Reviews

So bad it is still bad but made me smile

There are those movies that are so bad they are good, this is however not one of them as it is more or less just bad but it will make you feel good in the end (not only for finally ending).

The 1st lead's acting is awful and he looked like he had pooped his pants most of the movie (that or was about to), his character lacks in most ways including ability to control his impulses, and even though he does have some character development he truly needs a lesson or 10 in consent.

The other guy was sweet and kind and confused.. he did not seem to have pooped his pants but could use an acting lesson or two as well.

The side character where kind of bland, the cinematography too...

Watch it don't watch it honestly it doesn't really matter

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The Soju that opened the shell...

This short film is truly just like a pistachio,
Small- Short
Hard at first: Shell
But once the shell is opened you find a delicious (hard) nut... At first I wanted to say that it the inside is more of a softie but actually it is pretty straight forward so I guess Pistachio it is...

The Main characters do a pretty good job with the little they have, the side characters could use some more acting classes. But overall this was an enjoyable short film, not very deep but it is sweet and I guess also a bit encouraging as well.

It may also be a Soju commercial, as the soju seems to be the perfect way to crack open a pistachio. But hey doesn't everybody need some soju to break thrue their shell?

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Consent, abuse, discrimination, self-acceptance and freedom to be love as you are.

I'm reviewing this as a BDSM'er, but the story is way more significant than this subject alone.

I've been watching many movies that abuse the world of BDSM and profit from misinformation and porn. It has gotten so bad in the last ten years; BDSM is filled with people who think that domination is about abuse and forceful coercion while it's about just the exact opposite. The dom puts the sub's needs first before their desires. This is clearly shown in the movie with Jiwoo's behaviours and thoughts. She knows what gives him pleasure while she's discovered hers. She kept clear boundaries and put his consent above board in their relationship. When she did fall for him emotionally and breached that boundary even just a little, she felt guilty and ashamed. Jiwoo's friend meets someone to play consensually, and that person tries to assault her sexually. "Just because I'm a pervert, it doesn't give you the right to treat me badly" is such a clear message about consent. None of the BDSM movies I've seen so far has such a clear message about consent. In the age of #metoo, there should be more movies out there like this one to remind people what consent is. I love one BDSM mistress' definition of consent: "a completely mindful, willing, and uncoerced choice to say yes, and the ability to revoke that "yes" at any time without fear of repercussions."
This movie is a shining example of that definition.

Another critical point this movie raised is discrimination against people just because they're different. Just because they don't fall into society's norm, while their personal preferences don't hurt anyone, what right does anyone have in treating them poorly? People with preferences for BDSM are highlighted as that example in this movie, but it could be about anything, LGBTQ+? Autism? Physical/mental disability? I could go on. The stigma of being different is so overwhelming that these people can live with deep shame and lack of self-acceptance when the rest of the "normal" world gets to mistreat them. Ji-hoo's ex-girlfriend's behaviour towards him is a prime example of ordinary people being abusive towards those who are different.

This leads me to the last point; love is about the freedom to be accepted as you are. Why be an ugly duckling when you can hang out with beautiful swans of your kind? Why force yourself to be accepted by those who will never accept you? Do yourself a favour and hang with people who love you as you are. The message in this movie is very logical and mature! I always tell people who hide behind their kink profile with a mask: Own your kink! What is there for you to be ashamed of? Rapists should be ashamed, adulterers should be ashamed, and people who abuse other people emotionally and physically should be ashamed. What's in BDSM to be ashamed of when it's consensual and mutually satisfying without hurting anyone? Many psychological studies agreed that BDSM is healthy when practiced with a partner who respects your boundaries and trust.

I can't say enough about the acting of Lee Jun-Young. It's my first time watching him, and I'm a total fan. I own golden retrievers all my life, and I can say he embodied these dogs' spirit, energy, and gestures 100%. I'm also in awe of Seohyun's acting. She had become such a mature woman and inspiring in her role. In every scene, no small gesture or flinch of a facial expression is misplaced, overdone, or undertones underappreciated. These two should win an Oscar.

I love the music; it's so spiffy and fun! It never fails to fit in perfectly to set the mood from one scene to another.

I didn't know what to expect when I first watched it. I was thinking of 50 Shades or at least Secretary (2002), but this movie exceeded my expectations and surprised me. It has to rewatch value! It took a Korean movie to tackle such a sensitive subject and educate people on what healthy BDSM looks like. My opinion on 50 Shades and 365 days? Hollywood is disgusting for portraying abusive behaviours as love and conflating sexual boundaries violations with BDSM to make money. Ugh.

I'm recommending this movie to everyone who wants to know what BDSM is and who loves a good laugh.
Even for me, dog play is hilarious!

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Terrible production quality but the least-censored censored Chinese BL I've ever seen

(Yes, even less censored than Word of Honor)

The production quality is poor. The script introduces a lot of ideas that it doesn't develop, and nothing really happens in the first half. Yuwei in particular gets little character development. The English subtitles are sometimes incomprehensible. The dubs are delayed and actors are mouthing out whole sentences that are covered with just a few words. The acting is passable but doesn't really tap into the emotional spectrum of the characters, and to top it off, the main leads don't know how to properly hold a cat.

And yet, the second half still charmed me in its own way (but I almost dropped it before then). At first, especially after seeing the comments, I thought this was going to be the typical censored Chinese BL where you have to really squint to read between the bromance lines. But Cheng Han confesses his feelings twice (2x)! Cheng Han asks Yuwei whether he wants to be "together with me," and Yuwei answers in the affirmative, puts his arm around Cheng Han, and lays his head on Cheng Han's shoulder! Cheng Han asks Yuwei to "wait for him" at the end when they go off to different colleges! How are the comments interpreting this as a bromance?! You know straight people don't talk to their friends like that. I don't understand how this made it past the censors, because these boys verbally confirmed their feelings for each other in several different scenes.

So even that was a nice treat in a Chinese show, but what I really enjoyed was the small side plot with their moms. After Yuwei's mother overhears Cheng Han's first confession, she forbids Yuwei from seeing him again (see, even she knows their relationship isn't platonic). Cheng Han's mother responds by personally going and talking to Yuwei's mother about it, telling her their sons are happier and better together. Yuwei's mother thinks about it and later tells Yuwei that having a "bosom friend" who "can light up his inner world" might be hard for him in the future, but she wants him to be happy now, so she's giving permission for them to see each other. Then she tells him to invite his bosom friend over for dinner.

Um, my heart?? Literally one of the most supportive parent plot lines I've yet to see in Asian LGBTQ film/dramas, with parents from *both* leads on board! It made me really happy.

So I wouldn't necessarily recommend this due to all the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph, but it does seem like a landmark in Chinese BLs. I'm happy it got made, and I look forward to the day when having filmed media in which LGBTQ people can openly talk about their feelings and have their parents support them won't be such a rarity for China.

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The movie lost some magic

I saw the film in Taiwan, with Chinese subtitles. Disclaimer: I am a non-native speaker of Chinese, so often times I couldn't read the subtitles fast enough. However, I still understood most of the film, and tbh you don't need to understand the dialogue to get the gist.

The story is a bit cliche, with the main conflict dealing with Adachi's work transfer. I felt it was pretty slow at times, and the pacing was a bit weird.

There are definitely enough sweet moments, but not enough of the second couple, imo. Also, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would have liked to see more of the girl (and Rokkaku). There were also some touching moments which made me almost tear up.

The music and acting were fine, but I didn't really pay close attention to them.

Overall, if you are a fan of the series, you can't really not watch it, but if you haven't seen the series, I think I would pass on it. My friend who I watched it with hadn't seen the series, and said he enjoyed it, but mostly because of the attractiveness of the main leads XP

Anyways, I hope you got a general idea of what to expect from the film.

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The movie has 2 major issues: it’s too long and there is not enough screen time for the last heist compared to all the set up done.

Don’t get me wrong though, I was still rather entertained. In a little bit over two hours One Line was able to present a rather well built underdog story, adding a redemption arc closer to the end. Min Jae? Not exactly a likable character at first. Or in the middle. Somehow they were able to pull off 180, and make me care for him by the end.

Sadly, movies centering around con artists are as good as the chemistry and bond between the members and the last heist they do, and here the movie failed. Honestly speaking, from the whole team, the only two characters that had a fun and interesting dynamic going on screen were Min Jae and Gi Tae. All the rest just showed up with little built up for the team work, even though most of the was just that - creating a setup for the last case.

I would say, the last 40 minutes of the movie were the best - that’s when the characters started to truly work together and I could sense they were on board with the plan. That said, the ending was slightly anticlimactic. They did not show enough of the preparation for the big scam, so it kind of happened before I was able to comprehend what was going on. Especially since before that, the pacing was rather slow.

Acting was good. I’d say Im Si Wan did what he could with this role, but his baby face slightly did not fit how the character was presenting himself in the 2nd half. Lee Dong Hwi did a great job, I wanted to punch him in the face whenever they showed him on screen.

Overall, if the movie was about 30 minutes shorter it would flow better, and the imbalance between the setup and the last case would be less evident. It’s not like it’s a deep psychological drama - it’s a con artist movie with rather one dimensional characters and predictable plot. It’s supposed to be fun and that’s that.

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UNINTERTWINED

While the individual stories are worthy of a family (for the sole plot focusing on a mother and her son) or romance anthology itself, I don't think they were all that intertwined. Perhaps Hwi-chan and the Separation agency man could have worked in another movie where different relationships were explored and not just the rest being about romantic relationships; It would have also been good if all stories ended up being connected one way or another, directly or even indirectly.

The story about Hwi-chan and her mother then felt very separate and disconnected from the majority theme of which tackled romantic relationships, and yet it was the the story that made me cry the most.

I might be biased because stories about family hit me hard, and little Yeo Jingoo has such natural talent for acting and crying with such genuine emotion; but it was definitely the scenes I was looking forward to because it really tackled an interesting premise wherein the parents were broken and struggling to understand each other, the mom herself was giving up on her own child because of her own problems, then all these were slowly being mended when she ended up in the hospital and Hwi-chan yearned to understand her mom more as his mom became more open in her state of bed riddeness. This whole plot had been told in its whimsical and simple way of storytelling and yet it conveyed the message very clearly, and without sparing emotion. It also stands out from all of the stories because it had an open ending, so while obviously sad it gave a hint of hope and supported the story's message.

The story about the fireman, his girlfriend, and her sister is not even entirely interconnected. You can say that yes, the fireman did save the sister and that's how they met each other but that is where the connection ends. You cannot call that interconnection in terms of cinematic flow and plotline. They both focused on their own "love stories" separately. Again, I would have loved to see this in an anthology movie about romantic relationships alas it was written in the wrong movie.

The Separation agency man had a very interesting storyline as well, and I think it would have been good if it had been expanded in a stand alone movie along with the man, and his ex girlfriend's background. The connection it makes with Hwi-chan and his mom may have been a little flimsy in my opinion, but I guess it's good enough that it took a turn where separation is defined between familial relationships as well.

In any case, while I did rate story, and casting as an 8 they are more for the individual stories rather than as a whole. I think the OST they chose for the movie was actually a good fit for the sentimentally simple vibes it was trying to portray. Rewatch value is a 5 because the interconnectedness it promises does not deliver, hence it isn't much fun to expect the turn of separate events. Overall I came for Yeo Jingoo, ended up still coming for Yeo Jingoo and a couple other characters; wasn't satisfied with the composition and thematic balance of the stories included in the movie, but still liked the plotline of the stories enough to give it an "I like it" rating.

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5 short horror stories about the strange and creepy events that happened on GwangLim Mansion

I was amazed about how the short stories are somehow intertwined together although they have a totally different experiences. All of them narrates different stories about the previous tenants and people involved in GwangLim Mansion. The characters don't really know each other but they bumped into each other at least once throughout the movie giving off that feeling of familiarity although they were like separated by mini episodes, it still feel like a full movie.

A bit of disappointment though is that the stories were not really explored that much which made me feel like it lacks depth. I thought that the first hour of the film will serve as build up and the latter part will wrap it up nicely however unfortunately, it remained flat until the very last scene. We know a bit about the mysterious and strange building but there's not much explanation of as to why. I was actually waiting for something more like was there any connection that led JiWoo (SungJoon) there aside from trying to get ideas for his webtoon. Something that will give that surprise factor or that 'I didn't see that coming.' I also felt bad about DaHye's character (Kim BoRa) I didn't even know why she was there. I felt like her screen time was less than 5 minutes. Such a waste of talent.

On a positive note, this film is easy to watch. Even for those people who doesn't like horror movies, I can recommend this. There's very little jumpscare that it won't make you jump. The background music might give you the chills though as it really set the mood of the scene. It was made to feel like you're where the characters are. I pretty much enjoyed it and I kind of want a prequel just so that they can dive deeper about the past of that mansion.

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Mostly machine translated subs for an interesting role reversal of genders in a historical setting.

The machine translated subs make this difficult to watch. Sometimes it's nonsense. Most of the time it's words jumbled together. It makes some sense as you read it and think it through - like Yoda talking only slightly more cryptic. Finally there are some portions that seem to translated well and make sense. I'm guessing those sections might have been translated by a human being.

Now for the general story:

The male lead travels back in time and wakes up in one of those tea houses where he is a courtesan who women can pay for. It seems he has traveled to an ancient alternate reality where gender roles are reversed.

He stumbles across the female lead and finds she has an item that might allow him to travel back to present day. The female lead is outwardly cold like a lot of the traditional male leads in historical shows but the movie does a good job of showing she's not that one dimensional... she's more shy and inexperienced than anything else.

I think the movie does a good job of keeping it light with comedy, ridiculousness. The leads are pretty good with the moments they have. I'm not sure if I'm heartbroken or optimistic after watching this. For whatever reason it hit me and I enjoyed it and wanted more.

Masterpiece? No. Worth the 1 hour if you can get over the subtitles? I think so.

I really, really enjoyed the song at the end and I'll probably obsess over it until I find it.

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This movie is not recommended for sensitive/emotional, lonely,

I cried at the end.…………..Because of the acting. The story was rushed but it was ok until it got closer to the ending… Although it was rushed I guess it’s to be expected since the it’s a movie( Personally it’s still short for one they should’ve made a drama ver cuz it felt like it IS the summary of a very touching drama ) It’s been so long since a movie made me feel so many emotions at once and this one definitely did and I was smiling the whole movie. The Jiang duo’s actor are one of my personal favs. Many will hate this movie for the ending they delivered but that’s life :-/. I would’ve cried even more if it was me before Covid. I gaped first since the first thing i thought was this is ridiculous! then didn’t kno whether to cover my eyes or mouth cuz I couldn’t look at Jaing Hai anymore nearing the end:-(((. the movie would’ve been much much better if it wasn’t rushed. It’s not a movie we’d like to watch but a story we’d like to kno.

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