This movie was so surreal... and wacky lol

Ngl I seriously didn't know what I was expecting lol I thought the plot would be simple but lol there so much twist... also wtf that cliffhanger ending?

To be fair... the initial plot seemed promising but since there's too many wild attempts to capture Hana by every single opposing party that seemed to have gone mad, it felt like the punchline never arrive. Just when you thought there would be a happy outcome once Carter completed his mission, there goes the cliffhanger end that make us question whether or not Jung and Carter's family survived...

But seriously though, the movie did do well in portraying a world where people go mad after having a portion of the population got infected with a crazy virus, with one side fights to find a cure and another plots to take advantage of the virus for their own benefit. It's kinda like Busan but not really because the 'zombies' in Carter wasn't quite like the usual undead zombies once infected and it's possible to get cured if you managed to get the vaccine administered quick enough. But dangit... those 'zombies' can use guns and stuff lol, and instead of eating people they just mindlessly attack people. Still, since those infectees are still quite alive, they're not as scary as the usual undead ones and can be shot down if worse wome to worst and they'll stay dead.

Gotta say that the cinematography and cameraworks in this movie was pretty wild it felt like watching a continuous RE gameplay and can get pretty disorienting at times. The stunt work was crazy too and while there's a lot of CGI action being mixed in as well, at times you really can't tell which was which. Smh I wonder if the initial nude scenes at the opening part was really necessary because as much as I wanted to enjoy the action... the nudity was just...uncomfortable. Kinda like the fanservice fight in K-1. Oh yeah... the gore scenes were crazy too.

Not really fond of some of the choices of background tracks esp the ones that had lots of cymbals and brass instruments that always made me think of scenes involving shamans and stuff like why?

Not really sure what to think of this movie. Like on one end whoa... Joo Won doing more action unlike what he's done before! Yet the plot din seem to have a proper conclusion and poor Hana to kept being tossed around just because she was the human cure for the virus and ppl are losing their minds to 'own' her.

Read More

Yanno when the Bonus stage was first released, I never expected even that SP ended up being 'canon' towards the main lore. But the aftermath of that end up leading up to this SP, and while this SP was fun... it does make me wonder what kind of SP we could've gotten if Ace, Keiwa or Tsumuri had won the Bonus stage.

"Anything goes" was basically the gist of what Miichi wrote his wish when the Quiz game had started. Who could've expected that Miichi would now get to become a boss of a Yorozuya shop with Tan, a girl who resembled Beroba as they go around taking random jobs as a living? Not Miichi, of course.

After being informed of the wish by GM Sarami, Michinaga ended up going around taking clients which mostly consisted of his rivals in the DGP! While at first he started begrudgingly doing the job because he had no other choice, near the end of the day he realised that it might not be such a bad thing for him to be a Yorozuya. Pity that it's only for a day only tho. I'd have liked to see more of his shenanigans as a Yorozuya XD

But the most important question that remained unanswered though... IS WHOSE CHILD WAS KEIWA WAS HOLDING? IS IT HIS? Hahahaha

Read More

A really fun light-hearted movie

When the trailer of this movie was first released, I had assumed that the the movie was set in between the last few episodes of Geats. Imagine my surprise that the setting turned out to be set after the series end!

I had already anticipated a lot of laughs from the movie, especially with Kan-chan playing 4 different versions of Aces but I hadn't expected the way the plot end up leading to that point. Yet it was still interesting to see and have different versions of Ace interact with the rest of the cast, it which surprisingly matched with some specific qualities of Ace and the other players.

And I love the core theme of the movie which was basically about asking the question of what's the most important qualities of a hero.

I love the casts. Kan-chan really doing his best to bring up a lot of comedic acting that he really didn't get to do much in the main series. And I love how Ryuga's acting was so on point in support of Kan's (alongside the rest of the casts) and made the movie really enjoyable to watch. Some bits of the villain plot and the general plot might've felt to be moving too fast... but I had fun watching this.

Read More

At first I thought that this drama was about a corrupt doctor being sent to prison and doing stuff but it turned out it was a revenge story of a doctor who unexpectedly got caught into a twisted plot and got sent to prison for a crime that he didn't commit. And while Na Ije strive to get his revenge he ended up unraveling the conspiracy between a big corporation involved in healthcare, the prison as well as the political scene.

Namgoong Min was really great at portraying the main character Na Ije, and Ilike the fact that there are scenes where he had to use sign language as Na's mother was deaf. And this was a very interesting twist in dramas involving doctors where the doctor was the one taking revenge.

Read More

This movie was so funny... and so unexpected. Suppose it's because Kanna was in this as Akazukin, this whole setting felt like just another Gintama setting but it just made for an amusing setting. Just throw away all of the previous fairytale lore that we used to know of these characters because we're in for quite a different adventure!

We already know the original story of the Red Riding Hood, yet this movie was not about the young girl's trip to visit her grandmother and encountered the Big Bad Wolf. Akazukin has set out on a journey, yet along the way encountered an incident that led to the discovery of a murder! And it's up to Akazukin to identify the real culprit.

Akazukin met with Cinderella, and decided to help her to go to the ball. Yet they ended up involved in a murder investigation. And the truth later on end up unlike what anyone could've expected.

I totally didn't expect how Gintama-like this movie end up being. And Sato Jiro playing the king just brought back the old Kagura-Henpeita banter that always amuse me. And seriously I love the different take on the 'fairy god mother' trope in which in this movie was just an old witch who's a bit bad on magicking people's shoes and her niece who's a bit better at it.

I really enjoyed this movie, and it's a pity that it's not a serial drama. I would've love watching what other kinds of adventure that Akazukin would encounter.

Read More

It actually surprised me that this drama was not actually an adaptation of the Black Jack or even a parody of the manga, considering the fact that the main character Hazama Eisuke had a lot of throwbacks to Black Jack.

But seriously though the plot felt like an interesting scenario of what kind of story it could be if there's a genius doctor like Black Jack who can only practice medicine illegally yet still try to save lives in the current age and sociopolitic environment where there's an inequality in terms of people access to health care between the poor and rich.

And it's interesting how despite the Masked Doctors seemed to benefit in offering their service at an extravagant price, they managed to also execute their own brand of 'justice' in the form of medical vigilantism in order to save people's lives.

Read More

This movie is such a great love letter to the franchise! It was really so beautifully written and quite action packed. While at times some of the sfx or superfast fight scenes can turn out to be quite anime-like, overall the stunts and battles and story telling still makes you feel so exhilarated and excited to know what happened next.

I know of Sousuke from the MOZU series almost a decade ago, and I had looked forward to seeing him play Hongo in his own image. And I have to say that I wasn't disappointed at seeing the result. Since the behind the scenes had been released way ahead of the screening, I was excited to see the final result on film and it was really great to see how all the shots play out.

With every single reimagination of Rider 1 and Rider 2 stories, it never ceased to amaze me at how unique each version of Rider 1 and 2 turned out to be. This movie's approach to introducing Hongo to the audience was quite different compared to how it was in The First, as well as in original. But I love how refreshing the story felt, even when at the very core of each different Rider 1 and 2, there's still that certain quality that remains the same.

I also love the reimaginations of the five kaijins or Augs, and how they have a different stories behind them... to which we learn how twisted they had become after joining SHOCKER.

The movie somewhat ended with a pretty open ending though, like it felt like there should be a continuation after this. Hopefully there is, because I really like to see more of Anno's reimagination of the Showa riders.

Read More

My first impression of the show was that Geat was a combination of the elements of Kamen Rider Blade, Ryuki as well as Garo: Versus Road. A Rider Battle game in which the final victor gets their wish granted. But unlike the Mirror World in Ryuki, the DGP was set in the real world, in which, depends on the game... can be set in the any time periods as the Game Master decide. The survival game elements in this show really reminds me a lot about Versus Road, tho the execution of it was slightly different.

I really like the writing of the show. Takahashi Yuya really impressed me on how the series treated the plot by making the Kamen Rider's mission to protect the world into a 'game show'. And the more one delve into the series, one can't help noticing some parallels to some of the well remembered scenes from past kamen rider series... which was fun to see.

I really love the cast. And Kan Hideyoshi was especially very adorable. He really carried Ukiyo Ace's character very well in showing the fox's cunningness as well as the mystery behind Ace. And I also love his dynamics with Sakurai Keiwa aka Tycoon, as both of them keep on growing into being a true Kamen Rider whose mission was to protect the world.

As much as Geats wasn't really perfect and had its share of flaws like any other series, it's still a very fond series for me that I'd keep going back to whenever I missed seeing the cast. The OSTs were great and it's been a very long while since I've enjoyed a great number of good insert song by the cast and for the characters. And the series do have great fight choreographies as well as camera works that made it such a joy to watch.

And I love how a lot of Geats lore incorporate a lot of Japanese mythological elements in the story since I'm quite a fan of those kinds of tales.

Read More

A satisfying and great end, which is quite rare for revenge dramas usually.

Honestly I didn't know what to expect for this drama to be concluded, but I'm quite enjoying the ride Part one let us witness Dong-eun planting her seed of vengeance all around and preparing her ultimate revenge. So part two is when we're finally able to see how Dong-eun utilize everything that she have planned!

Have to say that I really was so excited here, since part one had been leading us to the climax and the climax in part two managed to keep the momentum going without faltering. And something that is worth to note in this part two was, that so far as much as she have been planning this revenge for so long... her side hadn't really taken any active aggressive actions against her enemies and instead use her opponents weaknesses and arrogance to cause them to lead themselves to fall to ruin. If that wasn't brilliant, I had nothing else to say. But seriously I'm enjoying the mind games. It's nice to see that as much as Dong-eun barely committed any illegal acts aside from stalking people, instigating and manipulating people's actions to suit her plan; she still managed to get her revenge plan going. It was pretty clever, like I know revenge is bad and all that jazz, but dang... technically it'll be hard to prove that she have committed any wrongdoing (cos ultimately the ones who ended up doing the deeds of destroying her enemies was not her.) Real world moralities aside, who would not enjoy a story where people who do bad things be punished and getting their just desserts? And in this story, we're seeing stuff like victims of violent abuse taking charge of their lives and taking back their honor and selfworth.

And as much as there's no glory in doing bad deeds or even of committing acts of revenge, I'm really glad that this drama had a happy ending for Dong-eun. I mean, in the past, for revenge dramas that aren't daydramas, we usually don't often get a real happy end... and the MC tends to get sad endings after their revenge was completed. But this trope didn’t happen to Dong-eun. And as much as this part 2, still have some loose ends left wide open... it's still a pretty good conclusion to the story. Got to say that the whole cast and production team really did well to make this drama so engaging.

While some might say that it's dissapointing that Dong-eun's revenge didn't end up becoming more violent, I really like this outcome since despite the fact that the original five bullies did bad things deserving of violent punishments, there are still innocent people like Yesol and Doyeong. And I'm just happy that Dong-eun's revenge did not end up consuming her and allowed her a chance of a happy end (to which many other MCs of past revenge dramas didn't get. )

Read More

I'm loving this!

Haha... no, this is not a McDonald's joke but I really do love the drama. I mean, people used to say Hwarang was bad but aside from some endgame plot that I'm not really fond of, that drama was okay. The same would I say about this drama. I've been waiting for a new drama where Hyungsik would play another royal prince character and lo, WE GOT IT! And this time, his character has a higher likelihood to get the girl SINCE HE'S THE MAIN LEAD GUY!?

Anyway, since this drama more or less was based on a Chinese novel... some plot might be predictable to those who are familiar with the novel. Or maybe not, since it's a kdrama some elements of the original novel would've been changed to suit the sageuk theme. That should be quite interesting to see regardless.

I really like how the characters were written. I mean, as much as there was this supposed triangle between Hwan, Jaeyi and Seung-on, the drama didn't focus too much on the triangle and just let the characters naturally grow to develop a decent friendship. There weren't too many unnecessary conflicts being made just to make the plot 'dramatic'. Which was nice. I love how Hwan and Jaeyi's appeared to start at first as an encounter between two people in crisis, which progressed into a sweet friendship between two person who could've easily been childhood friends and later having a much deeper love growing in between. I like how natural their relationship progressed into mutual love as Jaeyi grew to learn more about Hwan and help each other.

I also love the comedy element with Myungjin and Ga-ram and even more when Hwan and Jaeyi were with them. Cos seriously, I feel that a lot of the funny scenes were brilliant adlibs by the cast and that's so brilliant!

The mystery and political intrigues and conspiracies are nice too, but the serious plot didn't completely overshadow the lighthearted scenes. Also the ost, songs and special effects are well done as well and the visuals are pretty, so what else to ask? Seriously if you consider the time period where it'd be hard to investigate a murder and find the culprit without the modern techs we have now as well as the fact political murders and violent outbreaks of people who desire control of the throne are a common thing, it makes sense for people to not be able to trust anyone so completely, in order to stay alive . Added with superstitions and lack of complete knowledge on how things like science work in such times, life could be so scary if you're stuck in such a situation. I really like how the writer made good use to insert little clues here and there that may at first seem unrelated or pointless, only to later bring it back to form the bigger image in order to head to the final conclusion.

If you just want to enjoy some drama to fill your pastime, you can try watching this drama and you may find yourself liking it. If you're the type to be all negative and expect a drama to live up to some non-existent 'perfect' standard of what could be a great drama, don't bother watching this drama and spread your negativities here.

Read More

This drama reminded me of some of the older series like Shark, Nice Guy, Bad Guy and Master of Revenge so I might as well take a look. Got to say that it was a refreshing take on the old revenge kdramas and quite well-written at that. While the school bullying plot wasn't really a unique plot, it was actually an interesting setting for a revenge drama to be based on.

I like how well the writing of this drama has been done. I like how the events of the past and present were written in a way that wasn't just a massive info dump and flowed naturally to keep our attention rooted. And I like how the drama, while fleshing out Dongeun's back story and plan on how she will be conducting her plan; there was barely any backstory given to the perpetrators to justify any actions that they've done or allow any hints of sympathy given to these characters. Gotta say that this is the few times that I like the shorter number of episode format since that means you barely gonna get any filler scenes that may sidetrack you from the main plot. And as much as it wasn't really that obvious, I like how this first part showed us Dongeun's revenge strategy that was quite like her own baduk strategy where she first started putting her pieces around and bidding her time.

As much as the bullying scene was a bit more violent than what had been shown in past similar-themed kdramas, I like that the drama did not focus too much on the gore but showed enough why the act of bullying someone was really bad. And I appreciate that as much as this was a Netflix drama, scenes that involve sex and nudity weren't really done excessively. The montage intro for the drama was also done well to foreshadow the coming plots.

Read More

Yo... Second season is here!!!

Gotta say that the moment the announcement for season two came out I'm overjoyed. Because It's always nice when you'll still be able to enjoy the kind of drama and genres that you like. Have to say tho, when sadly it was announced that Esom wouldn't be returning due to schedules clashing, I was a bit worried. As in, would they retcon the ending on season 1... or could they somehow do a workaround for it? So far, it looked as if they found a solution for it, as in... to have a bit of time skip as well as arrange a reason to explain the reason for Prosecutor Kang's absence. For now, the series was still hovering over the time period in between... which I don't really mind, since it should also be around the time when Hana would still be busy resolving all of the aftermath of the cases in season one. So as long as the team hadn't broken any major big law that require her intervention, things should be fine with me.

We get the return of the original screenwriter, though to be fair, as much as people used to fuss about the change of writers mid-season last time, there wasn't really that obvious shift of tone in the series in terms of plot or quality of production. Aside from the first season getting even darker near the end, of course... though it should be within the original plan. Like I think I remembered hearing that even some of the cast didn't realize the change of writers until near the end. Anyway, so far... season two was starting great. I'll be looking forward to when the plot gets dark again as we get another villain that might be on par with Baek Sungmi, not that we're really sure that she's completely defeated still.

I'm happy to hear the return of the retro soundtrack to the second season because it wouldn't have felt the same if we don't hear the deluxe taxi theme playing while Kim Dogi was taking the taxi out. While I wouldn't say that any particular theme in the series was the standard 'hero' theme (aside from Dogi's own theme track) it's still nice to be treated with such a great soundtrack. I'm actually quite amused that despite season two do have its own new theme songs at play, we still get to hear the songs from the last season popping up in between like 'All Day'.

Read More

So this part 2 did expand the world building and it really do look like the drama was making use of the Jejudo myths, but to what extent I have no idea.
Still, as much as the writing could've expanded better, the plot did progress further and we finally get to see the main villain Gungtan in action. I mean, it would've been lame if the story ended with the main bad guy not really showing his full capabilities.

From the first part we were given a big twist about Yeomji actually allying with Gungtan. And we're finally getting more details on what truly happen in the past and how it could've affected the present outcome. Not to mention we're also given a third party who seemed to have a hand in many things happening... the we never actually get that fair and this plot ended up being open ended.

To be honest, with so many new details it make me wonder if the story could be wrapped up in just six more episodes. But it did and the final episode did provide possibilities for future continuations, should there be plans for it. For a story that was based on a webtoon, I'm happy to see quite a number of pretty anime-ish and webtoon-ish scenes. So in that sense I'm very satisfied. Plus, Kim Namgil plays a half-demon demon slayer, dude... and Eunwoo finally get to have some jedi moments! Rather than dwell on stuff that the drama did not show, one might as well enjoy the pretty visuals we did get.

Read More

A story of first love and of one true love, suppose we could find plenty of such kinds of stories being written throughout the years. As much as everyone would've at least experienced love at least once in their lives, what are the odds that your first love would be the true fated love for you? Chances are that the odds of that coming true could be one in a million or may be more. But what it such a miracle could happen to you?

First Love: Hatsukoi was such a love story yet it wasn't quite a full fairy tale love story. Unlike love stories in faity tales our main pair didn't quite get their happy ends so easily. Through a fated encounter, their lives started to change. And as they strive to reach out achieve their dreams, they encountered many obstacles along the way as their lives took a detour into different directions before crossing paths again in order to reach the end.

As much as this drama was a love story, it can also be considered a coming of age series. At first Namiki Harumichi's life didn't seem to have any specific direction, but after meeting Noguchi Yae he started to have a dream to which he aimed to achieve with everything he's got. You can't help noticing how Harumichi and Yae start to shine as they strove to achieve their dream. Yet due to an unexpected accident, both of their lives took a different turn. The two parted way afterwards and that seemed to be the end of that relationship, but what if fates decides to give them a second chance? This drama basically try to explore that possibility.

The drama had a very beautiful and cinematic visuals and it also had a unique storytelling where past and present intertwined to tell us the story of what shaped the lives of both Harumichi and Yae. And because of that, it made this story pretty refreshing despite the recurring theme of first love as well as amnesia as a plot twist.

One would argue that the story could've been better if Harumichi and Yae's circumstances were switched but I'm glad that it wasn't. Since the plot would've been a bit too similar to Winter Sonata and I wouldn't have liked that.

Read More