Reviews

This is Why Touken Ranbu Should Stay In Historical Japan and Out of Modern Japan

I just finished watching it in theaters for a second time! Okay, I honestly went more for the clear file than the movie, but it was still a good movie.

The directors of Touken Ranbu 2 took an leap of faith and dived into the lore of Touken Ranbu, so for die hard fans of Touken Ranbu this is a must watch! However, it honestly becomes a love it or hate it type of movie due to how they utilized Kotone, the female lead.

•❅✧❅✦ Story •❅✧❅✦

Mikazuki Munechika and his team are deployed to feudal Japan, year 995, to protect history once again. This time they are there to ensure that Minamoto Yorimitsu finishes his "Oni Hunt" on the Oe Mountains and kill the "oni" Shutendoji and his "oni" people. As usual the Touken Danshi encounter the Historical Revisionists (歴史修正主義者), but this time they latch on to a dying Shutendoji. Yamambagiri Kunihiro runs into Shutendoji. Moments later Mikazuki runs into the room only to find Shutendoji and Yamambagiri disappearing. He tries to save Yamambagiri, but is unable to move.

Alone, Mikazuki follows traces of Yamambagiri to the year 2012, however, having no master in the current year, he finds it hard to stay in his Touken Danshi form. High Schooler Kotone, who has the special ability to hear the voices of historical objects, accidentally stumbles upon Mikazuki fighting the Historical Revisionists. Mikazuki takes Kotone as his temporary master so he can maintain his Touken Danshi form. Meanwhile Ibuki, the reincarnation of Shutendoji, is working with the Historical Revisionists to steal people's memories.

So. . . That's all I'm going to say so I don't spoil the whole film. Just know that most of the film takes place in the year 2012.

•❅✧❅✦ Touken Danshi Lore •❅✧❅✦

Touken Danshi 2 really focuses on the lore of Touken Ranbu. The movie explains why most of the missions in Touken Ranbu take place in feudal Japan and not in modern Japan. As someone who's always wondered why the missions were only in feudal Japan, this movie answered my question on that.

•❅✧❅✦ Kotone •❅✧❅✦

Kotone is a love her or hate her type of character. However, it's not because of her personality. It's mostly because of how the directors chose to utilize her character. Some might see no problem with her, but I see many problems with her character. If she were just a saniwa stand-in and Mikazuki and the other Touken Danshi were the the ones to solve the problems and uncover secrets during the mission, then I would have no complaints about her. However, it felt like the directors were trying to give her a god complex. She was made out to be the the most important character and that the Touken Danshi would not have been able to complete the mission without her. As someone who enjoys watching the Touken Danshi solve and complete their own missions, it was frustrating to watch this random human girl solve it for them. It felt like I was watching a movie with Kotone as the main character, not Mikazuki or the other Touken Danshi. But if you don't care about the Touken Danshi actually being the main characters in their own movie, then I guess her character isn't that bad.

•❅✧❅✦ Touken Danshi •❅✧❅✦

There were a lot of Touken Danshi in his film. The climax does not disappoint. It was amazing.

Mikazuki Munechika, Heshikiri Hasebe, Yamambagiri Chougi, Higekiri, Hizamaru and Yamambagiri Kunihiro take up most of the screen time, but Kogarasumaru, Ichigo Hitofuri, Honebami Toushiro and Horikawa Kunihiro are there to protect the Honmaru. As for the other Touken Danshi, a lot of the actors from the stage play and previous movie make a cameo.

My favorite part was that they got both actors who played Tsurumaru Kuninaga to cameo, which works out since Heshikiri Hasebe, Yamambagiri Chougi, Higekiri and Hizamaru are all from different Honmarus. Another one of my favorite parts is when Mikazuki compares his Honmaru's Hasebe to the Hasebe he meets on the mission.

•❅✧❅✦ Overall •❅✧❅✦

While I'd like to give a higher score, I don't think I can. The movie was great, but as someone who enjoys the Touken Danshi solving their own missions I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. Kotone really put a block on me enjoying more of the movie. Again, she's not a bad character, but she gave me a god complex vibe so I didn't enjoy her much. To me, the movie felt more like Kotone meets the Touken Danshi rather than Touken Ranbu, but that's just me. However, I did enjoy the movie other than her, and I loved the lore behind the movie. This is still a great movie to watch. I did watch it in theaters twice, so it's a good movie. Please watch it.

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Unexpected melancholic youth story

The story was rather unexpected to me. It does not really qualify as a romance but rather as a coming-of-age journey for two young people finding each other and building an uncanny friendship. It is a good concept but there are some elements lacking in the plot building to make me totally invested in the relationship between the main characters.

There are two timelines which both have their importance but there is unfortunately not enough time to develop both of them well enough. Moreover, the pacing of the movie felt quite uneven when switching from past to present. The flow of the plot gets better after the set up and there are some scenes between the 2 main protagonists that are thoughtful and leaving a lasting impression on the viewer.

The cast is overall okay: I enjoyed the performances of the two main leads playing the younger roles. I found the acting of the adults a bit too mild and subdue...but it might have to do with the script making their characters quite passive.

The soundtrack is nice but does not stand out among other Youth Japanese movies. Similarly, the production is quite standard for the genre: it is efficiently supporting the story-telling, nothing more.

I would recommend this to people looking for a melancholic youth story. It is a sweet-and-sour tale which might bring you down before picking you up.

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First time watching dark cooking movie. Haha... But yep this quite dark, but at the same time you can relate to what people in here think...

Hunger talk not only about the hungry of our stomach, but also our ambition. How much are you hungry for success or be 'special'? how much are you willing to go for it...? Are you in the end gonna lose yourself to your hunger or in the end you'll gonna turn back to realize what are your initial ambition comes from? After that will you also gonna regret how far do you walk toward that goal, how much do you sacrifice for it...?

Haha... So many question that we can think when we see this movie...

In this movie we can see Aoy try to reach that success. At first we think that she'll gonna willing to sacrifice everything for it. But I'm really glad that she's never really lose her conscience in the way up & how in the end she turn her head back to realize how wrong her path is.

This is one good movie, that can give us lesson what we have to do to achieve our goal.

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"You are death!"

Maria tread over familiar revenge movie ground, not adding anything particularly innovative. For those who watch action and martial arts films such as Kill Bill, The Villainous, or La Femme Nikita you'll be able to call out what will happen next with little difficulty. Still, I did find this film entertaining even if it didn't offer anything new to the genre.

Lily/Maria had been a trained assassin working for Kaleb and the De La Vegas crime family. After she refused to kill two innocents, she faked her death and "retired". A few years later she's enjoying her life with a husband and daughter. Kaleb discovers she's still alive when he's tasked to kill an incorruptible governor. He's in a Cain and Abel relationship with another killer working for the family who wants his spot in the hierarchy. A standard revenge trope later and Maria is on a rampage. I truly wish writers would be more innovative when writing for women assassins, most of these movies are incredibly similar and use the same tired paradigm set decades ago.

The movie utilized Filipino martial arts and knife fighting as well as plenty of gun action. The fights were well choreographed but not extraordinary. What I liked about the various confrontations was that there were few extended fights with any rival, Maria competently took out the bad guys in a precise and efficient manner.

For those who are squeamish, there were several gruesome torture scenes and plenty of blood spurting with the fights. Despite the provocative poster there was no nudity only one shower scene where no bits and parts were on display.

Christine Reyes was credible as both the happy homemaker making sure everyone ate a healthy breakfast and the cool, calculating assassin. The rest of the cast were capable, but not memorable. For the most part, Maria wore sensible rampage clothes. Often directors dress female assassins provocatively to lure or appease male viewers. There was a club scene where she wore a sexy dress and ridiculously high heels. The actress seemed to have trouble walking on the thin heels, I would have broken an ankle. I was pleased that she went back to pants and sensible shoes for kicking and chasing down her enemies. The crime family's female assassins were more scantily clothed. Win some, lose some. Lastly, the score was properly edgy for all the death and mayhem.

I've watched several Filipino films, and Maria had the best production values of the lot. There was a nice use of color and light. The fight scenes didn't seem to have a high budget, but it didn't appear cheaply made either.

While the movie was predictable, Maria was a worthy assassin to add to the female cadre of action "heroes". Also, it was nice to see a Filipino film embracing the world of badass female leads. Next time maybe they can be the one to break the mold that most countries are content to use repeatedly.

4/15/23

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Almost Love or was it?

I started out loving this show, it has all the makings for a great show! They were young and grew up together. All relationships have their ups and downs, but I thought the way it started would stand the test of time. He worked a lot and had a dream he was trying to accomplish to make their lives better and end the end she felt neglected. Instead, of doing the adult thing and talking about it you act out. Instead of accepting or trying to work things out you choose to put up a wall and hold your ground for what? To end up alone instead? I don't want to hear anything about it is good to have once love mess. Be an adult and don't play games if you love a person talk to them. Communication has been and always will be the key. To me it was never love if they were not even worth the time to communicate with. I would not rewatch this at all I felt my time invested was wasted. There was no lesson to learn just disappointment, I can live without that in the show.

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No just no

I literally don't even know what to say. I really liked the first one my only problem was the ending but this one was so???? Like I genuinely was very confused. Like I even watched the movie twice given I forgot I watched it at first. It was so random idk like the first one was pretty good to me this one i really didn't understand what it was going for. I don't recommend this at all. The ending was kinda nice with her with her friends (iykyk) but other than that I was upset that I even watched this. I was surprised to see Ji Changwook's character so I thought I'd like him but no definitely not.

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Strong start with weak ending

I almost never watch Thai movies; this is literally the second Thai movie I have watched in my life. And I must say that I am really impressed. Cinematography, acting and scoring are really good. The first half was set up really well - the tension in the scenes where the FL was trying to impress Chef Paul was really so palpable I was holding my breath while watching. The second half however seems to have fallen off a cliff. The film was going for the social commentary angle with mentions on inequality and social stratification but it was hastily abandoned and only picked up towards the end with some random shots of homeless people on the streets. I was expecting something like a Parasite-esque satire but it seems that the writers got confused on what was the main message of the show. The FL claims she wants to be special and she has the "hunger" to succeed - yet throws in the towel because hunting and cooking rare animals illegal crossed her boundaries. I was a little confused at this; it seemed like such a trivial reason to quit. Maybe I have watched too many fucked up movies but I wished they had provided a more disturbing reason for her to leave Chef Paul like for example, those rich people requesting for human meat.

There is also a littleeee too much exposition on the whole social commentary angle. Characters talking openly about how it sucks being poor, Chef Paul bragging in front of the cops that he would never face any consequences, literal scenes of homeless people at the end etc are all too "in your face" and I would much rather go for the "show don't tell" approach. And of course, the rather cliched ending of the importance of family blah blah. With this movie being over 2 hours long, I was quite disappointed at the somewhat flat ending. I don't' regret it though, it was still entertaining. Just wished they had managed to maintain the tension and the thriller angle from the first half

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Quite average, could be shorter

This movie has a duration of 147 minutes, which is nearly 2.5 hours. I feel like it would be better if it was shorter. It focuses mostly only on two people and their relationship with a few other characters and very few location changes and occasional flashbacks. The plot moves forward well, but still it is easy to lose focus (at least for me) so I watched it divided into three parts during one day.

The premise and North Korean setting during the 1970's is interesting as well as the "Serve the people" title, which is also an ongoing theme in the movie and it plays an important role, both in the setting and in the character's relationship too. Speaking of their relationship, I'm honestly still confused about it, it started off as a purely sexual one but we also got a handful of scenes that could easily be interpreted as romantic. Maybe it was intentional: to show that it wasn't just black and white and how if the circumstances were different, their relationship would still progress like that.

The characters didn't really stand out for me but I want to praise the lead actors, they did a really great job both in the normal scenes (one emotional scene with lots of shouting was so well done) and the sexual ones. There were A LOT of the latter but they played an important role in the movie.

Overall, I give the rating 7.5/10.

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this is the definition of wtf

i remember watching this and i was like wtf, i mean from what i remember i was so shook lmao
first if you want to watch this make sure to check the tags, so if you can handle scenes about depression,suicide attempt,sexual assault scenes, Stockholm syndrome,bdsm etc then go on, and the movie is so explicit by the way so make sure you are using your headphones ,im surprised those actors are able to film those scenes so respect because thats wow, im speechless
i want to say the reason why i completed watching this movie is because idk something was intriguing? and i wanted to see how they will end this movie.
and i'am fan of the relationship of the leads? of course not as its toxic asf but i found the movie so interesting anyway, i guess i liked the psychology about it? both leads were struggling and its interesting to know more about them and their backstory.
so the point is this is so hardcore ,if you know you can watch then check it out but if you get triggered about those things then maybe this movie is not for you

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It took a while to find this movie..

[I found this movie on mydramalist more than a year ago and finally found it on a torrent website last year.]

Plot (as far as I remember):

Girl is living with her adoptive father in the mountains and hiding away from people. One day she meets the ML. I think after that her father tells her who she actually is and shortly after their house gets burnt down and she goes to her actual home. turns out the ML is the Lord of that area and they meet eachother again. He starts being interested in her..because their families somehow don't want them to marry, they elope but get caught..

i hope i did a well enough job explaining this movie..

overall it seemed slow even though it maybe isn't. i guess just the music but I think it fits.

the acting is good and I think the main couple had some chemistry.

the ending was acceptable.

overall 8/10

it's not my favourite but the visuals for this movie especially the scene where he meets her by the horse and the lighting is very good.

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"I just need to balance myself once, and I'll be safe forever"

This film shattered me in ways I cannot describe.

Absolutely breathtaking in every way and suffocatingly lovely with excellent cinematography, colours, script, and acting.

The English title of this film is linked to the novel of the same name that refers to the structure of the story. It tells the parallel time and space that the man encounters many years later (2020, autumn: daegu, seoul, and busan) and brings him many references and dialogues to stimulate his inner reflection, especially in every parallel time and space will be interspersed with the memories of the mother on the sickbed or the only friend he was in love in the past, but no matter what, the movie buries the most secrets or the big event between him and his first love, which caused the two to go their separate ways and meet again. Even decades later, this also caused the man to suffer from the mental torture of the incident and the repressed personality shaping in these decades.

What remains unchanged is the fact that his mother passed away and his sister suffered from cancer. He learned to accept the pain he must go through. The constant possibility and modified memory are intertwined together, bringing rich and unique meaning of the same nature, when pointing and is linked to the latest meeting from the last parting between the two, the man will finally take that step, rush to the person he loves, and go with him no matter what. He didn't want to hold back any more, that "see you tomorrow" was a long, long time.

A must watch for it tells us that you can just embrace the one you love, tap your nose with your fingertips, turn your wrist around and make a gesture of praise, even if all the stories end in the same way, the one you love will exist in every universe.

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If, like me, you hate all those crappy singing/talent competitions on TV, just don't!

I'm a big Johnnie To fan.
Sadly, this is quite unlike anything he's ever made before: utter trash!

Some girl owes a loan shark a ton of money and an MMA fighter takes her under his wing, rather than pimping her out of selling her off to cover what she borrowed.
It sounds like an interesting drama only, the MMA fights are really bad, the male lead comes off as a chimp on a crack-energy drink high and, well, I just really hate all those singing shows!
Worse: there's utterly needless wire-fu - and I mean utterly useless: some girl spinning and floating in the air while playing a guitar in front of judges!

Honestly, pretty much everything about this rubbed me the wrong way and, having zero interest in a film about singing competitions when there's one literally on right now in another room(!), I couldn't motivate myself to even make it to the hour mark.

Definitely not recommended.

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Not the best

It wasn’t horrible but it was slightly challenging to follow, the acting was okay. my main reason for watching it was Nijiro otherwise i probably would have dropped it half way through. The humor wasn’t too bad. I most likely will never watch it again, when i watched it I was looking for a Japanese dubbed show and thought this sounded good. But it isnt really. Some parts are bad others are really good.

There is literally like no Japanese except when Nijiro, his friend, and the mom are talking to each other. The actual English people speaking English sounded a little like good translate or them reading something off a really boring paper they don't want to read. Overall they sound like they dont want to be there.


The only part that I could say that really got my attention was when the one guy was being really rude to them and later on Nijiro flipped him off and after that it wasn’t too bad. But it pretty much contained the mom getting out of her depression and walking around all the time because of something Nijiro said before never showing up in the movie after that. So if you want a show that mainly focuses on Nijiro then this is not your show.

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well..

This movie is very interesting to say the least ? I've watched it a couple times but only to show it to different friends and show them the bad wigs and crazy characters, but the more times I watched it the more I understood what was happening. Its overall an okay movie, definitely not award winning, but okay. I think the three "love interest" are all bad lol, I mean, one CONSTANTLY belittles her, another drugs her, and the last is her step brother. it's all very odd, and the first time I watched it I thought the best option was her brother, because all of the other ones were just so bad, but now I think she shouldnt have gotten with any of them. who she picks in the end is just... not it lol. I didnt like the whole ending scene, it was long and drawn out. it was a weird movie, I mean, if you like weird definitely watch it lol

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