Reviews

Love can make you happier than you have ever been^^

It was pretty refreshing to be able to watch Korea’s rendition of it, which featured a spectacular star-studded cast list including Kim Kang Woo, Yoo In Na, Yoo Yeon Seok, Lee Yeon Hee, Lee Dong Hwi, Chen Du Ling, Yeom Hye Ran, Girls’ Generation’s Choi Soo Young and Yoo Teo.


I shall not go into the details of the story (as it would be a spoiler) but in simple words – it is a pretty lighthearted movie, capable of making you relate to it somehow. It touched on many small but important aspects of life, covering stories with themes relating to breakups, loneliness, healing, multicultural-marriage, and also the search for life’s meaning. The simple everyday moments definitely makes it relatable and could possibly make you feel reflective as well.



Another aspect of the film which I truly enjoyed was that I could re-live the travel memories while watching the film. Being travel-deprived for the past one year, watching scenes and locations of Seoul on the big screen (with Namsan Tower in the background) definitely brought some warmth to my heart and reminded me how much I wished I was there. There was another story with a ski field setting and it reminded me of snow and my skiing experiences. Furthermore, the cast even flew to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina for the movie! There were many beautiful destinations featured, including the famous and majestic Iguazu Falls. I’m not sure about you but it felt really good to enjoy ‘traveling’ while watching a movie.

Whether you are a rom-com fan or someone looking for a feel-good movie, this is definitely a good pick and the eye candies are really pretty too!

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Ruan qing tian approaches or say seduces president Ren haoming with ulterior motives of getting revenge for her sister death. But when she realizes that she is wrong, her vengeance is discovered by Ren haoming. He is angry that how a woman much younger to her tricked and mocked him. But when the story furthers, there is a third person who plays more dirty tricks on the main leads.

ML is a living devil, he takes every chance to focefully kiss the lead which seems very uncomfortable onscreen. As in drama world I have seen many forced kisses but that acting is par excellent, as for this movie its seems very immature. He is unable to show proper emotions. He looked quite old with his white hair colour.
FL is cute but stupid. She made plans but falls into her own dug pit. She only speaks dialogues in right manner but her body language as actress needs improvement. During the forced kiss she resists for fraction of seconds then stops resisting, WHY. You should resist or slap or fight or do something.

Directors also need to do the job properly. I didn’t like the angles. And actors did what they were told by the director. And he is the one to approve OK to the scenes so its his responsibility.

Music was nice and songs were good. After a long time I found different song in this series of movies.

Its a one time watch and basicly you can skip many scenes or watch in 2x speed.

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My favorite non horror movie Ever

I love this movie. It handles the subjects of past abuse and their effects super well. I like the way they handled the LGBTQ+ stuff even if the owner of the shop came off as a bigot in the beginning it smoothed out nicely over the course of the film. I loved how the past victim saved the kid from a serial killer. I was not going to lie disappointed that his own kidnapper never truly faced justice but I did love that he was able to move on from it and embrass live in his own way with his found family. I loved all the subplots and the random musical bits that should have been out of place but weren't. The bromance or onesided attraction between the leads was sweet and realistic honestly. Our poor shop owner didn't even feel comfortable doing it with women after his childhood of course he'd cringe when his friend swooped in to take his prize but the chief was a gentalmen and it was sad how hurt he seemed by it. But I digress I have watched this movie 5 times already on Viki. I love it. I love a movie that doesn't have to in end sex and family to end happy with the characters in a good place. I better stop here or I'll just babble for days. Totally rewatchable totally recommended. Go see this its on Viki

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Did not go as Expected

I regret this all. I wrote a review a moment ago. Lost it all. Like a fool. I’ll attempt again.

This was not a fun thing to watch. I went in expecting it to be a usual whodunnit film. I was very very wrong.

The genre seemed to change many times throughout the film. I also couldn’t really get attached to any of the characters which might’ve made me not as enthralled in it. The set up and the beginning were so well done.. then it just spiralled and fizzled out.

That could be because the characters didn’t really have a huge chance of getting known. I did however enjoy the tea house owners. The acting from all of the “suspects” was basically okay. The two who stood out the most were obviously Kim Sang Kyung, and Heo Sung Tae. Glorious.

The music always suited every single scene which was great. Whether it be light, dramatic, or scary it did the job.

I like watching movies that have justice served in the end. This movie made me feel as though not everything was resolved in a way that suited me. As I just watched the movie and it’s so fresh I wouldn’t be able to say that I’d want to watch this again. Maybe the first 29 minutes or so.

However if you enjoy complicated, misleading and whodunnit transition into a dark “wow didn’t expect that twist” movie.. Then give this film a shot.

Sara Rojas APRIL 23 2021

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Three fourths of True Legend played out like a 1970's kung fu revenge movie only with better special effects, sets, and music. There's the typical need for revenge, retreat and training and then taking on the Big Bad again theme. If the movie had stopped at the natural ebb of the story I would have rated it higher. Unfortunately, it went on another thirty minutes in what should have been a sequel instead of a fourth act or in my opinion, completely left out.

The actors all did a fine job with what they were given. Vincent Zhao handled his fight scenes well, but Zhou Xun was the heart of the movie. The child actor wasn't one of the stronger ones I've seen but he was mostly supposed to cry and yell so I can't lay it all on him. Gordon Liu who played Beggar Su in Young Vagabond made a guest appearance. Michelle Yeoh and Bryan Leung also make special appearances.

My problem with the story was with Su. At first he was unbelievably naïve to the point of endangering his family. At other times he was next to useless, self-absorbed, selfish, or short-sighted. Without giving away any spoilers, let's just say he was never going to make father or husband of the year. His wife, Ying, could see when danger was approaching and also when the time to act was. Her first thought was how to hold the family together and looking for ways for them to survive. For me, she was the real hero of the movie.

The fight scenes were good as one would expect from a Yuen Woo Ping movie when they weren't relying too heavily on CGI. In a 2 hour movie it would have been nice to have had a little more dialogue between characters and some character development. I wasn't given much of a reason to care about any of these people.

Most egregiously, the final act seemed completely unrelated to the rest of the movie in style and tone dragging out the story in what appeared to be more of a political statement.

The fighting in True Legend was exhilarating, if exhausting. It just needed a little more heart, and some better editing, to make it memorable.

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FLUKE!!! WHY!!!

Things that I like about the movie:
- I'll be completely honest here; I only watched this movie because of Fluke. Everyone by now should know how much of an OhmFluke stan I am, so I was excited to see one of Fluke's earlier roles. That being said...DAMN, FLUKE!!!! Okay, this is a role I'd never expected from Fluke Natouch, especially since my first time seeing him was when he played "Pharm" in UWMA. His role as "Wine" in this movie is the complete opposite of Pharm. Where Pharm was the quiet, shy little virgin, Wine is a eager, sex-crazed, love-struck psychopath. I don't think I will ever look at Pharm the same way again, and the fact that Fluke was only 19 YEARS OLD when he did this movie is mindblowing. But that's not a bad thing. The fact that he was able to play such a role in his earlier years, and manage to play a softer role in his current years, speaks high volumes for his acting chops. Fluke is such a strong diverse actor able to pull off any role he's given.
- I've talked about the actor himself, now let's talk about his character in the movie. Wine is a psychopath, there's no two ways around it. That being said, you also see in the beginning that he was trying to find other ways to help quench Night's unique diet, and he was running out of options fast. In Wine's eyes, he not only found a magical, tortured creature of the night, but he also FINALLY found someone who seemed to truly love him for HIM. Not just loving him in private, and not just to dominate him. Even in public, he sees that Night proudly claims Wine as his, and that only deepens how much Wine doesn't want to let him go. Wine is the perfect example of the great lengths even the most sanest of people will go to for love, and how love can be blind. Even though he slowly loses himself to madness, I can't help but feel sympathy for him because I believe if there was any other way to feed Night's appetite for human blood, he would, but using his own blood isn't a permanent solution, no animal blood can be a substitution, and giving Night up or letting him die wasn't an option. Even though we see Wine going mad, we still see that he compassion for others when he agrees to let Tee go rather than let him die.
- I gave credits to our leading star, so let me go over the other casts. All in all, the main cast of this movie were all excellent. Wine has 3 main love interest, each with their own unique perception of love, and each actor were able to perfectly capture those perceptions.
- Of the 3 love interest, my top favorite has to go to Steven Fuhrer, who plays the vampire "Night" in the movie. Night was honestly the least destructive out of the three, which is surprising given that he was the one drinking human's blood. Having amnesia and having Wine be the first person he sees at his weakest, naturally he clings to Wine. He sees the length Wine will go to make sure Night is taken care of which includes slicing his finger or wrists, and it honestly pains him. He has the most compassion for Wine and hates to see him hurt himself for Night's sake, which says a lot about his character. Even towards the end when he sees how evil Wine was becoming on his behalf, he still couldn't find it in him to berate Wine. He instead puts the blame on himself and takes himself out of the equation, which honestly broke my heart to see.
- Nontapat, who plays Wine's closeted ex-boyfriend "Tee" was also one I sympathized to an extent. You have the typical closeted guy with a secret boyfriend, who tries to cut ties when people start asking questions. You can see the mental war Tee was having with himself in the beginning when it came to Wine. When he feels himself slowly dying, that's when he lets his true feelings show. It saddened me that he picked the that moment to come clean about how much he loves Wine, because at that point Wine was so far gone to really believe or care. But the writers perfectly captured the ongoing struggle of someone in the closet along with the unique situations of the plot.
- I don't really care about this part, but I know a lot of BL fans look for this kind of stuff, so I'll bring it up. Yes, there is plenty of steamy bed scenes, and yes, it's hot ?

Things that I didn't like about the movie:
- Let's talk about the writing for a moment. While I do give credit for the uniqueness of this storyline, I have to admit that it was still messy, especially towards the second half. It started to feel rushed and disjointed. So much was happening all at once with no room to breathe.
- I think the most unsatisfying thing about this movie was its ending. It wasn't necessarily a sad ending, nor was it a happy ending. It actually kindof felt...incomplete? I think the idea of creating an open ending that leaves it to the viewers imagination can sometimes work, and other times it doesn't. While we do have a satisfying result for Wine's actions, and we can understandably see what Wine is doing, it still leaves the viewers confused as to what happens to them.
- Of all the characters, I think Boy is the least developed of the main characters. I felt he wasn't fleshed out as much as the others, and from what we do see of him, you could say he was the most dangerous of Wine's love interest. He comes off as creepy and possessive. He even admits that he's always wanted to rape Wine. Excuse me, what? Honestly if Wine had told Night about that, he might have been more understanding, but Boy was nearly naked and tied up soooo...maybe not.

Overall Thoughts:
This is my first reaction to a BL movie, rather than a show, so I wasn't sure how I wanted to go about this. Shows on TV have limits to what can be shown and what they can represent, but when you have a movie meant to be on the big screen, you have more freedom on what you want to create. Here we have a Dark Erotic BL Thriller about the dangers of love.
I'll be completely honest, I was ready to say how much this movie sucked and how it plays like a bad porn but with better acting. What changed my tune was reading up on other people's reviews, and they pointed out a lot of things that I haven't really thought about in my first initial thoughts of the movie.
There's no question that the writing was messy, but I can also arguably say that it was very creative and thought provoking. Like I said earlier, you have 3 completely different interpretations of love with Wine's 3 love interest. The closeted kind of love, the compassionate kind of love, and the dominant kind of love. And I love how the most destructive depiction of love DIDN'T come from the vampire, but as a normal human man.
Fluke as I said delivered a spectacular performance as Wine, but so did the rest of the cast. The acting, plus the originality of the story, was what made this an enjoyable movie to watch. However, there is still the matter of the the disjointed second half of the movie and the unsatisfying ending. Is it a masterpiece? No? But it does have it's charm, and also delivers a lot of steamy bed scenes for those who loves watching hot guys get it on. Yes, you will have plenty of those!
In closing, I appreciate this movie more than I originally thought, and I feel like this movie has a bad rep simply because it's one of those movies where you really have to THINK about what all is going on. It's one of those movies where you have to watch more than once to really grasp it. I don't hate it as much as I thought I would, and I honestly found myself watching it more than once, so a big plus for that.

Rank: 7.5/10

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Expect the Feeling of 'Meh'

At first, I only watched it because of IU, but watching the movie as a whole was worth it. Now I know why it's called Shades of the Heart

I recommend watching it if you watch Slice of Life kind of film or drama.

Your feelings will just be 'Meh', if you know what I'm saying, It can be boring for a lot of people, you may also get the similar feeling to a drama 'My Mister', when Ji-An (IU) is listening to Dong-hoon just walking his way from his work all the way to a friend's bar through the wiretapped phone but the feeling of getting to know different people's stories and their perspectives can be quite nice, whether a person is thinking that everything is moving quite fast or a person realized that he/she actually received a bad news sugarcoated in a good news

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Go for it

I like the movie . Starting g to end ,movie just went in one flow .No boredom not at all . Misunderstanding among brothers alive at the end had been shown in the movie .
But one thing I think is lack in the movie is that they didn't put much role of the girl who became attender of car racer . I knew it was her supporting g role bit still they put her role in the movie in the way that she put too much influenced among the brother and this time older brother expressed his feeling towards her and younger brother didn't lie to her .
I think it become complete story if they complete the movie with the love story.

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Personal review

Firstly, for me, the story kinda rushes the development of the plot. However, the casts fits well into the concept especially to Irene and Seung Ho. Irene played an elegant and hardworking woman with a dream. Her acting skills are very good for a rookie. Seung Ho played a very awesome role. He controls his emotions well. He knows the right timing. Music-wise, I like how it isn't too saturated to the background and how it fits into the mood. I think everyone will rewatch this if they want to cool down from intense emotions. Overall, I like the smooth feeling that I got from the film. It is just a shame that the plot jumps a little unexpectedly. It would have been much more interesting to see a smooth run.

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Irene and Seung Ho was a clickbait

I notice there is little reviews for this movie and I got to say that I fully agree with the first detailed review in support of his views. I am writing this review are to further provide my personal perspectives on how this movie experience went down for me without any spoilers just in case anyone is planning to give it a watch.

Story:
To keep it spoiler-free, I will be giving a more general-vague description of what I felt went wrong with the story-line. The first biggest flaw is definitely the character introduction that doesn't provide adequate backstory for the viewers to understand the relationship and motives between the cast. Perhaps the director assumed he placed enough information later on in the movie so that we could start understanding the point of view but it is like trying to force the viewers into this "speculation-mode" without feeling any concreteness as to whether the director intended the motive to work out like that. There was many side characters that was just "barely existing" and falls under this 2 Dimensional category where they seems unique but doesn't actually have any substance at all. I don't feel the weight of their emotions nor place enough importance of getting to know them even though the actors/actress had done an amazing job in other movies/dramas I have seen from them. As an example, Min Sung Wook and Jo Dal Hwan played really confusing characters.

Second flaws is how messy the story is ordered and the lack of natural progression the viewer would expect. An example I would give is the hit and getting hit theory where there is always a reaction to every action. When one scene happens, naturally the next scene should match the previous scene but this movie skip that whole entire "next scene" and showed us the outcome. As if someone was punched in the face and the next thing you know, they are in the hospital without showing anyone fetching the person to the hospital. The story jumps like that and it doesn't help my viewing experience in building up my emotional attachment to any character. It defeats the purpose of watching a story for their journey.

Third flaws is the reasons as to why the relationship began between both Main Leads. Usually physical attraction is the first trait people would notice and the leads do have that. However, beyond physical attraction is the emotional attachment that is formed from the journey experience by both parties. This department is severely lacking and they can almost be considered as separate entity from what I have seen. They are independent but there is nothing truly holding them together. They are goal-driven and that's very much to it.

Acting/Cast:
Let's just say that they weren't able to fully display what Irene could potentially have acted in a range of emotions. I highly agree with the first reviewer on this as I wished they would show more of her desperation in her acting rather than keeping her neutral all the time. Even the Male lead had those moments so I am wondering why they couldn't replicate it with the female lead. Although the male lead "desperation" part has already weaken severely from the flawed story line, I wasn't bought into the story so the actors couldn't show us their potential at all. Sometimes I just feel like everything is too perfect with how Irene and Seung Ho looked, it made the story less realistic and more of a success fantasy story. They have potential but it wasn't used to the fullest.

Music
Nothing stands out here and the ending credit sung by Irene was alright.

Re-watch value
Only chance I would re watch it is for Irene's visual or to see the beautiful shots they had with the landscape. The burger CFs does make me hungry for one. Double Patty time.

Overall, I gave it 5.5 because 5 star drama usually have very big flaws in directing, story writing and acting in terms of my criteria. It is bearable in that I can still finish the whole movie/drama but I can't say I enjoy the finished product. Sure, there is tidbits which I liked and gave it an extra 0.5 but that is as far as I will go. I usually give 5 star to content I finishes since I would have dropped something if it is already below that 5 star range. My recommendation if you do plan to watch it is to treat it simply as a very lighthearted success story of two individual without needing to think too much about the story itself. Just see the visual and potentially you may like it.

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THIS MOVIE IS SENTIMENTAL

The movie itself is so beautiful, I don't know but I fell in love with the film
everything is perfection and drama.

Story: At first it talked about old people but every minute counts and after a bit by bit its plot is slowly making great as it is. The Story is so heart-felting I nearly cry for it.

Acting- The actors make it too good. they gave everything especially the main cast, its everything

Music- This is where I fell in love with this film, the music helps everything to make this drama even more just a normal drama.

Rewatch- Gonna rewatch this again and again.

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Dark and deep

Like, really, this discrimination against the lower classes is bothersome and disgusting. Though I only have a few dialogues that I liked, the bottom line of the story, I think lies in the characters' attitudes and the setting itself. This family is on a whole other level of racking their brains. If this family living in poverty is so desperate to live, just to live, and so are the other impoverished families. But it's sad to affirm that the scene where Kim Gi Wu's family was fighting against Guk Mun Gwang and her husband, is the situation of many of the indigents. Poor versus poor, while the rich remain unbothered is a real thing in our society. If pulling each other down is an individual's solution then it would never work out. Sometimes people get too blinded by the idea of being comfortable that they would take chance to commit some things, not deeply comprehending how it would affect the other party. Yes, that's because they want survival, and it's their choice, but why choose to survive alone when you both can survive together, just with cooperation.

That's one of the points the movie is trying to point out, I suppose. Another scene is the erotic one, that's the turning point, they started to realize that they were opposed to the wrong enemy. This adds up to the meaning of the title parasite and how intensely linked it is to the storyline. The needy people all gaining from the host (rich). They were the parasites, but they had to taint each other's hands with blood to gain better.

And the part when Mr. Park was sickened of the blood is so horrifying. A rich person, who did not care if someone died because of the rivalry for his riches, is apathetic, cruel. He obviously did not care about anyone. He only wanted a comfortable living with his family. Not in a bit, empathetic.

The poor can be greedy, the middle class can be greedy, and the rich can be greedy. No exceptions. No matter how poor you are, once you step upper in the ladder, you will want more. No matter how rich you are, you will aim for more. Money isn't the solution happiness is, but if money is your happiness you will never be happy.

I was only thrilled once, the acting was superb as I hated whom I was supposed to hate. The climax left me perturbed. The only reason I didn't rate this a solid because I wasn't feeling the thrill more than I should be feeling it. Besides, the genre is a black comedy, thriller. I had picked up messages from this movie, which is better enough since I always call a movie "superb" if it's meaningful. Sure enough, this movie is meaningful.

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This movie may be close to my heart due to the fact that I started watching it when I started university, and I can say that it perfectly summarized uni life and frienships. I found the metaphores and the setting to be amazing and the visuals really really great. The story is beautiful and it's the type of movie that leaves you thinking about it for days.
The title is from a song from the band Suede, which is one of my favourites, so this may be why I was drawn to it. The story of these women, so different, yet so close just gives off an amazing perspective on how dreams when you ar young may turn to something so different. How life simply chages and how weirdly everything connects in the end. The woman who was searching fro true love ended up having a wedding with a guy she didn't know, the woman who kept on thinking about her first love decided it was not meant to be, and the guy who finally became succesfull realized what was truly important for him.
It's a great portrayal of how life is when you grow up and how love and frienships change. Truly recommend it.

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