This review may contain spoilers
"People today have forgotten that they are really just part of nature."
Over eight vignettes from Kurosawa's Dreams, you'll float through surreal settings with dolls come to life, tremble from the hellish landscape of a post-apocalyptic war and sit by a soothing river where life flows by, the past, present and future. Many of Kurosawa Akira's familiar themes run through the stories and some you may find more meaningful or interesting than others. If you've ever wanted to wander through a Van Gogh painting this is the film to do it with.Kurosawa begins the film with a wedding with possibly tragic consequences and ends the film with a joyful funeral. The old film master certainly likes to shake things up when he bookends stories. The first two dreams are when the central character standing in for Kurosawa, I, is a child. In "Sunshine Through the Rain", young I disobeys his mother and runs off to watch a Fox wedding procession leading to one of the most beautiful and disturbing scenes in the film. "Peach Orchard" has little I confronting the spirits of the peach trees his family had cut down. The spirits have taken the form of his sister's dolls and have mercy on the young boy due to his love of the lost blossoming trees. The spirits cause the trees to bloom momentarily in a most creative manner.
The next dreams feature an adult I. In "The Blizzard", four explorers are caught in a deadly snow storm. One by one, they succumb to the cold and fall asleep even as I encourages them onward. A mountain spirit attempts to lure I to sleep and he must resist or they will all die. "The Tunnel" sees I returning from WWII and walking through a long rural tunnel. He's confronted by a bloody grenade carrying anti-tank dog, then a private who had died in his arms. Finally, his whole ghost platoon confronts him. He must deal with his guilt and grief of being the only survivor as he faces his men.
In "Crows", I is an artist who travels through Van Gogh's paintings and meets the great artist. What he finds is a man driven to madness by his need to work and create the perfect paintings in his mind on the canvas. Perhaps the story is a reflection of Kurosawa and his own relentless drive to work. He too, had contemplated suicide, but went on to survive and continue his artistry.
The next two dreams are dark and as subtle as the old man in his I Fear to Live. In "Mt. Fuji in Red" Japan is ruined by the explosion of a nuclear reactor which covers the island in radioactive clouds. I and the people he is with have no place to run and one decision to make. Do they choose to die quickly or slowly? "The Weeping Demon" has I traipsing through a barren wasteland burned away by a nuclear war. The only life are giant dandelions and avaricious survivors with horns forced to devour one another to survive.
In the last dream, I crosses a narrow wooden bridge over a pristine river with waterwheels flanking both banks in "Village of the Water Mills". He comes across an old man fixing one of the wheels and discovers they use no electricity and have no need for scientific inventions. Most of the villagers live until they are very old due to their simple healthy way of life. The old man leaves I to join a rousing processional for a villager who has died, a celebration of the fulfilled life she had led. Kurosawa took us from cynicism.
Kurosawa's signature fog and wind showed up in most dreams, from the gentle rain misting in the sunshine, to the blinding blizzard on the mountain, to the colorful radioactive winds after the explosion with Mt. Fuji ablaze in orange and red. Many scenes were either brilliantly swathed in colorful flowers or menacingly gray and windy, never letting you find a comfortable place to rest.
The music and sounds further brought the scenes to life. The heavy breathing of the explorers in the howling wind, fighting for each step in the waist deep snow portrayed their desperate situation and resolve to live. Something as benign as footsteps became utterly haunting as the officer stood at the tunnel hearing the footsteps of his platoon coming toward him echoing louder and louder and later growing fainter and fainter. Several vignettes used stylized music and dancing, makeup, and costumes, reaching back into the past for inspiration.
Kurosawa covered an emotional diversity during his wedding, 2 apocalypses, and a funeral--- forgiveness, survivor's guilt, human resilience, and love for nature, as well as human greed and hubris. As he often did, he showed how the powerful materialistic upper tier with their out of control technology and self-absorption might destroy everything and everyone. Because of the captains of industry and their willful destruction of the environment they would be given a special hell to live in. Those who made friends with nature could live peacefully and well. If we take care of the environment, it will take care of us.
While I loved the sentiment of the final vignette, humankind will need to evolve much higher to do away with hate, envy, and the need for power. Inventions themselves are not always a bad thing, they can be very useful. As quickly as technology develops though so does our need for greater wisdom and love. Simply abandoning technology will not be enough.
Dreams took us on a trip through the river of time into the past, alternate planes of existence, and to possible futures. Whether this film comes across as a self-indulgent exercise by the director or a fascinating look into the beliefs about humankind and art by one of the 20th century's finest directors will be up to the individual. Even though he could be heavy handed at times or completely enigmatic I found the dreams thought provoking, creative, and a delight for the eyes.
2/17/23
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PART 1 FULL REVIEW WITH SPOILERS COLLEGE ARC
OMG! Oh My Girl is probably one of the stupidest movies I have ever watched, periodt. It starts off as a cutesy college romance flick with the usual tropes such as unrequited love, but they actually like each other secretly, if it makes sense. The movie should have ended when Guy(MML) graduated and had apparently moved on from June(FML).Instead, the next hour or so shows us the most abhorrent love story of this generation. There still was no romantic development between the two and June is still with her boyfriend from the first arc named Pete(SML). Pete’s a great guy, and another good thing this movie has blessed us is Tah and Lex’s relationship.
COLLEGE ARC
Guy. What a dumb fucking character. He is the usual “Oh I was friendzoned even though me and June are perfect for each other” but won’t make a fucking move or even one small hint that he actually likes June. Like, bro?? He victimizes himself stating that God hates him since the moments are perfect but he still isn’t with June. Like, HE HAD SO MANY CHANCES TO TELL HER HOW HE FELT??! Also, when they were in college, he dated this girl named Patty, and when Phing and June broke up(for the nth time because Phing is a jealous dumbfuck, ugh another irredeemable character), he breaks up with Patty IN PUBLIC, only to see Phing and June get together a few seconds later? The writing is so stupid oh my fucking god I swear.
After that dumb scene, he goes to a bar and decides to drink himself to death and meets this girl at a bar on the way to the smoking area so he bums a cigarette off of the bartender to hit on this girl but then she states that she just wanted to fart?? Kinda funny but wow, was Guy just useless. Lo and behold, June is in the smoking area too! And they have an actual cute moment and shit but GUY DOES NOT DO SHIT. LIKE LITERALLY, JUNE IS NOW SINGLE BRO, MAN THE FUCK UP??!!!!!
INSTEAD, He dares her to get a guys phone number in front of him as a bet, which is the dumbest fucking thing you want your crush to do just when she became single. ??Fortunately?? The guy did not give her the phone number so Guy was 500 baht richer, amirite? Stupid fucking writing I swear to god. ANYWAY, He decides to leave for some reason since he was jelly and a dick for some reason and it rained and he didnt leave and Tah arrived and left and shit. What the actual fuck. Anyway, the bar closes, oh wait, the guy that June was asking the number of was a bandmate of Pete(SML), so, in hindsight, dumb fucking move Guy.
So, the bar closes, the place is flooded, they have this whole cute but disgustingly unsanitary barefoot walk in the flood and a dead rat touches Guy’s foot and just cute shit happens ya know? LIKE A NORMAL FUCKING COLLEGE ROM-COM! HERE’S THE CLICKER THOUGH!!!!! AFTER THAT, June FINALLY meets Pete and the next scene, they are dating??
Like wtf? HELLOOOO??CONTEXT??Anyway, they get together and guy is all sobby and sad and shit cuz he’s a sad fucking boi amirite, and then there was this graduation which was cool, i liked it. But that was it. He graduates, brings the disgusting slipper June picked up off of the shitty flood, and this is where I wanted the movie to end. A bittersweet rom com.
If you thought I was done, I have only just begun.
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It’s good if you ignore all the discriminatory and bigoted comments said by characters
As with the premise of pretending to be a woman to get close to the woman that you like, obviously it is going to be a bit of a perverted and cringey story.There is a lot of racism, homophobia, sexism and misogyny in this movie, especially when the main lead is talking to his friend. There is also the use of blackface as a joke early on in the film and a lot of distasteful things about non mainland China countries with a lot of little digs at Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan sprinkled in throughout.
They also portray lesbians and masculine women as predatory sex pests but try to pretend that that is not intentional.
Women are heavily objectified and more so presented as pieces of sexual meat that are easy to get rather than people.
They try to make it like the main lead is a nice guy that actually cares for the love interest but at the start he’s pretty much picking and choosing women by looking at their body parts and saying too big, too short, too individual and then at the end it’s like saying it’s easy to get the love interest back in the end because women forgive major violations really easily but that’s kinda what happens in most dramas anyway. They’ll be a massive issue and the main lead will just get forgiven pretty much straight away.
Acting wise, I don’t have any complaints really, it’s the same quality of acting you’d expect to see in any over-the-top cringe drama.
The music was okay, not particularly memorable but not noticeably bad.
You can kind of tell what kind of movie it is going to be just from the intro.
In terms of rewatch value, I wouldn’t watch the whole movie again but there are some funny parts that I would maybe watch again.
During the end credits there are interviews with the main actor and his wife and also with various couples asking about their thoughts on men dressing up as women. The main actor says some sexist and homophobic things and his wife is visibly uncomfortable with what he is saying and she ends up saying that she would support people no matter their sexuality unlike him.
So, all in all, it is a good movie as long as you ignore the bigoted views that are shown everywhere within it and don’t take it seriously.
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good thriller, unnecessary social commentary
smartphone bad, mkay?except most people don't spend their entire lives on smartphones like female lead did. the worst thing that could happen to most of us would be leaking our bank account and losing our savings, and that's only if we're using a bank app on the phone.
But social commentary aside, the movie is pretty good. The direction and cinematography is amazing and the feel is what you'd expect of the dark thriller/horror. Tension is almost always high, the pace is fast, and the music and color palette is appropriately dark.
That being said, predicting what's gonna happen next got a bit easy at the end of the movie, and it's a bit of a letdown we didn't learn more about the killer: the guy was very charismatic and frankly speaking I rooted for him more than the detective or fl. Oh well, guess this leaves an option of making a headcanon that he's the mc of strangers from hell several years later or something.
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not scary but entertaining
as a horror movie it's really not a big deal because it's not scary at all and for those who like jumpscares there isn't that either, but i liked the story and found it interestingi think they could have invested more time of the movie in their search for the body parts, and the script was a little weak in some points but nothing that i thought it was so bad. reading the comments in other app i found out that this movie was inspired by a manga, so probably a series/drama or a longer movie would have been better to develop the whole story of the manga and to develop it better, but for someone who doesn't know the original story i didn't think it was bad. and plus, i really liked the characters
i saw that some people didn't liked this movie, but i did. the post credit scene did its job well, i hope there's a sequel
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A Lesson in Longing!
To be honest, when I first watched this movie, I cried for hours. I don't know how to describe the feeling. I watched it in 2019 for the first time, and I still sometimes think about it a cry. For the loss of love, and the resentment that comes from longing for something that was never truly yours in the first place. It's so difficult to show these elements so truthfully and succinctly. I sometimes think this movie wasn't what I thought it was, so I go to rewatch it, and I'm a puddle on the floor for the next couple of days.The beauty of the script, by saying so much and so little at the same time. The acting is IMMACULATE. To be honest, there were moments that felt like I was looking in on something so private and real, that I should avert my eyes. The background score is beautiful. But more than anything else, it's the feeling we've all experience. Doesn't have to be romantic, but having lost... lost what meant something to you, I think that's the greatest tragedy this film explained.
Tony and Leslie... I can't thank them enough for just doing this the way it ought to be done. And, Tony+WKW is always perfection. Will be rewatching again, I'm sure, just to make sure I didn't imagine it all up. I would recommend this for anyone who is grieving and can't let go. I would recommend this to anyone who's willing to listen.
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Potential fully Unlocked
This is the most frightening and most tragic Korean crime thriller ever released since the movie "Midnight" that came out in 2021, but this villain is wielding a freaking smartphone as an invincible weapon instead of a traditional axe. First off the cinematography and soundtrack is really futuristic, almost like a high tech dystopian world which corrupts digitally. The main innovation of this movie will be its storyline, the headlining villain is skillfully designed as a tech mastermind, Im Siwan's performance here is absolutely mind boggling as he went berserk while hunting for his prey with technology. As if that wasn't insane enough, the ending reveals something much bigger that is ultimately mind blowing and everything turns into maximum monstrosity for every character in the movie.Was this review helpful to you?
Enjoy your day as if it were your last day
I am a fan of categorizing dramas, but I have been searching for a movie to watch for a while, and I found this movie.. ＼(^-^)／I liked the story of the movie, so I decided to watch it... After watching it, I can say that I really enjoyed watching it.. The comedy in the movie is neither vulgar nor boring.. I laughed a lot.. I was longing to watch an interesting movie..
If you read the story, you will think that the movie will be sad and just a movie about a deadly disease and sad feelings...
I can say that the movie is very interesting and comedic, and goes beyond limits, and it is a symbol of friendship and brotherhood.. The film conveyed several messages about friendship, life, family, and all of this in a comical manner, and this is what distinguishes the film... If you want to get away from action, mystery, and all complex classifications, I recommend this film because you will really enjoy it..(^∇^)
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Unexplainable thriller, and definitely not a social commentary
I'm going to be honest, I started this movie only because of Siwan, and since the plot seemed interesting, I thought it would be worth watching it beyond the fact that I love to watch Siwan's shows and movies. However, I must say that his performance (and Chun Woohee's) in this movie was the only thing that kept me watching it.If you want to watch 'Unlocked' looking for a movie that criticizes our society's dependence on smartphones and technology, don't. This is not a social commentary and it doesn't approach the topic like that. This is a movie about a psychopath with no background story or reason to kill, and once again, shallow female relationships that make you wonder if these writers have ever seen women in real life.
I'm going to start with the fact that it bothers me personally that psychological thrillers these days - and by these days I mean in the past several years - are all about male psychopaths with a nonsensical obsession to kill young women. No, I'm not saying that we should give these psychopaths a troubled childhood in order to justify their actions as adults. I'm saying that a story should have a reason to be, whatever it might be. But lately, kdrama writers, and those at Netflix in particular, seem to be making these stories about killing women just for shock value and nothing else. The fact that the reason 'Oh Junyoung' killed these women was just because they dropped their phones is the weakest and most boring reason I've seen in this type of dramas, and that's a lot to say considering that I keep thinking about the drama 'Somebody', which I feel the same way and worse about (if you watched it, you would know what I'm talking about).
Now, another bothersome plot point about this movie is the fact that the killer is always smarter than everyone and can anticipate every move, action, and thought from his victims, making it impossible for them to ever escape their fate. But then again, this wouldn't be so irksome if the writers provided the psychopath with at least a reason to kill or an explanation as to why he's doing what he's doing and why he's so good at it. In this drama, however, we don't even have a name for our killer, which wouldn't be that much of a problem if we at least had any type of information about his background or what he did before the movie started rolling. The only thing that we know is that he impersonated the detective's son and wanted to frame him for his murders. But why? Why did he start impersonating this man? How did they meet? Why was the detective so mad at his son? Why do the writers give us information about the detective's wife and their family situation in general, when it won't even be resolved or explained, or even shown what the link between all this is? The killer wasn't even actually the detective's son, so why do we even need to know this, when we won't know who our killer is or what his reasons are at all? Who did the killer have a grudge against to be going around doing all this, to begin with? There's absolutely no explanation for anything ever and the more I think about this movie, the more questions pop up in my head that will never be answered.
Moving onto the female characters, this is probably what makes me the most upset. The female lead had her phone hacked and discovered it, but the first thing she does is blame her best friend after consulting a man that she met two days ago, and against whom her father warned her. It's kind of annoying how she dismissed the very reasonable concerns of her dad, but I won't even get into that. What I will question, though, is, why do you live in a house without a code? Why does your best friend scare you about having someone breaking into your house? Why do you believe a man you met two days ago over your best friend since middle school? Why does your best friend get immediately upset with you and decide to cut contact with you for a misunderstanding you had in a moment of extreme distress after your life was literally ruined by some psychopath? I don't understand why they made their friendship so shallow and ridiculous that you would decide to cut contact with your friend. Yes, I would also be absolutely hurt if my best friend suspected me of pulling such a horrible thing on her, but to go beyond that and warn her to never contact me again, and leave her all on her own to deal with such a dangerous situation... It pisses me off to think that these writers think women would do that.
Also, after the female lead finds out that her phone was hacked, she simply decides to keep using it as if nothing was happening. Girl, the first thing you needed to do was throw it away. At least she came up with a reverse strategy eventually, but I just kept thinking about why she simply decided to keep using her phone after everything that was happening to her.
These dramas and movies written by men about psychopathic serial killers that outsmart their victims all the time, and in which said victims are the dumbest people you'll ever see really gives me an unsettling feeling considering the incredibly high rates of this type of murder in South Korea.
Overall, this isn't the worst movie you'll ever watch, but it's only a movie to watch if you don't have anything else to do and if you don't feel like watching a complicated story. Don't let the thriller tag deceive you into thinking you're down for an actually good psychological thriller because you are really not.
At least Siwan did amazingly as expected, and Chun Woohee was a very good actress. In general, the cast is pretty good and there are many familiar faces if you watch a lot of kdramas, but other than that, this movie is very weak and not really worth your time.
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Plot Twist: Jesus was in the show and He saves the day
Before I explain what the title means, I must say that it is not a spoiler nor it is a religious ploy and I am definitely not taking His name in vain. I apologize in advance if it is rude to you but I am not taking it down cause it fits too perfectly (you will understand once you see it).Or maybe i will change it to "Happy Death Day meets The Grudge"
I will start by saying AVOID if:
- you hate cutesy gore
- you can't sleep at night without a teddy
- you are lowkey scared of anything
If you have these three problems and you see it, recovery is kinda tough. The rest problems are no biggies.
This movie unlike other "time loop" movies is kinda different. We see the characters enjoying being stuck in the time loop and taking their time to get out of it. They don't stress nor do they enjoy the time loop until the end and then freak out. Each and every character is nice and doesn't backstab one another or fight in times of adversity. They don't separate and stick together. They don't hesitate to give up their lives for the betterment of others also. This is some advanced thinking i have never seen in movies.
But like every movie, there are flaws. And that flaw is the FL.
Pretty much every character is important but clear distinction is given to Asuka so she is FL. But this FL is a scaredy cat for 90% of the movie. 5% of the time, she grows a backbone due to the ML (Takahiro), and the rest 5% was because it was the end of the movie. The virgin FL, who suddenly becomes powerful after everyone dies, saves the day!!
She was timid and nervous but come on, after dying at least 50 times and even getting friends who like you, you should have become at least confident. But NO, she was like this till the end of the movie,
The reason the movie was saved is due to the ML. Dude literally did 95% of the things in the movie. He distracted the demon and did most of the things too. Even in the end, while the FL stared and cried, my guy was slashing the monster.
The stupid FL could have saved him when he was dying if she used the time she cried for his non-existent death for something like running and putting the goddamn body part in the coffin.
After he died, she became so strong that she fought the monster with the strength that wasn't showcased till now and won (by the power of Jesus). Then took her sweet time doing everything. The ending of the movie would have been cut by 10 mins if she ran. Sorry for the vent, it was necessary to do so I can detoxify this bs.
The cast was new to me other than Hashimoto Kanna, Yamamoto Maika, and Kamio Fuju. I have seen them before but my memory sucks remember where. They all acted pretty well and due to no significant supporting roles, the other cast had no presence.
The music was too good. The Japanese never fail to give an adrenaline rush song in between a gore movie.
There is also a post-credit scene that will confuse you but honestly, there were hints in between the movies to be able to predict this. It was a predictable movie.
Hope you like it!
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"A swan among chickens"
Red Heroine is the oldest surviving wuxia film and the oldest surviving Chinese film to have a female action star! The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple came out first but sadly that one is lost to the ages. I was delighted to find this piece of wuxia and feminine history.Fan Xue Peng starred as Yun, a mild-mannered girl living in tiny Mulberry Village with her blind and paralyzed grandmother. A band of bad guys was fast heading there but her grandmother refused to leave. When the wealthy neighbors show up and ask to help take her away, grandma refuses. Finally, when cousin Jin Zhang arrives, grandma agrees to be carried. There was only one narrow dirt path going into and out of Mulberry Village but somehow Yun and Jin Zhang become separated. The Big Bad, Zhi Ma, captures her and takes her back to his fortress. Grandma ended up pummeled under horses' hooves as Yun was carried away.
Zhi Ma has a bevy of half-naked ladies serving him in his fortress, quite risqué for the time. Yun resists him until she is fortuitously rescued by the Taoist kung fu master White Monkey. The paradigm for a thousand martial arts films that will follow is laid out. A Loved One was killed. After being Threatened and Humiliated, Yun vows Revenge. But she fears she's too weak and powerless to do any good. Honey, that's what the Training Montage is for, but that must have been a later development. White Monkey, a Master, vows to train her with his Secret Sauce Fighting Technique and make her revenge ready. She later Flies in and storms the fortress and demolishes her enemies all in a very Exotic looking Costume.
The formula would have worked if they had known about one key part of it. The middle section of the movie dragged because it focused solely on secondary characters and the bad guys’ lair. The film would have benefited from a training and inspirational montage for Yun so that we could see her transform from timid maiden into the Red Heroine. Perhaps the writers wanted us to be surprised when she suddenly shows up later. When Yun, now the Red Heroine, came flying in, literally, disappearing and appearing in a puff of smoke, it was exciting, though almost too late to save the story from the middle act doldrums.
My favorite scene was after doing battle with some baddies, the Red Heroine paused a moment to catch her breath and roll up her sleeves before jumping on the Big Bad. I could almost hear her thinking, "a woman's work is never done."
This was definitely a low budget film. Much of the time people were either walking or riding back and forth on the narrow dirt path, it really did need at least two lanes as much traffic as it saw. Or people were going up and down the open staircase in the fortress, usually forcing captured women up it. Lastly, one window in the harem's dressing room needed a revolving door as much action as it saw with people climbing in and out it with the rope so thoughtfully dangling outside from a nearby pole.
The martial arts, mostly sword fighting and flipping people onto the ground, was more sword dancing than 1970's era blood spurting kung fu but for 1929 was entertaining. The student must have surpassed the master because she could fly and appear and disappear in a puff of smoke while her old master traveled via a donkey or running. I was quite pleased that they allowed her to kill her enemies instead of having to be daintily magnanimous with them. "The evil receive their due retribution."
The version I watched had no music though I've read that a score was added at a later date. The film has suffered through the years, with some frames so badly blown out that you couldn't see what was happening. It seems it may have been cropped as well. There were both Chinese and English intertitles, but they were cut off on the sides. Fortunately, there were better English titles below those which helped enormously as the original English subtitles were difficult to understand. I did love Yun's cousin being referred to as her cousinbrother in those subs.
Another trait that continued on into the 1970's was hammy acting. I've seen other old silent films and this movie won the award for mustache twirling and overwrought responses. The director also made liberal use of flashbacks and prosthetic goofy teeth. Many of the costumes were over the top as any good kung fu movie would have. I'm sure if it had been available the bad guy costumes would have been made of silver lame. While I'm riffing, one bad guy had the biggest sword I've ever seen. It screamed over compensation.
This was #6 in a 13-part serial, of which none of the other films survived. I have no idea if Red Heroine's character was in more of the films or not, but maybe that's why Yun didn't figure prominently in the middle of a film named after her. Unfortunately for them and us, China outlawed the popular wuxia films in the 1930's. For the most part this was a nicely feminist film in places. Red Heroine made her own choice to be trained and seek revenge on her grandmother's killers and was allowed to kill her enemies. The cousinbrother would not set aside the women he'd become attached to during Yun's absence even though the woman had been "sullied". "Love is sacred, nothing can contain it."
Red Heroine was entertaining even if it dragged badly during the long stretch without the titular heroine. This is probably a film only for martial arts movie enthusiasts. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to see the launching of this genre into filmdom, especially with a female hero who wasn't afraid to roll up her sleeves and get her sword dirty.
2/16/23
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Horror with a Message
This movie had a very good story concept with an underline meaning. The script was great because it had a great mix of horror, comedy, and drama. However, it had some weak elements but there only minor. I also loved the underline theme about the horror of loneliness. It had an excellent cast which did a great job with their characters. The cinematography and special effects were amazing.Random Note:
Warning, there are some gory scenes but there not that bad. Keep in mind that I grew-up watching horror films of the 80’s and 90’s, so my tolerance level of gore is pretty high.
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Predictable
Cliched, predictable high school drama with some very beautiful young people. Bo Ra promises to look after her best friend's crush while she leaves the country. Predictable situations ensue, but you don't mind it too much since the main leads are so darned beautiful. I loved Bo Ra's relationship with her father the most. I wish they had given their banter a little more airtime. I was hoping the love triangle would give way to a close friendship--sort of like a three musketeers relationship, but the writers had other ideas. I hate to say it, but the unoriginal plot, and depthless supporting characters made this a bit disappointing. The acting was okay, but I think they could have gone a little further in raising the stakes. It general, a very sweet teenaged movie.Was this review helpful to you?
Life: Love on the Line (Director's Cut)
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A slice of reality
One of the best BLs I've seen and I'm starting to prefer Japanese BL over all the others for their, in the main, slice of raw reality. Japanese BL, often dark and melancholic yet with optimistic passion, this production follows the usual format and brings home the message - be true to yourself and be happy. (Perhaps Akira's father wanted to do the same as Akira but never had the courage and was destined to remain in what might have been a sad, loveless marriage, his truth hidden and to be taken to his grave - total speculation here ...)I just wish Yuki had had a haircut at least once during all those years!!
Highly recommended.
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