Reviews

just another bad love story

I thought we left these harmful tropes in 2005, but I guess not.

from the very beginning, the male lead stalks and pushes the female lead to do what he wants her to do. he is in a position of power, while she is her fathers caretaker and in debt and has literally no other options. not to mention that their personalities are basically caricatures- he's a violent loudmouth with a heart of gold, and she's a tsundere in a poor position that needs help- im not sure what they even like about each other besides their looks. (I mean, he became obsessed with her after seeing her once so). she has practically no lines, but we watch her expressions soften as she realizes he has a heart of gold, or whatever.
if I was her, id be terrified that someone else's debt was pushed on me, and even moreso when the debt collector stalks me and makes me hang out with him.
it was a cute love story I guess, if you ignore the reality women go through of being stalked and murdered by men. its time to stop portraying outdated tropes of "violent male leads with kind hearts using horrible tactics to coerce women into being with them" as "goals".

to make matters worse, when she has a chance at a new life she goes back to ML. even after his death, she has to be a caretaker AGAIN to his sick father. this girl cannot get a break.

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(Sadly enough) based on a true story

I watched "Nobody Knows" the first time in 2013 as part of my Japanese course. Back then, I thought it was a very slow film, and it was thus hard for me to really get into it. But a lot of it stuck with me for reasons that will become obvious when you watch it. So years later, I watched it again and gained a true appreciation for the film. "Appreciation" sounds strange given the real-life event that the film is based on, but it's the closest I can get. It's been said in other reviews, but this isn't a happy film or a happy story. But my god does it open your eyes to what actually happens around the world, even if it's rare in comparison to other horrifying things we read about on the daily. Reading about the Sugamo child abandonment case after watching "Nobody Knows" just made me a hundred times more depressed about the whole thing. It's just unfathomable that such a thing can happen, that it DOES happen probably more often than we think.

The actors are mere children but they play their roles so well, especially Yagira Yuuya who played the role of Akira but also You (the actress, haha) who portrayed the children's mother, Keiko. It became really easy to despise her in the film and I think that's a sign of good acting. Because if I hadn't felt that strongly about her character, her acting wouldn't have been good enough. But it is. The cinematography in this film is absolutely stunning; it successfully captures the mood in scenes where it matters the most, and while the lack of music at times makes the film feel a little bit flat, the cinematography, acting, and overall story helps bring the score up regardless. Even so, I have to say that, at the end when the credits song started playing, I burst into tears that second time I watched through "Nobody Knows" again. It felt like the whole film was a build-up to that moment, which in some ways it was, but the way the music was brought in when it was really drove the point home.

Despite my first impression not being a good one, my second one was wildly different, and thus "Nobody Knows" is one of those films I will probably never forget.

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Stylishly back & forth in time !!

The movie works in 2 timelines, de present & past, as 2 different men experience near death experience at respective New Year's Eve. Dey share a bond wid dreams, seeing de events de other goes through in sporadic fashion.

De most convincing actor is Jo Jeong-seok& he is also the 1 who brings some more drama into the movie and thus also makes us more interested in the story. Furthermore, we are constantly led up de garden path until a twist clarifies things. Aesthetically speaking, slick lensing lends a soft & a warm tone 2 de 1983 romance segments, and a gritty, lived-in look 2 de more recent detective thriller sections.

VERDICT _ Fans of twisty time-travel tales will relish this one; it's worth the subtitles.

https://dramacool.pe/drama-detail/time-renegades

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Netflix’s Silly Experiment

Synopsis: After witnessing a haunting in their hospital, two doctors become dangerously obsessed with obtaining scientific proof that ghosts exist.

'Ghost Lab,' wastes intriguing ideas for cheap scares. Not without its moments of horror and suspense - and, surprisingly, heart pounding melodrama, but the movie fails to effectively convey promise of its story. The premise is captivating, but the execution and overall story leave much to be desired.

VERDICT _ SKIP IT !!!The movie is very boring. The acting is hard like rock - predictable and cheap cinematography.

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A simple revenge thriller !!

A serial killer who has been waiting for his freedom, a detective who has been waiting for the killer's release, and a little girl who has been waiting for something that remains a mystery. The three are intertwined in a chaotic relationship and are met with an unprecedented series of events.

The only problem is that the movie is rather inconsistent on more than just one level. This applies to narrative perspective as well as to the genre. Results in a movie which is far from perfect, but at the same time is a title I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to fans of any of the above mentioned genres.I gotta mention the dark atmosphere as a positive aspect of the movie, though, and also the frequent bloody knifing.

VERDICT _ The ending might not be that bad, but if you think about it too much, it is not really a reasonable 1 either.

https://cineb.net/watch-movie/watch-missing-you-free-70448.4526726

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An enchanting and loving tale

I was captivated by the use of magic realism and the constant flashbacks of young Maya and current day Maya. with a such a unique way of storytelling, both versions of Maya go through the emotions of finding and losing love. Ulan means 'Rain' in Tagalog and we certainly see rain during several important moments of Maya's life. The way they have used rain as a symbol throughout the movie pretty much tells a story of its' own.

The more you watch the movie, the more you root for Maya to find her tale of love, but as we all know - things may never go the way you want it to and the ending leaves you with much to ponder. But maybe she did find her inner peace through all the rain.

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Sensei !!!

SYNOPSIS _ Hibiki develops a crush on her history teacher Ito. Young &never been in love before, she conveys her feelings straight and honestly to her teacher. How will he react when he has the role of teacher?

I have a soft spot for Ikuta & in dis type of role I think it really suited him. Hirose Suzu is fast becoming 1of Japan's most prominent young actresses, I almost feel like I see her constantly but given she has improved immensely. I feel she always gives off a good innocent vibe.

VERDICT _ Its very wrong 2 want a student & a teacher 2 b together, but this type of film can always play wid ur moral concepts.

"My Teacher" doesn't really promise to have an inventive story, but still one that might tackle a difficult topic.

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I liked this movie!

So first of all this is a moderate budget Chinese wuxia movie about gay mermaids. I did not go into it with high expectations, and it starts off a bit confusing. But I thought the story they ended up weaving was pretty interesting!

In this story, mermaids can make special silk and their tears are pearls. They are trafficked by humans as a source of wealth as a result. And because they are enslaved and tortured to force them to produce silk and pearls, they sometimes fight back.

Because they are seen as a danger to humans, it is illegal to keep them and if someone is caught keeping one both the mermaid and the human should be executed by law.

But when Yuanshan finds the merman Yixia at the scene of a murder, for some reason he spares his life.

The plot is pretty complex, with a fight for the succession to the throne, Yuanshan's wife being a princess, her brother having a dragon beast spreading around bad dragon qi, and Yixia being so cute and irresistible. What is a minister of justice to do?

The ending is also an absolute trip.

Anyway understand this isn't a high budget movie and set expectations accordingly, enjoy the gay mermaid fun.

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The Melody of The Heart in Soul ...

Going into this movie without a lot of knowledge, left me reluctant to watch, but I went ahead and watched it regardless.

For me it started kind of slow, and it took a while to get into it, biggest thing to say is that the movie both portrayed our male leads , rising singer Kang In Soo ( playing himself ) and novice producer Yoo Sang yi ( Lee Sang) ‘s relationship in a refreshingly less cliche way than previous same-sex pairings in Korean productions - not through their sexuality, but through Sang Yi’s journey in making sense of his genuine feelings for Kang In Soo over the course of the movie. It was an undeniably sweet and modern love story for our two male leads , yet nonetheless sugarcoated in favor of avoiding more difficult issues.

First of all it is important to say that whilst this wasn’t the main aim of the movie to home-in on a “ realistic” relationship and certain, Kang In Soo and Lee Sang were brilliant within their portrayals echoing a certain level of heartache and emotion behind their performances. Their characters were also evidently Kang In Soo was set out to be the “ mysterious” and “ handsome” musician, whilst Lee Sang acted as the “ awkward” and “ kind-hearted” producer. Yet apart from these roles and their evident relationship onscreen, their characters often felt lacking in greater depth.

Overall: This probably won't be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was a surprisingly sweet and progressive love story, like I mentioned I watched it without any prior knowledge. brilliant acting from our male leads.

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KARMA? IS THAT YOU?

LOL XD

After all this years i've never watch the second part of the movies...
I thought he's gonna get what he wanted.
(check my reason in the first movie review)
Turns out it is true that Greed will always destroy yourself in the end :v

Story : Continuation of the first part, that tells Ximen's ambition to get whatever he wants by any means. He begins to be manipulative and uses the people closest to him to get his 'next target'. If i can make a weird example, in the first movie it feels "exciting". But in this second movie... even when there is a sex scene, you'll never felt it again cuz the sex scenes that happen are for a reason that so upsetting. And somehow ended up turning into the Horror genre?

Acting : I think the acting of all the actors and actress feel the same as the first movie. Not many improvement, it just that Ximen's turn to be an annoying person.

Overall : The second part of this movies will be the last time I watch it, even if I watch it again.. I will stop before the last minute of the film. lol

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I'll Take Everything What I Want

This title already summarizes the whole plot of the story.

First of all, this is a film based on a novel called Jin Ping Mei (Hanzi: 金瓶梅) aka. The Plum in the Golden Vase or The Golden Lotus, a famous literary work by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (Hanzi: 蘭陵笑笑生) of the Míng Dynasty (16th Century). The difference between the novel and the film is in the number of wives he has. In the novel he has 6 wives.

This film was the first time I watched when I was in high school or in the early days when I was in college (I forgot). The first time I watched it I thought it would be the same as Sex and Zen movies, a Chinese film set in dynastic times and full of semi-sex scenes. Actually after I watched the movie, I had forgotten the title... At least until the day I made this review, while scrolling through Instagram, there was an account that reviewed a film called Wu Song (same story but told from the point of view of Wu Dalang and Wu Song).

From there, I realized that there was a similarity in the story when Wu Dalang's wife dropped the wooden shutters. I immediately searched about this film (remember! I forgot the title) and it turns out that they have the same name. But I wonder because the story in the movie ends when they just get married? and it turns out there is a second film! Immediately after I re-watched this film, I continued to watch the second film.

Ok, now enough to tell about the background of the story. Now I will review it,
Story : My personal opinion about this film is that it's good.. not too bad.. I just felt weird when I saw it for the first time, a father who taught his son how the feeling of "broken hurt" and the child immediately agreed? 🤨. And the moment when he did NTR (Netorare; a Japanese manga genre that tells about infidelity), DAMN! Because this is a film that tells the story from Ximen's point of view, the first time I watched it I felt "that's ok". But when I watched Wu Song's movie review, "oh boy.. why did u do that?". Well... I guess.. the POV of a character in the story is really important, huh? 😅

Acting : Well... as every old Chinese movie that do dubbing, the moaning sounds a little bit annoying for me :v
But their acting in sex scenes looks quite satisfying (in my opinion).

Overall : For the first part of the whole story, this movie is okay and good enough... Not much complicated stuff happened yet...

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Donnie Yen and Ringo Yu tag teaming as a corruption fighting duo? Be still my fan girl heart! Throw in a female kung fu expert sidekick and a young Wong Fei Hung with Yuen Woo Ping directing and there's not much more I could have asked for.

The story was simple. Dr. Yang and his trusty sidekick Miss Orchard tended to the sick during the day and at night robbed from the rich and gave to the poor and downtrodden. Dr. Yang was a cross between Robin Hood and Batman. In walked one of the Ten Tigers of Canton, Wong Kei Ying, and his teenage son Wong Fei Hung (played by Angie Tsang!). Initially at odds, it didn't take long for the two honorable men to recognize what was going on and what needed to be done. Along for the ride was Commissioner Gordon, I mean Master Fox, played by Yuen Shun Yee, who also provided a little comic relief. Team Iron Monkey was ready with fists, kicks, and righteous anger to take on any evil doers! They had to make a grandstand against a corrupt governor, disgraced, evil Shaolin monks, and the governor's boss who was a super powerful ex-monk. There was a little more to it, but that was the gist of the story.

The fights were fast, creative, and fun to watch. All of the good guys had time showing their kung fu stuff. When Yuen Woo Ping is in charge you know you are in for a treat. Donnie Yen has amazing footwork and it was highlighted in several scenes. The majority of this short movie involved fight scenes which would usually be a detriment for me, I enjoy at least some character development, but everyone on Team Iron Monkey was so quick, likeable, and graceful it didn't matter to me in this movie.

There were hints of romance, brief heartwarming moments and cringeless humor (for the most part). The story moved forward at the speed of Donnie's punches.

I scored this movie simply on the sheer joy I received from watching it. People who don't enjoy kung fu movies and wire fu might not enjoy it, but for those who do, this is definitely one to give a try.

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Amazing Movie!!!

The acting of all the main cast was amazing especially Do Kyungsoo. I watched this movie because I love musical and dancing movies. I didn't realize that I would get that and a very deep story about the reality of war. While the story was slightly cliche, it was cliche in a good way. First of all, major props to Do Kyungsoo and the rest of the cast. I think most of the cast had no prior experience tap dancing, so you can definitely see their dedication to acting through work they must have put in to learn how to tap dance so well. All of the tap dancing scenes were so fun to watch. I also enjoyed how the movie got deeper and commented on the reality of war . Overall an amazing movie that I would definitely rewatch after giving myself some time to recover.

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Amazing Movie!!!

The acting of all the main cast was amazing. Do Kyungsoo and Jo Jungsuk are both have amazing acting skills and had a believable brotherly relationship. While the story was slightly cliche, it was cliche in a good way. When I decided to watch My Annoying Brother, I thought it was going to be a fun movie that would make me laugh. The movie did do that but it also made me cry. Overall an amazing movie that I would definitely rewatch after giving myself some time to recover. I especially loved watching the brotherly relationship between Do Kyungsoo and Jo Jungsuk's characters develop. I knew that Jo Jungsuk was very funny but I didn't know going into the movie that Do Kyungsoo would also make me laugh.

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Very Realistic Lockdown Movie

I'm not the best at reviews but I'll try my best. You can watch this movie on Netflix!

MY OPINION (no spoiler version):
Watch this movie if you want to watch something to I guess "reminisce" on how lockdown was. This movie focuses more on the events, news, feelings, activities during quarantine more than the actual romance at hand. There is romance but not strong enough and not concrete as other romance movies. Not horrible, not bad movie, but the ending felt abrupt and made me rate this movie lower. Definitely could've been better, if you are looking for more romance, definitely skip out on this movie. I feel like maybe this movie will be better years from now when covid isn't as fresh as it still currently is.
REALISM:
The story was very realistic taking the events from quarantine. I do not live in the Philippines, but I do live in the US and there were many similarities regarding lockdown, and like different activities like that Korean whipped coffee, video calling, screen sharing a movie to watch together. All these things were depicted very realistically. Even the fact that the two leads met online was super realistic as I was doing the same thing during the lockdown. They even touched on the hopefulness of covid being over in a month in the beginning and then the contrast of losing hope in the future towards the end. Which I feel a lot of us went through.

DIRECTING STYLE:
Realism gets cut short when the leads are in the same setting during a video call but were not touching each other just looking at each other. One cool bit is that the director would cut to different settings that both the characters are in when they are on a video call but the leads will be featured in the same room. This showcased the video call but still made the movie seem vast with them being in the "same" room. However, in one scene they shared headphones during a bit of a montage so I was confused into thinking that they were in the same room.

ACTING:
The acting was very good. The male lead sang very well in one part. I especially loved how the FL's mom was a front-line worker and the worries that come along with that were also very realistic. The leads had phenomenal chemistry especially shown during the cooking scene. This left me wanting to see more from these leads, more romance. However, this movie simply tapped a level of romance which was so unfortunate. At one part you think they'll meet only for it to not happen. This happened twice. And the second part was at the end.

CRITIQUES:
I wanted to see more romance. The leads never got officially together, there was a plothole to who Ros was. Was she actually the ex??? More importantly, the ending left you unsatisfied. The leads never meet as the ML decided to ditch their "date" to go home. Fair enough. But it just ends there. No message from the ML, the FL unfriends him. You are left with more questions and confusion. It felt like it needed a second movie or just more time in general. It felt like the part of a movie where conflict was right before the resolution. Except, there was no resolution, just credits. This is a shame because the leads shared such amazing chemistry and tension. When I got to the ending I was genuinely confused, I was like "is this it? This is the ending? Credits are playing now?" it just felt so abrupt. Also at times, the leads in the same room during a video call did get a bit confusing, you'd think they are together but really have to look for the phone propped up or the background change.

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