

God, I wanted to like this so much because Meiqi (the lead actress) is one of my biases from WJSN, but I really couldn’t. Everything about this film was terribly bland (the only highlight was seeing Jade Chynoweth dance, and she was amazing).

Let’s start with the story. Overall, I was confused on what the film wanted to be. Was it trying to be more like a drama, or was it it going to focus more on the dance aspect? It was all over the place.

First, with the Step Up franchise, you obviously have the emotions that come with the passion for dancing... which, to be honest, I only really felt from the male lead Super Dino (who, I think I should point out, is primarily a dancer and not an actor). Even if his introduction in the film was corny as hell, you kind of feel bad for the guy for the rest of the film.

Secondly, the film tried to have some sort of romance amongst the characters, which added absolutely nothing to the story. You forget that there is an attempt of a love line until the film brings it up again. It also, annoyingly, doesn’t get resolved.

Thirdly, there wasn’t much of a clear goal achieved in the film, and the plot itself was very convoluted. It starts off vaguely with Super Dino’s character Tie Hua having to reveal something to Meiqi’s character Xiao Fei, to “DaNcE iS mY pAsSiOn,” to “We gotta beat the Black Tigers!!”, to “Oh no, we gotta avenge our brother Tie She,” to “Okay, we gotta beat Phantom now.” There were also many plotholes, from how the joined forces between Iron Crew and Sky Crew decided upon focusing on “kung-fu inspired dance,” to He Jr.’s father suddenly giving approval to his son dancing. So many questions...

To sum up this review, I absolutely hated this film. I even couldn’t enjoy the dance scenes because how angry and confused I was while watching it. I don’t recommend watching it unless you’d also like to be just as angry and confused lol.

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THIS SHIT IS ASSSS

and FUCK sawa shes so annoying 🤮🤮 bruh this shit wasted 2 hours of my time literally its so ass and also it doesn't even make sense what the fuck are they talking about the whole time they fr living in a normal ass town and they all up everyones ass calling them shit bugs bruh... AND TF YOU ON BRUH "the other side" if you dont shut your ugly delusional ass up and just live. tf was sawa on the whole show they needa put her in a mental hospital she's fucking crazy and that dumbass boy i even forgot his name cuz he was so dumb but all ik is my girl saeki she deserves better thats my girl

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Dream Team vs Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster!

Earth is imperiled when a meteor drops a world ending monster in her lap. King Ghidorah threatens all life on Earth and only a reluctant team of Kaiju can stop him led by Godzilla.

This movie is a fun monster ride. The writers threw everything at the screen in order to entertain the audience-a foreign princess with a death squad after her who is taken over by an alien presence (from Mars, Venus, or Jupiter depending on the version you watch), a police officer trying to protect her, an intrepid and annoying female reporter, various scientists, and a doctor who will look familiar to fans of Kurosawa movies.

The alien inhabited princess tries to warn the earthlings that danger in the form of the three-headed fire breathing Ghidorah is coming their way and that Rodan is waking up from inside a volcano. Everyone thinks she's a crackpot. Shimura Takashi as the doctor runs a number of tests on her to see what's going on inside her head even as the death squad appears with guns blazing. The Cosmos return to help out and warn that Rodan and Godzilla are headed back to town. Finally, people decided it's time to start running and screaming as the three giants make their presence known.

Ghidorah rains down destruction upon the people in town while Rodan and Godzilla fight each other in the countryside. Mothra, in her caterpillar form, arrives to try and convince them to fight together against a common foe to save humanity. And their response was, "what's humanity ever done for us?" When Ghidorah attacks the squabbling monsters, the story finally picks up and it is a royal rumble for the ages.

Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster feels like a movie aimed more at children than adults, but there is enough for adults to enjoy, too. Even though the movie spends too much time leading up to the monster fights, the humans and human-alien were more entertaining than in Godzilla movies from this era. Ghidorah was nearly always a worthy opponent for Big G and it was fun to watch the Dream Team of Kaiju take him on. If you enjoy the Showa era movies, this is definitely not one to miss.

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So Absolutely Lovely

My only complaint is that I wanted a separate movie for each individual story, because they were all so lovely and I wanted more and more and more of these cute characters and their cute stories. Maybe even a 16 episode series for some of the stories! So heartwarming and hopeful! Definitely recommend if you’re wanting something sweet and uncomplicated. A bit messy sure, but that’s what happens when you wrap 5 dramas into one movie. But still definitely worth the 2 hours. I want to make my flat mates watch it with me now, so it’s worth another 2 hours more! The biggest bonus of this movie is the A-List cast with so many recognizable and beloved faces, Lee Dong Wook being my favorite of course. (His heart eyes and endeared smile nearly crushed my besotted and single heart.) Anyways, definitely give it a watch if you haven’t already. It’s New Years/Christmas themed but I think it’s excellent for any time of the year when you need a feel good movie to watch!

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Exaggerated acting but watchable

The acting here is "exaggerated" like most typical Japanese dramas/movies where the acting is anime-style. If you don't like Japanese dramas where the actors act like they came straight out of an anime then I suggest you skip it. But if you don't mind the anime-ish "exaggerated" acting then you'll like it

I personally liked it, its fun, simple and lighthearted. I'll try the Thai adaptation next

One thing that ticked me off was the "kiss without consent," or the "forced kiss to confirm self's feelings"

Like I get that this is depicted the same way as anime acting too so I shouldn't take it seriously, but it still makes me a bit uncomfortable to see two real people doing anything to someone without consent no matter how "light" or "innocent" it might seem. That's the only thing I didn't like about this movie

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Catgirl

I'm currently going through and watching as many baihe or wlw Chinese shorts. This one came up a lot in my research, probably because it stars Wang Laoji - who features in several other shows in this specific variety. She is obviously quite beautiful, but she's also really good at giving a solid performance in not a lot of time.

These shorts seem to be largely heavy on longing glances and gorgeous shots of the location or just hanfu, so there isn't a lot of time for plot to be delivered. There's a great deal of plot here for 7 minutes, but it doesn't really overstay it's welcome or try to cram too much into too short a time.

Videos like this are honestly one of the reasons that I don't love MDL's requirement for 500 words in order to submit a review.
Writing a full review for something that is 7 minutes long is honestly quite funny since the review would be basically as long as the video is.

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Brucesploitation, sexploitation, this was an abysmal kung fu movie. I can sit through just about any kung fu movie but nearly dropped this 90-minute movie-twice-while watching it.

What drew me to the movie was the cast---Lo Lieh, Nora Miao, Michael Chan, a host of famous kung fu stuntmen, and Bolo even makes a guest appearance! Bruce Le was not playing Bruce Lee, his character's name was Bruce Wong, but he tried to duplicate some of THE Bruce Lee's mannerisms which came across as laughable.

Bruce Wong was trying to find Bruce Lee's secrety secret Kung Fu Finger Book which had been entrusted to his sifu. Lo Lieh, playing the Big Bad Lee Hung, was after it as well. There you go, that's the plot. Bruce Wong's sister and ex-girlfriend were kidnapped three times. Did they get their frequent kidnapping card punched each time? There was gratuitous nudity, one scene had a naked woman being threatened with a snake. Those scenes pandering to fifteen-year-old boys dropped my rating to a 1. I gave it a 1 point bump for Lo Lieh and Bolo.

The fight scenes were actually pretty good, especially the ones Bruce Le wasn't in. Wong's buddy and an Interpol agent spent a great deal of time fighting each other and the baddies as well. The strong bit part players lent to some good fights. The nunchuck work, however, like Le's Bruce Lee mannerisms should have been omitted.

The problem the director and writer had was they didn't know what to do in between fights or how to develop anything that resembled a coherent story. Let's kidnap and threaten the women again! Show some boobs! Let's have a shot of someone walking down the street or down a hallway! How about watching someone drive a car or play cards? How about two people watching television? Should we have them say anything that would be considered plot or character development? What's that?

This might have been a watchable movie if Bruce Le hadn't tried to look like and act like Bruce Lee. All he managed to do was remind me how charismatic the original was. Michael Chan seemed to be channeling his inner Bruce, too. It might have been a watchable movie if the women hadn't been there to be objectified and tormented. They didn't need the women as bait because the "good" guys were always looking for a fight anyway. This movie had a strong kung fu cast, with good fights, and a magic kung fu book, everything a kung fu movie needs. Too bad the filmmakers took the low road into exploitation.

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A story not just about gay romance but about adult life

“Live proudly!”

I made an account only to write a review for this movie. I love it so much.

First, the acting is flawless. I believed every emotion the characters showed. I have watched multiple gay romance series/films; sometimes the main characters may have good chemistry but you still have a sense that they're only acting. But Shun and Nagisa’s characters were very real to me. It felt like they are just two people truly in love. It was very show not tell. And not just the two of them, everyone else in the movie felt like real people.

Second, it tackled real life circumstances delicately. Issues brought up were not just plot devices to have a story, the movie made sure to handle it seriously. And i respect that a lot. Although life is not always fair, the movie reminds us that sometimes it can be. And more importantly, it reminds us that kindness is always the best choice.

Lastly, Sora-chan is the cutest most adorable precious little bean!!!

There are a lot more beautiful elements in the story but I will leave that for you to discover yourself, whoever is reading this. Movie made me cry more than once but it was a good cry. I’m genuinely glad to have watched this movie.

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Quite nice!

Honestly it’s not the best movie that I’ve watched but it was not the worst either. As another review said if you don’t have expectations it won’t disappoint you. I quite liked the ending, it may be predictable but it satisfied me. The movie kept me entertained and i didn’t wander around while watching it so I’m not regretting spending my time on it.
As of the acting for me it was pretty good, can’t say much about it because i enjoyed it. It wasn’t cringey or anything which is a plus.
For the music the ending song was so good that I looked for it and added to my playlist.

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Weird movie

No, i didnt see it for IU but she did enhance me to watch it. Maybe becuz of her, i stopped debating and watched the movie. I am not sure whether it was a good decision or whether it is bad decision but what i can say is that this movie left me confused.

The movie starts all good starting with IU which is a good sign. Her face in the beginning is like warm sun rays on a Monday morning. As they go more into it, it gets confusing and crazier. Just like a bus trip. You start out nice and then it gets busier and crazier and boom, you have to stop since you reached your destination. You catch another bus and the same loop continues. Just when you think it is going peaceful, someone holds your book and throws it out of the window. Every single story is like that and the only thing connecting them is him. The ending was confusing af and i dont think i want to understand it cause i left it there and then.

The acting and cast was top-notch. Never expected anything but i am sure pleased. I liked the character of bartender girl and maybe that story brightened the whole movie for me. Everyone did somehow please me. The music was not something that stood out and small sounds made a nice vibe. Perhaps the no filter silence was what made the movie nicer in a way.

Overall unless i am bored as hell, i will not watch it. Maybe someday i will be and i may watch it but never after that. It was a nice movie but not everyone's cup of tea and definitely not mine since i understood nothing. I am not watching it again to understand it also. Try it out.

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