Reviews

I haven't read the manga, so...

First of all, I haven't read the manga so I can't compare the movie to it. I haven't watched the anime either, but it has been on my plan-to-watch list for a long time. And after watching the movie, I will definitely watch the anime, maybe I can find a manga so I can read it.

Two girls with the same name, want to live in the same apartment, but differ in style, character, and ambitions. Their friendship gradually helped each other develop. However, in this movie, one of them overcame her past, and the other was given some hardships in life.

I liked the whole movie. The fact that Nana didn't want to talk about herself was shown because instead of talking about her past, we got to know her through flashbacks. The rest of the movie was mainly shown from Hachi's perspective, and she was the narrator.

I don't know why, but I shed a few tears during the scene on the train between Nana and Ren.

And I can't forget about the main point of this movie either. The music was very good.

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No one told me it was a boring comedy.

0.0MHz had neither the atmosphere, nor the scares, nor the visuals. It did not have interesting characters nor the plot…. So what did it have? Snapshot filters and killing hair. Even the 0.0MHz from the titles was barely relevant and the whole movie could do without it, changing more or less nothing.

It was honestly, simply boring. The kids had either zero personality or awful one - I did not care if anyone survived. All the conflicts were not set up in any proper way. Truth to be told, they were not set up in an awful way either - they just dropped it all in random dialogues at random times.

Best aspect of the movie? Eunji cursing the demon ghost - the whole final face off was so ridiculous I could not stop laughing.

I can’t even talk about the performances, because the writing and directing was so bad, I am not sure how much of the mediocre delivery really is on the actor, and how much on the other people involved in the production.

Overall, don’t waste your time.

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Typical Japanese bizzare style

It is an eccentric Japanese movie that I didn’t find artistic. It was weird for me but the movie was trying to teach some lessons I guess. I didn't skip but yeah I watched many scenes in 2X

PLOT VIEW
The man is trapped in a white room is has a scene saying LEARN, which supposedly meant that he needs to find his way out of the room himself. When he finds his way out, he gets trapped in a bigger room but grey colored and a cut scene says PRACTICE. This means that whatever he learns in the white room should be used to get out of the grey room. But the man uses physical ability and climbs the wall, stepping on the switches. But here is the weird thing, every time h steps on a switch, a man in the real world is affected and does strange things.
When finally he makes his way out he gets into another room and the scene cut says FUTURE. This might mean he was ready for the real world.
The Mexican wrestler was somehow hypnotized or something happened when he went out with the NUN maybe she did some magic on him.

MY HYPOTHESIS
1>The man is trapped in the room, it is like the room represents the human body(Mexican wrestler) and the man represents the cells. whatever they do affects the body and we perform according to our cells.
2>The man might be confined as a study subject. And Scientists are doing research on him.

ACTING
It was frustrating to watch that middle-aged man trying to escape. the acting was just average.

MUSIC had some radio songs and orchestra singing which I skipped.
REWATCH absolutely NO. it didn't click me at all to rewatch again. even if I didn't understand I don't want to watch it.

RECOMMENDATION
Watch this if you want to know how the man escaped the white room. or if you like bizarre movies.
Do not watch it for some great amazing story, you will be disappointed.

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Well Balanced Love & Life story

As soon as I finished watching this movie, my first thought was it could have been better if they made this into a series. Only flaw I saw here is that it seemed rushed. It’s like “you are enjoying the story and the characters telling their story and then it ended.” …… you wanted more.
All artists who worked on this film portrayed their role exceptionally well. The relationships (both male & lead male & his gf/wife) were told in a well balanced manner giving you a sense that this is not a clear BL film. To me it is more of a love & life story. It also gave viewers a suspense ride. I was hook towards the end holding my breath for a moment.
The ending leaves viewers to form their own interpretation as to how it may have gone after the play.
It is highly recommended. This is a great movie. It was done the way the writer wanted to tell the story. We may not agree that it doesn’t pattern after real life in some areas but we can’t fault a movie based on how we see real life. It is a movie done from a story written by the writer. It was well directed!

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waste of my 10 bucks lol

tldr, dogshit movie for being so hyped up by advertisements. even alienoid was better than this

we expected tasteful gore with intense crime/noir type setting, but turns out it's just one blood splatter after another for basically no reason whatsoever, with creature stuff. really shows how money really can do anything.

their acting was really good though. a fucking pity the movie fucking sucks because seo in guk went absolutely crazy in this one

literally left the theater devastated, the only other people in there were two couples, it's a surprise they were even able to make out with this fat pile of shit playing in the background

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Surprisingly good tale on dealing with trauma and growing up.

I did not expect all the emotional depth and tears. I got in thinking “evil kids with powers”, but I could not be more mistaken.

The overly sweet and sugar vibes created this unnerving, uncomfortable atmosphere - everything seemed unreal, over the top and stomachache creating. I would not even classify it as a horror movie, but rather fantasy drama with horror elements. Something along the lines of Pan's Labyrinth. The focus is the story and the characters, not the cheap scares.

The visuals were quite stunning for a movie from 2007. Starting with more bright and light colors, something you could see in an over the top Christmas commercial, slowly turned more dark and grim as more of the mystery started to be revealed.

Performances? Quite good, especially with how young the young actors were. Shim Eun Kyung did the best job and the powerful emotions Yeong Hee was feeling were delivered in a convincing way. Was not as much of a fan of Eun Won Jae performance - the character felt flat.

Overall, I would for sure recommend. Lee Eun Soo was a bit of a mess as a character, but realistically speaking, he was just a tool to tell the children's’ story so I don’t mind it that much.

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Do you think the love is still there?

Soo Hyun is the lucky one in this sudden dramatic turn from the car accident story. This accident might put him in a coma but he was just like in a long sleep. Meanwhile, His mom: Mi Kyung and his lover: Yong Joon were in battle facing difficulties in life. Mi Kyung's season after this accident was a rough season, she had to face her divorce and deal with money to keep Soo Hyun. Yong Joon's season was tough as well. This young man barely survived the season in doing so, he even exchanged sex for money. Difficult seasons may change people, just like how Mi Kyung changed his views on Yong Joong as they were on the same page---having unconditional love for Soo Hyun.

I watched this movie several times. And it's still hard for me to make a piece with this movie. It's just like the Love of Siam (Thai movie), they closed the movie while the hope is up. For this In Between Seasons, I keep asking whether Soo Hyun's love towards Soo Hyun is still there after he wakes up. Whether Soo Hyun lost something during his sleep or dreamt a different thing that made him wake up differently. I thought Soo Hyun forgot Yong Joon completely, but he remembered Yong Joon was a smoker.

The end of the movie can be interpreted differently. Some might say Mi Kyung is still not accepting of her son so that's a reason Soo Hyun sets a distance from Yong Joong. Soo Hyun indeed feels a need to return to how his mom stays with him all the time. From my perspective, Mi Kyung called Yong Joong as a gesture that she was okay with these two boys' relationship.

I still hope they will make In Between Seasons 2 with the same cast. I want to make a piece with this movie and I am not shy to say that I need validation to see they are together and still in love.

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I'm trouble!

Chinese Connection 2 aka Fist of Fury II is a sequel to Bruce Lee's 1972 Fist of Fury. Not to be confused with Jackie Chan's New Fist of Fury that had some of the original cast in it. The only returning cast member in this film is Tien Feng.
It takes place right after---50 YEAR OLD SPOILER ALERT---Chen Zhen's execution in the original.

After Chen Zhen's death, the ruling Japanese fear the kung fu schools will band together and oppose the foreigners. Even though the Japanese leader was killed in the first one, power hates a vacuum and Lo Lieh's Miyamoto takes over and continues to terrorize the locals. Tien Feng had become the ad hoc leader of the Ching Wu school and Hsieh Han was the leader of the other big school in town. Neither had any luck with the Japanese, with the Ching Wu school being closed down. In comes Bruce Li/Ho Tsung Tao as Zhen's brother Shan. He's disgusted that the local schools haven't fought back and is determined to not only avenge his brother's death but restore the honor of Shanghai. Yeah, good luck with that fella. No matter how few or how many Japanese fighters showed up the kung fu heroes ended up with their butts handed to them. They must have all had their beginner belts because the Japanese dojo janitor could have beaten them.

Shan faces opposition not only from the Japanese overlords also including Miyamoto's right hand man played by Luk Chuen/Shikamura Yasuhiro but also the local Chinese kung fu students. Every time Shan puts a beat down on the Japanese thugs, the students end up paying the price and their numbers were dwindling because of it. They didn't care whether they handed him over to Miyamoto or ran him out of town. Ultimately, it was a kung fu movie after all, Shan and Miyamoto face off in the grand finale.

As far as a Bruceploitation movie goes, it wasn't bad and didn't lean too heavily on trying to duplicate him as some did. Bruce Li did bear an uncanny resemblance to him and was a decent fighter, but not near the level of the legendary Bruce Lee. And making him the brother helped to put some distance between the two. In the last fight they did have his face scratched like in Enter the Dragon. Lo Lieh also made a move with red hands like he did in his hit film King Boxer.

The fighters were pretty good, though there was way too much wire-fu and flipping around for my taste. Bruce Lee never had to rely on those gimmicks. The fights weren't too slow, some were better than others. There was a nunchuck scene that should have been omitted as it was clunky and seemed out of place. I really enjoyed the finally fight. The two actors were fully engaged and remembered to act as well as fight. The cast was strong, aside from the actors already mentioned there were many familiar supporting and bit players in it, many of whom were hired for their stunt and fighting abilities.

Overall, it was a well made kung fu film for the time, though it did tend to run in circles. It was actually a coherent sequel and respectful to the original. Again, I grade these 1970's niche movies on a curve, they had small budgets and a specific audience. Like other movies about Chen Zhen, such as Legend of the Fist, the lasting legacy of Bruce Lee and his movies live on. While there was an attempt to capitalize on his heightened popularity I'm sure, they were still able to come away with a kung fu movie that made a little sense, something we don't always see in this genre.


9/27/22

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Fairytale quality with disappointing reveal.

I have to say, I enjoyed the whole movie quite a bit, up until the end. Love the mysterious aura the movie had, the complex and hard to grasp relationships and interactions between the ladies, the obvious ominous undertones. And yet, the ending was disappointing.

What started as an atmospheric drama with horror elements that could potentially evolve into a fantasy dread, ended up underwhelmingly cheap. It’s like eating in a fancy restaurant, but for dessert they give you plain bread.

Saying it gives a censored romance vibe would be correct. Whatever was going on between Joo Ran and Yeon Deok definitely was more than just friendship - be it romantic feelings or just codependency.

The moment they started to explain all the “behind the scenes” and the cause of all the unexplained events, the movie started to get worse. When the villain has to almost spell their motivation with the dialogue, it means you did a poor job with showing the viewers what they want in a natural and gradual way.

I still enjoyed it though. The performances were truly strong. Not the last time Park Bo Young played a timid character - she gets the roles for a reason, she aced them.

Overall - beautiful visuals, decent scares, though number could be higher, great performance and well built characters. Sadly - weak ending.

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Artistic but Not for everyone

●Hesitated for a long time before starting.
Reason: firstly it's slow-paced and secondly it's 2 and a half hrs long.

●Reason I started: only one YOO AH IN, I respect his works. His projects are marvelous and keep one intrigued with his marvelous acting.

●My Feelings: In spite of being slow the movie wasn’t boring. It was like a work of art. thinking about what to draw, finding the right canvas, mixing all the colors, and slowly stroking brushes to create an artistic painting. This movie is like those modern art pieces which are beautiful but not distinct. And the viewer is open to read in between the lines and creating their own theories. The plot unfolds slowly with a tense build-up, along the way with some interesting conversations and interactions. The ending is ironic in with an open ending leaving the viewers with an uneasy feeling the end which makes them want to know more.

●The movie surrounds Lee Jong Su played by YAI who wants to be a writer but is struggling in his daily life.
Ben played by Steven Yeun is rich and has a playful luxurious life. This character contrast shows the class difference as well as their personality.
Shin Hae Mi played by Jeon Jong Seo was in between them. She was a free being wanting to learn about the meaning of life. Her character was the most interesting, she had all sorts of random stories which sometimes seemed fake and sometimes artistic.

●The actors were magnificent and did an excellent job to this convey this slow-paced movie. It can be a great character study for the audience, as all three characters are mysterious yet enchanting.

●And director and cinematographer did a great job of not making this slow movie boring and instead gave it a cinematic touch.

●The dialogues of the movie are metaphorical and have deep meaning than just the sentence.
●Music is mostly natural, rain, wind, birds, car wheezing, walking, utensils, etc. The other tunes were light and not overbearing which I seemed to have missed because I was engrossed in the movie I guess.

●The Ending
1>My understanding of the ending was, that the movie ending was real and ML took revenge, simply just as the movie is trying to show.
2>My Hypothesis of the ending was, that the ending part of the novel ML was writing. Because we see him writing in a room and the camera just zooms outwards.

● This movie is not for everyone. if you like mystery or thrillers, do watch this
but if you hate open endings don't watch this it will not serve you the ending on a plate but you have to put your mind and give it a thought.

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Misleading Title Upheaval

I feel the urge to write this as seeing people kind of disappointed with the movie. I empathize their disappointment since the hot scenes scattered were not explicit or long enough. The kingdom(not empire) itself wasn't that lewd. Even the king himself slept alone, never engaged in any sexual activity. Perhaps he already reclusive in celibacy vow? The title will fit more in Tinto Brass' Caligula. There you'll find the true lust there is, so decadent he lost his soul.

As for the story, how fictitious it may be it deserved a laudatory applaud for creative penning and imagination. The evil prince in the end was disclaiming the story as he ordered them to be erased from history. Here you will find romance, politic, social condition of the period. The costumes and production value of the flick was great, I couldn't ask for more.

The acting is natural, somewhat believable. However, there are several times when the actors twitched. They were negligible though. You need to look at closer eye to know them. Both the ML and FL had sculpted body. You can see Shin Ha-kyun's muscle-fat ratio so gorgeously. He had a very fit body. Well, Kang Han-na too had a very good proportional body of her own.

The music is adequately decent to accompany the atmosphere of the plot. Nothing special though, a bit forgettable.

Should you re-watch it? I would, since I am bit of loss to find the raped girl was actually FL. I kinda slipped that scene portrayal, since the face is a bit obscured for me.

8.4 overall
Never judge book by its cover

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First come, first served or first killed, whichever comes first

A shy assassin assigned to guard a yakuza's teenage daughter finds himself in the middle of a revenge fueled war that takes place in a nearly empty school. Undercover as A Janitor, he ends up having to clean up more than empty juice boxes.

Fukima Akira saw his father murdered when he was just a boy. His father's blood brother, Majima Yoshiki, took him in as a son and trained him to be an assassin. Majima's biological son, Honda, grew up to develop his own gang to oppose his father. Eventually, Akira finds out that Yoshiki had his father murdered so that he could take over the gang and honor dictated Akira now had to murder his father figure. Other leaders were involved, including Honda, because everyone wanted to take over Yoshiki's turf. Yui, the daughter, was needed to biometrically open the vaults thus creating the deadly situation at the school with only Akira between her and 9 assassins.

The film bordered on the absurd at times with a baby faced serial killer, two female high school assassins, a geriatric assassin, two bozo bro assassins and one that resembled a terminator. Some of the acting could be over the top. Honda, looked like an IT specialist, but what he specialized in was killing, especially his own men. I kept expecting to hear him say, "have you tried turning it off and turning it on?" This was a kill or be killed free for all, where the only ones who would be paid were the ones who completed the job first. First come, first serve. What the assassins learned the hard way was that the gentle spoken janitor had no intention of letting anyone collect a pay day.

A Janitor (the most commonly used title name) looked like it was cheaply made. The school shots were that blown out blue/gray and white that many Jdramas seem fond of. Scenes with Yui and her father having dinner, steak of course, murderous villains tend to like their rare beef, were tinted red.

Some of the scenes were gratuitous in nature, and fair warning, there were a few random high school kids murdered. At times the fighting seemed brutal and real at others times it could seem ludicrous. Suppressing fire is one thing, wasting bullets shooting at something you can't see when you have limited ammo is something else, something stupid. Speaking of stupid, if you have an amazing hiding place don't crawl out in front of the villains in plain sight.

The acting was all over the place. Fukushi Seiji did a fine job as the conflicted and loyal Akira. Imou Haruka asYui had the tough task of playing the high school girl getting dragged all over the place with little agency of her own. Most of the rest of the cast set their acting on crazy overkill.

Despite the limited acting and sets, the movie was entertaining at times. Like a Godzilla movie, the monster didn't show up until 40 minutes into the story, at which point the action began and it became more interesting. Ultimately, a cute assassin wasn't enough for me with the huge gaps in logic though. The film is part of the Baby Assassins world which I know nothing about. So if that franchise is something you enjoyed or you like yakuza assassins pummeling and shooting each other, this might be something to try. It is thankfully as short as much of the logic in the movie, clocking in under 90 minutes.



9/26/22

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Jeon Do-yeon as Lee Shin-ae goes through an enormous amount of pain. We are introduced to someone that misses her deceased husband but has passed the stage of agony, only for it to come back when another death comes her way, in a truly tragic way. And we bear witness to the process. Grief. Raw, ugly grief that comes in all different ways. Mostly ways in which were uncomfortable to watch, physically harmful for those involved and, occasionally, amusing in its own sort of way (specifically due to the irony of the situation). Alongside her is the cheerful and helpful Kim Jong-chan (Song Kang-ho), acting as the good samaritan. He, too, goes through some changes of his own. His intentions are very self centred but he too finds peace in God, more so than Shin-ae could, despite her best attempts and in the end chooses to be the good guy and not take advantage of a deeply depressed, grieving mother. There isn’t a lot of joy in Secret Sunshine. There is an endless wave of hurt and visceral emotion, the kind that gets stuck in your throat and you’re in pain at the mere thought of. But there is some solace in the ending. Because despite everything, there is light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how you interpret something as simple as the rays of sunshine.

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Kingdom’s older brother with cheeky Hyun Bin.

Quite an enjoyable tale. One that you know the ending of from the beginning, but you still enjoy the journey itself. Nothing too deep, too complex - nothing that requires much brain power. Perfect for a fun evening.

Since I saw Kingdom first, this zombie in a historical setting did not feel as groundbreaking as it actually was. Giving credit where credit is due, even though I was personally spoiled with this fun mix of genres with Kingdom.

Except for that refreshing mix though, the movie does not really serve any innovative ideas. Stereotypical characters following the arcs we all are familiar with from other stories. It’s not exactly a bad thing - the movie is obviously made as an entertaining historical action flick and it delivers in that aspect perfectly.

The thing I had complicated feelings about was the villain and especially the moment that led to their downfall - it was both anticlimactic, leaving me with “that’s it?” feeling, but also surprisingly fitting based on how he was built from the start. Quite some time before the movie finishes we know, he won’t win - no matter what. Keeping him in the story was, from that moment, quite pointless.

I enjoyed most performances, but the one that caught my attention the most was Han Ji Eun - great emotional delivery, both when she was in the spotlight, but also during the action scenes, where she was more of a background.

While I don’t really remember the majority of the soundtrack, the instrumental that played during the big finale was amazing and perfectly fitting the scene and the great fighting choreographies.

Overall, I had fun. Could have been slightly shorter, could do with a better villain.

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