Reviews

Just like FOOD WARS!

This movie gives me that excitement of the anime series food wars, mainly cause one of the main actor looks almost identical to Sōma yukihira in food wars.the fact that Tianci’s father disapproved of his cooking skills also made it fun to watch cause the thrill of how he was gonna prove him wrong kept lingering from the beginning of the movie. I also enjoyed this movie because of the attention to details of culinary skills that the two main chefs embodied. The intense look in their eyes due to the passion they have for cooking and their self-assured character that needs no acknowledgment was just FAB, I LOVE, I LOVE I LOVE!!!....definitely a MUST WATCH.

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i cried overnight when rewatching this

i watch this for the first time when i was in junior high school, but i don’t get it why’s people are cryin like crazy, so i rewatch it last night, and turns out i cried like a fool😭 literally i don’t get the message from Hsu Taiyu 6 years ago, idk if he already in love with Truly first, and just using Minmin as an excuse to get closer with Truly, i feel like he’s the one that really cares for her, and he is the best man ever😭😭 i’ll crying over and over again when i telling everyone about it, especially he always remembered everything about her, and always keep his words, for the seconds time i regret that i don’t watch it more than 1 times, here’s my love for you my Talu Wang💕

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Pleasantly surprised

So before watching this film I read some of the reviews on here as well as other websites and honestly they weren't that great. People complained about the bad acting and terrible writing, so with reason I was reluctant to give this a try, but I did. As I watched I kept waiting for the "bad acting" and "terrible writing" many reviewers claimed was an issue. In my opinion the writing was pretty solid and the acting was actually very good, lowkey better than some of the acting in the most popular BL's. Yes the acting is very over the top and exaggerated but that's how it's supposed to come across as this is apparently adapted from a Manga. Long story short I think this was a really cute BL. The story could've used a little more substance but it did fairly well. I think this is a prime example of how you should not allow reviews discourage you from giving a film or series a chance and experiencing it for yourself.

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A Must Watch!

If there is one LGBTQ+ film you take the time to watch, let it be this.

Can I just say that the south-east Asian countries are really coming through with these queer films. 'Dear Ex' and 'The Handmaiden' had been the only other Asian queer films I had seen before this and the standard was already high, and this certainly lived up to my expectations.

Now I have seen plenty of BL series, mainly Thai but a couple of Taiwanese and Filipino, and I certainly have my own issues with them, but this film is not like that. This is a *real* love story, one filled with hope, excitement, passion and heartbreak. With strong acting and a very gripping storyline, I've already rewatched this and felt even more enthralled the second time round.

Hoping to find a few more similar films to watch because I'm afraid anything after this will be a disappointment lol

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if you believe in true love

●FIRST IMPRESSION
So I was always wondering what the significance of the synopsis describing a scene so vividly. but when I completed the movie I can completely agree with the title describing A MOMENT TO REMEMBER.

●PLOT VIEW
I fell for the character, their love story was saddening yet memorable and touching. I literally cried with them on the way to the vicissitude journey. The movie shows what pure true love is, when you expect nothing and give love with all your faith, you will double fold in return. Choi Chul Soo is the average working person, a girl would want as a husband, he is rude, jealous, insecure sometimes arrogant but the way he showed his love is irresistible, he became the person whom I would search for in my future husband.

●ACTING/CAST
All the characters looked so young since I am watching this movie in lockdown 2021. Son Ye Jin looked so youthful and her acting chops were excellent. This was one of her earliest works and am highly impressed.
This was the first time I watched Jung Woo Sung, and he is exceptionally amazing. His hair, clothes, eyes, body language everything was perfect. He didn’t seem he acted it felt like he lived the role of Choi Chul Soo.

●MUSIC
OST was infused into the scene just as we have the cherry on the cake. it soothed the ears and comforted the souls, relieving the heartache.

●REWATCH
This drama has high rewatched value but I would be diabetic if I watch too much sweet. Yeah, I will wait for some time to rewatch this again.

●RECOMMENDATION
If you like love stories this movie is for you but remember it has a tragic element, so prepare a lot of tissue.

●FAV SCENE
I can't pick one moment because every moment is so mesmerizing. Beautifully scripted and perfectly painted. I would pick the first drinking scene at the roadside tent.

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An absolute emotional rollercoaster!

[[Pls note that english isn't my first language so there might be spelling or grammatical mistakes]]
Honestly when i saw the trailer on rakuten viki I at first wasn't to invested and i started the drama as background noise for drawing. But holy cow i got so invested i couldn't focus on drawing no more! The story is absolutely gorgeous and real that it isn't normal no more. As a part of the LGBTQA+ i can relate to this it's written realistically. The way the two main characters meet is adorable and how they fell apart of the fear of what others might think of them is such a real life problem that many, many people of the LGBTQA+ and me can relate to. The ending fully flashed me and made me cry so extremely hard and the way they always find to each other even after their live has been over is beautiful! I can only recommend this drama it's absolutely gorgeous. The actors did a gorgeous job of acting it felt natural and very organic. I am impressed by this drama that's why i decided to write a Review I'm not a professional in any way but i hope this Review still was helpful to some or that there are people out there who can agree :)

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This is a short film, and a very good one.

The cinematography is wonderful in this, dark but not obscured, creating a sense of claustrophobia and hopelessness.

The acting is really good, and the leads are gorgeous. The latter isn't necessary, but it sure doesn't hurt. The actors seriously committed to the love scenes - no rubber kisses or camera angles used to cheat, and it looked more natural instead of the cheesy romance-novel-cover poses you often see.

The editing was very tight and effective, and the writing was gritty and while not entirely realistic (are all guys that are customers in Light's profession that young and hot?), the story was character-driven and made sense.

This is dark subject matter, and there are things in here that are hard to watch, so if you're triggered by sexual violence, both voluntary and involuntary, this might not be for you. None of it is so bad that it's horrifying, but it's there, albeit restrained, and you don't see the full course of what happens, only enough to let you know it's happening.

A lot of people were upset by a conclusion Shuo jumped to, but remember what Light does for a living, and how many times Shuo told him to stop, yet he continued anyway. That does lead into my only criticism:

This needed to be about 5-10 minutes longer, and better set up the misunderstanding. The fact that so many people felt really upset at Shuo demonstrates that we needed to actually see a couple of the times Light lied to Shuo instead of just being told it happened. That would have given the moment more impetus and we could have sympathized with both characters.

Anyway, I highly recommend this, and I aslo recommend you go to the director's YouTube channel and watch these two guys do comedy, because they're really good at it, especially Jed. There is also a cute and funny interview with the actors there.

I gave this 9 stars in every category except Rewatch Value. There are two scenes I'm likely to watch many times, but otherwise probably not.

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Did he die?

The ending of Part 3 Fallen Flowers left me a bit lost.

WARNING!!! SORTA SPOILER!

If you know the answer, please tell me. Did Haruto kill Ruka? Because I sure got that impression. Which kinda stinks, especially after the HELL Aoyama put Haruto through. Why he would still love that creeper is beyond me. That's really all I have to say, except this trilogy left me with nightmares. So don't watch if you aren't into twisted obscessions disguised as love and a heavy dose of SM. About the only good thing I can say is, the acting was pretty good. Hope the cast all get better parts to play, soon. The music wasn't bad, just emotionally misplaced. Except for the ending on the first part-which felt hollow-the rest of them the characters were gaslighting each other and the audience.

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Why is this my first Miike movie?

I have no idea why this is the first Takashi Miike movie I've seen. The prolific filmmaker has made a bunch of movies that should be up my alley but for some reason this movie is the first of his that I've seen.

It's uh...interesting? It's kind of a mess to be totally honest. The characters are a bit of a type, and there aren't a lot of true surprises when instead you consider the gore-heavy shock elements also at play here. I'm not familiar with the manga and reading up synopsis of that work honestly only made this seem less surprising in context.

Ryunosuke Kamiki, who plays Amaya Takeru, is probably my favorite performance. A good psychopath in this style is probably best done with a sense of manic glee that he embodies so well. He just looks like he's having so much fun, it's hard to really hold all the death against him.

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Mixed feelings

I'll say that just like the headline of this review, Gameboys The Movie left me with mixed feelings... here's why.

First the positives:

1. Watching Gavreel and Cairo along with Pearl and the rest of the gang after season 1 of the series ended is great. The chemistry the whole cast has been able to achieve is something remarkable and Kokoy de Santos and Elijah Canlas really complement each other as one portrays this super confident and sexy character while the other is the nerdy charming guy.

2. Once again acting and directing are on point, especially Canlas and de Santos as they both traverse through the joy and excitement of being together after season 1 ended with Cairo's mother allowing him to spend some time with Gavreel before joining her and his brothers in another province in the Philippines. They way they playfully navigate through a day of just mundane things like laundry or cooking is great, followed by Gavreel's silliness when they go to bed. As other characters arrive we see the joy and also a bit of shock to see the gang all together only to all be spoiled by the arrival of Aunt Susan who resembles so many nosy, annoying family members who have an opinion for everything and are normally wrong.

3. Pearl this time doesn't shine as much as she did in the series because there are more characters and situations arising around here but Adrianna So once again brings a much needed break from the lovebirds with some funny moments and also some dose of reality like the conversation she has with Cairo about the real reason Gavreel never went to NY to live with his Aunt Myra.

Now the not so positives:

1. The storyline was a bit shaky at some points. The movie is 1 hour 47 minutes long but some sequences are a bit unnecessary. Yes, I admit I enjoyed Cairo and Gavreel doing laundry and being a happy couple, but some of those moments tend to be a bit long and super cheesy. Then, there is no real reason for Terrence to suddenly arrive drunk at Gav's house, sure he knows where he lives and he is feeling super lonely, but he literally just crashes the party. Then Wesley arrives just following Terrence as their situation from the special episode (ep 13) in the series gets explained a bit more.
Achilles is another of those characters whose background is not very clear but he had a fling with Terrence back when he couldn't commit or didn't want to commit, so their tense moments, while well acted, really needed a bit more context than what they explained during their fight.

2. Gavreel's background was clear since the series when he mentioned his grandmother Cora raised him after his parents died. Besides that we knew bits and pieces from him, so I think something was a bit of a surprise was the appearance of Aunt Susan. The typical homophobic person who doesn't feel she is homophobic or rude because she uses the excuse of wanting "what's best for Gavreel" or in "the name of God". The religious zealot who confuses everyone and everything with her ideas and concepts of what a relationship should be. She brings a lot of conflicts to Gavreel and Cairo's relationship and also plays the "your aunt Myra is dying" card to cause Gavreel to leave to NY to be with her.
AND, one of the things that bothered me the most was how Gavreel was portrayed as a character here. In the series and in parts of the movie he is a super confident young man who knows he loves Cairo and is happy around him and his friends. But Aunt Susan just reminds him of his past and he just suddenly crumbles under all the stress and pressure. It was a bit surprising to see how this confident, nearly cocky guy, just goes to a puddle of tears and sobs because he can't handle coming out to her aunt, he can't handle his other aunt dying. I know people cope with stress differently, but in Gavreel it was a bit unexpected.

3. The ending was when the mixed feelings fully kicked in for me. On one hand, I knew Cairo had to go back to his family and after talking to Aunt Myra, Gavreel decides to go to NY to live with her. So that was expected... but at the same time it was sad to see them actually leaving and all the tears in-between. I know season 2 is supposed to come at some point and this movie was just a bridge provided by IdeaFirst Company because season 1 ended with the promise of season 2 but the pandemic has delayed filming, so the movie was done to quench our thirst for Gavreel and Cairo but with this ending, I wonder how is the director approaching season 2. Will the show jump several years into the future? Will we get Cairo in the Philippines and Gavreel in NY?

In the end, the movie was a bit long but it did was it was supposed to do, provide us with some Cai-Reel moments alongside the rest of the gang for us to recharge our batteries in order to patiently wait for season 2.

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A teenage Jet Li made his acting debut in Shaolin Temple. Though young, his on-screen charisma was already coming through.

The plot is typical of a lot of kung fu movies. The father was killed by an evil warlord. The wounded son ended up at the Shaolin temple. He learned martial arts so that he could enact revenge. Killing was against the Shaolin way leading to conflict with the warlord and the monks. Anyone who watches old kung fu movies already knows this plot by heart.

If you are looking for a captivating story or character development you won't find it here. What you will find is a movie filled with real martial artists, including some champions instead of actors, meaning the fights were fast and used real moves with almost no wire work.

Disappointingly the martial artists did their own choreography with mixed results. Some of it was very good, other times it was awkward with people in the background jumping up and down with spears, interacting with no one. Jet Li was fast and furious and light on his feet, no complaints about his skills. Yu Hai, a real life Master, showed off a little of his Mantis form. The dialogue was kept to a minimum for the most part. With the exception of Jet Li's and Yu Hai's characters I wasn't emotionally invested in any of the rest as none of them were differentiated.

Fair warning there were several instances of animals being killed on screen and in another a family pet was "hilariously" accidentally killed and eaten. China could really use PETA.

The real temple and scenery around it were beautiful. The story was loosely based on an event in the temple's history. The movie started and ended with shots of the temple and surrounding area and bits about it's history from a narrator. At first I thought I was watching the wrong movie until the story obviously began. Though nice to hear about the history it was a strange way to begin a movie.

Shaolin Temple was enjoyable for me just to watch Jet Li when he was young. One particular set up of him training through the seasons sealed my score for this movie because I liked it so much. Most of the fights were engaging and creative if in need of an overlying guiding hand. If nothing else, Shaolin Temple is worth it for martial arts movie enthusiasts to seek out to see Jet Li launch his movie career.

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Yes the ending was rushed but DON'T MISS THIS. please.

Yes the ending was definitely rushed but DON'T MISS THIS. Please! *spoiler-free*


[ The REVIEW ]
Although you'll find this innocent & sexy story a bit wanting, it's surely something you won't regret watching. The main flaw is that it feels like chapters of this story seem to be missing - nothing wrong with execution, characters or the immersiveness of the story here- the movie will pull you right in and keep you fully engaged till the end- it's just that by the time you come close and closer to the end, you get a clear sense that there was more to be told here - you feel it was rushed.

Q. So should you miss this?
A. No. Don't miss this one.


....Now, lets get into the nitty gritties.....

[ Theme Of SEX ]
This was a story centered around sex and it dealt with it so honestly - for the character Light, a young prostitute, sex was connection, love & all intimacy ever is - he wastes no time in wanting to go there, all he wants is someone to say "I love you" and that's enough to get intimate. Shuo, the undercover cop takes him into his home & looks after him without a second thought but what I think they were trying to show was that there was sexual attraction from the get go, - you see, Shuo has cameras in the alleyway doesn't he, and he knows what Light's been up to. Sex just underpinned so much of this story, it's what drew the characters together in spite of themselves. I liked how they made this their main pull.

And those explicit intimate scenes though- we don't get to see our BL character's being unabashedly sexual - you got some BDSM in here, the character Light is seen sniggering as he's beaten at times and some passionate & convincing scenes between the leads - I kept thinking these actors are amazing to not worry about being typecast as these characters - these are real actors in the sense of the word - go wherever the role requires - bold stuff here but it's what gave sparks to the story, giving the narrative it's high & low points, it's what moves the story forward.



[ The ENDING & Missing Chapters ]
I'm not disappointed with the ending but like everyone has said - something's up with HOW they ended this. What we got was 40 min movie, alright, with the love story reaching it's midway high point at the 30 min mark BUT then within the last 10 mins of the movie a conflict ensues and is resolved quickly- The End! - something was definitely up.

Chunks of story were scrapped and not all loose ends were tied. If you remember, Shuo's character is an undercover cop and he was clearly there to investigate some gangster/goon character - they set that situation up pretty clearly but they never deal with it EVER. My gut feeling is that his undercover cop storyline was meant intertwine with Light's storyline, like Light, being a prostitute would find a way to get caught up in all this mess - but it never happened. We never get to see Shuo in some action scenes and saving the day.

Even Shuo's character isn't really explored - the synopsis of the movie says more about him than the movie itself shows. he's supposed to be a character that "cannot love" said one description of the movie but did the movie ever go there - no. My guess is that this was supposed to be a 2 HOUR flick that was shortened due to COVID and the story was altered to accommodate the shooting limitations.


[ Final WORDS ]
Nevertheless i'm thankful for it having been made. it was worth watching. Liked the characters, the situations they were put into and how convincingly the love story progressed. This could have been a classic BL 10/10 EASILY, which is was makes me feel bad - there was stuff missing from it that's all. I genuinely think the filmmaker didn't get to tell all he wanted to tell here. Regardless they showed us enough to understand these characters & appreciate their relationship.

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A GEM FROM SOUTH KOREA

Perfectly shot, lighted, acted, directed, scored. A hidden gem from Korea.

A little sad atmosphere and themes (rejection, loneliness), but realistic as well. Love the story.

When Won Gyu (the flight steward) tells his ex that he is now “with a 34-year-old” and he tells his new “friend” (the one in orange jacket) that he is now “with a 24-year-old,” it means he lied to both. He is actually single because of the trauma that happened to him before.

He doesn’t want to go back and stay in Korea because he was a victim of homophobia, publicly humiliated and outed, and disowned by his father.

Sex scenes were done tastefully. Chemistry is intense.

Character driven movie, instead of plot driven. Acting is superb!

Definitely deserves a perfect rating.

I LOVE THIS MOVIE A LOT.

10 / 10.

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