Reviews

A new and important story, but feels like i skipped scenes

How to describe our main character Napat?
Homeschooled. Gamer. Skateboarder. Part of a loving and supportive family.
Feminine-presenting. Born male. Lonely. And finally, nonbinary.
But this reality isn't so easily accepted by others. Neither in relationships nor society as a whole. This is who Napat is, and what they have to deal with.

"When he said he loved me, I don't know if he loves who I really am, who I appear to be, or who he wants me to be. I am who I am since the first day we met."

It is an amateur short film, so acting does leave quite a bit to be desired. The story and message packed quite a punch, especially because of how few of these stories there are in media at the moment, but left some holes that I would have greatly appreciated filled in. While these holes didn't quite make it feel too much like the social issues ad it more or less is, it did leave it feeling more like snippets of a story rather than a complete one. Like I accidentally skipped scenes.

Read More

YES, I CRIED.

Wanna cry unexpectedly? yes.

Actually, I was spoiled of the storyline so I wasn't shocked anymore of what happened but still, I can't stop myself from crying. It's really different if someone left you without saying anything and because time doesn't stop for you, you just have to go on with life without them. This is a story that portrays how young people love. That not all the experience you had in love when you were young were naivety. I loved how the actors gave justice to the characters. It makes me want to experience that kind of love too. The cinematography is perfect too. Although the only thing I didn't like about the ending is that they didn't gave any details about how he dl3d but overall, I still loved it.

Read More

Adequately entertaining to watch

Gang wars in the middle of Seoul with police intervention that involves gritty chasing and action scenes is nothing new. Additional elements added is that this movie is based on a real-life mop op operation on a Chinese-Korean gang. Will this add flavor to an otherwise common plot?

As usual with police films, a cause is needed for them to take action. It was slow at first, and at times, quite hard to follow due to the overlapping of the gang members and their turf, but once the cause was determined, it became procedural in terms of pacing and the direction. Basically, the outcome was already predictable. The journey towards said outcome should be presented well, and I think for this movie, it was done satisfactorily. But at the same time, I was bothered for the small amount of tactical scheming present here, and the scenes that they were scheming on how to catch the criminals were not as entertaining as I hoped it would be. It may be due to the lack of a shocking plot twist, that I'm not sure. On the other hand, there were slapstick comedy scattered and I also had chuckles here and there.

Police captain Ma Seok-do (Ma Dong-seok) was definitely this movie's highlight. His ability to play a strong and harsh yet dependable cop together with his magnetic presence in the screen really stood out here. Based on his previous roles, it may now be somewhat obvious that he is being typecasted to play the same macho yet reliable good guy roles, but in this case, no one else could've the role better than him.

The antagonist, Jang Chen (Yoon Kye-sang) was for the most part, able to reach the same amount of energy as Seok-do. It would've been better had the two main characters had a longer confrontation action scene, but still it was good that he (YKS) was able to deviate from his usual good guy roles. The long hair though, was not it. Did just not fit him.

As what you may have noticed in this review is that I put more emphasis on the actors rather than the story itself. In fact, there were quite many repetitive aspects and cliches on action police flicks present here.

To answer the question earlier, at some extent it did add some flavor to the movie itself but that is mainly due to the presence and acting of the main leads. The journey however, was already procedural, and the outcome being already predictable, but was still adequately entertaining to watch.

Read More

Super Cute

I was in the mood for something, light, fun and romantic. Fall in Love Like a Star delivered. It a sweet story about 2 childhood friends. One wants to be a musician and the other an agent. They love each other but Tian Xin knows that a relationship with Su Xing Yu will hinder his career so she breaks up with him. They meet again 5 years later and she becomes his agent and the sparks are still there but a paparazzi takes intimate pictures of them and once again she believes that the relationship will halt his now promising music career and she breaks up with him again. Eventually they get back together and live happily ever after. Super cute.

I LMAO when Tian Xin blew on a horn and then she saw a picture of where the horn had been. Too damn funny. I also LOL when they were on an airplane and Tian Xin's assistant was freaking out about the plane going down. The movie is nothing to write home about but sweet and enjoyable.

Read More

It's a very slow-paced story with delicious looking food and a creepy relationship. Their stubbornness and mutual jealousy showed when they barely knew each other. In fact, they were just strangers living together.

Itsuki asking Sayako if he can sleep over and saying she doesn't bite was so creepy. She let a stranger who wouldn't even tell her his full name live with her, and then she fell in love with him without even thinking about whether or not he was a dangerous person. It turns out that he has fallen in love too and asks her if she only loves him because of his cooking skills. Well, you literally don't know each other and you claim to love each other... Later, when the boy disappears, the girl follows his former co-worker to find Itsuki without even trying to ask her about him. She was so obsessed with him that it didn't actually take her all day to decide to be with him when he came back after a year.

All the toxicity, creepiness and weirdness of them and their relationship was wrapped in cuteness. This is how I see this story and with all that in mind I enjoyed watching this movie. I was not bored, because I needed something slow-paced. The acting was good and the shots and locations were pretty.

Read More

Pee Nak 3 is the best one yet!

I've just finished binging all 3 of the Pee Nak movies over the last few days, and....Oh my gosh I'm going to be excitedly awaiting movie number 4! I hope they continue with these. The stories and the characters get better with each movie.

This was my favorite of the 3. I really enjoyed the cinematography and the beauty of the locations where the filming took place. I was happy to see so many of the original actors continuing the story, plus some new ones. I was excited to see Leo Put and Plan show up in this movie. And from the foreshadowing of the next movie, it appears (crossing my fingers) that Mean and Plan will both be in it...? I adore their chemistry, even if it's not a BL.

I enjoy that the comedy is over-the-top funny, but not so much as to make it unwatchable (in my opinion.) It actually made me laugh out loud in some spots, and that's unusual. I also, surprisingly, don't find it irreverent towards Buddhism, but as I'm not Buddhist, I could be wrong about that. There were moments when I actually even did some self-reflection as I watched, and when does that ever happen in a comedy/horror??

(Also, I checked out the YouTuber from the movie, Kyutae Oppa, and I kinda liked his YouTube content, as well as his singing. I am sad that he doesn't have subtitles in the vids where he's not speaking English, as I'm not fluent in the other languages. I can pick out a word or 2 here and there though, so it didn't stop me from perusing his channel.)

Although I miss August in this sequel, I think this was a well-done movie. I would definitely recommend this, and you can watch it as a stand-alone, but I think it'd be best to watch the first and second movie so that you have backstory on the characters.

And before I go, I want to commend a couple of the actors...Tar would have been around 15-16 yrs old when filming the first movie, and I was impressed to see him do so well in all 3 films. And Pond kind of blew me away in these movies! But I can't forget Aim and James, with their comedy relief. Great job all!

Read More

WORST MOVIE EVER, don't waste your time.

Okay first off this movie was so bad and i'll explain way.
The ML liked the FL but it wasn't explained why at all. He didn't show he liked her at all until some time later in the movie.
It also wasn't clear why the FL liked the ML and when she even developed those feelings...

The movie starts off with the ML being an unfriendly asshole, yelling at the FL for no reason. The FL is a winy girl who has never dated before because of unknown reasons. She then gets that book which just is like that magic shell from SpongeBob kinda telling her what to do and so she starts to act according to the book.
The ML asks her to date him out of nowhere and it is them revealed he likes her and he claims he had given her so many hints. However he keeps pushing her to give him an answer in a very unfriendly way, even calling her names. He doesn't respect her boundaries at all.
His twin sister is also meddling in all this and calls her a tomboy for the simple fact that she isn't wearing skirts put pants. What kind of message is that?

The FL struggles with her private life as her Mom has Alzheimer and obviously that's a lot to take care of. However her Mom is not very much discussed until she appears at FLs work place with no shoes and stinks for some unknown reason. FL is embarrassed and doesn't let ML help her get her Mom home. In her own words, her pride didn't let her.

The ML and his twin sister also try to push the FL into accepting a bakery school something in Japan. The twin sister first pressures her by telling her the ML would basically miss out on an opportunity because he was scared the FL would get a bf in the meantime. Which is kinda emotional blackmailing? Like why would you put that on her? If he is dumb enough to mess with his future because of a girl who doesn't seem interested in him, then so be it??

I feel like the twin sister and ML don't respect the FL and treat her as a child that is incapable of making her own choices. They also don't want to respect the fact that she doesn't want to leave to Japan and keep asking her about it although she doesn't owe them any explanation.

Also the ML is like "I would be very close blabla" basically implying they would go to Japan together for 6 months although the FL didn't even respond to his confession which wasn't even a confession. He doesn't even say he likes her to her face.

FL totally freaks when she looses the book because she in fact actually is incapable of making her own decisions and was relying on the book to tell her what to do. This isn't seen as problematic tho. You will know at the end why.
The FL was very very unlikable. She wasn't nice, she wasn't caring, she was always lost in thought, once setting the kitchen on fire, endangering everyone and almost set it on fire for a second time because she kept forgetting things in the oven or stove. This eventually leads to her ruining a cake which was pre ordered. I am sorry but I would fire her or at least tell her off because she can't be this dumb at work. But the ML instead just steps up for her and takes the blame and now it's her turn to be super disrespectful...dude he is your boss what are u thinking talking like that to your boss and questioning his authority.
And on top of that she confesses that she likes him but instead of this being a romantic moment where they finally end up together, it results in him leaving the cafe because she can't be around him?? it's his cafe, why would you leave? At least he takes on the job in Japan for a few months but he just lets her stay and he didn't even confess that very moment when she said she liked him...which I want to ask again...when did she start liking him and why?

The movie ends with her finding a book again. Turns out ML had a book made that looks like that but with empty pages.
It was revealed he apparently liked the FL for a very long time and even kept her picture in his car.
FL hands in her resignation letter after finding out he had the picture which I didn't understand at all..because she then opens the just found book where the ML glued a picture of her saying he loves her which makes her go to him and suddenly he picks her up and spins her around?
Please what is this...

Sung Hoon was his typical self drama character. Unfriendly seemingly cold prick with a soft inside.. FL was just unlikable from beginning to end and didn't make sense at all. It didn't make sense why she avoided him eventho he liked her and she liked him? What is the reason? Somebody tell me.. Yes there was the mother illness thing but it doesn't add up and she was actually desperately looking to fall in love and find a boyfriend and when there is literally her chance she just walks away? Also she did only act according to the book to find a boyfriend so what was the point of everything and what was the point of freaking out when the book disappeared when she wasn't even interested in pursuing a relationship with her boss/the ML.

So yea to sum this up, acting was normal but the story was horrible. Whoever had this idea...just don't make this into a movie...It wasn't romantic, it was more of an dependency and very unhealthy relationship that didn't make sense whatsoever because both characters were pretty much unlikable, had almost no good traits to them, there was no spark, no tension, no typical scenes with accidental skin ship nothing. The movie was blunt, the characters moody and cold..the side characters were overall unnecessary and didn't do anything for the movie. Character development was pretty much non existent, other than the FL who got more and more unrelatable and annoying and whose actions kept making less and less sense.

Read More

New theme

Story
The overall story is so good. It will get you so much engaged into the movie. You will also be shocked in the end, the ending is so unpredictable. There are some emotional scenes also which will get you emotional. I think the theme of the movie is good and new, you should watch it if you are looking for some thriller.

Actors
The acting was go good in this movie, all actors done a great job. The main character was so good.

Overall
This is a good movie to watch but it is a one time watch. I will recommend you to watch it if you are looking for some different story to watch, you will not get upset from this movie. This movie does not contain any love stories.

Read More

its ditto, choose between love and dreams

siri, play ditto by new jeans :'))

well, the song represents it all. but the song is not part with the kmovie (just a fact, and the song is by my opinion since some says that new jeans' new release with the same name represents the movie, but its not haha)

i'll make this review short and concise since I need to explain further why I rated it higher than the viewers expected it to be.

I'll go first with the story, its more of a fantasy-youth movie that talks about choosing your dreams or love. I think it was like a fate to begin with, but the fact that the ending seems to be surprising that the ml pursued as a book writer based from his experience, but he chose his course as mechanism, until he realized that when kim yong saw han sol as his first love, the ending predicts that he choose his dream over love. While han sol and eun sung end up together, got married and had their own child which is mo ni, one of kim yong's commuication buddy (?), sharing their own experiences in college, with such coincidence and meet-up that unexpectedly never met each other until the ending, they met as mo-ni's future time. then that's where I realized that the book was a sense as well. The storyline seems interesting, but I think I would really recommend if this movie turns to be a 10-12 episode series.

The cast and the characters were cool! All the main casts where one of the rookies and non-rookies that i've been hoping for them to shine in their future projects. I was happy to see improvements, most especially to yeo jin goo (first impression of him was on Hotel Del Luna) and jo yi hyun (she was my favorite ever since AOUAD). Kim Hye yoon was still good at this drama after she switched roles from her mysterious-hopeless girl (movie midnight). Again, this was a must watch and hoping more recognition from the main casts!

Overall, it was a good must watch, but I guess you could feel a little heart break at the end because it seems a little unexpected for me. Recommended and good for beginners as well! :))
(sorry for the long review even if I told myself that i'll make it a little bit short, but I hope you guys understood the point that I made :< )

Read More

Could be painful to watch for some

This movie contains disturbing scenes, as in term of violence, murder, sexual activity. Not that much of gore, but for someone like me who despise gore films, I had to fast forward some scenes... but anyway, the story is brutally touching, making people wonder the true meaning of life...
The cast did a great job, Sato Jiro delivers as usual, and I'm kinda amazed with Ito Aoi's acting. This is the 2nd time I watch her movie, and I thought she has the potential to be a big star. Shimizu Hiroya's acting is good enough to give you chills. Overall this movie is good, but doesn't have a high rewatch value I think.

Also, the last scene is such a tearjerker....the amount of sadness in that scene is just too painful.
[SPOILER] I still can't understand the meaning behind the invisible ping pong...is it to symbolize that they will no longer play ping pong together again in the future? or maybe that's some kind of illusion that they are playing ping pong together? Idk..but the last scene certainly left a big impression...

Read More

A danger to count on to fall for a character who doesn't know what they want.

In the beginning, I was hopeful, but then I started to lose hope every minute; I desperately begged one of the boys to say, "I love you!" No need to kiss or something, just I wanted to hear someone say it. The turning point, the final act of this drama, was devastating; it was cruel. As for the ending, I felt betrayed. But I realized I didn't know Naomi well. Or maybe I pretended not to know Naomi. He said he didn't know what he really wanted; I just didn't listen because I was too drawn to the idea he would have had a young love with Maki. I was disappointed with Naomi.

This is purely a comment from an audience perspective and I don't include any technicality comment for this title.

Read More

Very Weird

This movie was all over the place. Plot-wise it was really like the director would ask himself "What else can i add to this movie?" and proceeded with the first thing that came to his mind. Like what was it with the secret organization? They barely played any significant role there!

About the characters: Broccoli and Mushroom all the way lol. And I also liked the sismance of the three women. One thing that was really bugging me was that Broccoli (can't remeber his real name, sorry) had really curly hair/wig. And one time he got kicked out of some club and thrown onto a poster with black man with dreadlocks. What was that?! Some badly disguised racism or what? It felt so unnecessary for the scene to be there.

the second half of the movie was better than the first one, as more crazy things were happening and it was just more funny overall with more screaming, running around etc.

I don't think that it's a horror as MDL states, I'm usually such a scaredy cat but I wasn't scared at all during this movie. Maybe because it's pg13 lol. This reminds me there are two scenes when the ML is completely naked and forwards facing but on Viki everything is blurred out and censored so you don't need to worry if you're watching it there. not sure about other video services though.

One last thing, what was the scene at the end? It didn't make any sense at all, it was there to just shock the viewers.

Read More

what

what the hell did i just watch even like a man assaulted some guy he liked in high school for an hour and then somehow got that guy to fall in love with him just to be like lol nvm i dont trust u bye oh wait yeah lets fuck even thoguh u have a fiance now like what did i just watch i cant do thi slike genuinely and then at the edn the guy thats been cheating on everyone and their mom the entire movie was like wait maybe i shoukdnt cheat on ppl let me clean this fucking ashtray WHY DOES THIS REVIEW HAVE TO BE 500 CHARACTERS FUCK U MYDRAMALIST IM DONE WITH MY REVIEW LET ME FUCKING POST IT

Read More

What value is human life ...

WOW. This turned out to be a very poignant and moving story for me. Given the existing ratings it got on MDL, I didn't think it would affect me the way it did, I was deeply moved by it and have nothing bad to say ... it is brilliant on many levels. It had me pausing in reflection many times and is indeed as the closing song says, "Scenes from a family, which could be anywhere" ... even mine, thousands of kilometers away in another country, another culture, another family, another time.

The movie is based on the true story of Hashimoto Kouji, who is a screenwriter and broadcaster in Japan. He used to work in a cash truck and in 2001 he opened up a comedy theatre called "Lumine the Yoshimoto". It was here that he became a theater seated writer and later a screen and broadcast writer. "Blank 13", is his story about his father who went missing for 13 years. When they 'found' him thirteen years later, he only had a few months left to live. Hashimoto's life is portrayed by Takahashi Issei in the role of Matsuda Koji.

From what I can gather, this movie was Saito Takumi's directorial debut, and, in my opinion, he nailed it beautifully. Saito has an eye for the profound and subtle ... he quietly captured so much of the nuances and complexities of human existence ... each scene was loaded and yet flowed so effortlessly from one to the other. The sets; the lighting (in some scenes the lighting was like the chiaroscuro effect used in a Rembrandt or a Vermeer painting); the flashbacks; the beautiful music which flowed like a stream helping you to move along as the story progressed; the actors ... all perfectly portray the sadness, the struggle and the melancholy of ruined lives ... the stunned disbelief at what it was that others valued the deceased for, the latent resentment and sadness of the remaining family members and their pain at never having 'what could have been' ... all contrasted at the end by the little life that was yet to be born. It is a masterpiece of portrayal.

The title, "Blank 13", refers to the 13 years of Matsuda Masato's life that was a 'blank' to his former wife and sons ... though I personally think Matsuda Masato's life was probably to one degree or another, 'blank' even when he was with them. However, the story is really about the effect on the family when they learn about what those 13 missing years meant to the people who were in attendance at his funeral. On the one hand, it was pathetically comical, while on the other hand it was a stinging slap of pain, betrayal and hypocrisy, all laced with a profound sense of disbelief. To find out that their father was admired for his magic trick of turning paper into a baseball, respected for his collection of porn centerfolds; appreciated for the money he provided for 500,000 yen buddha beads for a fellow in trouble and for the medical expenses of his roommate's mother ... smh ... there is really no coming back from that ... even the letter Matsuda Masato wrote and sent to some person to read it out at his funeral in return for 5 out of 6 platinum teeth that were in his head ... it was hollow, just meaningless sounds coming out of a stranger's mouth ... Matsuda Masato was nothing less than despicable.

Yoshiyuki's words at his father's funeral were totally understandable - "I never found a way to like this man ... I tried to forget ... mother was put through great hardship ... I hated him to death and yet listening to what everyone said ... "

Koji's following up on Yoshiyuki's words, saying it was nice to know (belatedly) that his father was the kind of person who practiced magic; the kind of person who helped people in trouble when he was broke himself; the kind of man to hold on to Koji's composition that won a prize; the kind of man who sung the song "Atonement" ... so heartbreaking ... things that Koji wanted from his father but never got. Koji goes on to say that he also despised his father but after hearing from all the mourners, he felt like he might like him a little ... but he is conflicted and finally says that he actually may feel like he might be sad. It is sad ... so terribly heartbreaking and tragic ... if it was me, I would have left like Yoshiyuki (in fact in real life I did).

What value is a human life ... is it is the number of attendees at their funeral ... is it their legacy ... does the 'value' come from being present in someone's life or does it come from being absent ... or maybe it is both? One thing for sure, the value of someone's life definitely doesn't come from how many people attend their funeral. As for their legacy ... present or in absentia ... who knows what the knock-on effect of that is across the myriads of lives that have directly or indirectly been 'touched' by that person ... it will be different things to different people at different times ... and so maybe in the big scheme of things, there is value to all existence ... who knows.

Finally, after all is said (and not said) and done, Matsuda Masato's body is relegated to the crematory fire and is turned into smoke and ashes. A Shakespearean end in a way ... life going up in smoke, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. BUT ... from ashes, new life can spring forth. Koji is like the ashes of Matsuda Masato's legacy ... and from that he and his girlfriend have spawned new life ... hope they did/do a better job than his father Matsuda Masato.

A masterpiece.

Read More

I really loved the room of the murderer ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I really loved the room of the murderer ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I really loved the room of the murderer ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I really loved the room of the murderer ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Read More