Reviews

Good acting, stunning sets but too much action and not enough focus on characters' psychology

"Home Coming" is a Chinese movie that centers around embassy staff aiding their fellow citizens in evacuating from a fictional North African country during a time of war. The movie boasts visually stunning sets that provide a captivating ambiance. The acting performances by the main leads are impressive and bring depth to their respective characters.

However, the plot of the movie does not give the characters enough development (there is some but clearly not enough, we are left wanting more ... instead of brainless action scenes). The focus on action over character development may not satisfy viewers seeking a more psychological and character-driven experience. A greater emphasis on exploring the relationship and psychology of the two main leads would have added greater depth to the plot.

Another issue with the movie is the lack of English subtitles, which may pose challenges for non-Chinese speaking viewers. It is worth noting that I had to rely on Whisper Speech to Text AI engine (with VAD) to obtain the english subtitles, which may not be as accurate as human translation.

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Tony Jaa delivers a trunk load of Muay Thai fun!

The Protector packed a trunk load of action into a short amount of time. Protector Tony Jaa proved he was up to the tusk when he traveled to Sydney to find his stolen elephants. Ivory few minutes there was a bone crunching action scene with a ton of flipping, twisting and leaping. I promise I'll stop with the elephant puns now.

Tony played Kham one of the Muay Thai trained protectors of the elephants that may serve the king. During a celebration, the bull elephant and his calf were stolen and taken to Australia. Kham arrived in Sydney and ran afoul of the law almost immediately. He was fortunate that one of the police officers was Thai and believed his story. Unfortunately for that cop, he was framed for murders the triad committed.

Most of the story was filled with contrivances that were best not looked at too closely. The main thrust of the story was that Kham was willing to go through anyone to find his elephants. This movie was all about the action scenes, and on action scenes, it delivered. The bad guys had an entire army of fighters. Fighters on skates, bikes, motorcycles, armored four-wheelers, with fluorescent bulbs, knives, guns, statues, whips, and/or swords. Tiny Tony also faced seven-foot giants. There were chase scenes involving speed boats and helicopters. There was an intricate scene filmed in one long shot as Kham fought his way through the bad guys' den up several levels of stairway. Though there were numerous long action scenes, none of them felt repetitive. Each setting had its own fight mood. Whether it was Road Warrior futuristic mayhem or meditative murder in a Buddhist temple, each fight brought its own style and weaponry. It would be hard to overstate how amazing the actions scenes were. Jaa was incredibly athletic and acrobatic, doing stunts others would need obvious wire-work or CGI to accomplish. To quote a character from the television show The Wire, "That was some Spiderman sh*t!"

Aside from the narrative issues, the dubbing for this movie was terrible in places. It strained imagination to believe Kham was in Australia with some of the "Australian" accents. Bad guys and bodies appeared and disappeared along with story cohesiveness. The acting was serviceable, as long as no one had to say too many lines. As I said, best to focus on the action scenes and not pay much attention to the rest or you may become needlessly confused or disheartened.

What I learned from this movie: #1 Elephants are loyal family members. #2 Gravity does not apply to Tony Jaa. #3 When in doubt-aim for an enemy's tendons, preferably with a bone of revenge.

If you are wanting a complex and coherent story with character development, this is not it. If, however, you are in the mood for an exciting martial arts movie that includes elephants and has a likeable star, everything else is irrelephant (couldn't help myself!). This is the one to try.


3/20/23

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This movie had quite a different take to the normal cult related movies that we see in movies and tv shows. This one showed a family that joined a cult after noticing their sick baby getting better after using the special cult water. And honestly, the family (although apart of a cult) was shown in a very humane way, like the way have dinner together, wash clothes after wearing them for a few days, sharing food with friends, watch shooting stars and so forth, it was all portrayed in a "they're just like us" type of way.
According to her cult, they aren't allowed to drink anything other than their water. So seeing Chi chan enjoy both coffee and water was an interesting to see how Chi chan could balance her parent's religious/cult beliefs in her life alongside the normal societal beliefs through the analogy of drinking both coffee (societal) and the special bottled water (cult).
One thing I noted was that her friends didn't mind or disrespect her beliefs or lifestyle, no mockery, no name calling, or bullying or spreading rumours about her, they just took it as face value and moved on with their own lives. It definitely reinforced that humane viewpoint that I mentioned earlier, the director definitely did a good job to show that although slightly different, they are just like us.
But I do have to acknowledge that, the difference between this story and others is that this Chi chan's parent's cult beliefs weren't as extreme as the reported cases in Japan's news are like. This story shows very mild or moderate cult behaviours; like yes it's made them poor and they have to refrain from drinking stuff that isn't the bottled water, but it's not to the extreme that the parents are giving their entire fortune away to the cult orgs like some do cult members do as seen in real life cases. So maybe that's why it was easy to show this family in a somewhat compassionate light.
Overall, it was a good movie with good acting and great cinematography, especially the last scene with the shooting stars.


P.s. Okada Masaki is very scary when he's acting angry and pissed off, I do not want to get on his bad side ever. But, I can see why people have commented that his character is a jerk. To an extent I agree, he was quite harsh to Chi chan. However, since we never got a backstory to his character, I'd like to think that maybe it's because of past trauma and experience from cults that made him beyond upset. Also, if someone you don't know that well is drawing you every time they see you, that can be very uncomfortable, so I just think that on top of learning about the cultism was the final straw for him.

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Black Belt Karate was a Hong Kong-Indonesia joint production with a mixture of Hong Kong and Indonesian actors. Indonesia provided most of the settings, giving some new blood to the standard Hong Kong and Taiwanese kung fu fare. The movie itself could have used a transfusion of screen presence magnetism.

The movie began with a goofy character named Tommy arriving in Indonesia from Hong Kong looking for his uncle. He wanted to learn karate at his school, but upon arrival it turned out his uncle had moved and a restaurant had replaced the school. The restaurant owner hired him to wash dishes and do odd jobs. Tommy spent most of his time practicing karate moves and watching the demonstrations at the Golden Eagle martial arts school when he should have been working. He was fired from his job and began work as a cart driver where he bumped into a beautiful girl whose father just happened to own the Golden Eagle. He began work as a janitor at the Golden Eagle and ran afoul of Lamoz, the top coach, who had his eyes on Tan Wei, the master's daughter. After Lamoz put the beat down on Tommy, the comic relief was allowed to begin training. Master Sai believed Tommy was a diamond in the rough and would one day become a great karate expert. Billy Chong, who was only referred to as Second Brother, became good friends with Tommy.

Tommy improved and won a local tournament which resulted in the sore loser picking a fight with him later. After Tommy defeated him, it turned out the fight was against the Golden Eagle rules and Lamoz saw to it that Tommy was kicked out. After Lamoz revealed he wanted to marry Tan Wei so that he would inherit the Golden Eagle, Master Sai kicked him out. Lamoz began work at GA's rival school, the Dragon Martial Arts School. Master Sai became ill and asked Tommy to return. When Tommy was out on an errand, Lamoz brought the Dragon students to the Golden Eagle and terrorized the students and tore down their sign board. Master Sai sent Tommy to Hong Kong to further his studies.

In Hong Kong, Tommy met Bruce Leung as Hsieh Kwong, which set up the best fight in the movie as the two sparred. Tommy returned to Indonesia after finishing his training to find that Master Sai had died when he fought off Lamoz, after the creep tried to rape Tan Wei. The big showdown between Tommy and Lamoz was comically short and failed to give the catharsis the character and the audience deserved. The Dragon school called in a ringer, Lo Lieh, to kill Tommy. Despite Lo Lieh showing up in a fancy black and red cape, it didn't help him in the fight.

This film was an odd one. When the film began with Larry Lee doing a comic relief act, I kept waiting for Billy Chong to show up as the main character since he received top billing on the DVD. Instead, Lee with his less than leading man looks or acting ability was the star. Billy would have his chance soon enough in his movies that followed. Lee had above average martial arts skills and indeed did train in Goju Ryu karate. His moves and choreography were realistic enough in most instances. Bruce Leung also was credited with martial arts direction. I truly enjoyed watching Bruce and Larry spar, it was quick and showed off their kicking skills. With the exception of the final fight and Bruce Leung's fight with Chiang Tao, most of the fights were well above kung fu posing. I'm an unabashed Lo Lieh fan, but despite Lo Lieh being Indonesian, this movie could have used a more skilled karate fighter for the big finale. My dream casting would have been Kurata Yasuaki. As it was, the final fight was a let-down. Most of the fights after Tommy returned to Indonesia were of a lower quality than the earlier parts of the movie.

Black Belt Karate had plenty of fights for martial arts enthusiasts with talented bit players and stuntmen filling in the action. Even though it lacked that special narrative spark and charismatic acting that would have made it more memorable, the movie is still one to try for the different fight style and setting than most of the Hong Kong movies in this era had.

3/20/23

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Of What Could Have Been

Jing Boran is hot on my list now due to his on-going release drama Road Home with Tan Song Yun. Whilst awaiting each episodes release, I decided to look at some of Jing Boran past work and chose a 2018 movie title "Us and Them" and I was not disappointed.

Us and Them tells a poignant love story between Jianqing (Jing Boran) and Xiao Xiao (Zhou Dongyu) who met on a train on the way to Beijing. Two young individuals facing challenges living in the big city. Jianqing eager to make it in the game-maker industry and Xiao Xiao just broke off with her ex-boyfriend. When two vibrant souls meet, all sorts of energy ignite. Of kindred spirit, happiness, company, joy and love. I liked the chemistry of the two main leads, the mood of their love was felt when it was at it's peak and I also felt their pain when their relationship was struggling. This couple happens to be one of those who carried different perspectives when it comes to love in their early 20's. Jianqing equates love to money and success. He thirsts to leave his village and take his father away from the poverty spectrum. He dreams to make it big and shower Xiao Xiao with all the material things like car, houses and comfort of life. At her age, at that time, Xiao Xiao equates love to him being 'present and available' when it comes to giving attention to their relationship. She did not care if he had money or not. She cared more for his sanity, his well being. Eventually, everything implodes. They break up, and neither having understood nor make it clear, the reason to the other party.

In my deepest hope, as I watched, I wanted them to reconcile when they met each other again years later. But, it appeared he has moved on. Married and with a son. The timing of it all. He has made it in life, but at the cost of losing his deepest love. She yearned to have been properly loved and in the end found out that he had always loved her (even when at times, he does not seem to show it) .... seen in the ending of his game.

This is truly a story of, "fated to meet but not destined to be together". The story and the acting was very good and I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. But, will not be re-watching it again.

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What a surprise!

Sometimes it's best not to read reviews or know anything about a show before watching it. I happened upon this gem completely by accident and I enjoyed it fully. It's a very calming story. Strangely, while watching it, it made me feel like I was sitting on the porch on a beautiful spring day, watching the world around me. Low angst.

Tabe Mikako as Sawako. Now, one of the problems that I tend to have with Japanese shows is that the FL always has her head down, speaks haltingly, and apologizes for absolutely everything. At the outset, I thought this was going to be the same, but here, it worked perfectly. She didn't fit in and was all alone, until she was able to make some friends. I liked the way she portrayed her shyness, her loneliness, but finally learned to speak up, at least when her friends were being trash talked about.

Miura Haruma - (It was sad watching him from a RL standpoint. All I could think of was that beautiful smile hid his true self. The world lost a sweet soul. My mind goes off on a tirade of the importance of seeking help, of speaking up, of not suffering alone.) He did a wonderful part with this role. Tall, gangly, friendly, popular, handsome. The last person you'd expect to come to the aid of Sawako. I adored the voice over when we first hear about his feelings for her.

A plus for me was how this movie didn't just focus on romance, but on the importance of friendship. How opening yourself up to an unlikely alliance can bring such happiness and completion. I enjoyed watching Sawako's change over time (her trying to kick a soccer ball was so funny!). She realized the importance of those friendships and was willing to totally come out of her shell to defend those friendships.

I felt that this movie flowed very smoothly, and I was along for the ride. There were no jarring moments to make the ride bumpy (except for the guy playing the homeroom teacher - WAY overacted!), and we are treated to Mikako's beautiful smile at the end of the movie. I found myself smiling as well. I'm really glad I took this journey.

Then, to find out that there's another version coming out on Netflix March 30th - I hope they don't screw it up!

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Absurd and lewd

This Yes Madam is not to be confused with Cynthia Khan's other movie Yes Madam 2 (1988) or Michelle Yeoh's Yes Madam (1985). While Cynthia Khan did play a cop, the movie veered into the fantasy realm with the most oddball villains and good guys. The story refused to be taken seriously resulting in a headache of a viewing experience trying to make sense of the haphazard script and even worse acting.

This review will be short as the movie was not entertaining for me. Cynthia Khan played a cop for the A-Team and her boyfriend was a security guard who happened to break up a criminals' fight and ended up with a book filled with money. The bad guys wanted the book back. The boyfriend's family ended up being kidnapped by the bad guys in exchange for the book. Two gangs of bad guys double-crossed each other making an exchange for the merchandise resulting in the most ridiculous and poorly choreographed fight scenes I've ever seen.

The bad and the strange: Starting first with the boyfriend's family---The sister was over the top strange. She was shown making an elaborate meal for the cat but only ordered delivery pizza from a guy dressed as Superman for the family with a stack of boxes from previous meals sitting in the corner. One young boy dressed like Goku (Dragonball) and practiced kung fu in his room. The other lecherous child had the magical power to steal women's bras and panties off their bodies. And for some reason there was a pin-up poster of a half-naked woman hanging in the dining room behind the dining table. Khan's boss was also pervy. The bad guys looked like they were cos-playing anime baddies wearing strange costumes and hair pieces. Several of them had face paint or huge owl-like eyebrows.

The story made no sense, beginning with the first random fight right up until the final scene. The writers threw in the most arbitrary things which made scenes even more chaotic and incomprehensible. This is a movie only for those who love absurd Taiwanese films with lewd humor. For me, this movie was a beating and I am happy to have it in my rearview mirror.

3/19/23

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Kim Soo Hyun is magnetic

Likes:
1) First and foremost, Kim Soo Hyun. It's like he's got a tractor beam engaged any time he is on screen. My focus was solely on him. To become enmeshed in a country and environment that are not your own, for years at a time, to completely blend in, I could feel his loneliness. And yes, he will always be associated with green track suits! His cameo in Crash Landing on You was hysterical. Hopefully it brought new people to watch this movie after seeing it.
2) I felt that the storyline was original and well-executed.

Dislikes:
1) The ending. Granted, I think it ended the way it had to, but it left me with a blanket of sadness, and I really don't like to be sad!

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Cute But Not Much Substance

This 15 minute short film was cute and simple, and that's about it. While the premise of a pair of glasses allowing the wearer to see beyond the surface of who's in front of him is interesting and has potential, the time constraints of this work did not really allow the creators to take full advantage of that. Further, although the synopsis does not actually describe much of anything, I was still expecting more in terms of the glasses' function and role in the plot than what we got. In other words, without giving away spoilers, the magic effect of the glasses was rather shallow in that I could not see how it would move the relationship forward. This felt more like a concept piece rather than an executed story.

As far as acting goes, Choi Woo Jae was great, but I thought Jin Gyu was a bit stiff and amateurish. Whereas the former felt like a more seasoned actor, the latter felt like a rookie. That said, Jin Gyu performed well enough; I just think he needs to hone his skills a bit more. I also didn't feel a lot of romantic chemistry between the leads.

Finally, the production value and cinematography felt high budget, whether or not it was, as I'm sure we've all come to expect and appreciate from Strongberry.

Overall, it was short and light so I would recommend.

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Gong Yoo and Park Bo Gum are amazing.
I know I lot of people had problems with this movie, but I thought it was incredibly well acted and incredibly sad.
I don't love all the violence but when you get through to the end you understand the pressure that has been building up in Seobok, and the narrowing of his options, and the violence comes out of that.
GY and PBG are two of my favorite actors and their work in this movie is beautiful. You see the subtle changes in their relationship and their growing understanding of each other, so the loss at the end is devastating.
The story is just a vessel to hold the relationship between the two of them. Their discussions about death are given higher stakes because of what they know about themselves. And their perspectives shift because of their relationship.
The only really important supporting character is the "mother" figure. Jang Young Nam doesn't have many scenes, but she conveys the character's intense pain in every moment. This actor never disappoints.
The "bad" guys' behavior isn't justified in the writing, so those characters are boring. But Seobok and Ki Heon are absolutely at the center of this story, and I had no problem focusing on them.
This isn't my usual taste (I like romcoms and sageuks), but because of GY and PBG's performances, this movie will stay with me for a long time.

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I’m kind of amazed. To make such a fun concept into such a boring movie - that’s a skill. It could easily be an easy to digest mix of different short ghost stories based on the new “stigmatized property” the male lead moves in. Why was it not just that?

It became this weird mix of horror, slice of life about unfulfilled dreams and mellow romance. And nothing matched well together. I understand that they needed to set up a proper motivation for Yamano Yamame to even move into these problematic houses, but so much focus on these failed dreams was not needed - it made the initial exposition too long and too boring.

Then we have the romantic undertones between Yamame and Azusa and honey, no one watches horrors for romance. Not one person. It never happened. It’s unnecessary.

And the worst aspect? No development nor closure for any of the actual ghost cases. The actual screen time they spent in these “hunted” locations is laughably short.

The worst crime though? Nao’s acting. She truly needs to tone it down. I have not seen someone this animated and over the top in a horror movie in a while. Girl was determined to use every muscle on her face in every scary shot, even if barely anything was happening to validate such a strong reaction.

Overall, poorly constructed plot, decent editing, mediocre directing, questionable acting.

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An acceptable take on one of the most profound serial killers in South Korea.

Dare I say it aged like fine wine, as a person who isn't fond of watching old films, my admiration for the director, Bong Joon-Ho, managed to push me into watching it. This film stands as a protest, and a complaint against the police force in South Korea, during the time the Hwaseong Serial Murders took place. What I loved the most about it is how it takes you to that entire experience, because much to my dismay, this is how they truly functioned back in the day.

The only reason I rated this film an 8/10 was because of the inaccuracies with the story itself, for one Gwang Ho wouldn't actually be released from prison. Instead, the police would go on to frame him, torturing him mentally and abusing him physically during the interrogation, and finally, making him the culprit and sending him to prison. Which is part of the many reasons why the case remained unsolved for many years.

In addition to this, I believe the plot was somewhat dragged on, or there were certain elements in the story where I felt like the movie would have survived even without those certain parts. The relationship between the two officers wasn't as well established as I would like, and their characters made a 180-degree turn out of nowhere, with one suddenly relying on evidence, and the latter trusting his instincts.

Overall, it is still a good film to watch.

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Boring…

Anyone who tells you this is a good movie was on drugs while watching it. Too much CGI, the main protagonists are unlikeable and the movies’ biggest sin? Wasting the amazing actor Kara Wai!

A warning: there will be some big spoilers here, but these will be needed to reveal some details of the movie so you can understand my issues with the movie. It mainly follows this girl played by Jessie Li who could see monsters since she was a child so her mother abandoned her at a mental hospital. I know we are meant to feel sorry for her but I really didn’t care because the actor really couldn’t carry it off. It felt like she was trying to act *gasp!* and lacked authenticity.

And then we have the male lead Shawn Yue as Meng who is a monster hunter. Everybody in the movie calls him rubbish and a second rate hunter and this is true, he really is useless. Near the end of the movie, while still being useless, he loses his left arm so he gets a new one from a side character called Uncle Ping who puts all his power into it. Even with his new arm he still sucks, and only wins his fight against a top hunter because of some dirty tricks and all the while was as graceful as a drunk horse. The final battle was poorly choreographed and there was way too much cgi and shakey cam it was almost impossible to follow.

There is this super crystal that can grant hunters immeasurable strength. Our main male lead gets this crystal and yet is unable to defeat out main big bad played by Kara Wai. Instead, the final battle is ended in 15 seconds as Jessie suddenly pulls a Yugioh and understands the heart of the cards and does one move… hold her hand out and then twist it like Aaron Kwok in his Never Ending Love MV. This defeats Kara somehow without any dramatic build up or awesome final confrontational struggle. Kara just stands and screams and boom done. Lame.

I just hate how they wasted Kara because she is a fantastic actor that just oozes charisma and malice. In this movie she just talks a bit and gets around with loads of cgi around her. It was one really lazy part for her and doesn’t allow her to show off her other acting chops. There is one scene she leans into a sculpture and basically rubs her chest over it during an exposition bit. Was that necessary?

And a massive plothole here is that that super crystal could be absorbed to power up anyone, why didn’t Kara Wai use it to power up? Instead she leaves it floating around her domain… that makes no sense. When Shawn appears in front if her near the end and she says “you have absorbed the power of the crystal?” No shit, what were you expecting to happen by leaving it there?

The best part of the movie? Paper. A character that can origami himself into any shape and is the comedy sidekick to Shawn. But again, it is CGI. The CGI is very good, but it cannot carry a movie that is poorly executed. Avoid this movie

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Adorable, wish it was longer

This was adorable and I loved the bright vibe of the entire film — it really looks and feels like a manga come to life. The friendships were really beautiful to see and the romance was pretty cute. Sometimes it's a little cringy but overall it was actually refreshing that there weren't any terrible villains in the entire film.

This is a film I think would even be better as a drama or even an anime simply because my favorite parts were when everyone was spending time together and I wanted more of it. There are also these "transition" moments that I think were missing — sometimes the development of character relationships or times just felt a little jumpy and sudden. A longer runtime could've helped develop the main conflict more too because I felt like the lessons and growth were so rich.

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