Reviews

hmmm where to start - first off i don't get anyone giving this a 10 - like i Know "to each their own etc..." but the acting is bad - the plot - fine in general - but when u break it down, it doesn't flow.. "Ruiku, who plays piano with incredible passion but is cold and distant to everyone..." so why after the second or third time, he ready to teach Maki? that was out of nowhere and didn't go with the image of who this character was. but need to forward the plot, so lets just magically push things the way we want and need, and suddenly Ruiku not so focused on himself - he ready to be bighearted and share his knowledge?!? "OK".

also really disliked Maki, he was a manwhore at the start and the only reason he got "infatuated" - or rather, interested in Ruiku was cause (1) he presented a challenge. (2) he was the first guy to flat-out turn him down. the "smitten " part started after Ruiku hurt himself - even after getting rejected, Maki wasn't "smitten" he was more fixated cause someone he was attracted too, rejected him. yeah he used the word "love" but there was no love as far as i could see -

the big sacrifice was disgusting, and i guess in some twisted way was proof of love - but i don't get why Ruiku couldn't think about how Maki got the postponement - when he couldn't, not without that sick condition.! he doesn't seem stupid (even though his attitude and behavior after breaking his wrist, was making me wonder). so why couldn't he figure that out all on his own, when that pervy sico told him "lend me ur body..." why he not connect the dots is beyond me -
also why he not mention it to Maki, when he told him he'd spoken to the teacher, that old-fart turned him down but was ready to reconsider if he lent him his body - guess he didn't want to face that sh*t?!? oh well

the rest is more evidence that Maki not only loved Ruiku unconditionally, but that he was willing to sacrifice for that love - but it also showed the dude finally matured - so i had no problem with the end. considering the acting, i really had enough and didn't need an additional scene of them reuniting. so a one off -

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sugar sweet

this was the most endearing, heartwarming, wholesome BL i've seen in a while - from start to finish i couldn't stop smiling cause both the mains, r just adorable - even though Taiichi's dennis the menace personality was just enchanting, i couldn't get enough of him and i "got" why Sugihara fell, so hard and fast for him. doubt anyone could be unaffected by his charm - he was a ray of sunshine and not only cause of his sparkling personality and loud voice, but cause he was a man that stood up for what he though was right and good and he wasn't scared to (literally) fight what he though was wrong/bad. not a lot of people got a back-bone made out of steal, let alone those kind of morals and high standers...

this was a joy to view and see how everything unfolded, i could feel when Sugihara's intrigue turned into wonder cause he was hooked and then he "ran/" cause he didn't want to be hated - not by the one person that brought some light into his dark isolated world.
the fact that Taiichi was as infatuated was all the more touching - even though he still couldn't comprehend what he felt was love and that same thing Sugihara has confessed to feeling - he just knew he cared for Sugihara and wanted to be in his life. if that's not a positive ending - idk what is.

and yeah there loads of serious issue's dealt with Sugihara hearing loss - which was getting worse as the time went by. his isolation and segregation by his peers. let alone Taiichi's back-story (which WTF is wrong with people that decide to bring a child into the world and then ditch him cause they want to move on with their lives?!? sorry but people like this need to be castrated, so they can't bring any more children into the world and toss them aside the sec they had enough) and that deep down even though he doesn't seem so, he is carrying a heavy burden - which ironically is also isolating him as he acts like everything couldn't be better, when he is really hurting. so them finding each other felt like kismet, cause they just "fit".

side note: idk where i've seen Tawada Hideya (playing Sugihara) but the dude is beautiful in this movie and was tempted more then once to stop the scene and just stare at his face, he so beautiful - and not even gonna mentioned when he smiled. so having gotten that off my chest - this was a gem - lovely and sweet in the most organic, soul cleansing way - wholeheartedly recommend and for sure a rewtach!!!

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No redeeming characteristic

First. He’s physically, verbally and emotionally abusive. But he’s also dumb as a box of rocks,
He can’t figure out that the love of his life (who he held captive) was switched when she gives him food he’s allergic too & doesn’t know anything that went on while she was held captive...by him. Like her trying to force him to walk
His assistant enables the abuse so he doesn’t get a pass.
I’ll Give her Stockholm syndrome as an excuse for falling for him (and not cause he bought her a few expensive dresses and hired Her a stylist). But if she loved him, why would you let him stay with an obvious nutcase who has already attempted two murders and then kidnapped her.
Why doesn’t she go to him and say “I’m the woman you love...ask her where she slept the first night” (answer: locked in a storage room cause she slapped him for being handsy)
Her stepmother sold her stole her salary and credit cards and then held her captive and tried to choke her on bread while force feeding her.
And her stepsister is insane. Thinking she could replace her cause her voice is same, People other than assistant saw her so anyone could say who is this woman where is your old servant/maid/companion/whoever she is. And the stylist would say why are you wearing her clothes?
It’s also confusing cause she wears the same clothes so it’s like everything happens in one day

If you think BOF’s kidnapping was romantic you might like this

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" Bonds are bigger than words"

"You're struggling to live. I think it's way better to die just like that. So, trust yourself, and hang in there, OK?" - The warmest line in the whole film

Baby Beside Me" is a very interesting film that presents a different take on a very serious issue.
Lee Yi-kyung he delivered great fashion, as he portrayed a desperate man, truly lost in a life that gets worse every day, making him doubt every single decision he has made in his life, from being with Sun-yeong, to leaving the army.

VERDICT_ It's crushing 2 look at a small family's struggle, to live day-by-day that provides no easy solutions but in its place humility, raw and open vulnerability, compassion and charity. The direction, writing and acting are all very mature and considered.

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They stole the spot of my fav J-MOVIE couple !!!

Watch 'Our Meal For Tomorrow' for:
- lead couple chemistry
- pure and innocent teen love
- engaging storyline

Anyway, the effigy of Colonel Saunders of KFC helped them to have a more lasting relationship. CUTEEE!! :)

VERDICT _ Ryota loved Koharu wholeheartedly that he married her anyway despite her inability to have children. Ahhhh
I personally LOVED this film even with its minor flaws.

P.S Most memorable frm the movie is the way he says to her grandma to "eat up since we all have to die someday" - the headline of the movie!

https://dramacool.pe/bokura-no-gohan-wa-ashita-de-matteru-episode-1.html

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A plain movie abt how 2 schoolgirls contemplate death

I do think Night's Tightrope is a film that could please a broader audience, but it's pretty obvious that it's not going to get that chance. Tsubasa Honda and Mizuki Yamamoto play high-school friends who ponder mortality, and adults’ immorality, in adaptation of crime-fiction novel by Kanae Minato..

Similarly, though the film certainly goes to some very dark places, dealing with themes of revenge and suicide, these dominate a lot of times.

VERDICT_ Yo- give it a try with no expectations. Don't think you'll view humanity in a favorable light after watching this.

https://dramacool.pe/nights-tightrope-episode-1.html

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BOTH TOUCHING & FUNNY -Lacking Excitement

About a man who becomes a cause celebrity after genetic splicing gone wrong - makes him a half-man, half-fish & a (play on corporate-media collusion).

This movie provides too much, using that hauntingly affectless pattern as a launching pad to skewer the media, the government, Big Pharma, religion and even capitalism itself – but never gaining much of a purchase on any of them.

VERDICT _ Worth a one time try. Cast of the film can’t register themselves as they play kooky characters. The score from Jeong Hyun-soo works oddly in the downbeat turn of the film’s second half, and that diffuseness hangs heavily around the whole movie.

https://dramacool.pe/collective-invention-episode-1.html

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the characters in this were really well developed, Kyung Mi was a normal fragile girl next door but that didn't mean she was not capable.
she was smart, she was scared and she was so sweet hearted honestly she was too precious!
Kyung Mi's mom was also smart, honestly most movies make the female characters too naive or dumb and easily fooled but both mother and daughter used their brains and they communicated.
there were small details in their relationship that made them so endearing and believable, like the mom pulling Kyung Mi behind her as if that tiny fragile older lady can "shield" her taller youthful daughter, but it was such a mom thing to do

Do Shik as a psychopath was so captivating, psychopath's lie and he did it so well, like the way he switched characters to fit the scenarios and make the public believe him and even get away with the murder he reported, that was a great move
it also made his downfall even more satisfying.

Jong Tak and his sister felt underdeveloped, tbh even that full long running sequence mixed with him getting fooled and leaving Kyung Mi the 1st time made me reduce my points because that was obviously a ploy for the length of the movie
it's not bad, like the movie happens in "one night", if not even around 4 hours. Kyung Mi and her mom met, the psychopath came in, they went to the station, he followed them home at around 12am


the saddest part was those army kids.. if you see a scared girl, you don't return her to the guy that's following her, even if he played it well and pretended to be her worried brother. heck I've helped lost kids at the mall find their parents and I still wait and check if that's their parents even if just by action, I'm not anticipating a kidnapping but when someone cries and can't talk, you need to observe the situation

I also loved those danger poles, I hope those are real, I've never seen a movie brave enough to add that especially since it can "solve" the chase. though in this case it added depth to the struggles of people with hearing impairment.
though I didn't like how people almost treated her like she's dumb or like a kid. she just couldn't hear or talk, there was no problems with her coherent thoughts
though it also does add the depth of how people treat "different" people

as for the "music" I really loved the times they showed how the world "looked" like from her silent pov, that was a great touch and overall I think the director used the deaf part to enhance the story, and not made it an excuse for the hero to fall. I also liked how they had their phones with them

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"It's human to lie. Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves."

*I have updated this review and my score on a second viewing. My added thoughts follow the original review.*

I'm going to post a short, heretical review of this much lauded film. Much as I wanted to love this film, it had a major stumbling block for me in the story.

That the movie is technically well made is not up for debate. It was a well made movie from 1950. I've enjoyed other Kurasawa movies. I love Mifune Toshiro. Rashomon might have been a profound movie experience for me if the story had not been told through such a narrow male lens.

The Rashomon effect is still used to describe eye witnesses giving different testimony to a single event. People do lie to each other, to the court, and to themselves because of their egos, fears, survival instincts, and inability to face the truth. The film showed this human frailty quite poignantly. The cinematography, music, and acting were exceptional for the time. Mifune's performance as the bandit tinged with madness was unexpected but quite well done although at times it did veer into Ernest T. Bass territory.

Where I diverge from the fans of this movie is in one particular aspect of the film. It repeatedly showed and told the viewer that women were not just physically, but morally weaker than men and were not to be trusted. This was even more despicable because the men were shown as being morally corrupt so the raped woman was even lower than they were. Twice we come away with the woman in the story enjoying her rape and trying to use it to her advantage. In different flashbacks she pit the two men against each other or asked the bandit to murder her husband. That she was willing to go with her rapist was beyond comprehension to me, unless she was planning on murdering him in his sleep. I understand that during the period of time the movie was set in, and even in 1950, a raped woman was looked on as damaged goods. (The Comfort Women after WWII were looked down upon and expected to commit suicide and often shunned by their families.) If the director had convinced me that she was doing what she had to do to survive I might have been able to stomach that part of the story better, but as it was shown it built a fire of anger in my chest, not at the woman but the storyteller for perpetuating some of the most dangerous myths about women and rape. Given, it was a common view of the time, but it didn't make it any less reprehensible to me.

Only in the woman's version does she not come across as a conniving "whore", perhaps only a murderous woman to save herself, but we are also told to not believe a woman's story immediately thereafter.

As much as I tried to overlook the misogynistic view of women and rape in this movie to enjoy the rest of the story, I couldn't escape it. Rashomon, despite all the glorious reviews I've read across the internet, failed to live up to them in my experience.

2 September 2021

*Update on my review:*

Having now watched all but one of Kurosawa’s films for which he was the writer/director I decided to revisit this film about the unreliability of eye witness accounts and how truth is often relative, enigmatic, and subjective. I struggled with it mightily the first time because of how women were not only looked down upon but treated with outright hostility. I wanted to see if my opinion would change on a second viewing of this famous and well-loved film.

When asked about Rashomon, Kurosawa had the following comments: “Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves without embellishing…(these characters) are the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better people than they really are.” “The human heart is impossible to understand.”

The message that people are weak and even lie to themselves for a variety of reasons still resonates. Also, how perspective and memory are faulty witnesses still holds true. I would have to add that perhaps Kurosawa was blind to the depths of his own gender bias. Other Japanese directors from this time frame and even earlier had made films showing how the patriarchal society caused women to suffer, I guess I was just expecting more from one of my favorite directors. I’ve read interviews with him about this film and he discussed at length how they suffered from leeches while filming in the forest, but not even a brief comment about the trauma or suffering rape causes a woman or how he wanted to show the inequality women suffer from. Instead Tajomaru is romantically described as a womanizer.

Social reform, individual responsibility, and equality were important points in many of Kurosawa’s films. Apparently, just for men. Masago’s rape was only viewed as a crime against her husband, and yes, I know this would be historically accurate. I was just looking for a hint of sympathy for her from any of the male characters since she was the only woman in the film. Her testimony in court was dismissed as irrelevant immediately. When she testified, she didn’t even mention her rape because either she knew no one would care or the writers knew that. The only crime was the samurai's death. The male rape fantasy that women really like it and want to be dominated was still appalling. Just one flicker of disgust from the men telling the story to the peasant, anything to tip the hand that her treatment was inexcusable, but nothing. Because all of the voices except one telling the story or judging it were male—the witnesses, the judge, the writers, the director---Masago’s witness was all but ignored. Masago's only weapon against the dominating men was her sexuality, all she had to try and salvage her situation with and save her life. Perhaps Masago was diabolically cruel and cunning, pitting two men’s penises and swords against each other for her own pleasure, her rapist and heartless, cowardly husband, but as was pointed out, “It’s human to lie. Most of the time we can’t even be honest with ourselves,” so I’m afraid I can’t even believe the actor (character) who usually played the moral compass in Kurosawa’s films.

I did bump my score up from a 6.5 to a 7.5 because this is a culturally important film and it was well made, but honestly, and still unpopularly, I didn’t like it any better the second time around. From my own biased witness on this film, if Kurosawa had been making a culturally relevant film that also purposefully highlighted the ruthless way rape victims were treated and the stunning disregard for women instead of reinforcing dangerous beliefs, I’d have rated this much, much higher.

11 June 2024

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talk traumatizing

idk how others r just fine with the content - cause this blindsided me like a MOFO, as is the whole pageant scene (fun and games aside) seemed shady and sordid, and i know as much as beauty pageant r made to seem glamorous, the behind-the-scene's isn't that much different then what we got in this movie - just the girls (cause its publicized) aint as vulgar when they address the public or judges - also they have to up-hold some false image of propriety. here everything was in ur face - literally... and everything was mischief and horseplay, until they got in the car with that disgusting Mayor.

as is the sec he walked into that place with his bodyguard and he carrying a gun - i was like where he a Mayor off?!? perv town in a wild western?!? like WTF - and then the way he was fixated on Ace and Mico made my skin crawl! so when i "got" that Ace's babe was that pig (bad joke i know ugh) my stomach turned, wondering how the hell these two boys got mixed up with that f*cker. and then everyone around that depraved old man knew these were "his boys" aish i wanted to projectile vomit all over the screen.
so from the sec they got in that car i might as well have been watching a slasher/horror flick, this was that distressing - seeing them being verbally pushed and prodded into doing Fernan's bidding - even though they young adults, and meant to be rebellious they were so docile it was shudder inducing and yeah for me it was a hard watch after that - even them "sticking" him like a pig (well deserved) wasn't enough to revive my enthusiasm in watching this - felt like a train wreck and i really wanted to avert my eyes - so afterwards more or less fast-forwarded the rest...

but have to say, in-spite of this being brutal - it was well acted and played out - it showed u how depraved the world is and there was no sugar coating of this mess. all the joking around - lighthearted atmosphere turned dark and ghastly half way through - the end was fitting considering they didn't plan any off what happened, they were desperate, inexperienced and in-over their heads. they were basically just thrown around by the situation they found themselves in, and just had to hang on and push through - so logical ending..

so if u not softhearted (like me) and have no problem with this type of depravity - recommend it to u - and even though this sooooooooooo not my cup of tea, i admit - good movie!

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Amazing one+ get some tissues to wipe some tears

This movie is a Korean remake of Japanese drama film which is soo heartfelt...

This charming tale of a mother who comes back to life a year after her death, with no memory and settles back in with her family, is enhanced by the performances of the big name cast and the newcomers. THE ACTING WAS TOP TIER!!

VERDICT _ I totally loved this movie, your heart will be melted after seeing a affectionate story of father, mother and a child, the friend character is also awesome. AND got some hilarious scenes too...

P.S Cameo of PARK SEO JOON was damn cool !!!

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Gave a real kick in the head !!!

A good & a pulpy crime thriller from Korea of well-worn plot tropes and slick production values.
Supposedly, this was inspired by real events from a decade ago, but, while the 2005 setting is mentioned, it’s barely relevant.

The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil is sure fire hit for fans of this genre. The film doesn't dig too deep, but works because it doesn't get lost in the some of the deeper trappings of the genre.
Yes, it's car crashes and fight sequences and dry jokes, but it's a mix that will make you wow, wince and guffaw in just the right amounts, all carried off with a gritty style.

VERDICT _ A solid, if not quite exceptional, time-passer.

https://dramacool.bz/drama/the-gangster-the-cop-and-the-devil.html

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Dark yet disappointing ...

A story of two young women and one young man in the booming period of the 1990's who rise up with their dreams that fizzle into thin air yet find life in the midst of despair. I knew nothing about Wild Grass going in, except that the cinematography was not going to disappoint. And it didn't, sadly the rest of the film wasn't quite on the same level.

It's a rather messy setup that sometimes works against the film, I think more tonal consistency would've been better here. The use of color and lighting is absolutely stunning though, camera work and editing aren't quite as good, the soundtrack too could've been a bit more distinctive. Wild Grass still fails to grasp the brass ring. An ambitious drama, centered on three people, about trying to realize one’s dreams.

I just found it really hard to connect with any of characters, and the story is kind of messed up, I literally watched this for Johnny Huang, but sadly was a bit disappointed, maybe if it was a series, and give each of the 3 characters there own story line then in this movie where is was all over show it might have worked better.

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