Reviews

UGH

So, spoiler alert, no kiss, on the lips. Ugh. No final kiss, nothin.

Now for my real review:

Ayef is an aspiring animator, but unfortunately they drop the ball in showcasing what she is capable of other than the thesis, her styling, it lacks the small details that make it a perfect whole. Other than that, pretty well written and honestly, acted. Ayef's actress, 9/10 for acting. Honestly.

Manny. Oh boy, we don't know much about him except for these few facts: He doesnt like his dad, likes his mum, but the mum is shit, also the dad, he has siblings, he has a plant shop, you know, that's a lot of detail. Nvm. I dont know where I was I going with that. Honestly, Manny is a king. 10/10

The story as a whole, had a few weird pacings like the scene where Terry and Filemino (Ayef's parent's) go hard at each other, so Ayef runs away from that very heavy scene and suddenly, romantic music plays and lo and behold, Mr. Manny there to save the day. But yes, I approve of this movie, You might think that the rating is low, but that is a high rating for a typical rom com.

The side character's do not contribute much other than to give comic relief, or emotional pain and anger. But they're okay written, so it's fine.

That's all.

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Heart Warming movie based on true story that worth watching

Let Life Be Beautiful is a good movie; I am a sucker for a film based on a true story. The story is about a young Wang Xinyang, diagnosed with leukemia, and how his parents supported and loved him.

Even though it does not have a happy ending, it shows his triumph and optimism during the treatment and makes a difference in his friends' lives.

Good story and acting, from the cast, and I am giving it an 8.0 rating. It is hard as parents to see your kid goes through a health issue and not much you can do about it. It is so sad that they have to sell their home in order to pay for his treatment, but in the end, he cannot be saved. A tear-jerking movie, so has your tissues ready.

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A cute yet meaningful movie

I lost count of how many times I've rewatched this (I was here to find a movie to watch yet ended up rewatching this again lol), thus I decided to write my review which I don't usually do.

The story might be quite a "typical" shoujo story, but the execution is excellent imo. Plus the story actually delivers great moral values, not just a "once upon a time of a shoujo heroine's life" type of story, you know. Ofc shortcomings are found, yet they're covered by the nice production, i.e. the actors are being super serious in making might-be-cringe scenes into reality, thus they are actually --and surprisingly enjoyable! I keep going like, "how did they do that??" LOL.

I especially want to praise Yuna Taira whom in my opinion rocks her role here, but the supporting characters are likeable as well, like the parents, even the butler and maids. Another winning point is that the OST is so nice! ^^

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Relaxing movie

This is a movie to watch if you don't want to have to think about anything. There's no plot to keep track of, angst is low, there isn't a large cast with multiple plots going on. I have to say, I liked it okay for what it was. Being a movie, it moves on pretty quickly with no dragging; however, I didn't feel too emotionally invested in any of the characters.

It was the typical school story of bullying the weak, the hero comes to save the day, they fall in love. I was irritated by the FL apologizing all the time, because it appeared to me that she was apologizing for existing. I did like that they didn't have the ML calling the FL names, as so often happens in J-dramas.

It was basically a short, easy watch while I look for a different show to invest my time and energy in.

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Not for Non-JoJo fans

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable is the 4th manga in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. It ran from 1992-95 while the anime adaptation was in 2016. I mention this for a few reasons. One: I don't remember very many details so what was omitted or added, is lost to me. Two, while the JoJo's have their own stories, there is a running theme, which is not explained in each installment. Therefore, those that know nothing about the world of JoJo, will lack a fundamental understanding of what's going on. Truly, I don't understand why they chose Diamond Is Unbreakable to adapt as opposed to one of the previous manga installments.

Ok on to this movie! In an exclamation... eh!
It was dull. Not the content, the film quality which is the exact opposite of the JoJo world. I have been complaining about the dullness color of Japanese film for decades. There's no reason for it. I don't know why they film through colored lenses that make their movies almost sepia toned. Their movies look cheap. There are few films that works well with this poorly accepted technique. Movies from 30 years ago have better film quality than J movies today. Only a select few producers and/or directors are afforded the budget or maybe just the ok to actually have color. Miike is usually one. So I'm surprised that JoJo is dull, especially since the anime and manga colors are so bright. What I find perplexing is that J dramas don't have this trapping. It's very weird. They probably should've adapted JoJo as a tv series as they did Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, a spinoff of Diamond is Unbreakable.

Even the costumes were lacking. Josuke's school uniform should have had a hint of blue or purple. I did appreciate that the Josuke wig had purple/blue tones to it. Koichi's hair should have been grey or blonde (I honestly don't remember).

Usually, I talk about music at the end with 1 or 2 lines, but the music in the move was unbelievably disappointing. One thing that the animes have is killer music. If they couldn't use the one of the themes from the anime, Miike should've used energetic music throughout. And why for God's sake did they film the one JoJo that was set in Japan, in a European city? Of all the anime adaptations they screw up and don't film in a Euro looking town (or the desert), they take one set in Japan to Europe. WTF?!? Might as well had filmed the 5th JoJo who is Italian. To sum up the production, disappointing. Disappointing for Takeshi Miike. Par for the course for any other director.

What was good?
From what I can remember the adaptation of the story was good. There was no mistaking Jotaro (the previous and most popular JoJo) or Josuke. I was shocked to see Iseya as Jotaro, but he's one of Miike's go to actors and probably the only one that speaks English with virtually no accent. Yamazaki Kento is a cutey and was a great Josuke. He believably played an unbelievable character. While Koichi didn't look like Koichi, Kamiki Ryunosuke played him perfectly. He was definitely Koichi. Same with Mackenyu's Okuyasu. He was a perfectly dumb guy with a good heart. I would love to see the end of the story with this trio's friendship. Plus, they're damn easy on the eyes. Of course the vets like Kunimara Jun and Iseya were great as were the rest of the cast. The special effects were pretty good, too. I like the depiction of the Stands, especially Star Platinum.

Re-watch is at a 0. I rarely re-watch anything, but never say never. By Hollywood standards, the movie bombed, but in actuality in japan it didn't. It's grossed over 920 million yen (roughly $620,000), which is common for most shounen adaptations (Ruroni Kenshin being a large exception). If they do a part 2 (please pick up the pacing), I may skim to remember what was covered in part 1, which, if I'm being honest, wasn't much.

So, would I recommend this? Nah. I definitely wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't have a foundation or at least some knowledge of the story. The script sticks to the manga/anime in that it does not explain what you should already know from previous installments or seasons. If you're a diehard JoJo-ster like myself, you don't care if I recommend this or not, you know you're gonna watch it. Everyone in between? Eh! Go watch the anime.

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OKAY!

I found the movie to be okay, not particularly good or bad. The acting by the actors and actresses wasn't particularly impressive, but the cinematography was good.

However, the story of the movie was quite good. If the director and the production team wanted, they could have made the movie even better. Nonetheless, the director did try his best, perhaps.

I have seen various types of fantasy, tragedy, and romantic movies, and the story of each movie was different. However, there were some very common elements in the movie such as the character who tries to harm the main character but ends up making the main character look great. I won't say much more as I don't want to spoil it for anyone (if I reveal spoilers, people may get angry with me).

In conclusion, if you need to watch a movie to kill some time, then you can watch this one.

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Best Thai action movie

Khun Phan 3 is the final movie of the khun phan trilogy and it is one of the most anticipated Thai action movies of this year for me. It is directed by Khom Kongkiat Khomsiri and the story of this movie follows the life of Khun pan, the legendary invincible police officer and his adventure after world war 2.
The movie started when Khun phan after world war 2 as people start to question him if what he did to the bandit is too cruel making him retire early to live with his wife. While living peacefully there are 2 of the legendary bandits tiger Mahesuan and the tiger dam still on the loose making police come to beg khun phan to help them catch these tigers again to bring peace to the country again.
strength of this movie is its cinematography. Every shot in this movie is perfect. the location is great, the tone of the movie is gritty and fit the story well, the VFX and the production is the best Thai movie ever done and the fight scene is also amazing as always it is one of the best thing this movie offer with so many action scene that is well choreographed making it one of the best action movie thai ever made, the story also very enjoyable since it is the last mission of khun pan making the story feel more important.
The acting in this movie is also great. Every actor delivered it very well Ananda Everingham perform Khun phan amazingly as always and this time it was the best he has ever done. This time instead of Khun Phan shows more emotion than he ever was and he got broken instead of being the invincible hero who is unbreakable making Khun phan become more relatable than before. This time Mario also perform as Tiger Mahesuan. It is completely opposite from what he usually performs like a charming and fun protagonist and most of the characters he performs have a lot of comedic scenes but this time the character he performs is way more serious and he did a great job on it. The other new actor who did a superb job is Tono who perform as Tiger dam it is so good. The rage he shows toward Khun phan feels so real because of the backstory and not just that the voice of the act makes me feel the rage he has. And because these 3 main characters make the movie story feel way better than it is.
However, the movie pacing suffers from being too long making some parts of the movie suffer from it becoming a bit too stretched out so it is a bit boring in some parts because of 2 and a half hour run. So if it were shorter and streamlined this movie would be way better.
Overall This is one of the best Thai movies I have ever seen and I can say that it is worth the money. Even if you don’t care about the story it is still worth to go watch since the production, VFX, sound effect are also the best Thai ever done and you guy should give this movie a chance.

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Soft Core Porn + Cheesy comedy

Rewatch rating is ZERO, but they wont let you do that, so that's why it got a 1.

LIKES:
The yacht and the Ferrari were nice.
The music was okay.
The videographer understood how to use a film stabilizer.
The comedy was over the top, it was extra cheesy, but a few times I laughed.
The women that Fung "dated" (all of them) were beautiful (yes even the one that loved food).

DISLIKES:
Editing:
other than the brief pic of Fung’s dick in the first few minutes of the movie, we got to see his ass and his nice abs. WAY too much tits and ass from all the women. This was obviously edited to encourage male viewership.
Writing:
Rape in any format is still rape and this movie condoned it; both when the women did it and the men.
The use of drugs, wasn’t needed and didn’t add anything to the story. Too much sex scenes so their impact was lost.
Why even bother showing Fung as a high school student, he looks WAY older. College maybe, not high school.
FX:
The ridiculous spraying water moments, actually made me laugh, it was so cringy.
There’s a tongue that is almost ALIEN it’s so long, it looked like rubber.
SOUNDS:
As with everything else, the sounds were a little off beat, like when something has bad dubbing.

OVERALL:
This wasn’t sexy at all, just overly stupid and very cheesy. This was soft core porn only because it didn’t show the intrusive and sexually graphic part of intercourse. It came pretty damn close to being hardcore though. This was for a male dominated viewership. The ending happened fast and I didn’t even mind, because this was a waste of time. Not even Dominic Ho’s abs could save this movie. I can’t believe this got a sequel! I won’t watch it.

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Even though I'd watched the other two movies in this trilogy starring Aaron Kwok in the titular role, I had avoided this film due to disparaging reviews of it. I could not bear to watch a strong cast in cringetastic performances. Much to my surprise I enjoyed it. Was it a great movie? No. Was it an average CGI laden offering with a familiar story? You betcha. But that sums up a lot of movies in this genre. I usually set my expectations low and just sit back and enjoy the spectacle whenever possible.

I have no idea whether the story was true to the book, I simply go by whether the movie was entertaining as told on the screen. When a crystal used to rebuild the heavenly realm falls from the sky and creates a special monkey baby, both heavenly and demon realms take note. The young monkey is taken to train with one of the heavenly masters. After finishing training with his sifu Subhuti/Puti where he is given the name Sun Wukong, his master tells him he must leave to learn positive thoughts and attain enlightenment. As he begins his adventures as the Handsome Monkey King on Huagoa, gaining his cudgel and uniform, The Monkey King brought about the three signs that led to the Bull Demon King once again attacking the heavenly realm. Manipulated by the evil horned one, Sun Wukong aids him in bringing about the disaster.

Donnie Yen so seamlessly blended into the makeup and furry suit that I honestly forgot it was him playing the role most of the time. It must have been freeing to perform such a playful role since most of his movies require him to be cold, stoic, and/or angry. He and his stunt double along with his choreography made for agile, creative fights whether on the ground or flying. Chow Yun Fat as the Jade Emperor could play this regal role in his sleep but he did bring a gentleness to his heavenly ruler. Aaron Kwok as the Bull Demon King had less to do, in general being menacingly seductive or menacingly destructive. Peter Ho could be counted on to sneer on cue as the duplicitous heavenly gate guard. Joe Chen as Princess Iron Fan was called on to mostly look dewy-eyed as she tried to steer her man away from a disastrous end.

The music fit perfectly even if it was standard epic fantasy fare. The costumes were well done and what you would expect from the immortal realms. The CGI varied in terms of its quality, but coming out of Hong Kong at this time I was impressed. The underwater realm, especially the giant octopus wasn't very convincing, but I've seen far worse, I watched Big Octopus (2020). The colors and movement could overwhelm the story at times, however, we are talking about a magic monkey and horned evil dude taking on a dragon, so I just rolled with it.

This movie isn't for everyone. It could be campy, okay, was campy more often than not, but that's something I don't usually have a problem with. There was a fairly simple storyline, even if some of the periphery stories were give short shrift, with lots of martial arts action and bright shiny objects. Yen, Kwok, and Chow all did a more than adequate job of conveying their characters. Out of the three films this rated pretty evenly with the second in the trilogy for me. Even if I knew where the story was going from the beginning, having watched other Monkey King movies, it didn't take away from my enjoyment. The road getting there was adventurous and charming enough to keep my interest.


3/9/23

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Ghosts, and zombies, and vampires, oh my!

Check your brain at the door and hope there's not a manic Taoist priest nearby. Kung Fu Zombie is so bad and so stupid it's almost good or at least funny. Billy Chong has to fight a ghost, hopping vampires, real life baddies, a possessed father, and a maniacal vampire in just around 80 minutes.

Fong Fang is the rebellious son of a stern and overbearing father (Chiang Tao having a grand time) who pushes him hard every day in order to be able to fight the Long clan who has a vendetta against them. His words of wisdom when his son wants to take a break, "Meditation is time off." His idea of meditation for his son, is for the son to be tied up while sitting in a giant crock of water. Not father of the year material, but it does pay off when Fong not only has to fight one of the Longs, but also a Long that has turned into a kung fu blood sucking vampire due to a Taoist priest's incantation being disrupted. Cheng Kei Ying plays an inept baddie using the Taoist priest to try and control hopping vampires to kill Fong Jr. Just his luck he's the one who ends up not only dead but a ghost as well! He and the priest go corpse shopping at the local morgue to try and find a body he can be reanimated into. When Fong's dad dies of a heart attack, a body presents itself and the bad guy now wants to use Fong Sr to have revenge on the son. Fong Jr and the hapless priest have to team up to kill two dead guys.

This movie uses wire-fu, trampolines, reverse camera work, and super sped up camera work in a ridiculously fun way. I enjoy Billy Chong's fighting, but he is not a skilled actor even for the genre. To his credit he was young and pretty and never missed the chance to lose his shirt and show off his toned, oiled torso. Even the fights that weren't sped up were quick enough. This was my first time to see human yo-yo kung fu! And the movie also gave new meaning to the terms hot hand and hot foot.

Chong's selfish, childish, and arrogant character was unlikeable for the most part. Thankfully, he did more fighting than talking. The editing was super choppy, possibly due to 20 minutes being cut from the original film, but I'm fairly certain the editing would have been poor regardless. A 100-minute running time shoring up the story would not have helped because the frenetic non-stop action and gags were the only thing this film had going for it. The musical score was as scattered as the plot using a jaunty chase music one moment and shamelessly lifted portions from the James Bond theme the next. The sound department made full use of its zany sound effects to remind you at all times this was a comedy. There was a minimum of vampire gore and papier mache corpses. The most disturbing scene involved a puppy-dog lovers be forewarned.

I learned some valuable lessons from Kung Fu Zombie. #1-the dead can't enter a temple or walk past a picture of the Buddha or they are hit with red lasers. #2-the dead can't enter a jail for the law is the arm of god. #3-huge green leaf hats render the wearer invisible to the dead and practically so with the ladies. They just don’t teach you this stuff in school.

Kung Fu Zombie is everything you want in a cheap kung fu flick with this title. Only for fans of older kung fu movies who know how to set the bar low, like on the ground. For those who don't mind a little cheese to go along with their beefcake, it might be one to try. Remember to bring your leaf hat!


3/9/23

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"A samurai's wife sends off her man with a smile"

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island brings the great samurai's tale to a close in this trilogy. Miyamoto Musashi has gone from hot headed youth to a wiser, accomplished swordsman. He will still have to deal with his rival Sasaki and the two women vying for his love in this film as he seeks out a better life.

Musashi has followed the advice of his advisors and only fights when he knows he will have no regrets. He finds other ways to avoid fighting while not losing face such as catching flies (before Mr. Miyagi!) with his chopsticks to warn a room full of rowdy men of his prowess. Swordsman Sasaki finds him and challenges him to a duel. Musashi seems to have no burning desire to do this putting him off for a year. He and his young companion and another man travel to a village that has been devastated by bandits. Here he builds a hut and begins to farm the land. Coming full circle, this time he appreciates the lessons the earth has to teach him. His peace is shattered when not only Otsu, but Akemi show up on his doorstep. He spurns Akemi and she cooperates with the bandits who are planning to burn the village to the ground. In a calmer manner than he did in Seven Samurai, Musashi once again draws his sword and takes care of business. Before meeting with Sasaki for their duel he finally communicates with Otsu and settles their personal affairs. The duel on an island with the sun behind Musashi while he stands in the surf with a large wooden sword raised was stunning.

The paths of the two elite swordsmen were very different. The Shogun's officers courted both Musashi and Sasaki for a high-level position with Musashi turning them down. He was seeking a peaceful life and no longer needed to validate his skills by killing men he had no argument with. Sasaki gloried in his notoriety as a samurai in a high position. And I will not forget he raped Akemi in a previous film where Musashi stopped when Otsu told him no. In the end, Musashi, standing in the waves that would continue to lap against the shore no matter who won or died seemed to realize the futility of their behavior.

As with the other two films, I don't know a kinder way to say that Akemi and Otsu were as emotionally sound as two bags of cats. Musashi had never given Akemi any indication he was interested in her but despite all that had happened to her she still obsessed over him. Otsu wished he just an ordinary man, but would she have still loved him if he had been? She fell in love with his fire and knew his love of the sword from the beginning and yet she stalked him to the ends of Japan to plead her case. Having both of them throwing themselves at him and behaving irrationally took away from my enjoyment of this film and didn't make Musashi seem any more virile. Finally, Musashi actually told Otsu his feelings for her. In all his self-development someone should have clued him in that women do not respond well to silence.

The cinematography was lovely when they used natural settings. In the opening scene, Sasaki and Akemi were standing in front of a beautiful waterfall with cascading rainbows. The final beach scene was colorful and moving watching the two men's silhouettes posturing, looking for the fatal opening. The wigs and clothes were rougher and less pleasing than in the second film. Musashi might be going back to nature, but a comb never hurt anyone. The fights were typical 1950's swordplay. No blood for the most part and it was swing and fall action.

Mifune Toshiro played Musashi as the grown man he was by this film and even in a more subdued mood, his charisma still shone. Tsuruta Koji did a good job with Sasaki and his casual cruelty and arrogance. The actresses did the best they could with the female characters, characters too annoying to be pitiful.

Of the three films, I enjoyed the second one the most followed by this film. There were fewer fights and duels in this film than the last as Musashi was consciously avoiding violence when he could. Duel at Ganryu Island made a proper ending for the trilogy with the unbeatable samurai stepping away from the life he had chased after in his youth with one last moment of graceful brutality. The difference afterwards was that he felt the weight of his actions and the loss of life more profoundly than before.

3/8/23

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Dreamworld for high school juniors

LIKES:
cinematography, location settings, fx were okay too.
beginning concept was interesting but got lame fast.
acting was okay for what they were given.

DISLIKES:
STORY:
Typical cliches and trops for the plot. No character growth from any of them. Harem style of friends. None of their issues were resolved. No back story for the main characters; the girls, the non-binary and the guy in the club.
MUSIC:
Terrible, except maybe the song at the end. I muted it sometimes.
EDITING/PRODUCTION: not sure if this goes in this category but the story starts by saying the blonde boy is that way due to being half white, hence his hair colour. BUT you can see the dye job was done badly because his darker hair is under the blonde and you can see his dark roots. Also it is 2014, you can go back to 1980s and see people colouring their hair, so the concept of him being a loner due to his blonde hair is absolutely ridiculous. All he had to do is dye it black.

OVERALL: Like a manga it had the panty and boob shots from the females, but nothing comes from it. The beginning was okay, middle was dumb and the end unsatisfactory. The concept was very obvious. Too much hinting: (boy and girl hook up) & (potential boy and boy moment with the NB), but nothing happens. It felt like a very unfinished story, not a movie. I wont watch it again and no memorable scenes.

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slice of life (derogatory)

I watched this as part of the Japan Film Festival Online hosted by the Japan Foundation, and I am grateful for the opportunity to view the film even if I did not particularly enjoy it.

The supposed point of Dryads in a Snow Valley (orig. name "Ripples of the Wind") is to follow a couple who had moved from The City into this rural village known for its heavy snowfall. They moved prior to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and we watch the villagers assist and advise as the couple rebuilds their home. From here, we're shown village traditions and ways of life such as farming, traditional dyeing, their winter festivals/habits -- and through this, we're supposed to observe a stark contrast between the warm human interactions and the harsh cold environment they live in. We are also supposed to glimpse into Japan’s social issues such as depopulation.

You can tell by the way I'm writing that I did not experience this effect at all, and I blame the director/editing team. The documentary was filmed over the course of five years, and the content was presented to the viewer in an unorganised and sloppy manner. Visually and seasonally unrelated scenes were often cut right after each other, to the point where you could not tell where scenes were supposed to relate to each other chronologically or even thematically. It was like slice of life on steroids, so disparate . The presentation maybe would work better in an episodic format, but definitely not as a film. As it stands, I'd argue there is no story in this documentary at all. Dryads has its merits as a moodboard, but who needs a 1hr39min long moodboard?

All that being said, the sound mixing was insane. Very vivid and raw. In some scenes, it had an ASMR-esque quality. I hope the sound team won awards for that.

Within Japan, Dryads was well-received. Young people who were disillusioned with life in The City were inspired to move to rural areas and don their way of living. The film gets a lot of airplay in rural film festivals. I am an American living in one of our biggest metropolises, so I acknowledge that there are likely nuances and cultural mores I am not perceiving that prevent me from enjoying the movie to that extent. However, there are certainly better portrayals of rural Japan that are as realistic (if not as raw) in dramas and other documentaries. Living on the River Agano (1992) comes to mind, though I acknowledge that is not as recently produced as this film is and may not be as attractive for that reason.

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Bullying + Violence + Triggers = last half of movie

Likes:
lighting even during the darker scenes was okay.
acting was decent.
fx were okay.
Music and sound effects done well.

Dislikes:
Writing:
Plot holes.
No punishment for the two guys who controlled the "finding girls". Bullying had no consequences either. No growth for the main actor and no true conclusion either. Sloppy ending, seemed very rushed compared to the slow beginning. The crying of Se Jun after what he did, seems dumb, because he had no problem doing what he did before the bathtub scene.
Production:
Shaking camera, especially with close ups, they should've used a film stabilizer.
Pacing was extra slow in the beginning, then rushed at the end of the movie.

Overall:
There was no bromance as it is tagged that. What the male leads had was barely friendship even. People read way too much into the two male leads calling it boy love. Not at all. They used each other; one for money, the other to get involved with the uncle that's never shown. Bullying, violence and triggering content that due to the rushed ending, doesn't give a satisfying resolution or conclusion. Even if you like graphic violence, this is on the low end of the decent movie spectrum. I don't recommend wasting your time watching this. No scene grabbing parts, that make you want to watch it again.

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