Reviews

WARNING: Spoilers Below, Read at Own Risk

This movie is set in Amsterdam. The ML is a hired assassin. The FL is a painter. Ever since he saw her painting daisies in the countryside, he has been essentially stalking her, leaving potted daisies for her daily. One day, she meets a man, an undercover Interpol agent, and by chance he brings her potted daisies. She tells this agent about her secret admirer, but instead of telling her the truth he stays silent because he doesn’t want to lose her. The ML, although extremely dangerous in his line of work, decides to approach her. So, a love triangle ensues, with both men refusing for their own selfish reasons not to tell her the truth. The ending is tragic. Although there is no happy ending, the acting is superb and the movie is so emotionally charged and beautiful to watch.

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It's another city kid gets dropped off at rural grandparent's and has a hard time adapting but grows attatched with time story, but that doesn't make it any less heartwarming! Absolutely adorable and genuine, so worth the time. Cutie patootie baby Yoo Seung-ho! And the mute grandma, she looked way too real in her hunchback and demeanor, I was telling my mom that this doesn't look like an actress acting the part, and to my amazement turned out I was right! The granny is not an actress, nor had she even seen a movie before, and the director did extensive research in rural areas to hire actual villagers to play themselves so it'd look authentic. This granny was merely following the director's guidance, in her 70's!
Rip, she passed away last year 🥺

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That was so cute! Yoshizawa Ryo as Yori, a shy, introverted student in love with an up and coming actress, his childhood crush. Yeah, yeah, cliché, I know, I get it... but I can't get enough of "the ugly duckling is actually a swan" trope, so sue me!

And this had some really sweet scenes regarding the Reveal(TM). First when Yori crashed into the director and lost his glasses and the director went all O.O! And then, when said director allowed Yori to be the stand-in for a famous actor who left the set prematurely, before the filming was done, and when they prepped him up and he walked in, when the whole crew went O.O!!! It had me all a-giggle! Because Yoshizawa Ryo is really, really but REALLY pretty!

So, nothing new, true, basically your typical romantic movie but it still made me smile. Also, have I mentioned that Yoshizawa Ryo is REALLY pretty here?

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A Summer at Grandpa's sounds like an idyllic childhood romp through the flowers. And while there are moments of childhood glee, this is a Hou Hsiao Hsien film and there's always a deeper narrative camouflaged under the sunny surface.

Tung Tung (11) and Ting Ting (4) were sent to their maternal grandfather's rural house for the summer while their mother lay ill in a Taipei hospital. Far from a cuddly grandpa, this grandpa was the village's doctor and rarely interacted with the children. Tung Tung made friends quickly with the local boys. In the days before cell phones, dvds, cable, and video games they did what most kids did, went outside and played. They skinny dipped in the local creek splashing and playing. Again, Hou never leaves any scene too shiny, and the boys had to exit the creek when cow dung floated into their play space.

Ting Ting suffered the fate of many a little sister and was left out of the boys' games. She spent most of the time with her stuffed animal or plastic fan, ultimately befriending the local mentally ill woman.

As Tung Tung hung out with his friends or lounged bored at his grandpa's house, he began to see behind the world of the adults around him. His childhood became breached by reality and the signaling approach of growing up. Even in the pastoral town, rape, an aggravated assault and robbery, a shot gun wedding, and family discord took place. Tung Tung went from casual observer to participant in the adult world around him as the movie rolled on. He also discovered that adults were capable of childish, petulant behavior. Adulthood, it would seem, is an ongoing process.

This film is a slow slice of life story shown through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy as those eyes begin to open to what is happening outside of himself. A Summer at Grandpa's bids Tung Tung and the audience to become more observant of the small details and meaning in the world around us.

(Trigger warning---if you are sensitive to animals being harassed or dying you might want to skip this movie or fast forward through a couple of scenes.)

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a different kind of love story

Just like what other says, it is a toxic kind of relationship. althought it is a toxic love i personally love this movie. I love the flow of the movie, and how it makes the character change. this is not a typical gay movie that we all watch, this is something new that everyone should watch. There are many lessons that we can learn to the characters and to the their actions. Just like "If you love someone too much, youll lose yourself and shatter". So in the movie, you will be questioning the actions of the characters because those actions were painful that you hope that he or she will do the opposite thing. But i really like how otomos character improved throughout the movie, imagase's character can be seen in some relationship where they tried to do everything for there love even if they hurt themselves.

I really commend the actors in this movie and the directors, producers and other staffs for producing such an excellent movie.

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Are these visions of the future or memories of the past?

Recalled was a mystery, thriller, melodramatic and stars Seo Yea Ji and Kim Kang Woo. We follow Soo Jin(Seo Yea Ji) a woman suffering from amnesia due to a horrible accident and Ji Hoon(Kim Kang Woo) a loving husband who is always by her side.right from the start we are shown the confusion of Soo Jin not being able to remember anything and experiencing hallucinations. This continues for like an 1hr into the film and we are left to wonder who Soo Jin can really trust, Her "memories" or Her husband? I personally didn't know who to trust either and is in the same dilemma with Soo Jin. I wanted to trust her memories however she always gets these visions wrong, on the flip side the husband was suspicious and secretive. It was predictable and lackluster that had me unengaged at times because of it seemingly having little to no progression. Adding to that I was worried if the movie will be able to finish strong, however after the pieces are fitted in together does finish strong and I would recommend it just for the last 30minutes. The story is common and added nothing new to thrillers but it was still delivered well and gave ok thrills, so that's a plus. Acting was also amazingly done, Seo Yea Ji gave us an amazing performance and showed us the complexity of his character as the girl who blames herself, lost her memories, and no one believing in. Kim Kang Woo also was great giving us a pitiful, caring, and wholehearted brother that is willing to sacrifice himself for her step sister whom she loves. It shows us to what length a person can go to protect his/her love one. The music was terrible it added no value to the movies which is unfortunate because a good music could have leveled this up. It gave a similar tone and experience personally to memoir of a murderer with the amnesia and unreliable storytelling. Cinematography was okay, at times it was perfectly shot at times it was bad. Not something you would want to rewatch because of it's slow pacing and reveal but was an okay 1 time watch. Overall recalled was decent watch not something you should immediately watch right now but if you're a fan of either Seo Yea Ji or Kim Kang Woo then I do recommend this, just not set too high of expectations.

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A loving metafilm for Ishinomori's toku staples, strongly recommended, a blast.

*pulled from my LB review, vague spoilers*

The Matrix, Evangelion, and now Kamen Rider (and Sentai), was 2021 the year of the major metatext movies or something?

A pretty rousing anniversary crossover movie, it actively delves into the burden of storytelling in creating conflict and that even the pretence of heroism exists as a response to evil, something that the Decade x W crossover movie was a bit more subtle about, so it is almost familiar territory, but nonetheless, the maximalism here is incredibly captivating in its own way.

One of Rider’s newest protagonists literally having a conversation with the—fictitious recreation of—Rider & Sentai’s original writer, questioning the value of stories of conflict and the idea of subjecting characters to harm as a haunting act of creation before arguing its necessity in dealing with the inevitable good and bad inherent to reality and humans themselves and not fully retreating into escapism.

While the lens of Toei as a pretty major company making some incarnation of a dead figure having a dialogue with a new character from a franchise he spawned but who he didn’t directly create while the new character argues for the continued existence of heroes almost seems dubious, you can’t help but feel the earnest sincerity and accepting the bittersweet declarations at the end as heartfelt and truthful, it works quite well.

There are maybe some complaints to be had in how it feels like more of a Rider movie than a balanced one with Sentai, and some of the early parts feel like fluff with so-so cameos, the film is really carried by its pure spirit and spectacle. Just when I thought Heisei Forever was jaw-dropping in how over the top and fun it is, the back half of this film cranks it up even further, just astounding.

With concerns to Touma being the representative for this big meta story, it makes sense since the motif of Saber is stories after all, and I think I’d consider him more of the proper 50th anniversary Rider since the bulk of Saber fell on 2021 as opposed to Revice STARTING in 2021, so it was pretty contextually appropriate even though Touma may not be the most popular Rider (I think he’s solid at least), and just as Saber’s own TV ending was the affecting and grand finale about the power of storytelling, so too is this a similar complement to that.

Just an absolute blast, tender and exciting; I think Touma’s reconciling with trying to return to reality happens a bit too suddenly including the hardship he feels in parting from Luna, but the notes are still there broadly, and you could hardly ask for a more loving tribute to the 2 major franchises here (even if Sentai is a bit skewed against Rider, though Rider has the bigger anniversary here after all).

One of the best Rider movies, highly recommended.

P.S. This movie also gets bonus points for making Reika more serious again, cutting her brocon crap, as well as downplaying Den-O’s role in the back half mercifully (and I say that as someone who likes Den-O but think it’s way oversaturated), even if they do have a part in the front half to a degree.

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Not bad, but not nearly as good as Ghost proper (which is great btw!)

*pulled from my LB review*

Retains some of Ghost's energy in a quaint story about the world of heroes in some afterlife-esque place where Makoto's dad got stuck at during his research on the Eyecons and all I guess, and Alain's other brother, Argos tries to collect 100 Heroic Eyecons (to the main series' 15 or so) to turn everyone into ghosts for immortality presumably because he failed to get himself revived earlier. Argos' plan is kind of intriguing in that sense, and the family connections with Makoto and Alain here hope to add relevance, but it all feels kinda barebones, needed way more fleshing out.

The pacing is also pretty uneven, and it concludes with some weird plot devices and yet another Takeru death & revival, but it feels especially unbelievable with this movie's inherent pseudo-canon side-story nature, but yet they still try to sell you on Takeru's noble sacrifice and all, even closing on the dramatic reveal of his revival then the credits roll.

Feels like your average Rider movie with the typical shortcomings and all, but I think the criticisms are a bit overblown (given Ghost's pre-existing bad rep among the other entries of the franchise, but is one of my favourites), and again, still has some of Ghost's charisma, sense of fun and all to make it digestible.

It's fine; I was amused.

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Inoue's best toku thing in YEARS, a loving tribute to KR old & new.

*pulled from my LB review*

Winds up kinda simple, the ponderings on life and Nova Shocker trying to rule the world through economic power as opposed to Shocker with their authoritative, physical power wind up as footnotes than more elaborate philosophy and plotting, but it’s still fun nonetheless.

The idea of the changing face of both good and evil is quaint, and it’s fitting that this movie came in time for one of Heisei’s more self-conscious and doubtful heroes to be the representative of modern struggles (more personal challenges and socio-political anxiety) against the more pure, emblematic ideas of heroism back in Showa (Japan’s post-WWII aspiration for moral atonement, recovery and direction) bouncing off each other.

We see Takeru’s open admission of needing support while sharing his inherent want to protect others challenged by the more self-sufficient and stoic values of Takeshi, the latter asking the former, carrying the torch just what exactly life means and what makes it precious, leading to Takeru charging head first into danger after Takeshi’s initial “loss” even though he and Makoto had continually lost to the villains themselves, but recognize that they had failed to protect a life, but instead of doubting, running away and resigning, they press on in the hopes that they won’t fail again and there will be further losses. Then Takeshi comes back to recognize his own enduring importance in guiding the new generation and lending a helping hand when he had the option to back out of the conflict, his spirit reborn, fighting for peace for as long as he is able before the torch will properly pass anyways.

It’s a nice anniversary film celebrating Rider’s long history, a bit similar broadly to the Decade crossover movie’s idea about Tsukasa/Decade being the Rider born whenever a hero is needed again, but this was more of an homage to 2 different times and all and didn’t feel too redundant anyway.

Nothing major and occasionally a bit choppy, but the action is pretty solid, the character interactions are nice, the pacing is decent and it’s all around pretty amusing and fun, good Sunday afternoon cinema.

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Step down from previous Gaiden, worth a look, but thorny.

*pulled from my LB review*

Duke half is fine, more of a shared backstory thing for all the Yggdrasil members individual origins, plot about some former researcher starting a brainwashing terrorist group seemed kind of vague and unmemorable, I think the highlights were really just the early bonding and backstories for the Yggdrasil members and how Ryoma showed his loyalty to Takatora but remained fixated on his own self-serving goals.

Knuckle section is more interesting but kinda complicated.

Don’t remember all the specifics of Gaim too vividly after watching so much Rider and having seen it as only the 2nd Rider series I’d completed, but despite moments even in the previous Gaiden for Baron showing Kaito’s troubled upbringing, he remained fixated on his tyrannical goals to the end of the series iirc (whether that “destroy this world” was figurative or not either I can’t recall) but he was still kind of a bad dude all the same.

This section—coming after the series end—is a nice further denouement for the series (to an extent), showing Team Baron’s side now trying to move forward without their original leader, who again, wanted to sort of conquer everything.

It deals with the formation of Team Baron and how it was a pretty friendly dance group before Kaito overtook the group by force, further showing his bad Machiavellian side, but Zack also trying to wax nostalgic about the group all the same. Kaito forcing his way into (and properly establishing) Team Baron was an event that seemingly created a severance and formed ideological sides in the wake of it, now furthered with Kaito’s death and the legacy he left.

It serves as the crux of the plot where the villain here, Shura, was exiled by Kaito from the group for being cowardly, and is now creating a Neo Baron team to carry Kaito’s philosophy of might makes right in a way. Zack believes Shura’s group is a misrepresentation of Kaito’s beliefs, and tries to end Neo Baron and its violent cult-like ways.

That kind of schism from a key formative event positively recalled Fist of the North Star for me, with some characters who walk different paths of life based on different interpretations of a philosophy or how they wrestle with grief, but again, iirc, Zack was kind of opposed to Kaito’s lust for power by the end of Gaim and tried to stop him, and Kaito was never really a very righteous guy, so seeing how Zack had those peaceful days with the dance crew pre-Kaito and was opposing Kaito towards the end, it seems strange that he would fight for some vague sense of honour for Kaito’s ideals, because if anything, Shura’s Neo Baron kind of emulates Kaito’s lust for strength pretty accurately, and instead of Zack trying to reconcile with the proper idea that Kaito was a bad guy, he just clarifies that Shura was exiled not because he was weak, but because he was a coward, boiling down to something kind of pedantic, and never trying to truly make a case for Kaito as some noble figure, even at the end when he sees a vision of Kaito and is communicating with him, lamenting he never truly understood him and might never do so either.

Again, it could be that this makes more sense if I remembered something more good natured about Kaito’s goals and that Zack might not have truly rejected him at the end, but it makes the actual conflict of interests here a bit muddier and Zack’s intentions harder to get behind, which is unfortunate because I liked how this was setup initially, but it just doesn’t totally click in the end, and closes on a weird, sort of ambiguous note after some of the more optimistic sentiments earlier about trying to build a happy world in the absence of Gaim’s major figures with this and Gaim’s actual ending.

More frustrating and ultimately less essential than the previous double Gaiden, it’s fine but a bit confused and lacking still.

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Not as bad as people say, though a farcry from Gaim's heights

*pulled from my LB review*

Gaim is my favourite Heisei series, but a few people I follow mentioned this movie was really awful, even for a more low bar for Kamen Rider movies, but I didn't see anything particularly terrible about it.

It's a farcry from Gaim's quality ofc, but this isn't written by 'The Butcher' anyway, so obviously it's just gonna be a little theatrical cash-in and not some exceptional film or anything. The writing is a bit passive and murky at times, not helped by kinda standard direction making it a lull at times, stuff about conflict and a very loose garden of eden story that lacks energy, but it has its moments like Sano showing off his (? pretty sure, unless it was a stunt double) gymnastic skills in that opening soccer game with those wild flips, Baron doing some wild stuff on the motorcycle, another horse riding battle, etc, but most importantly, a nice little scene that reaffirms Kouta's values - that despite so many people around him choosing to fight, seek power and be wicked, some as former friends, he continues to fight on their behalf, to not cave to a misanthropic futility and hold his optimism in trying to fix everything back in his world and all.

The ending feels a bit empty, but on the other hand, you could say it's a bittersweet one thinking about Kouta having to return to his own world after seeing brief glimpses of peace as a dream and all; not immediately effective, but a bit interesting in the larger context and the greater despair Kouta has to face in the series down the line.

Pretty lackluster relative to the Gaim series, but acceptable on its own terms.

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A sleep-inducing bore that is bad both as an Ichigo remake and a film, period.

*pulled from my LB review*

I think I’m being awfully generous for this, maybe I’m fixating too much on Inoue’s credit, not wanting to give this a lower score than Kiva, but god, this is so lame.

The storytelling is just completely apathetic - slow pacing, low energy mood, almost no suspense, barely any plot build-up, unfeeling editing, sparse, weak action, every actor looks bored out of their minds, shallow characterization, just totally sleep-inducing.

I wouldn’t be so upset if this wasn’t intended to be a celebration and reimagining of the original Kamen Rider series, because it doesn’t seem like a single person here cares about what they’re doing, like it’s mind-boggling the degree of how passive this thing is, everything just “happens” almost completely drained of any emotional or dramatic inclinations. It just makes it all the more damning when it’s meant as a reimagining the very first Kamen Rider and everything, if it was just some weak original entry doing its own thing, it could just be ignored, but one has to wonder how anyone would possibly think this was an acceptable homage when seeing this.

The biggest thing this movie cares about is talking about WATER CRYSTALS, it’s mentioned repeatedly as seemingly the only thing that matters, not the leads as characters, not Shocker’s background and plan, not the romance, they seem to give the most care to talking about that of all things; it is kind of meant to be symbolic for evolution in life and love within an individual or something, but it’s brought up a lot and seems completely unimportant when every other element of the story here is so lacking.

This movie filled me with a weird aggravation at how something could be so fundamentally disinterested in even “being”, the visceral response I got here felt similar to the sensation I would get from something with a lower score, but yet there’s little that’s noticeably egregious about the writing to legitimately upset me, it was just baffling how boring it was is all, so for the time being I feel like I can go easy on it for not constructing something legitimately stupid like Kiva or anything, and the movie is strangely a bit relaxing with some of the settings, mild tone, aesthetics and all if you try and tune out the stuff that’s actually about Kamen Rider in here, probably best to have it with no subtitles and with some tranquil music playing as you watch, with the movie muted even maybe.

Unfathomably dull, hollow white noise as a Kamen Rider movie, but inoffensive and potentially soothing if you just kinda gloss over the narrative and just watch the visuals, otherwise entirely skippable.

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A shockingly bleak Zero-One follow-up, quite exciting.

*pulled from my LB review*

Adds more information on some of the lingering threads of Zero One, partly illuminating, partly further complicating the culpability of who is to blame for Ark, MetsubouJinrai, why Jin was originally revived, etc. Feels like a bit of a reiteration of some of the war profiteering stuff touched on in the series proper, but made a bit more succinct here (albeit after some convoluted explanations early on in the film).

Now it is better framed as a bigger, badder dude above Gai contributing to the creation of Ark which relieves Gai—a character with a somewhat muddied history and awkward redemption arc (or lack thereof)—of at least a bit more of the blame, as Lyon Arkland’s unrepentant megalomania makes him a much cleaner target for a lot of the bad stuff happening.

With this revived conflict too, it is now staged after MetsubouJinrai’s own turn to good at the end of the series, their continued attempts to make amends and fight off any emerging new Arks to save HumaGears and humanity both making them more noble and sympathetic, only for Lyon Arkland to drive in the self-doubt further in them, as if their existence being made to eradicate humanity can never be escaped from. And so, with that doubt and Lyon currently exploiting Sold type HumaGears for his war games, MBJR acts as a martyr to free the Sold types from Lyon’s control, fully becoming Kamen Rider MetsubouJinrai and overriding their control, embracing the Mass Brain system, and becoming a final clear evil themselves.

Alas, this ends on a cliffhanger, so I’d honestly advise any Zero One watchers to wait on the Valkyrie and Vulcan V-Cinema to come out first. That’s honestly the bigger concern than knowing the context of the film preceding this, RealXTime, which hasn’t been subbed yet.

Kinda familiar, some of the explanations are a bit convoluted, and the fights in this aren’t that great, mostly just some suited fisticuff brawls really, little in the way of weapons, elaborate choreo or many special attacks and such. Nonetheless, the added humanizing for the MetsubouJinrai gang, how the story and context adds on a palpable feeling of guilt and self-doubt and all the complications that arise from that along with making some of the war profiteering and complicated ZAIA threads a bit more clear is nice, not bad.

Also big props for all the Canadian representation - Jai West while a bit corny in some places, brings some of his welcome twisted charisma for a fun villain of this V-Cinema, and the Monkey Majik closing track is pretty sweet.

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Adequate but inessential Zero-One coda film.

*pulled from my LB review*

Honestly, aside from the opening 15 minutes and maybe parts of the last 15, I thought this was kinda dull.

After an initially confusing yet somewhat captivating opener throwing you right into the action and with a countdown framing device to seemingly add some more (artificially created) immediacy to the events, the film instead turns into this low energy, very passive mystery trying to figure out the situation with Es’ sudden appearance and motivations and everything, but none of it feels particularly captivating. Aruto wanders through a virtual consciousness space with some enigmatic woman slowly learning what Es is trying to accomplish on the surface level before trying to recover and get back to fighting Es with a bunch of weird stops and starts, MetsubouJinrai, Isamu and Yua kinda just scramble around trying to do some hacking and research and Gai interrogates one of Es’ subordinates to get some clues, but the action really dies down and the Paradiso group just kinda drifts around for a while.

Everything feels more lax and low stakes than it should be, and Es’ backstory is sympathetic but kinda familiar and unfelt with all this clumsy structural juggling and boring events going on throughout the film, unable to keep tensions high, so it feels pretty inert, especially with how brief and uneventful the ending is. I was hoping with Zero One’s abridged episode count due to COVID, they might try to make up for some of the shortened arcs and cut developments as best they could with these supplementary materials (this very movie even given more time in a double bill Toei hero film mashup than usual (shaving off 10-20 minutes that could’ve been given to the Saber movie to add to this) but it just does more damage to the film by making it feel like more of a drag.

With the Zero One TV series’ frustrating rollercoaster of quality, at least I was pretty captivated with it most of the time, this is just fairly boring, definitely one of the weaker stories to come out of this Kamen Rider iteration imo, but it’s still fine.

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Not quite up to Gaim's high bar but not bad. Zangetsu good, Baron a bit odd.

*pulled from my LB review*

Bit of an oddity.

The Zangetsu half is a truncated but still good little supplement to contribute more to showing Taketora’s soft side in a small but tragic little tale about a bond he shared with his family servant ruined by the malicious side of the Yggdrasil foundation and a sins of the father kind of deal, while Taketora still tries to remain loyal to his beliefs in an ends justifies the means method. Taketora walks a similar path to his father with the corporation and everything, but knowing all the bad things he has to do for a greater peace so he believes, showing his true kindness but lamenting his actions for his goal. It’s a nice reaffirmation through both him and even Micchy a bit to show how they are sacrificing their own connections and self-respect for something bigger, as he probes his little brother about if he too could find it in himself to betray his friends to do what’s right, something Micchy believes he can do with a heavy heart. It’s more subdued and has a nice gravitas to it that works, even if it could all be more nuanced and expanded if not for the format.

Then you get to Baron’s half.

Basically a repeat of Toshiki Inoue’s tonally jarring doppelgänger episodes of Blade, Kaito runs into a look-a-like who forcibly switches places with him and shenanigans ensue before we learn Shapur, the doppelgänger, is the son of some big businessman who is trying to kill him off since he was illegitimate (?) and not a proper successor to the business. A side story for Kaito sounds very promising since he gets a bit overshadowed and takes a lot of Ls in the main series as things go on, but this story lacks some of the sensitivity of the first half for the central plot - it’s nice that it adds more to Kaito’s backstory about why he always yearns to be strong and ruthless, coming from an abusive childhood and everything, and obviously it shows the parallel with Shapur having his own bad dad figure and Kaito empathizing with him, the former in a way just a kinder, more naive and weaker version of Kaito himself, having come from similar poor parental relationships, but the core story feels awkward and cheap, the corniness doing a bit of disservice to Kaito’s angst and everything; the serious stuff is well-meaning, but it is drawn out by something that undermines it with its silliness, so it leaves a bit to be desired.

Decent little extra content for Gaim’s secondary characters, but both characters should’ve probably had their own dedicated V-Cinema to truly make the best of their extra backstory stuff and enrich their characterization further. Good, but not filling enough.

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