Impressively goofy yet equally dark
A spiritual successor to Yuen Woo-ping's earlier triumph, Drunken Master, The Magnificent Butcher does take a while to get going but once it does, it doesn't let up. Its action is consistently wonderful, often the result of a misunderstanding due to Sammo Hung's character being too impatient to hear the whole story leading to a series of unfortunate events throughout. The combination of Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao is always a treat and here it's no different, but as a comedy film first, the tone is right down the middle, featuring everything from fart jokes and the Popeye theme to an incestuous rape which drastically changes the direction of its story, if a little clumsily. Regardless, what The Magnificent Butcher does offer is Woo-ping patterned precision and creativity when conducting a fight scene with the two different tones of the movie offering such visceral moments of martial arts excellence.Was this review helpful to you?
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The only "BL" series where I have cried all the way through the BL NC scene!
There is a BL element to this--a very important one--but there is also a hetero romance.This is an affecting and heart-warming story. It's not for everyone due to the May-December aspect. But the emotions are so well-portrayed and the story is so well-written. It's a tear-jerker for sure. And I don't cry during most films/series that other people say affected them.
I loved all three characters. We could perhaps have done with a little more clarification about why May fell for December (other than sex)... had she not dated for years, and if not, why not? It's hard to imagine a much younger man providing enough interest for her--other than love and sex. I'm not at all saying it's not possible, just that we needed to see a bit more of her to understand why she fell so hard. I would have rated it 9+ if that had been included, even briefly.
May's wish for her son's desire to be fulfilled before he died was so moving. It was a brilliant lead-up and climax to the story. And this is where I couldn't stop crying, with sadness and joy.
I'm so glad I watched this even though it stills makes me sad when I think about it.
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Good !
I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, but the movie had some flaws within it.for example, It didn't exactly finish the plot once introduced, which was a bit annoying as I found that the plot was quite an interesting one.
Another example was with Hur Hyun-jun, actor of Go Yoo Han, who's acting felt a bit tasteless, almost as though he didn't want to be there.
There was good Things about this movie as well though!
Such as the acting of Tae-ui Hong, whom plays Choi Yon Woo in the film. His Emotions throughout it are strong, showing signs of grief, happiness and other emotions beautifully.
The storyline and overall plot was great too, giving a good opening to the film.
Overall, a good watch if you're bored and want to watch something that has a light horror aspect to it.
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on a whole it was depressing & gloomy. the movie was separated into 3 acts.
the 1st half bored me out of my mind. Jan Wen walking around like a morbid, robotically depressed entity didn't arose my interest - heck i was bored out of my mind - zoning out, not even trying to bother & figure out WTH was going on, even though it was pretty straight forward so wasn't missing anything major (heck the 1st few sec already knew Xu Axing was infatuated with Jan Wen...) even before we find out he's gay.
the 2nd part was even more depressing, but at least wasn't bored - u got more of why Jan Wen walked around defeated (but for the life of me, i don't get how he goes from depressed bordering on total defeat / submission to despondency, to lets just randomly shoot people). isn't it more logical to shoot ones self & put an end to the suffering?!? u usually go shoot people cause u hate a group of people u think done u wrong - so this bit bothered me till the end.
the 3rd part was almost a rewind & re-figuration of the 2nd part - everything started off a bit different & Jan Wen chose a different path which is so much more optimistic & hope inducing until that bitter end (which makes u wonder; if someone is gonna have a bad end, is there a way to change that ultimate outcome or u doomed no matter what)...
*had to add, that i did feel sorry for Xu Axing who wasn't just infatuated but in-love with Jan Wen - after the lengths he was ready to go in the 2nd part. so even if he was ready to never admit this fact to his best-friend ever, it was all the more heartbreaking watching him long for something he would never have.
then come the after credits which left me "scratching my head" wondering WTF... so maybe i need to rewatch this a couple of time to get all the nuances / clues i missed the 1st time around. or need to understand Taiwanese let alone know more about the culture, but as this depressing & boring that wont be any day soon. ✌
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A beautifully sad tragedy
When we look at internationally acclaimed Filipino movies that have been released since 2019, we stumble across a bunch of young actors who I would call a ”golden generation”, because they all prove an outstanding talent as well as acting skills you simply wouldn't expect from actors below or in their early 20s. It all started in 2019 with ”Fuccbois” starring Kokoy de Santos, Royce Cabrera and Migs Villasis, ”Kalel,15” that was the foundation of Elijah Canlas' international career, and ”Metamorphosis” with a stunning performance by Gold Aceron.Then think of some of the most beautiful BL series, like ”Gameboys”, where Elijah and Kokoy helped people around the world endure the pains of Covid lockdowns, ”Gaya sa Pelikula” which made Paolo and Ian Pangilinan international stars, ”Meet My Angel 1 and 2” with wonderful acting by Kaleb Ong and Enzo Santiago, gay series like ”Love at the End of the World”, ”Daddy Love” and ”Papa, What is Love?” starring Rex Lantano, plus lots of short films with the actors mentioned above, and you'll understand why I'm talking about a ”golden generation” of Filipino actors.
Today, I'm reviewing another example of a high quality movie, ”May December January”, which makes Kych Minemoto join this exclusive club of Filipino ”golden generation actors”, and I'm soon going to review the next highlight, ”About Us But Not About Us”, again with Elijah Canlas.
I'll keep the summary of ”May December January” short because I don't want to spoil all the wonderfully written and acted scenes of this tragedy – and a tragedy it is! It is the story of Pol (Gold Aceron), who is terminally ill with a heart disease, and who lives with his mother Claire (Andrea del Rosario) in a beautiful house in a remote part of the mountains. Pol's best friend Migoy (Kych Minemoto) spends a lot of time in this house, and he falls in love with Claire. Their affair turns into mutual affection and love, which they hide from Pol first. But Pol, who is gay and has a secret crush on Migoy, finds out about his mother's relationship with his best friend Migoy. His reaction reveals deep sadness and at the same time a deep love of his mother.
When Pol's health deteriorates, with the prospect of a sudden death, Claire asks Migoy to have sex with Pol so that Pol can experience this feeling before he dies. Pol and Migoy's sex scene is the climax of the movie, the more so as the viewer senses that Pol will die very soon after. It's heartbreaking when he actually does, and Migoy and Claire's wedding at the end of the movie may be the saddest wedding ever seen in a movie.
The story may sound like the plot of a cheap porn movie, and it could have been something like that if it hadn't been written so sensitively so that the backstories and motivations of all three characters become completely understandable. Even the sex scenes aren't voyeuristic, but they rather illustrate the steps of the evolution of the protagonists' relationships.
The fantastic acting adds to the impression that we aren't watching a movie targeting the viewers' inferior curiosity, but a beautiful character study that makes the obscure situation in the secluded house in the hills an interesting story of love, yearning, and fulfillment, albeit with the most tragic ending thinkable. We believe that Claire is overwhelmed by Migoy's love confession, and we understand that she struggles with herself before she accepts her own feelings towards the young man. We also believe that Migoy isn't aiming at a quick conquest, and we suffer with Pol when he accidentally discovers what's going on in his mother's bedroom.
After Kych's convincing acting as effeminate Achilles in ”Gameboys 2”, I was sceptical about him playing a seductive, obviously straight young man, but it is an indication of his acting skills that he masters both, somewhat opposing roles convincingly. Gold personifies Pol's character equally credibly – he has a talent of intruding viewers' minds so that they fall in love with the character he plays (sorry, Gold's amazing presence as an actor carries me away sometimes).
Kych and Gold have beautiful scenes together which prove that their respective characters really love and care of each other. There is a scene when Pol tries to steal a kiss from Migoy when they sleep in the same bed, and Migoy's reaction on Pol's confession of his secret crush is just beautiful acting from both Kych and Gold.
When it comes to the cinematography, I think it matches the sensitive approach of the script, as it is very cautious about disturbing the characters' privacy, which may sound contradictive since there are very intimate scenes indeed, but the camera always keeps a distance, or the scenery is a semi-dark room.
The setting is beautiful, although I must admit that this may be my personal prejudice. I simply love a rural setting, and in this movie not only the seclusion of Claire and Pol's house, but also scenes in the forest are very much my taste.
All in all, this movie approaches a sensitive subject very cautiously, and script, directing, and acting make it a piece of art. If you prefer light entertainment, I would advise you to avoid this movie, but if you can cope with a beautifully sad tragedy, this will be one for you.
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PSEUDO HISTORY AGAIN
This movie is a whole mess, a total wrong doing.Lack of historical facts, lack of historical authenticity ( except that koreans were, and still are, so stupid that they didn't know any formation. In 1636.
This is one of the reason why Qing Dynasty dignified ruled in Korea, with a rightful conquest. In history, korea pretended to struggle, because they lacked any proper war tactics and techniques.
The movies shows that the fortress was an helpless way to struggle ( i would have preferred to show the General who fought after the King surrendered, to see Huang Taiji forgiving him and sending him back without any harm).
The King kneeling towards the rightful and good Great Qing could only be the only outcome.
They only accept their destiny of slaves, and it's not even nationalism of pride, it's even inferior that the ""Barbarians"" they fought, showing the real Barbarians is Korea itself.
And obviously, always cheering for our Great Qing.
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Insanely beautiful, a masterpiece in itself; this saga is one hell of a ride.
Everything has been said and done in almost all of the reviews so I'll keep this short.The main protagonist, Himura Kenshin’s journey remained unexpectedly strong in all five movies. As the protagonist, him alone has been a unique and enjoyable character to follow, both for his dangerous "jinchuu" messages (Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning) and his iconic "Oro" expressions.
I was definitely immersed all the way while following Kenshin and Kaoru's journey of protecting their "truth" in all five movies. I'm afraid I'd have a hard time forgetting the other characters as well. I pretty much got attached to Sonusuke, Megumi and Yahiko and It will surely take a while before I could move on from this family. Not to mention the smooth transitions and epic action scenes, I'm already feeling the urge to rewatch. I truly commend the Directors for their amazing work.
Now for the negatives. IMHO, Tomoe and Battosai's tragic but beautiful mess of a past almost overshadowed the main OTP. Maybe if they added more scenes between Kenshin and Kaoru-dono, their OTP would’ve really made a stronger impact than the former. Although Ken-Kao made me swoon a lot, they felt more platonic than romantic at first. Also, it really felt like Kaoru was just there to be a damsel in distress in the movies.
However, while Kenshin and Kaoru rarely interacted, the way their relationship played out was unexpectedly heartwarming. In the end, I found the main OTP to be a lot more meaningful and fruitful especially after watching "Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning". It was so beautiful how Kaoru turned out to be Kenshin's salvation and hope for a peaceful future.
I'd still say I rated "Rurouni Kenshin: The Last Saga" higher but overall, it is undeniable that this has become one of my top favourites. Satoh Takeru's acting really made me love this series more than I should have. Now, I heard Kaoru's a girl boss in the anime and manga, so now I'm off to check them out.
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WHAT THE ' BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ' SHOULD'VE BEEN ABOUT :)
One of the funniest and weirdest plots.This is the 3rd time I've come across such a movie, Taiwan really makes marvellous coming-of-age movies.
What an excellent movie it was.
With the bottom line message of :
You take your chances, and you pursue what you desire.
In dating, in life, in anything.
5 minutes is all you need, which turns to 5 days, to 5 years and so on. :)
Chen Bo Lin nailed his role.
Ivy Chen is one of my fav actresses of all time.
Her script selection is outstanding.
What a lovely movie, with a fantastic plot twist.
Although a bit overbroad,
This movie makes you realize how normal and mediocre each and every one of us is, in the race for standing out against each other.
The imperfections are what makes us, US.
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Brilliantly done movie about two people in love
From start to finish the movie main focus was just its two main leads. Perfect or not, it is a story of their love and how they get through life hardships while being true to their feelings. While this is definitely a LOVE Story, there is never a verbal mentioned of that word and yet you can feel the deep feeling of love that they have for each other through their expressions, actions and decisions. An otherwise simple plot can easily turn to a bore if it were not beautifully done with such amazing actors of leads and supports, beautiful cinematography, captivating dialogue and I am sure a lot more work of editing and other related works that goes into movie making, that made this movie such a delight to watch from begin to end. Kudos to all the actors, producers, directors and crews of this film. I thoroughly enjoyed its slow pace and focus. Though we wish it can be longer so we get a lot more screen time of the leads, the film still leave us satisfied. In 1 hour and 56 mins, the film managed to give a satisfiable closure to all issues it brought forward.Veteran actress Liu Dan was powerful as a mother that is traditionally biased but secretly caring. Sun Qian was perfect as a determined, strong and single minded young woman. But to me Zhang Xin Cheng was to one who nailed it all together. Not only because that was how his character was written, but because he played it so very well. He was 100% believable and relatable as the ever supportive Li Ran. Of course him being super handsome helps a lot but it was his speaking voice that was so perfect for the whole drama. When speaking, he managed to captivate and grab the audience attention, invoke feelings and that really seal the deal for the whole movie. Their chemistry were on point and with minimum contact and kissing scenes, they manage to get us rooted for their love. That there, were excellent acting.
To me this movie is a prefect 10 except for its music or songs. I am not a non speaking Chinese person so maybe I don't understand the songs to enjoy it but it wasn't the case sometimes. Anyway I still think this movie needs more love and support than what it is getting now.
EXTREMELY WORTH WATCHING.
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Song Yaxuan and Liu Yaowen chemistry here is insane!
Even within 14 minutes they topped most of the dramas that exist right now in terms of chemistry. Chinese bromance really just has that unspeakable tension. From every movement, action, word that comes from these two you can clearly tell their every feeling and emotion towards each other. I love how you can see how much they adore and cherish one another without anyone saying anything. There is so much detail form the way they treat each other and they way they look at each other, it truly makes your heart flutter even with no real romantic actions. From Liu Wen defending Song Xuan from bullies and Song Xuan helping Liu Wen with studying to being eachothers safe place, their chemistry is untouchable.Every little scene of them flows so naturally, from the boys to the music and background, props to editors and directors for creating the vibe of the film. I guess the reason why they seen so comfortable with each other because Song yaxuan and Liu yaowen have a close bond in real life, from members of the same band they grew up with each other and are practically brothers!
The only thing is I wish they made it into a longer series because there is SO much potential in their acting especially with each other. I watched this a few months ago but not a single days passes where I don't think about this SV. Sad thing is that they are idols not actors so a real drama with them is barely possible but nevertheless just shows how talented they are in multiple aspects. Anyways stan TNT!
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생일 축하합니다!
I haven't had my birthday celebrated for so many years. I can totally understand how you wait for that day to feel appreciated, and it turns out just like any other day that brings you closer to death and updates the count of "friends" who forgot about you.?️As for the movie, one major issue, in my opinion, is that the rhythm doesn't really change making it hard to feel where is the beginning, climax, and the end. The movie is too shy, too quiet, just like the main character, and I would like it to stir me up a little bit more. Otherwise, it's still bottled up and not resolved. Yet I like this short a lot for its beautiful picture, vibrant environment, and good acting. 응원합니다, 감독님!
If you want to watch this short film, contact the director through email and request the link politely. The email address is [email protected]. (It took about a couple of weeks to get a response on mine)
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This review may contain spoilers
May contain some spoiler. Beware.
Basically the story is about a curse at the train station. A junior reporter and her best friend who worked at the train station decided to investigate the story. During the investigation, the best friend got the curse. Now, it's a race against time or the best friend will die. Had some similiraty with The Ring right? Once they break the case, the best friend found a way to break the curse. Here is where I'm so angry..
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Spoiler
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The best friend transferred the curse to the junior reporter. Yes, his best friend.
That one bit of plot, override the entire story because I'm waiting for the reporter to go bat-shit crazy and take some revenge on him. And it did not happend. Instead, she transfer the curse to someone else who deserve it. The end.
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Introductory video, that's it.
I understand that it is a compilation of short stories but if being short takes away the reason and fun out of it, then it just becomes time waste.There were some stories that were getting good but stopped in the middle and others are just a miss.
Tunnel
I could guess it from a mile away, there was nothing new, not in terms of story nor presentation or screen writing.
The Woman in Red
Would have been a good story if we could understand the motivation behind it. I actually liked the creepiness and the oblivious attitude of the lead. For a period she behaved like being followed in such a creepy manner was no big deal.
Tooth Worms
Best one of this lot. I won't say much but this certainly will tickle your horror bones. The execution was really good even after it squeezed into 12 mins
Necromancy
Not bad. Not good. Just average. This story had so soo much potential
The Wall
Unexplainee over unexplained. The misdirection was great but way too short for this story to soar it's wings.
The Closet
The closest to practical of this bunch but eould have liked it if it was clearer whether it was a paranormal story or not.
Ghost marriage
This was cute. Even though the title serves the whole story but the execution was really well done.
The snapshot filters
Why was this story given a place in the movie? Waste of screentime. Bring your popcorn for the next one while this is playing
The Mannequin
We came for creepy, we got creepy.
Goosebumps till now.
Escape Games
Again, this one was a good story to end on. Escape room on pretence of darker secrets. Dark and I like it.
I would give a 0 to rewatch value coz really even if some are good. None of them ate memorable enough for you to go back again.
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Profoundly brilliant - what manner of man is this ɿ(･ه･)ɾ
WOW ... . this was a deep and mind blowingly good movie!! It reminded me a little of Blank 13. I thought I was going to watch a bit of a mystery but it turned out to be so much more than the mystery of a dead man's back story. It literally was an existential 'man hunt' ... a hunt for what it is that defines a man ... a person ... a hunt for identity.This was not apparent to me at first. The movie moved slowly and I wondered why are they going so slow ... hurry up and get to the juicy mystery bits. Then it jumped some years ... and then there were flashbacks ... and I was wondering what the point of it all was ... and then it hit me ... this was not just about "a" man hunt ... but a multiple man hunt and not just for the men but for their identities, both from an external point of view and an internal point of view. The movie then became entirely fascinating for me ... nothing was irrelevant ... the script was so good it allowed a gloriously deep dive into the existential ﾟ:･*･:◝(ᵔ‿ᵔ)◜:*:･ﾟ.
"Identity' ... in one sense it is such a concrete thing and yet in another sense, it is elusive and ever evolving ... before we are even born we are automatically assigned an identity:
▪ identity from genetics of your biological parents
▪ identify from the time of your birth e.g. before/after marriage; the year / month / day
▪ identity from the order of your birth compared to your siblings ... even the order of birth of your parents in the broader family context
▪ identity from the geographical place of birth ... even the place of birth of your ancestors e.g. born in Japan but your great grandparents were Korean ...
▪ identity from race
▪ identify from culture
▪ identity from your gender
▪ identity from social institutions e.g. the school you went to, the religion you have, the occupation you have; the clubs you belong to; the music you listen to; the hobbies you have
▪ identity from your physical body - the 'perfectness' of it or the 'imperfectness' of it; who/what you look like ... I am the splitting image of my father ... you look like a Korean etc
▪ identity from your state of mind - sane / not sane; smart; stupid;
▪ identity from what your parents do/are - son of a murderer, daughter of a prostitute, son of a doctor etc
▪ identity from where you live, what you wear, the food you eat
▪ identity from your experiences - parenthood; singleness; military service etc
▪ the identity that others assign to you - "hurry up and go back to your 'old self'"
▪ the identity that you think you are ... or should be ... or want to be ...
"Identity" ... so abstract and yet it is such a very heavy thing ... a blessing in its inclusiveness and yet also a weapon of separation and destruction ... something innate and yet something thrust upon you without consent ... what choice do you have with it ... how much of it can you mold and how much of it do you just have to accept as is ... can you escape from it and thereby escape to a different way of life, a different way of being ... how many times have we modified our personality throughout our lives without even knowing ... how did we do that ... is it necessarily a bad thing (˙_˙)ゞ.
I loved the scripting ... as well as the symbolic imagery used throughout ... and the clues that were set up right from the beginning. I liked the different perspectives of a person's identity given from the children to the adults, to friends and family of the main characters ... even to that of strangers. It was very nicely done and the actors did it credit. The scripting was so loaded ... so mind blowingly good. For me this movie is definitely rewatchable. As for the score ... I got so consumed with the story line and all the thoughts that that generated in my mind, I don't even remember the score of the movie ... but I gave it a 10 anyway because whatever it was, it did not detract from the story line at all.
The final scene showing Kido's back as he looked at that painting ... profound. A brilliant movie ... I loved it.
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