Daxtreme
Quebec, Canada
This review may contain spoilers
Second leads in this ruled!
Fun romance/drama/comedy with a few unexpected creepy suspense moments.The secondary leads Jae-jin and Hye-sun killed it, completely stealing the show from the leads in this.
Unfortunately for the ML, I wish the FL had chosen the other guy. Lol. That's never a good sign. I don't know he was more down to Earth and cool. The ML was too controlling. But it still works I would say. I liked the Mountain Spirit's role in the story, and the FL was really, really good.
This show excels at nothing but does a lot of little things right that do add up. The story progresses well.
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Stunts - 78/100
Narrative - 86/100 | Incredibly well-rounded script, intricate characters, and fully-realized villain that unfortunately don’t do much for me on a personal level... BUT this film is so well-crafted and delightfully twisted that it’s a great watch no matter what. Park Chan-Wook is a wizard behind the camera.
Fight Choreography - 88/100 | What is there left to say about the hallway scene? Hundreds of YouTube comments reading something along the lines of "best fight scene ever" having thousands of upvotes summarize it quite well, albeit being a bit short on the descriptive parts. The scene is so stylish with the groovy music, our main character here never abandoning, cleaving through ranks and ranks of featureless thugs, fighting for his life. And falling.... And standing up again! It's all filmed in one beautiful take, and results in one rough and truly unforgettable fight scene.
But mark my words, this fight scene is not even in the top 5 reasons why you should watch this movie.
Enjoyment - 76/100
Overall 8/10
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I love how this movie takes itself seriously and presents a well-flowing narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat constantly, and not because of contrived reasons but because of dynamic and varied characters with their own goals... AKA a well written movie.
The plot and main beats are quite predictable but that doesn't detract from the movie at all. The zombies' traits are clear, and played to both their strengths and weaknesses.
Huge praise should be given to the stunt crew who made it all believable by throwing themselves like the batshit crazy people they are on every object in that movie. They're scary and completely insane and I loved it!
The contrived setting adds to the movie immensely.
Incredible work and a worthy addition to the zombie genre. It has emotional gravitas too which is also quite the rare sight in this genre.
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Came for the action, stayed for the story
I don't know why a lot of people praise the action in this movie, I must commend them for their dedication and it sure must have been quite the effort to stage it and film it, but it's shot in a horrendous and chaotic way. We lack proper perspective or setup for most of it. It's hard to follow when it's first person as well. I think action works at its best when it's a series of "push - release" moments that, in combination with great framing and editing, create a kinetic flow to it.The motorcycle chase scene in particular stands out as the worst. It's just a mess of shaky cam, awful under-cranking which seems like they actually cut some frames out, and weird editing.
I mean, a lot of the action shots are continuous but they still manage to make it look less slick and coherent than many movies with five times as many cuts. I guess I should blame the camera work.
In fact, this movie is living proof that shaky cam is a lot worse than having many cuts in an action scene. Hong Kong director Corey Yuen is at the opposite end of the spectrum, his action movies have lots of cuts but due to the steady camera work (and precise editing through the cuts), the action stays coherent throughout.
The worst combination is, of course, both of these extreme issues joined together (see: most of Hollywood productions)
HOWEVER, I loved this movie. Came in for the action, stayed for everything else.
The narrative used a lot of wonderful "push-pull" dynamics. If only the action did as well...
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Stunts - 70/100 | Not sure exactly how they filmed some of those stunts which is a plus I guess? This movie is an example of something impressive done behind the camera resulting in... something relatively good on screen but not anything more than that because it's hard to actually see it.
Narrative - 81/100 | I was almost dreading the action-filled finale because the story really drew me in. A great balance of action and drama, shock and tenderness, romance and animosity. It's melodramatic at times but I didn't mind.
Fight Choreography - 67/100 | What I said in the stunts category also applies here. What the action scenes lack in cohesiveness though, they compensate for in terms of violence.
Enjoyment - 84/100 | Kim Ok-bin is the MVP of this movie. Or rather, I thought both actresses playing her character were the MVPs of this movie. But then... apparently she played both versions of herself. How on Earth did they manage to make her look so different before and after plastic surgery?
Or is it what Patrick Stewart refers to when he says "Acting." in a deadpan tone?
If you liked either of LA FEMME NIKITA or THE MAN FROM NOWHERE, be sure not to miss this one.
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This review may contain spoilers
Incredible example of contradictory filmmaking
I actually think there is A LOT to talk about with this movie, and that is… concerning. Concerning because with a title like this, you'd expect something straightforward. Also concerning because I feel like the original intent was to portray this whole plastic surgery situation in South Korea and Kpop superficialism with… an introspective inclination, perhaps? But along the way, the purpose got completely lost.Never thought I'd sit down to write a 1000+ words essay after watching a cheesy Romcom like this, but here we are.
The conflicting/mixed messaging in this movie is a real sight to see. Wonderfully contradictory. It's just bonkers, and I love contradictory filmmaking! Well, actually, I didn't love this movie. But I loved how contradictory it is with its own self. I don't regret watching this for one second because it's so captivating how tone-deaf the whole ordeal is! It's hard to put a rating on this because I really enjoyed it for those reasons, but let's be honest here, it's not well made.
Let me try to summarize this.
According to this movie, being ugly is bad, being pretty is good, but it's bad if your good looks are fake, although looking good ultimately is a good thing even if it's bad that it's fake, because feeling good about yourself is good even if it's bad that you weren't good-looking before, which is why you wanted to look good in the first place.
And you have to accept that about yourself… I think?
Some horrible messaging in this movie (I may have missed a few):
- Being fat means being clumsy and ugly and worthless, even if you're talented
- If you're fat, tough luck. Kill yourself or get plastic surgery/find a way to get pretty, those are your only options for a better life
- You need to be good-looking to feel good about yourself
- You need to be good-looking to have any form of success
- You don't deserve the person you are infatuated with, even if they like you in return, unless you're good-looking which then becomes acceptable
Interesting messaging in this movie:
- You should accept your flaws as they're a part of you (contradicts above, more on that below)
- You should strive to be better and work on yourself
- You should be more assertive with others concerning your well-being
- Being a good person at heart matters (see the dad resolution)
- Knowing what you want and working to get there pays off
- Having actual talent pays off, being a talentless hack doesn't, even if you're pretty (also contradicts above)
So in light of this, it's funny how this movie clamors for so many things that are in direct contradiction with each other:
- She definitely has a better life now that she's pretty. It fixed most problems in her life, but at the same time, she looks at what she left behind and sees what being herself before brought her. But she was so explicitly and unequivocally miserable. Which one is it, movie?
- Her love interest says to his henchman at the end that they're all assholes for refusing to see Hanna for who she was all along. Wonderful right? Except it's a classic case of do as I say, not as I do. He only cares about her post-surgery, and while he wasn't hostile to her or anything before, he was still only using her and that's it.
- To continue on that, the movie makes a point of saying that who Hanna is inside is what matters (but only now that she's gorgeous, like shown above), then we see her "ugly" best friend lining up for head-to-toe surgery after she's seen what it did for her friend's life. It's shown as a good thing as she's finally fixing up her life. LMAO that's so tone-deaf. Incredible!
- Being fat sucks so much it ruins your life and you should kill yourself. But you should also accept that about yourself… What the hell
- The movie tries to show that talent trumps good looks, as Ammy fails because she's a talentless hack while Hanna succeeds because she's a good singer, but in the process of doing so makes being pretty a requisite of success as she failed earlier because she was ugly… which contradicts its own message as it's not just about talent. Moreover, Ammy doesn't really, actually "fail", she's simply not as successful as Hanna in the end. She still had her moment in the sun, for a talentless hack that's a far cry from failure. And I do mean talentless, even after years of practice her voice still sounds like a broken accordion.
A few positives I noticed
- Kim Ah-joong was actually quite good in the lead and gave a great, funny, varied, and expressive performance. Definitely not cast only because of her looks (ironically).
- Lots of hilarious comedy moments, the morality of them notwithstanding. There's some good fish out of water moments after she gets her surgery, in a "oh you sweet summer child" manner.
- The song "Ave Maria" (actually sang by the lead) is hella, hella catchy
A few negatives
- Script was uneven and by the end nothing makes sense
- Obviously, the epic mixed messaging
- The fat jokes are really, really unfunny
- The fat suit looked like shit
- Too much melodrama
- Main romance sucked
On the subject of the main romance, how can she have a crush on the guy even after she hears him say he's only using her because she sings well and that they have to tolerate her? He literally says that, she hears him say it, and yet she still has a huge crush on him as if nothing happened? Wow. When that happened I thought "oh so she's going to fall for some other guy when she's pretty right?" Love triangle or something? Nope. I guess then that she pursues him only because he's good-looking? I can live with that, it would further reinforce the overall irony of this movie. No matter what he does for her at the end, he's still a prick who was using her when she was fat and only came around because she's hot now.
And finally, in the most insane of ironies (add it to the pile), as if this movie's conflicted messaging couldn't get any more blurred, lead actress and singer Kim Ah-joong has had multiple, expensive plastic surgery done on herself. I'm not judging her for it, but it's so ironic in the context of this movie… You can't write this shit up! Or apparently you can?
Recommended because it's just a fascinating watch.
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But with barely any of what makes them great.
Also, where’s Zhang Ziyi?
Not that I dislike Shu Qi but that’s not what I was promised at the end of the last one!
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Stunts - 81/100
Narrative - 51/100 | Lesson number 1 when making a Hong Kong Triad movie: length should be 90 minutes, not 120 minutes, unless there’s an interesting dynamic going on like in the previous movies. This sequel was excruciatingly boring because it’s half an hour too long. And the absence of Shin Eun-kyung severely hamstrings this movie. Clearly, she was the central pillar that made this whole thing work, at least for me.
Fight Choreography - 78/100 | Steady camera with exciting athleticism always gets a thumbs up from me on the fighting front. Shu Qi is obviously doubled but they did a good job with it. Minus points right there because of the huge missed opportunity of having Ken Lo be the final boss in your movie and not have him throw a single kick. -sigh- It is our lot in life as Ken Lo fans to suffer, is it not? He always plays overconfident mob bosses so why the hell don’t they make him back up that confidence? He certainly can. Oh well, enough ranting about that…
Enjoyment - 42/100 | Hold that thought, still got one more in stock. The translator was so annoying, I couldn’t figure out whether she was a comic relief character or one you’re supposed to root for... or totally hate? I’m lost on this one.
I’m all for their attempt to make a girl empowerment movie but it just falls flat on its head. Stick with the previous entries in my opinion, you get a fully-developed character that’s much more interesting. And a better story. And better comedy. Better everything.
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Blend in the famous Hong Kong Triad power struggles/dynamics with South Korea’s perpetual game of Genre Musical Chair and you get this, whatever this is. I liked it!
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Stunts - 83/100 | Somebody high up in the creative team is a fan of Hong Kong movies. They even included the staple humorous sidekick that we all love to hate (more like hate tbh)
Narrative - 68/100 | (Melo)Drama, Crime, Action, Comedy all merge together to form a weirdly functioning mess.
Fight Choreography - 68/100 | Only part that I wished they had studied better in their efforts to replicate fights from the best school of action cinema. Still, there was an attempt here, with a brutal end fight sequence that was pretty decent. Performers had it in them I think but the editing… bleh. It really was all over the place and the fights were hard to follow, which is the opposite of what you’d want. I liked the wire bits though.
Enjoyment - 79/100 | I was surprised by how much depth the main character had. It was really fun to see her struggle with basic life stuff and yet, be so respected and feared by her peers. Funny and yet intense central performance by Shin Eun-kyung. She’s a stone-cold certified badass.
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>> "When exposed to room temperature, the vaccine turns into a mutative virus. Within 6 minutes, it will modify all living beings in the country and kill them."
Okay I have no idea who wrote that shit but I am VERY pleased at the mess it results into. Definitely my drift.
Except it’s not even that much of a mess, this movie’s actually pretty good and hella entertaining.
Well... for an action movie anyway.
But the action’s terrible.
So, it’s a good action movie with shitty action.
What?!
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Stunts - 72/100
Narrative - 69/100 | It’s South Korea’s Mr. And Ms. Smith. The plot, attention to clever details, and characters kinda make this work.
Fight Choreography - 47/100 | You can clearly see that the villain’s got some moves but they over-edited everything to death in this movie. Like I said, shitty action. But daring stunts, somewhat.
Enjoyment - 75/100 | Some parts of this movie are in “so bad it’s good” territory but the thing is, other parts are genuinely good. I’m a bit confused. I like how the main bad guy is a Russian woman who speaks Russian to South Koreans all the time and doesn’t give a damn that nearly nobody understands.
I should mention that this aligned pretty well with my (sometimes shitty) tastes. I just thought the sense-to-nonsense ratio in this film was quite on target (as if it was in any way measurable… ?)
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South Korea's Charlie's Angels
Okay don’t go in expecting a masterpiece, this is basically South Korea’s Charlies’ Angels… if they had yo-yo’s and stressball grenades. And if it was set in the 19th century. And starring a real-life kpop diva.But for what it’s worth, I enjoyed this. It’s cheesy as hell but when you have 3 charming girls like this kicking ass flying on wires and swinging metal yo-yo’s around the place while delivering heavy-handed dialogue, I’m in awe as to how exactly a movie like this got made.
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Stunts - 58/100 | Lots of cutting around to hide the CGI and stunts of average quality.
Narrative - 65/100 | Okay I may be getting a little generous on this one. But I didn’t mind the cheesy storyline so yeah. 65 it is. I liked the gender-reversed situation at play here, with the rescue operation.
Fight Choreography - 64/100 | They’re using yo-yo’s to seriously hurt people. And swinging around like Spider-Man.
Enjoyment - 74/100 | I think this movie establishes really well that the lead Ha Ji-won is incredibly photogenic, that much is certain.
It was an energetic and fun movie with lots of silly moments and a trio who are basically the three female musketeers and I liked it. The main theme, which starts every time the three girls get into a fight, is also exactly as corny as you would imagine from the poster.
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The Korean Superman Story
A super-powered handsome alien from another planet falls in love with a woman on Earth.Hang on wait a minute, haven't I seen that kind of story before?
✔ Looks exactly like a young attractive human male, is actually from a far-away planet and is an immortal god
✔ Has superpowers like massively enhanced strength, reflexes, speed, senses, and resilience
✔ Tries to blend in with human society, mostly succeeds
✔ Falls for a human girl and wants to protect her
So I guess Korea finally made their Superman adaptation? But in the form of a kdrama! No wonder it was popular. Superman stories are always popular.
So yeah, this Korean Superman has a massive crush on Jun Ji-hyun (his Lois Lane, except she's insanely famous) for reasons he can't explain, the ONLY girl he's ever crushed on in his 400 years of existence on our planet.
Well, get in line brother!
It wins you over with a great and expressive performance by Jun Ji-hyun who essentially plays a much more famous version of her character in MY SASSY GIRL, which is always a delight. Since she was the most famous and highest-paid actress in Korea by the time this show came out, I guess she's basically playing herself? Method acting!
I can think of so many ways they could have slightly altered the script to fix most of the glaring issues (not making him an alien who speaks Korean as soon as he arrives on Earth would be one), but hey, to be fair, Superman doesn't make any lick of sense either and nobody seems to care.
It's a sweet story with lots of twists and turns about the lengths you're ready to go for love. The show starts off really strong with a killer first set of episodes, then meanders quite a bit before getting to the end, but it gets there. And also add a random psychopathic villain stealing the show every now and then. Male lead was kind of… too indecisive though. It became a bit annoying at some point. Even though it's kind of the point of his character, I thought he was mostly expressionless and lacked the charisma and magnetism of his co-lead.
Comfortably inserts itself in the My Sassy Girl Spiritual Sequels Universe (joining Windstruck).
It would seem Jun Ji-hyun can do no wrong.
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Now that's a proper revenge story.
Actual, visceral and nasty revenge that feels earned.It's a slow burn at first, I must confess, but when the shit hits the fan… oh boy does it hit.
I really like the Korean show Kingdom and this is a great prequel. Of course do not watch this without having seen the first 2 seasons or you might be completely lost. Or ignore this and do so as it could be a fun little experiment? It kinda stands on its own but the shift near the middle part might prove to be quite the huge whiplash for viewers not familiar with the show.
Anyway, bold of Jun Ji-hyun to portray a role such as this.
Looking forward to seeing what happens next!
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Not very faithful to the manga, but great adaptation nonetheless
In a world where Squid Game is comfortably Netflix's most popular show of all-time by far, and everybody in the whole world has seen it or at least heard of it, it's a bit surprising that Liar Game hasn't caught up at least a little bit, especially since Squid Game's creator has openly said that Liar Game was a direct inspiration for it (along with Battle Royale, unsurprisingly).Probably because it's a pain in the ass to find in the West?
Liar Game is basically like a reverse Squid Game. While the latter is filled to the brim with violence used for shock value, in this one, violence is… forbidden!
Where Squid Game is raw and almost animalistic, Liar Game is reflexive, psychological, methodical. Lots of characters thinking, staring. Lots of dialogue. Lots of double-crossing. Suspenseful music everywhere.
And, contrary to Squid Game, Liar Game actually spends a vast majority of its runtime during the actual games, not showing us weird filler for about half the runtime. I think they could have cut even more of the stuff outside of the games, like the Japanese adaptation did. Doesn't mean it's better though, more on that in reviews for the Japanese adaptation coming up soon-ish (still watching)
Anyway, I guess if these things are about anything, then both Liar Game (through greed) and Squid Game (through both greed and survival) aim to show the ugly side of human nature when faced with difficult choices under immense pressure.
Overall I'd say they are roughly the same quality, but I enjoyed this one more because it's thoughtful instead of shocking, and hella entertaining. Definitely one of the most purely entertaining Korean shows I've watched, even though it's not the best (that would be Kingdom... for now). Also the leads were more charismatic here.
The original manga is leagues ahead of both though. It's actually one of my favorite manga ever. Even nonreaders of the manga could tell where they are deviating… rule of thumb: when it's bad and not making any sense (so basically, mostly everything that happens outside of the LIAR GAME tournament), they're probably deviating!
Now, I'm not sure why they had to change some of the actual games, especially the very first one, that was entirely unnecessary and many of those changes (but not all) introduce some logic problems. And by the final episode they changed so much it was basically a shadow of its former self. But the rest was great!
This show promises two things by the name alone and gives them plenty: lies, and high stakes games.
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Easily the most toxic relationship in all the kdrama I've watched.
Another one to add to the "pretty good early episodes but that's it" pile. Except this time, the 1st episode is actually hot garbage, then the next few episodes become surprisingly great once the script is flipped on its head, and after that, we're back to bad again.Amazing to me how typical kdrama have had the same format of 16 episodes of 1 hour each for decades at this point…
And yet, most writers continuously can't manage to hit the 16 episodes count without adding pointless bloat. It's really not that complicated, just add side story elements that are relevant to the main narrative instead of boring slapstick that has nothing to do with it.
This one also has the additional problem of wanting to delay the main romance so much (because they hate each other) that eventually it becomes entirely impossible that they'd ever fall for each other. Their mutual dislike has been a central part of their character for too long, which is also an undesirable side effect of my point above on bloat. If they had properly mapped the story, this wouldn't have happened.
But it was doomed to fail anyway because they made the male lead way too toxic, like irreparably so. Somehow even worse than in Secret Garden and that's saying quite something.
It's a bit of a shame because the lead actors Kim Jae-wook and Krystal Jung were great, but their characters sucked. Unless your thing is emotionally and psychologically abusive men (I'm not judging)... don't watch this.
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A step-down from the first but still good!
A step-down from the first despite all the elements that made the first one great still being present. Just hugely less interesting in general. Still good however._________________________________________
Stunts - 75/100
Narrative - 63/100 | I said the first one had no real narrative but this one goes one step further. The girls are mainly just talking and arguing, because this time they're forbidden from killing. So not much happens. So it ends up just being boring because we know they can't kill, which is what gave the first movie a delightfully unpredictable inclination. The duo of guys are also the worst assassins I've ever seen. At least a dozen times they had the perfect opportunity to kill and yet… didn't. They were mildly funny though.
Fight Choreography - 87/100 | There are longer fights, which is what I wished for after watching the first, but while they're still great, they're not quite as great.
Enjoyment - 66/100 | Gotta love the mascot fight and a couple visual gags, this is when this movie reminds us of why we're watching it. But the first one had a lot more of those moments.
I will watch the third installment when it comes out but will be readjusting my expectations. In any case it's gonna be worth it for the action alone. Like this one!
Main Fighters: Saori Izawa, Joey Iwanaga
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girl revenge
Way too generic. Girl's mom gets killed, then she wants revenge. It's a TV movie (split into 3 episodes) so it feels fairly cheap when watching, mostly because of the sound mixing._________________________________________
Stunts - 65/100 | Han Groo doesn't have what it takes to be an action star. She does try and she can take hits though, I'll give her that.
Narrative - 40/100 | Cheap writing will always remain cheap writing.
Fight Choreography - 66/100 | There was an attempt. Just about decent, if I'm being generous.
Enjoyment - 30/100 | C-tier knockoff drama of La Femme Nikita. Only for genre completionists.
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