Reviews

Disturbing, yet satisfying.

I had high expectations and this movie met them. I liked it from the acting to the cinematography, the storytelling, the settings and visuals (Gorgeous!!). But I'm also going ahead to talk about what I didn't like, since it was already praised so much.

This is one of the few movies that caught my interest within the first 10 minutes, not wasting any time and jumping right into the story. I can easily see how other movies will take their time portraying the maid as an innocent and go "But NO! She was actually a cheat!" after like 20 minutes. Glad that they didn't do that. The first part was visually gorgeous. Take a screenshot and it would be a painting. It also seemed like a regular drama plot-wise. You're just waiting for something to go wrong and in my case, the first plot twist did not work too well as I could see it coming. Things were simply going too well for the careless and overly confident maid. Still did not stop me from enjoying their relationship and since I found the maid absolutely adorable and entertaining.

The second part though was truly unexpected. Easily the best part of the film. I was completely invested in the backstory of our main lead. It quickly went into fucked up territory and had me feeling disturbed to thinking "that's absolutely disgusting". I understand the significance of the auction scenes, but I would probably skip them on a rewatch. Absolute best scene was when Miss broke down and attempted to hang herself; the turning point. I must say it was incredibly satisfying to watch and realise where things were going later on.

For the last part, I'm going to be a little picky. Since its purpose is to wrap up the show, things were starting to go way too well. The tone shifted to that more of a kdrama, which was fine, but some scenes also felt slightly unnecessary. Still, the cellar scene was satisfyingly disturbing and you will thank the Count for killing the creepy uncle along with himself.

About the characters. The two leads had amazing chemistry and completed each other perfectly. The "Count" was probably the standout character though. He's despicable and he deserved his outcome, but was actually not all that unlikeable since he ironically gave the Miss her freedom and punished her uncle for her. What I really liked was that all of them had immoral intentions, which made the protagonists much more charming imo.

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interesting yet very confusing

Che YuanShan who is a main, is more of a bad-guy in my eyes. like i get he got a job to do - but shouldn't one who is a minister of justice, meet out freakin justice? here he was killing mer-people left right and center, and they were the victim's. the law of killing the whole family who kept mer-people as slaves was logical, cause they were keeping freakin slaves and considering how the mer-people made silk and pearls - they were basically tortured on the daily - logically they killed their "masters" who wouldn't?!? so as a preventive measure, this harsh law was created.

donno what connection there was between Che YuanShan and Yixia (as seeing Yixia - brought on flashes of their being together in the future and that's why Che YuanShan didn't kill Yixia) but nothing was explained after that.

Yixia being a mer-prince on the run, and feeling obligated to Che YuanShan from saving him twice (once in that ministers house, and then from the dragon dude) i get him helping save him, when he got hurt the first time - but after him witnessing how Che YuanShan meted out "justice" ruthlessly, killing innocents - him trying to assassinate him, i get - but how that turn into a make-out session?!? how from "i hate ur guts cause u a merciless murdered of my people", turn into "i'm sorry i hurt u, i love u - promise to never desert me..." ?!???? like talk about a reach - him falling for Che YuanShan in the blink of an eye, was out of nowhere.

a lot of the plot was one scenario to the other, without much explaining in the middle or some sort of intro, so it would flow and make sense - so Yixia going from being a run away mer-prince that said his kingdom doesn't exist - being abandoned by Che YuanShan too then seeing him back in a kingdom he said doesn't exist - training? fighting to get back to Che YuanShan's city, to seek vengeance for the abandonment - to then AGAIN save Che YuanShan's life, is like WTF is going on...
the cherry on top - this was all a movie and the actor playing Che YuanShan - or the real dude, got eternal life cause of the last "save" and even though Yixia spirt/life source/soul is in Che YuanShan making him immortal - there is another Yixia in present times(?!?) and at the end of the movie, Che YuanShan and Yixia meet at last - and its like WHAT - where that come from. like talk about this plot being all over the place - so as i started out this review, was interesting but also very confusing...

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talk about depressing

as there is no description anywhere (that i found) its a short movie - the farmer is a grieving widow that lost his pregnant wife , while shopping in the city for baby things. cause at the same time there was a student protest, where the cops get out their guns and a random bullet "finds" the wife - causing her to die in her husbands arms.

the stabbed and bleeding student the farmer finds and saves at the start of the movie, was one of the students arrested in that protest and guessing the cops that arrested him, took him off to a remote location to finish him off - why (mystery) or not as this isn't unheard of in history.

but finding this out the farmer loses it and then somehow his hate turns to lust? cause when the students comes to seek him out, he tries to get it on with him? and i'm guessing the final act - where the student wears the dead wife's shirt and gives/offers himself to the grieving husband, is an act of sacrifice / saying sorry even though he wasn't at fault, for the cop's using violence's to suppresses the students, but this all ends in the farmers suicide?? - like confused and yet depressed

giving such low rating cause there isn't much in the way of acting or story - and even in one scene a lot could be conveyed - but left confused about what i saw, and how i feel about it. so it is what it is

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A simple film about love that’s both brought together through their personal life struggles and stopped because of that same struggle. Sang-Min is struggling with a loveless marriage in addition to having a son with mental deficiencies. Likewise, Ki-Hong has a suicidal, meantally unwell wife who he can’t fully connect with and a withdrawn, depressed daughter. This isolation circumstances brings them to Finland where they meet each other and have a very intimate encounter before parting ways. Both parties love each other but with both being married, it makes their relationship a wrong one. And in the end it comes to ahead where Ki-Hong can’t pursue his love through obligations to his family. It turned out to be futile love, eventually.

The symbolism in all the scenery, setting was heavy. But the heart of the story was in the acting. Gong Yoo’s performance brought all the intensity and vulnerability required. His character is a stuck soul that’s longing for love and intimacy. And he’s struggling to let it go, as shown through his persistence throughout the film, but eventually, regretfully. acquiescence to his situation, and lets Jeon Do-yeon’s go in a heartbreaking finish to the film. Jeon Do-yeon’s acting was so subtle and on-point, bringing everything she needed to the character and making the best out of the story on display.

A super well rounded movie that was both heart-warming and pitiful at the same time.

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This had many elements for you to enjoy. It obviously speaks to the teens of South (and North) Korea more than someone like myself, but I think you can find solace in the family-like community that Dong-Gu grows to appreciate in the end. The heartwarming bromance between Dong-Gu, Hae-Jin and Hae-Rang - all three is a joy to watch. The scenes when they are at dinner or the anchovie scene were beautiful. Dong-Gu. I like the the idea of them having to use their training in their fight scenes come later in the film. The scenes themselves were predictably brutal in Korean fashion. Although the exection of some plot points like Sang-Gu being evil or whatever felt really flat.

The ending was pretty sad with Hae-Jin and Hae-Rang dying from their sacrifices and Dong-Gu persumably being killed - at least there is a bit of hope.

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Lighthearted but boring story of love!

New Year Blues tells the different story of 4 couples, two of them in established relationships trying to fix their problems and the other two getting to know each other and developing emotions. Stories are more like 4 short films by 4 set of crews that instead of being shown separately and in order are edited as a whole but it isn't much disjointed. All other reviews are positive so I think a more mixed one wouldn't hurt!

Acting: There wasn't much of a character development or growth in this film and actors did good with what little material they had. I liked their easy portrayals.

Story:1. A policeman protecting a woman from her seemingly psychopath soon-to-be-ex husband.2. The woman is a trainer at the rehab center and one of her trainees is a Snowboard champion who has recently proposed to his girlfriend but there obstacles waiting on their way. 3. The girlfriend works in a greenhouse ad delivers plants to a café run by a single woman whose brother has a travel agency and is going to marry a Chinese girl. But he gets embezzled and his fiancé's high expectations for a grand Chinese wedding and other expenses don't help his case. 4. A man broke up with his girlfriend and tells her to divide their saved money, she takes the money instead and goes to travel agency and buys a trip to Argentina where she meets a rather cold and unfriendly Korean man.....

Characters going to each others' workplaces or working together and the fact that the film didn't stay on a couple for too long help us to grasp the story better and not to lose the process of the others. Except the Argentina plot where the only connection to real story is girl calling travel agency and doing some work in Snowboard competitions ( I didn't get what was her job) and is almost completely separate from the other 3 plots, the other are woven together loosely.

Conclusion: All in all, The New Year Blues, isn't a deep or interesting film that keeps you at the edge of your seat but it's good background entertainment and gives rather positive messages about love, trust, commitment, etc of course if you can sit through all of it without dropping or skipping as it's rather boring and tiring.

Rewatch value: I'm not the kind of person to watch something more than once or twice and this film doesn't include in my exception list so I think once is enough.

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Enjoyable

I watched the movie first before checking the reviews. I did not want my judgment to be clouded or influenced by other factors. One of my favorite Chinese series is The Untamed, so when I found out that there was a separate movie that showcased one of my favorite Untamed characters, I excitedly went ahead and watched it. Here's my take on this movie:

STORY: 10/10 I loved the mystery feel to it. The way the whole story was unraveled, some would have said that it was predictable but, I think it's because we're already making our brains work too much. If we go with the flow and let the story divulge itself, you would feel the charm. The good versus evil and the acceptance of your true nature is what made me like this movie even more. The appearance of Wei Wu Xian gave the support that Wen Ning needed.

ACTING/CAST: 10/10 Although Wen Ning's innocence and funny side in The Untamed were not visible, you could see the character's growth that made it endearing. Paul Yu's acting is commendable. The facial expression, the actions, even the emotions are all on point for me. The rest of the cast did well. Lan Si Zhui is Lan Si Zhui. If there is one thing that I didn't like, it would be the little girl at the beginning of the movie. The actions were forced, which made it look awkward.

MUSIC: 10/10 Very familiar with the music, so it's a perfect score for me.

REWATCH VALUE: 10/10 I'd watch it over and over again because, simply put, I love Wen Ning.

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This movie changes some of the traditional Godzilla legend. Instead of the American atomic bombs empowering Godzilla, this time it's the souls of all who perished at the Japanese war machine's hands. Ghidorah, who is usually a world destroyer, instead plays a Guardian along side of Mothra and Baragon. The unlikely trio's job is to guard the homeland, but not the people.

Once again we have a plucky female heroine, this time the intrepid reporter, Yuri. More often than not she ended up playing the damsel in distress in need of rescuing no matter how brave and spunky the writers intended her to be. Alongside the guardians, the humans led by Yuri's father, have also developed a weapon they hope will put an end to Godzilla's reign of destruction.

Instead of random, almost unseen people getting killed, Godzilla's victims are often shown close up or are characters who have been introduced. There are real stakes with the humans' and guardians' lives. Godzilla has returned to being the terror that he was in 1954. The monster fights are actually quite good and entertaining as each Guardian does their best to take down Godzilla. Once the action starts around thirty minutes into the movie, it never lets up. Overall, this was an entertaining kaiju movie.

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One of my all time favorites

It’s one of the best Japanese BLs (live action manga) ever made and that’s because it has a lot of the breezy style of the later Thai BLs, without losing its yaoi roots. The leads have a certain comfort with each other which yields up excellent on screen chemistry. It has a low heat level but there are some sweet kisses (we are in 2gether/SOTUS territory).

Popular first year Seiryo (Seryou) has a policy of going out with any girl who asks... for one week. On a lark, third year Yuzuru (Yusuru) tests to see if that policy also applies to boys. Seiryo agrees that it does.

Yuzuru is very pretty and attractive but so brash and honest that girls always end up dumping him because his personality doesn’t match his looks.

As the two boys date it becomes clear that Seiryo really likes the blunt side of Yuzuru, and Yuzuuru starts to fall in love with Seiryo because of this. He’s so happy to be liked for who he really is. Seiryo thinks it’s all just a game to Yuzuru, but he’s falling hard too. They both want it to last more than a week.

Seiryo is young and reserved but yearns so much to be loved and give love, while Yuzuru is the best possible version of an obtuse tsundere uke without being immature or a brat.

Their miscommunication comes to the story honestly and is sourced in their characters. The actors put these personalities into their physicality too, with Seiryo moving in an elegant if cautiously stilted manner while Yuzuru is relaxed and sprawling.

It’s utterly adorable.

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How to train our dragon review

How to train our dragon is a hilarious movie about a 16 year old young man, Kuang Long, who wants to be free from his 5 over protective older sisters. When Kuang Long was a child he got his heart broken, so his 5 older sisters promise him that they will never let any girl hurt him again. Kuang Long thought that this was an encouragement to go chase after the girl, but instead all the sisters get mad at him and the oldest sister tells him to never think about ever getting a girlfriend in this life time again.

We move forward to 7 years later where Kuang Long is now 16. To gain his freedom to date again, he must find a girlfriend that meets all of his older sister's requirements. The oldest sister lays out the requirements. First, the girl must have the oldest sister's gentleness. Second, the girl must have the second oldest sister's elegance. Third, the girl must have the fifth oldest sister's diligence. Fourth, the girl must have the fourth oldest sister's attentiveness. And fifth, the oldest sister has a hard time coming up with a requirement so she just said the girl must have the third oldest sister's hair style. Of course the sisters are opposite of the requirements.

So Kuang Long sets off to find a girlfriend. He has a though time finding one. But lucky for him, the new female transfer student, Xiao Meng, loves to help people. The reason is because she has just transferred school 13 times within the year, so she has the tendency to always please others as quick as possible.

Kuang Long and his friend hatches a plan to get her to help Kuang Long. Kuang Long wanted his friend to speak highly of him in front of the Xiao Meng, but the friend instead tells her that Kuang Long is going to go crazy due to his 5 older sisters wanting to harvest his organs. The only way the sisters would not harvest his organs is if Kuang Long falls in love.

Xiao Meng doesn't want to pretend to be Kuang Long's girlfriend at first, but after the incident at the zoo, she sees Kuang Long's fourth and fifth oldest sisters come in to check on him. They check on his head, arms, feet, and his male part. Instead of seeing it as love, Xiao Meng thinks they only care about his organs, so she says she is Kuang Long's girlfriend. So now they must prove to the sisters that their love for each other is real.

One of the only complaints I have about the movie is that the 5 older sisters didn't get enough development, but considering the time constraint of a movie, they provided enough info for the viewers to distinguish the different personalities of the sisters.

This movie keeps the comedy coming and you're laugh all the way from the beginning to the end. I give this movie a 9.5 out of 10, and I highly recommend it to people who love slap stick comedy with a side of romance. It is almost like an anime come to life.

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What a hopeless story. Lots of dysfunctional family dynamics; it's no wonder Tooma is so messed up. The old adage of nature vs. nurture runs true here. If he'd been properly cared for growing up by an actual family that understood children are to be sheltered and not exposed to cruelty and sexual violence then maybe he would have grown up fine. The character started messed up and ends messed up. I don't see much progression at all.

I'm not sure the hype about Suda's performance is deserved. He feels impassive to me, unapproachable and distant. There isn't much to work with. He had more life in "Drowning Love," to be honest, and is far more engaging in "Todome no Kiss" or "My Little Monster." The praise for him in "The Backwater" is probably more due to the depressing nature of the film itself, the fact that he was willing to go naked (although they're still careful about his nudity), and that he was so young to take on such a mature role. He didn't really have to do much acting, just curl up into a depressed ball, run through the streets in the rain, and strip naked when called upon.

On the flipside, Suda's love of independent films clearly started here. Do with that what you will, good, bad, or indifferent.

"The Backwater" isn't a film I would never watch again, like his "Love at Least," but I don't regret watching it once. I just came out of it with a somewhat numb sensation. Never before has such a sexually explicit film been so very ugly.

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THE CHARMING BUT IMPERFECT SHORT FILM

Cute. Amateurish production with amateurish acting. But it has its charms.

Watching this is like watching a high school movie project by a friend of a friend.

It’s just 27 minutes long, so don’t worry about your time being wasted. It has some endearing moments, like when one of the main leads was playing the piano – and when wh went over to the other main lead’s house to give him coffee.

I am just confused about THAT notebook. What is its significance in the story? I hope anyone can give me an idea.

I would’ve given this 6 stars, but as I’ve earlier said, it has its charms, so plus a full star for that.

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This was a very interesting film. An artist soon after being discovered dies only to come back to life because of something called the Lazarus syndrome after the value of her art surges. Good idea that the film is built on but The Artist: Reborn also gives us, the audience, a raw insight in the art world, the value of art, it’s meanings and how manufactured it all truly is - yes, sir, she definitely has been raped a lot. We learn that art only really means two things: what it means to the artist themselves (Does Giselle sacrifice her life and name or success?) and what sounds good to the public. There is a lot of meaning to the film, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. This was just an okay film to watch or an hour and a half. There is a lot left to explore regarding who Giselle is as a person. She was willing to die for the sake of her paintings. And Jae Beom himself. It’s heavily implied that Jae Beom and Giselle were attracted to each other in someway. and I would've liked there to be something more to explore that. Which would go a long way in making Jae Beom’s choice at the end more weightful. Some potential that gives us an above average film to watch at 2 am in the morning.

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Innocent Thing is a movie about an obsessed lover who doesn't take rejection well. So we know the ending. However everything else is a somewhat refreshing take on the tragedy. Our main characters are a school PE teacher and a student of his. The third party is Seo-Yun, Jong-Gi’s pregnant wife. Without going too much into spoilers, the film starts off soft and tender, even giving us a touching first meeting between our two main characters. Everything is going sweet with Jong Gi, who is somewhat resistant to the relationship but gives in, and Young-Eun. Young-Eun is a normal child with a crush and she's a bit open about it which starts rumors and the film begins to head in a dark territory. And it's not just Young-Eun who does terrible things, Seo-Yun, desperate to keep her marriage and dignity intact, begins malevolents deeds herself. That's the kicker. Surprisingly we are left with a non-so shocking moment but with an interesting and unusual emotion. The final showdown showed someone who was misguided and in clear need of help rather than someone who's just crazy. You could feel sympathy for Young-Eun despite the crimes she commits before she meets her end. It's an interesting feel that manipulates our emotions well enough. The red herrings are well placed with other characters and shocking reveals that reshape what we previously thought we saw.

Jo Bo Ah as Young-Eun captures what I previously mentioned well. The character goes through many different steps from innocent, vindictive and sympathetic. Jang Hyuk is as solid as always.

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