Reviews

A very soft teenage story about two boys about to graduate

STRONGBERRY is once again back with the good, good queer short films and I, for one, love to see it. This time, we meet two very sweet best friends in the moments just before graduation with all of the things left unsaid that they really want to say before they have to take their first steps in the adult world. The story is simple, perfect for the format and it did not feel like something was missing. It takes very universal topics and conversations (what will happen after we graduate, wanting to tell your best friend you love him and being afraid to say it) and uses its time very well to explore them. It felt very real and very earnest. Haven't we all wanted to say something, especially when it comes to love, and always thought "oh I have time", until you arrive at the fork in the road and you have to decide what to do because it is the last moment to say what you have to say to the other person before you each take your own path? This is a good exploration of just this and I would take a longer show of this, but I am also very appreciative of people who know how to pick the best format for stories and the best stories for the format. This short film made me say "aww, sweeties" aloud and also made me smile my biggest smile because cuties! Bless teenagers!

The actors did a really good job in portraying those two teenagers, they were very believable, and honestly gave me flashbacks.
The production, as for all of Strongberry's short films, is very strong with some nice shots, sound, and music. It really is a pleasure to watch.

If you are looking for the next video to watch during your break, I can only recommend that you watch Strongberry's Pride gift for this year, and check out the very soft and very good "Hold me". It delivers on its premise and promise and gives exactly what I want from a short film.

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A GL short (maybe too short) film with a lot of potential and nice fights

I am always looking for GL content in my life so when I saw this short film recommended on a rec list on tumblr, I knew I had to check it out. When I saw that it was wuxia as well, I was overjoyed because I do love wuxia.

This is a 15 min film and sadly like a lot of GL content out there (Especially wuxia GL content), it is really short. It is hard to have a full story that is developed when it is so short. I keep watching and yearning for more. This film knows its tropes and it manages to scratch the surface of a worldbuilding that could be very interesting had it been given a bit more space. We have the young heroine who is slightly naïve, but wants to fight and learn, but is being pushed down by the men in her family and sect, who decides to follow them and meets this mysterious badass lady who is secretly the demon cult leader and came to fight against the men and their sects at the martial arts conference, only to be followed everywhere by this young woman who won’t let go and admires her and wants to learn from her. It is a classics among classics and it could bring a different point of view, but it is so short. I want to know more about the characters, about what happened to Xiqao between the flashbacks and the present, I want more time for their relationship to develop (it is very light on the GL content because like the rest, it does not have time to be truly developed).
Still, it has some nice fights, it has a lot of potential, and some really nice shots at times. I am really curious about the rest of the director’s work.

I do not have a lot to say about the acting, it wasn’t amazing, but it also wasn’t distractingly bad. If you’ve watched Legend of Yuqian, I would put it at the same level.

I am not sure, I would necessarily rewatch it, but I am glad I did watch it and I would recommend it to everyone who wants more GL wuxia content in their life (I know I do). Let’s support the director and actors who give us those short films and let us hope for longer works soon!

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Polly Ling Feng Shang Kuan was stuck with a ML who was as stiff as the statues he carved in this deadly murder mystery. The mystery gave Polly and Li Lung Hua a reason to traipse over the country side and get into almost continual fights with people. An added complication was that someone kept sending assassins to kill Li as the two searched for the killer.

The story had a nice mystery thread running through it, but the main plot tended to get lost in the weeds in the telling of it. One of the huge problems was that the fight scenes were often shot in the dark or had choppy editing. The director loved to have intense close ups and pull back--repeatedly. Polly and her double kept the action moving and it looked like fists and feet were landing shots. Li's kung fu looked like he was fighting three feet away from his opponents much of the time. Li Lung Hua was only in 8 films and if this film was any indication of his acting and kung fu talent he probably did need to find another career. I have to say, I laughed a lot while watching this movie, though I'm sure the filmmakers didn't intend for the audience to do so.

Lung Fei made a guest appearance as an assassin and a personal favorite, Lo Lieh, played one of the suspects in the murder case. These two helped make the movie more interesting for me, especially Lo Lieh. If Polly seemed overly animated it might have been because she was trying to infuse energy into her scenes with her lethargic co-star. Unfortunately, in the dubbed version I had to watch the voice over actress gave her a whiney voice. I'm pretty sure one voice actor must have voiced all the men and he made some curious choices at times to try and differentiate the characters.

A few of the fight scenes were creative including a contest on large iron balls. There are a couple of twists in the story to make things more interesting. Overall, it wasn't enough. In a kung fu film if the fights are not inspired and the actors are lacking in charisma no amount of jade arhats can save it. Only for fans of Polly or hard core kung fu fans.

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This is worth watching, it is a great film.

This is a short movie that is very cute and has a nice message. The story is to the point and without any drama, fights, 3rd wheels interfering, and so on. It is just a simple love story. The two guys start out by not getting along so well, but things quickly progress.

The actors are gorgeous, and they did a terrific job for this being one of their only films. I hope to see them get additional projects in the future.

The whole thing is less than 20 minutes long, and there is no filler. The last scene is adorable, and I would love to see another episode to see where this led.

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The story, the characters, the actors, the music, the song (oh the song!!), everything is a perfection. I looove the Japanese small village setting. The quietness, the scenery, the people, their community house. Safe to say this is my favorite Japanese film so far.

The story seems simple, but the realistic characters depiction makes us hooked. Nagisa is a flawed person. A perfectly depicted and acted character though. Shun-kun is just so perfect, both the character and the actor who played it. And don’t get me started with the cute Sora-chan.

But amongst all these perfections, if I’m asked to choose just one, the very best one thing about the film, it would be the ending song, Maria Road by Ibuki Sano. The song started to play right after the last scene. And perfectly captured the whole emotion of the film. It got me stay still during the song treasuring all the emotions, digesting the film that I just saw.

So beautiful. Such a precious cinematic experience. Not a dull moment at all.

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This is adorable and smart

This is a one-off short, and it doesn't rise beyond fluff, but it rises about as high as fluff can get, and even if that's not your thing, I think you might like this.

There are zero tropes in it, which is so refreshing. There is no "but we're both guys!" nonsense - it's just a straightforward romance, and it feels like one between two normal guys - not two Victorian 12 year olds, not a plaster-cast seme and uke, just two guys.

The dialogue is really clever and cute, and the guys are confident and witty, but not without youthful insecurity at the right couple of moments.

The main character, Rossi, is gorgeous - it's so nice to see a darker actor cast and not caked with makeup to whiten him. He's also naturally sexy and charismatic, although it's hard not to be when you look like that. The other guy does a great job too.

Watch it! The worst that can happen is you'll lose 17 minutes.

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INTERESTING & MIND BENDING MOVIE (Great spoilers ahead)

Great movie. Require some brain cells to understand it😅

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Cheong seok(Ml lead)
Ae ran(Fl lead/Red maid)
Seon hwa(Monk)
Dong jin(cop)

STORY:
The story starts with a man telling a story of Buddha and demon's eyes that Buddha seperated those eyes(black and red) from each other one in east and one in west.In movie one is present in Desert 🏜️ and other was present in a temple under protection of Monks where Cheong seok(Ml lead)was present at start of movie. These eyes were seperated by Buddha but they can again meet in future and cause disasters on earth. There is procedure of awakening of eyes and meeting again which is 7 stepping stone. Then a archaeologist trying to prove that, this Legend is true and the eye that was hidden in the desert🏜️ (the red one), he found it. He told the people that what I said to you was really true. Look i found it but no one believes him.He wants to prove it desperately. So He used blood of seven people for awakening red eye. After awakening, the red eye have to pass 7 stepping stones to reach the black eye.
The monks didn't know the all stepping stones among 7 except last one which is VIRGIN SHAMAN. They wanted to kill her so that both eyes can't meet and prevent disaster .

Seon Hwa(monk) And Cheong Seok(ml Lead):
Cheong seok was sent to seon hwa by the monk present at temple to inform him that Demon is coming. Cheong seok said to him (seon hwa) that he seems fimiliar to him he don't know the reason but yes he met him at funeral of her mom.His mom cause car accident because she was drunken. During this accident, two people died which is the family of Seon Hwa(monk) his daughter and wife. Cheong seok's mom was given sentence. But seon hwa was not happy why she was not given life sentence so he cause disturbance in court which the detective mention. But Cheong's mother could not get through the guilt and commit suicide and asked Seon hwa to protect her child but he wanted to kill him as payback but couldn't do so. Then, he left the temple and started working at construction sites. When he left the temple the duty was given to him to guard Sarira casket transferred to Cheong seok.

7 STEPPING STONES & Dong jin:
The blood used are of people who tried to commit suicide but survived. The eye moves from person to other by hiding in their bodies by recognizing the smell of blood (The eye can smell the blood of all 7 people because it was used in its awakening)and reaches the door of VIRGIN SHAMAN but she use the blood of dong jin(cop) as alternate of her when he came to her for talisman as he was not the part of stepping stones but red eye used him as last step when Shaman was not present there at 8th day (demon has limited time of 8 days). Dong jin also once tried to commit suicide that's way the eye find him suitable.

Ae ran:
So many of viewers were confused what the role of Fl lead exactly i was also confused. it's difficult part😅.
So, the role of Ae ran was guarding the Virgin shaman so she can't run away anywhere. As we know she was abused by others so one day a man adopted her. Yes that man was archaeologist who started all of these. Her foster father. He said he needs someone to sacrifice, so she agree because he saved her from the abusers.She sacrificed her and became the maid of demon and started to serve him by chasing Virgin shaman. But with the passage of time she became close with shaman and she told her that she can saved her from the eye and she told her the way which was the using of dong jin's blood.
As she was maid of demon so at the last of movie when demon ordered her and she take the jacket off from cheong seok which he was wearing for his protection.
Hope u like it🥰

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Interesting

This was OK... APPLAUSE ... The only thing I didn't understand was the ending... Did Uly say that Cloud couldn't handle the breakup? - What breakup?
1.It was either a dream but it can't be because of the letter and rings.
2. The translation was wrong... break malfunction... but why was he crying?

Can someone please explain it to me?

This was like... sad, sad, sad, happy, sad: Truck-Kun 😅
There were some audio issues but nothing too serious.
- The acting in the end.. After River found out about Cloud... he was calling him as if he was a dog, wtf
He barely looked shocked, to be honest.

But hey, this short teaches us to never give up.

8/10

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this was a good movie but talk about messed up. and the only ones to blame where the adults that started all this sh*t. Yo Han's parents not to mention that f*cking mother - like how can any woman do that to their child?!? (and as astonished as i'm - this isn't the first time i've heard about this happening. and still my mind just can't comprehend how a mother could do that to their own child).

as much as Detective Han Dong Su was supposedly the "good guy", didn't like him much, first off his hitting his partner even jokingly on the face and head, would've made me homicidal. that sh*t aint funny. then this genius takes his son to that old boat - alone - with no protective gear, and tells him to go down the freaking shoot, with zero visibility. is his kid a rock climber?!? like which idiotic reckless father/parent would do that??? this guys - like seriously.

felt sorry for both kids, yeah easy to call Yoo Mi Ho evil, considering what has become of her, but going through the sh*t that was enabled by her mother, on the daily - to suffer like that. how could u come out of it normal? even now that she has it all. and will likely get off scot-free. she won't lead a normal life. she will try too, but that is impossible - as she doesn't know what "normal" is. which is kinda scary - for everyone around her lol

Yo Han the poor poor boy, yrs to not only carry around the guilty of killing his own father, but then to become her tool to be used, she turned him into her personal hitman - and everything just kept weighting on his conscious. little wonder this ended for him as it did. i think that's why his mother at last called Han, cause she was worried that he wasn't gonna live long. and if Han caught him he would have a chance in prison. something better the nothing (guessing - otherwise dunno why she suddenly changed her mind, and told Han the whole truth).

haven't seen the Japanese movie, but this was well acted (not that i had any doubt with actors like Son Ye Jin, Han Seok Kyu or Go Soo) enjoyed it as much as one could with this kind of sad plot.

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every comment i come across keeps referring to Dangerous Liaisons or Les Liaisons dangereuses book by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, which as been a while since i've seen/read so remember the plot vaguely.

the korean take is interesting, more f*cked-up as they r family not ex-lovers who r bored and a bit narcissistic - who for the fun of it make bets about seducing people. making them family has its yuck factor for me, and both of them were equally messed-up, doing anything for the fun of it. treating others like pawns for their amusement, which given the time period was befitting, as usually rich people didn't have many ways to entertain themselves - so a twisted mind "helped".

didn't by the love story, not between the cousins, neither the young lovers who just exchanged letters, or the widow and Jo Won. that was kind of a hard-sell and left me feeling it was either rushed or lost in translation.
don't find this better, just different, even the sex/nude scenes weren't overly R-rated, yeah it was needed to tell the story, but as opposed to other movies i've seen, it was moderate. not vulgar.

still good, not a rewatch, but interesting (as someone who has seen other adaptations of this movie from other countries, quite good).

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Delievery!

Honestly, I'm here cause my man Gong Yoo lol I'm not much of a history buff (unless it involves war) but this is about as close as you can get. With deception, fear and a whole lot of blood this movie is bound to impress! It gets kinda slow in a few parts but it punches you back into the action shortly after. Everyone's acting was incredible with the whole "Frienemy" theme. The tricks, schemes and OMG moments kept me on the edge of my seat and before I knew it the movie was over. The ending was...eh. Thinking logically, it made the most sense but I was still a little sad lol
Enjoy...

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what can i add - the description if not the comments cover it ALL - in all its gory, revolting, messed-up details. this is a movie about how really corrupt and wicked monarchy can be, and was at one point in time... but considering all the stories world round - if u were wealthy - had statue and were close to the king / emperor u weren't much better. heck considering the stories out there, is it any different now? just now "they" use different means to get rid of the opposition and hide their debauchery...

what i didn't get was if Prince Yeon San was engulfed in insanity after finding out his mother was killed, who the heck was the woman he kept calling mother and breastfeeding from?!? the one that tried to get the Gisaeng Jung Mae to be his main concubine(?) queen(?)

insanity aside the ones that fueled his flame and enabled his debauchery were Sung Jae and his father - for personal gain. getting rid of opposing palace officials and revenging a dead "sister wife"(?) Sung Jae words - that's the translation's fault -

but what i loved was the intro of Dan Hee, Sung Jae's childhood sweetheart - whose father was murdered by Sung Jae's father - and they lost contact after that.. she for whatever reason wants into the harem to get at the Prince, so she can assassinate his ass - why - again guessing game.
but i loved her intro cause of how it finally effected Sung Jae - who showed no remorse, or emotional involvement no matter what he did - he was like a wicked, evil, manipulative, destroying machine let loose on everyone - and she reined him in - because suddenly even though he didn't want to, he cared. and cause of that he began to change...

this is one hell of a ride - and the nudity and erotic scene r the least of what's gonna punch u in the gut, if ur squeamish look away cause this is like a slasher movie..

side note - read one comment that at the end the Prince was f*cking the pigs - noooooo - like know this was nuts and that prince was doubly so - cray cray to the max, but he murdered all the hogs in that room - he was stabbing them when the room was opened and he was exiled (well that bit i read - again translation - or whatever u call what the "subs" or lack thereof)...

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the sister was a jackass, yeah loads of people r infatuated with their bosses / coworkers / teacher etc and someone follow through and send sms's or try to chat-them-up. but building some fantasy relationship in ur mind and then cause - imagination doesn't turn into reality u try to kill ur self - when the one ur infatuated with doesn't even know u exist?!? like WTF. how chemically imbalanced is this b*tch???? and if she is so messed up, why she roaming around and not locked up in a padded room??? especially after trying to self-harm, she needs observation, medication and professional help. don't get this.

then there's the sister who goes to get "justice" for her nut of a sister. when she is confronted with his proposition, she as a lawyer can't come up with the main reason dating/starting a relationship with him would be a huge mistake not only a bad idea?!? i.e. her freaking nutter of a sister, that brought them together in the first place?!???

the way this starts already predicts how its gonna end, all the crying and going on, on Yi-fei's characters part is idiotic. story was trying hard to sell a grand romantic saga. didn't buy why after he asked her on the beach - if he could buy her, and then her finding out he frequented the coffee shop awaiting her every morning, was what flips her switch. hard sell for me.

Seung-Heon is as gorgeous as usual, so if ur only looking for eye-candy, both leads look gr8, but story wise - meh...

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well what can i say, this was sad, just don't get people like Do Yeon's character that r so self sacrificing, doubt what she felt was love - cause if what motivated her to sacrifice herself time and again, and keep going back to a man that kept adding to her debt. if that's love - glad i have never experienced love like this.

the cops in this were as bad as the bad guys, i find it ironic that Gil's character said that the worst thing he was afraid of, was not being able to differentiate if he was the good guy or the bad. the things they got up too and spoke about, were revolting. and these were the good guys?!? shudder inducing!

movie was pretty dark, so i guess the title was fitting, but the ending was a WTF moment. get that even though Do Yeon's character now cause of the cop killing her love, would be able to not only repay her debts but also not accumulate new ones. but i guess, either blinded by the loss of her love, or so furious about the betrayal (cause Yj turned out to be a cop). she chose to hurt/punish him... but as the wound was in a place that was survivable - him going "walkabout" was like a WTF moment.
maybe he didn't want her to get into trouble? or maybe he thought he should pay for him betrayal so he's "paying the price"?!?
this time the "open ending" korean's love in their movies, was annoying.

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the movie was good, sad (hard to find a korean movie that hasn't a sad or depressing ending, rarely u find one that ends on a positive note, the maximum u get is an open ending where u use ur imagination and create in ur mind a positive out come for the characters).

thought i knew what i was getting into and it would be a love story where (as written in the description) the servant falls for the masters girl. so though the master would be ugly and the girl would be a new bride who is seduced by the servants good look and kind manner, as opposed to a oppressive, insensitive husband. not the case. there is a promissory note but no actual marriage. want to write there is love, but it's complex and not cut and dry.

the plot is - a story tellers angle, where the servant Bang-ja is telling his story, about how he meet and fell in love with Choon-hyang to a writer, but his objective isn't autobiographical, but a rewrite and glorification of his love Choon-hyang - who in the story will get her happily ever after with nobility, as opposed to reality. so in a sense this is the ultimate love story.

btw i tried to watch the movie CHUNHYANGDYUN (2000) that is the folktale that came out of this movie and after a few sec opted out as it was too slow paced and i was bored out of my mind. but after seeing this movie kind curious how the "story" came out. may give it another try...

side note - yeah there r nude scenes so if ur sensitive - skip this. as u can see that ain't the main factor, this really is well written and acted. otherwise the nude comment, wouldn't make just a side note in my POV.

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