Reviews

enjoyed the movie version more than the series

Overall: A slower paced/subtle romance dealing with a realistic problem. I would suggest watching this instead of the series. Watched on Youtube.

Content warnings: none I can think of

What I Liked
- a more realistic reason for the drama
- supportive siblings
- focused on 1 couple
- countryside setting
- the music
- Mean's cameo (he is also the director)

Room For Improvement
- the poor communication still bothers me but they were in high school and Phob was in a stressful situation
- cutting the 350 minutes of run time to 150 minutes of run time was a vast improvement for the very slow pacing, although I still watched it at a faster speed
- they did cut down on the number of flashbacks and flash forwards which was good but still too many flashbacks
- lack of doctor/patient confidentiality
- the ending: still think we could have used a certain something to end the series

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I need to take a shower after watching all the filthy things they are doing.

Warning this movie is for mature audience only

I had to get over the Chinese dialect used in this movie. This portrays the sketchiest characters I have ever seen.

So many wow moments. The violent action scenes are shocking. Makes me want to wish the hunted does not die and the police and gangs fail to catch him and her. But sadly no…

The scenes are well captured in the night. I especially loved how they made use of the shadows during the apartment complex chase scene. It felt so old school to project the danger is coming.

Watched this on tubi. Fewer annoying commercial breaks than on Amazon Prime.

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7 minutes of fluff.. and just a small touch of angst (people stay off train tracks)

In 7 way to short minutes we got to see the share essence of two people showing who they are, as the story has a meeting of chance as well as a problem to solve giving these two a chance to show who they are.

I must however warn sensitive viewers as there is a scene where one of the guys is on the train tracks, people stay off the tracks it is f*** dangerous there. The 7 minutes also lack logic, but I will not spoil the plot for you by telling you where the logic is missing.

This said, these are 7 really sweet minutes a joy to watch and definitely worth those 7 minutes leaving wanting a lot more and hoping to see them actually get on a train for part 2, maybe 14 minutes?

I am really impressed over the unique take (still lacking logic) of the love at a train station, I do think there is a lot more to explore for both those two and the subject of the train station.

Did I mention it is a story revolving around a train station? (sorry).

So yes, go watch it, enjoy...

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Your Name Engraved Herein was a masterpiece for the ages

Such a beautiful story between two adolescents. The ambiance, the acting, and the pure love between them set the scene nicely as we follow their hearts and actions. Though this was a sad movie to follow as they battle with internal homophobia and oppression, their reunion settles a sweet ending as their young souls finally find peace in their aged bodies, reminiscent of the innocent love they once had.

Definitely a rewatch for me, and also a sob fest!
Much love to all of those with similar stories as Jia-han and Birdy, and to the old bodies with innocent souls. Queer love is never easy (written from a queer person). But those two had bravery and love, even if it failed at some moments

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Sincerety and kindness beat the devil in somebody

I lost counting how many times I watched this movie. I watched this in the year 2014 in Red Channel HBO where every C - and K-dramas have been shown.

What's important is its brilliant plot where the kindness and sincerity of the FL are showing: where the evil of greediness and cunning mind are shown n the 2nd ML ; where the true feeling is shown in the heart of ML.

The cast were all great. They delivered their acting on-pointly. I was impressed with their acting performance.

Plus the cinematography is so perfect. The lights; the cinematic color. I love watching movies and dramas with great cinematic color.

So gonna conclude this movie a very perfect one. Watch and rewatch!

PS: I started my admiration to Chen Xiao because of this movie. And started to believe Zhao Liying acting ability because of this. For Zhou Dong Yu - she has been my forever princess in C-Ent. I treasure her with Shawn Duo after I watched the movie Under the Hawthorn Tree.

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"CHILLING THRILLER BASED ON A TRUE UNSOLVED CASE IN 1991"

SYNOPSIS: The only child of well-known news caster Han Kyung-bae mysteriously vanishes one day. The abductor soon telephones and starts demanding a ransom, which keeps increasing throughout the film. The police form a top-notch task group to operate under his direction and appoint an experienced veteran to lead the investigation. However, the kidnapper consistently outsmarts the authorities and calls the parents again and again with new instructions for the money drop.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Han Kyung Bae (Father) - He is displayed as the news channel's anchor. It goes without saying that a newscaster's role is to present significant situations on television while being objective and emotionless. Ironically, his own son has been abducted, and he doesn't want the situation to get worse by spreading the word internationally. He displays great commitment, support, and optimism throughout the entire film. His The fact that he keeps moving from one place to another while obeying the kidnapper's commands, acting deliberately, and being mentally aware and trauma-free helps the audience realise how much the father wants his son back and how willing he is to fight and play the cat and mouse game. He is accompanied with a veteran detective which becomes his backbone throughout the chase.

Oh Ji Su (Mother) - A housewife from the 1990s is undoubtedly defined as a helpless and hopeful mother who wants nothing more than for her son to return home safely. She does housework, cares for her son, and feeds her husband who returns home exhausted from work. She maintains her religious beliefs despite the circumstances.

Sang Woo (Kidnapped Son) - His innocence, playfulness, and wonderful character immediately captivate the viewer, despite the fact that he only has a brief part at the opening of the film before being abducted. After he is kidnapped, one can perceive the pity. He is shown as ambitious and has the desire to one day become a well-known caster of a news channel like his father.

MY VIEWPOINTS -
You experience an emotional and frightening rollercoaster in this two-hour film. The movie moves slowly, thickening the storyline as it progresses. Less violet, but more mental torment, captures the audiences eye. The situations are more realistic and look more natural because the father and mother are specifically shown losing themselves psychologically. Much thanks to the talented actors.
It is more helpful to explain a child's mental trauma when parents are seen having hallucinations of their child. There is a religious perspective emphasising that since certain things are beyond your control, all you can do is make an effort. Be optimistic and follow your path since, in the end, you never know what will happen. The voice analysis that was presented in the film was both significant and fascinating. The only solution was voice analysis because technology wasn't very advanced in the 1990s when the incident happened. Making an educated judgement about the kidnapper's face characteristics is made easier by studying speech modulation with tone and accent when the kidnapper used to call. These scenes
gives you a experience of investigating process used in early 1990s.

Back to back frightening turns happen. The investigating team and parents are used as props in mindgames by kidnapper to make the storyline more intriguing. It made me feel awful when I learned that it was based on a true story, but after watching the brilliantly directed film, it made more sense. The pain, suffering, and other emotional and physical trauma are endless.

FAVOURITE LINE: "I always thought bad things happens to only people" said by Father aka Han Kyung Bae.

Recommended - I highly recommend this movie for more than one time. It's worth it!

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Absolutely adorbs, well paced, well written, on-point humor. A must watch.

I found it when I first went down the food dramas/movies/documentaries spiral. Predictably the first thing I did was looking up "Chinese dramas about food" and this one was suggested multiple times as an iconic movie. I added it to my list among many others, and this was the only one I couldn't find subs for~ until today.
And I'm very glad I kept looking for it.
It was a pleasant surprise that in addition to food (to be precise, Hainanese Chicken Rice) it was about a family with three queer boys. And their mom's acceptance-but-not-really situation, which was addressed in a very sweet and humane way without degrading any party involved. It was heartwarming to see.

Perfection from the start to the end. There was not a single second I was bored, dissapointed or wasn't smiling. Highly recommend.

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Don't be fooled. This is God Awful!

I'm an American who loved THE LAST EMPEROR. During Covid I needed shows I've never seen before. I gave RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE a shot and became not only enamored with Chinese dramas but OBSESSED. My desire to see this film was because 'Consort Jia' (Xin Zhi Lei of RUYI) is the lead, and because I think she is a global actress in the making -- I was willing to see ANYTHING with her in it.

I started this at night and was terribly excited. An hour into it (halfway point) my wife and I gave up. Here's why --

1. The genre here is INDIANA JONES. The problem is, and nobody seems to ever notice this, there has never been a sequel to that film worth seeing again. And those stupid MUMMY movies? Painfully bad. What made RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK great were the characters as much as the chase. This film is all chase --

2. -- zero characterization. The lead man? His Daddy abandoned him. Sounds good on paper but it wasn't SOLD to us. He needs to redeem his clan? Why do I care about that? The clans in this story were as voluminous as they were two dimensional cardboard cut outs. The good guys weren't really so good, the bad guys weren't really so bad. Yawn. The handsome guy from the other clan so failed as an adversary the story eventually turns him closer to a 'brother' as the Chinese put it. And if you don't believe me of how flat all these people were --

3. -- Xin Zhi Lei was put in this movie so that there was something pretty to look at. NOTHING ELSE. And despite the fact she is simply one of the most beautiful women in the world didn't make her the least bit compelling. Puddles after a drizzle have more depth. On top of this I sensed she may have been pregnant because for the most of the film she was wearing tents.

This film seemed so terribly familiar to Western eyes. When the first 'puzzle' turned out to be Morse code, I'm sorry, it just had to be the 100th time in my life I've seen Morse code appear as a big secret in a movie. Are you kidding? Couldn't come up with something better? Or frickin' NEW?!?!?

So I abandoned the film. But the next morning I had a spare hour with coffee and tried to finish. To the film's credit it never got any worse. What started with cliches ended with cliches. The worst of which is a big audience applauding our hero, to cue the audience to think something wonderful has happened. Except nothing did.

There was a story hiding in this film. It was the backstory with the Dad playing games with the boy. That element should have appeared a lot more as a B-story. The way SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE does so. Had they had actual characters they could have cut two thirds of the budget away.

It's kind of impossible to pick apart this story any further because of how painfully convoluted it was. I felt next to nothing after the first few minutes and before the last few minutes. The remaining film was a video game and nowhere near as clever as it thought it was.

If you disagree -- you're falling into the Western film 'blockbuster' trap. You're letting the production values trick you into thinking you saw something great. You didn't.

Look, like I said, I'm obsessed with Chinese media now. I've seen lots of HYPER LOW BUDGET mainland China films that were shot for $20 and clearly lack career actors. YouTube offers tons of them for free.

I just saw one about a crippled girl who cuts red paper out and accidentally creates a potential industry for her poor village. She wasn't much of an actress but -- for 90 minutes -- they managed to keep the viewer watching. It's pathetic that movie was better than this, but that's not my fault.

Any episode of RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE blows either film out the water.

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Political thriller, eloquently dealing with SK´s struggle for true democracy. Inspired. Profound.

Election campaign is a fight. But what rules should be applied? Do you inevitably have to hand in your ideals and ethics at the entrance as price for political success?

Critical processing of South Korea's recent past - the democracy movement - is still in its infancy, because the dictatorship just finished a few decades ago and its proven structures within conservative circles are still resonating today. Increasingly, however, this topic is also taking up its media space. The political thriller "Kingmaker" sets a bold milestone by taking on a dazzling, comparatively upright, almost exemplary political personality, who for a long time seemed to have no chance in his sincere, ambitious fight for real democracy: Kim Dae-jung. He was the first opposition candidate to be elected President of the Republic. He is also the only South Korean to ever receive a Nobel Prize for his work on democracy and human rights. Some call him the Nelson Mandela of Asia...

In particular "Kingmaker" tells (in the plot prepared with some poetic freedom) about the early years of his political struggle and the arduous path that ultimately led him to the Blue House. The focus is less on his biography and more on what he still stands for in the eyes of most South Koreans today: real democracy. Or rather, against what he wanted to compete: the conservative, elitist, political cronies who stand in the way of progress and justice, if it is not in their own interest.

In the service of the electoral success, Kim (like so many politicians on this planet) was probably tried more than once to sanctify the 'good' purpose in the sights of many a morally questionable means. This difficult balancing act between an upright political attitude and one's own venality in a pact with a promising "devil" is illuminated and processed here in an impressive way. The temptation of a promising shortcut to success usually comes with a price that has to be paid sooner or later. (The internal struggle of 'for' versus 'against' shapes the decision-makers in South Korea with their well-established, conservative, shadowy networks to this day. This is actually writing daily history. And the TV and movie productions are full of it, too.)

The status quo - submission to the apparently influential 'more powerful' - is contrasted with a historically real personality. In order to convey the emotional dilemma in a dramaturgically clear way, Kim's campaign strategist of the first hours, Eom Chang-rok, was stylized as the main character and staged fictionally. In fact, little is known about him other than that he is said to have been brilliant and downright genius.

The story is about Eom Chang-rok's intelligent crisis interventions, solution approaches and election campaign strategies, some of which are in stark contrast to Kim's idealistic democratic values, that are always geared towards serving the people. The audience is confronted more than once with the question of whether the end might justify the means. Isn't the power of the people just a well-meant illusion after all? Wouldn't it be more efficient for the state leadership if a few (more or less) smart people decided for the many others in a short decision-making process? "Kingmaker" touches the foundations of political morality and ideology.

However, the KMovie also touches on very human weaknesses: the need for approval and the temptation to be seduced. These weaknesses are truly human and have to be dealt with by everybody - somehow, someday.

"Kingmaker" is a moving political thriller set in recent South Korean contemporary history about the stumbling blocks and challenges of true democracy. A democracy, that requires responsible, mature and accountable citizens. A democracy, that will always be challenged by the forces and networks operating in the shadows, whose goal is to incapacitate the citizens and instead rule for their own personal benefits.

An unpleasant subject, indeed. Yet the KMovie is eloquently dealing with this crucial issue for any democratic society.
A brilliant approach to this topic as well as to a younger chapter of South Korea´s history.
Inspired storytelling.
A profound production.

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"As Time Passes We Miss People Less, But The Loneliness Stays Forever...""

I always try to put a quote from the movies I review, which I feel could stand the test of time, but this one had too many!

"Many People Leaving Means That There Are More People To Miss..."

"As Time Passes We Miss People Less, But The Loneliness Stays Forever...There Are Many People Here To Miss."

...and many more!

First of all, the colors were so VIVID in this movie! It s the first thing that I remembered on the recent re-watch of it.

The cinematography was very good and I loved the relaxed feeling of the small-town atmosphere on this movie set.

I would actually change the primary details and write, " the story of a young girl who finds out that 'life' is what you make it." The story just didn't come together the way it should have, and the ending was terrible, in my opinion.

The young girl, Jeong Min (Jun Ji Hyun) starts to write letters to servicemen (but it never tells you WHY she is writing them!)
She writes a letter to many service men, including one Hyun Jun (Park Shin Yang), who actually makes an attempt to stop in Jeong Min's town and meet her. Even without meeting her, Hyun Jun can tell from her level and style of writing that she is not a teacher with five years of teaching under her belt; but Jeong Min misses her chance to tell the truth to him by being very late for the scheduled meeting!

Jeong Min lives with her grandfather (Jeon Moo Song) who openly criticizes her daily; it is later revealed WHY he is so critical of her, but he never talks to her about this reason at all. No good communication between the two of them.

She finally opens up to him and asks him about her parents and why he was so critical of her father, who seemed to have died in conflict with his father/Jeong Min's grandfather; however, this 'conversation' with her only living family member results in grandfather being admitted to the hospital.

Jeong Min was upset with her grandfather; her grandfather was upset at her;

The only person not upset wIth anyone was the flower shop grandmother (Kim Young Ok) who kinda wanted to 'take care' of grandfather, in his old age! However, she was given only two scenes in the movie.

Han Suk (Yang Dong Geun) was never mentioned by name in the movie, but since the other (younger) support actor was in the military for the most of the movie, and his character name was mentioned once in the movie, Han Suk was Hyun Jun's buddy, the way that Ji-seok (Kim Se-joon) was Jeong Min's friend, especially at the end of the movie.

Jeong Min took longer to develop emotionally as time passed in this movie; but Jun Ji Hyun's performance here is really great, especially in the second half of it!

The support cast and main cast were all amazing; their actions in this movie were good and they supported each other throughout. The movie just didn't have any direction to it.

This was Jun Ji Hyun's first movie and I do not hold her performance to the same standard as her character in Windstruck or other movies: it just seems she was 'wandering' in this movie with no apparent goals in life, besides one.

RE-WATCH VALUE: Not much!

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Comforting but common

I took a while to get into this movie; at the very start it was just a little confusing and something about the way it cut between past and present scenes was awkward and abrupt. I also wasn't necessarily feeling the romance, despite some of the cute scenes they had together.

There was something still very comforting about the movie, about just seeing two people grow together, grow up, grow apart, and then meet again to get closure. The emphasis on family and finding a home was really moving as well, and actually it was these parts, with their parents, that hit me harder than any of the romance which I feel like was a story I'd already seen.

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I decided to watch this after I applied my night skincare on my face, and that is, apparently, a very bad decision.

Why?

32 minutes in and I already started crying. The movie goes on and so do my tears. It just won’t stop. I cried like a mf baby thanks to this movie. Sigh. There goes my skincare ?

Anyways, this is a complex and very humane family drama. It captures all of the characters’ dilemmas and emotions very clearly. It may sound weird, but I can relate to almost all of the characters. I relate to Nonomiya Okaa-san the most, tho… like, idk all of her emotions are actually very valid and it just breaks my heart to pieces.

The premise is actually a very cliche one, it isn’t fresh, you’ll find this kind of premise anywhere. But only in Kore-eda’s hand, a simple premise like this could turn into a complex, real, emotional, and humane one, without adding a dramatic story here and there.

Solid performance from all of the actors! They bring out their emotions very well.

Just…. wow. idk what to say anymore. It still amazed me how someone can make a beautiful movie like this.

While you reading my review, let me put on my skincare again, shall I?

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Was actually a good movie

I liked this movie. Was it lacking? I bit but I would watch it over and over again.

Storyline - was about the Chen family and their history with the island and the mermaids. Years of killing the mermaids brought honor to the family. They were told the mermaids were evil and had to be killed. Only it was all a lie. They wanted mermaid tears. I think it was well written and acted out. Was a good and unique story to me. Maybe not to others but I don’t watch much of these kinds except for the movie “Enormous Legendary Fish”. For me this one ranked up there also. I liked it. I did not skip anything. It kept my interest the entire time. For me that is a good movie.

Acting/Cast - most of them did a good job. I felt there were a few lacking a bit but I thought it was well acted for the most part.

Music - Was fitting for the movie. Loved the ending song the most.

Rewatch - yes! I will be watching it again.

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Watch the car chase scene

This movie is based on a true story when South and North Korea were fighting about UN membership. War broke out in Somalia and the two had to set aside their differences to escape from the war zone.

Loved the very slick Hollywood feel of this movie. The final car chase scene was nailbiting, even though I knew they were going to make it, I was sweating bullets watching the cars try to get past the Somalian police and rebels to get to the embassy.

What I felt this movie lacked was a resolution. For someone who didnt know the history, I wanted to know what happened after. Did SK get their UN membership or not? I think they forgot the plot in the end.

Rating: 8.5/10

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Justice served

"Justice has to be preserved by any means necessary."

This movie is about a prosecutor being sent to Shenyang to investigate the Korean team but he ends up in the middle of a war between Sokor, Nokor and Japanese spies.

Sol Kyung Gu is so cool in this movie while Haesu's straight laced character started off as clueless (how many times was he fooled throughout the movie?). But he later learns and joins hands with Yaksha to defeat the enemy. The story was confusing because we didnt exactly know what was happening but it all makes sense later on.

The betrayals were predictable, same with using chemical factory as the final scene so they can blow up the factory ?. But still enjoyed watching.

Rating: 8/10

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