Reviews

This movie is confusingly bad, twisting off in a weird direction and adding nothing to the original.

After having a good time with Ringu (1998), I decided to take a chance on this sequel that was strangely released at the same time, as a sort of sister movie. It shares a few actors and sets, but it was made by a different director and has an entirely different feel. It starts off with a decent opening act, setting up an interesting new character, and a new investigation of the mystery of the tape. Some of the shots are quite pretty to look at, too. But the plot never really becomes satisfying - the writing gets worse and worse until it reaches a laughable and bizarre conclusion.

The villain of the first movie was the apparition of a powerful psychic girl who died years ago. She was a tragic figure - but she was absolutely horrifying. There was no reasoning with her, and no grand motivation to her curse, it was an expression of her hatred. Sadako is back this time alongside the tape, but this time she's.... sexy? Her disturbing appearance from Ringu is replaced with a pleasant look and a saucy attitude. It turns out that the videotape didn't really have much to do with anything; it was just a minor part of her grand plan. The investigation this time is medicalized. The curse isn't just something supernatural, it's a virus. And you almost want that to work for a second, but it's never really explained or understood, and it never becomes satisfying. The curse becomes something dry and boring, until it becomes something ridiculously outlandish and impossible!

The original Ringu relies heavily on the supernatural. The curse is something fully spiritual, but it's actually explained in detail and the viewer comes to understand it satisfactorily. The virus in this movie is something super bizarre that you can never quite understand. It acts like a curse, then it's a disease, then it's a curse again, then it's freaking super powers. I can almost guarantee that you won't believe the way it acts towards the end of this film. It's truly a slap in the face.

Another thing is that there is not a single scary moment in this movie. There's no horror here at all. It just strings you along with a weirdly convoluted and bad plot. It feels like the back half of the movie was rushed out in a hurry - there's almost no weight to anything when the reveals start hitting. Thankfully, this sequel doesn't manage to retroactively ruin Ringu, because it's almost impossible to square what happens here with the events of the original. The characters that are borrowed just aren't themselves, and the spirit of the curse is entirely gone.

Strangely enough, this movie seems to be fairly faithful to the original books, which is wild to me. But those stories seem to get even more far-fetched as they go along. I suppose Ringu just made something great out of a fairly mediocre work.

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A hidden gem of 2024!

The story is so fast-paced and the moment you anticipate it to follow a certain trajectory that most sageuk dramas would, it defies your expectations. The acting is so precise, especially from the ML who has a very expressive face and portrays multiple emotions and two personalities distinctively. The fight scenes are quite well-executed too, love the FL's parkour!

The entire ordeal of the ML having two identities approaches very close to discussions around dissociative identity disorder. Although portraying it as an evil spirit entails misrepresenting a stigmatized mental health disorder, I think in the historical context it is still very accurate since medical research had not expanded on it back then and many disorders were confused with spiritual possessions. I like that the drama could express this type of narrative so well.

Watch this drama, if you like:
- Main leads defying gender roles
- Good fight scenes
- Witty dialogues and communication between characters
- Fast-paced stories with cliffhangers in every episode

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Basically a huge advertisement for HKIA

You know… I knew this would be somewhat of a program informing viewers of how Hong Kong International Airport functions, but I was not prepared for episode 1. We get introduced to the main characters and how they worked together, but suddenly, out of the blue, JW’s Wish started to play. This was the love theme for Kenneth Ma and Natalie Tong in Big White Duel, which represented their connection despite being divorced, so why was it playing here? Because Kenneth Ma here is divorced from Sisley Choi. I found that so lazy, like the only thing that could make it lazier would be Sisley Choi divorcing him because of a miscarriage that was her fault and Kenneth not knowing about it. In any case, episode 1 ends in a spectacularly cheesy way with the main cast all staring off into the sun in the distance. Was it meant to be inspirational? Dude, it’s just an airport!

Episode 2 introduces some other supporting cast members and more BAU airport activities, but what I noticed that was not normal was how everybody - and I mean EVERYBODY - brought up Kenneth and Sisley’s divorce so casually as if it was a minor thing and even tries to get them back together. I don’t know if the writers have been around real divorced people who work together but nobody brings it up out of respect as it would make for some real awkward moments if done so. Even if they do it would be every now and then as required, here it is constant “I’m a divorcee” or “hey sis-in-law opps lol not really”… just no.

Do you know what I found really wrong? Some of the depictions of the staff and commuters at the airport. Man, the staff at the check-in desk were really patient and talked to this old gentleman as he couldn’t find his passport, and after some time he found it made some small talk with the check-in staff. Do you know what would happen in real life? He would be asked to stand aside to allow other passengers to check-in while he looked for it as the other passengers in the queue all start asking, “Yo, what’s the hold up?”

And man, the theme song sucks. It is so forgettable it is like why even bother. They could have saved the money and just do an ICAC musical thing and boom done it would have made no difference.

As this is just 10 episodes long in total, there are not many more episodes to see if things improve, but I am not holding my breath. A completely quick cash grab HKIA sponsored load of nonsense so far.

Episode 3: BAU, but Sisley Choi is really annoying in this episode as we see her and Kenneth dancing awkwardly around the fact they are divorced but still have to work together. You can tell Kenneth wants to get back with her but she’s all evasive.

Episode 4: man this episode… like what were the cameramen thinking. Rosita Kwok was wearing a really short skirt to show off her legs, but in one scene the camera was almost an upskirt shot. That had me thinking “what the he…” What made it worse was how unflattering the shot was as you could see all sorts of blemishes on her legs.

Episode 5: this episode had more things that had me call BS. As the episode starts, the airport staff started looking for somebody because they were going to miss their flight and going out of their way to look for them. It turned out the passenger was just shopping and even asked for a few more minutes when they find her. In real-life you know that airport personnel would just let her keep shopping as it isn’t their problem if she missed her flight. I also found Rosita extra annoying this episode as she had dropped her ID card and it was found by Ricco. Ricco tries to return it but she is unbelievably rude to him, even later snatching the card from his hand at lost and found. No normal person would act like this in a professional setting especially to someone they just met when Ricco did not even do anything inappropriate.

Episode 6: not bad.

Episode 7: finally something somewhat juicy is happening with Tiffany and Sisley meeting for the first time, the ex-girlfriend and ex-wife of our charismatic main Kenneth, and only Tiffany knows their status. See this is what I am talking about, but this is introduced too late so I know it is not going to escalate much.

Episode 8: another run-of-the-mill episode. Man, it ends with Rosita in a flight simulator and she’s all wide-eyed and full of wonder. The machine isn’t flying anywhere nor did it have any actuators to simulate movement. It is a stationary cockpit with computer generated imagery. This is like being amazed that the popcorn button of your microwave burns your popcorn.

Episode 9: okay this episode really annoyed me. We finally get the scene where Kenneth and Sisley discuss their divorce and I thought we would get some startling revelation about why they were divorced because they were clearly still in love. And the reason? Sisley: I forgot the reason. Kenneth: same here, must have been trivial. Like wtf, you cannot remember why you guys got divorced? You separated, you signed the papers, and you cannot remember why? I thought maybe it was something traumatic they didn’t wanna discuss and TVB would give us a flashback but no, no flashback no nothing. This show treats marriage and divorce like minor things, and us the audience as idiots if they think we would just roll with that. As this is episode 9 it is clear this will be the only time the subject is approached and the next and final episode they will get back together. Man….

Episode 10: the last episode wraps up the show and pretty much tries to wrap up all loose ends. However, Kenneth and Sisley’s getting back together really annoyed me. Kenneth finally remembered why they got divorced, but Sisley says he doesn’t have to remind her as they shouldn’t dwell of the past and only on the future. So basically we never find out why they were divorced and Sisley really doesn’t want to discuss where they went wrong in the past to improve their relationship going forward. What lesson was this trying to teach its viewers? What was that nonsense?

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Short and sweet, I really liked this drama. It was one that has been on my list ever since I saw the trailer pop up on Netflix, and I would say it exceeded my expectations far beyond what I thought.

I thought this was going to be a cute romance between a mother and her daughter's tutor, but instead ended up being about finding first and true love in your mid to late 30's (I assumed that is their age), about the high expectations that society and parents put on students to be the top of the class, and about chosen family (one of the only times I have seen a non-traditional family in a korean drama).

We need to normalize/have more dramas with mature adults who have their shit figured out (even if they don't have everything figured out, they are confident in the basics). There have been so many instances where I have watched a drama about two 20-somethings, and they make dumb decisions because of dumber reasons. Whereas in this drama, the ML and FL have a set of personal morals and stick with them throughout. Their morals are challenged, but as the characters evolve and begin to understand what is most important to them in life and what they want to fight out, only then do their morals change, for the better.

I was also surprised that this drama hit me as much as it did - me being a single female with no kids, but still trying to put myself in our FL's shoes, trying to understand what it would be like if I had a child and they were going through everything her daughter was. How frustrated I would get whenever the "mom squad" would show up on screen and gossip and plot how to get their child to the top, even if it meant starting scandals about their child's classmates/friends.

This drama definitely hit the feels.

I would say the only thing that made me not give this a perfect 10, was because of the whole serial killer side plot. They did a good job of blending it into the main storyline and plot, but I feel like it didn't hold any weight. The only person who seemed to be stressing about it was the lawyer because she had to deal with it directly, but even when her part in the murders is "resolved" she moves on to her next controversy. I felt like everyone and their mom was fine with this serial killer going around and murdering students and teachers who were linked to Pride Academy like it was a normal Tuesday. And the way the serial killer was ultimately caught and how that whole side plot was "solved" was so anticlimactic... that it was never mentioned again and everyone moved on like there wasn't some person going around murdering people and was in the middle of kidnapping one of the mains. There was only one person who seemed to grieve, but even that was a short minute or two until a whole different subplot was introduced.

The last episode was super random as well, with the introduction of a separate last-minute plot. I would have rather watched an episode or two of the main characters grieving and healing from this serial killer who targeted them and kidnapped one of them, with the intent of killing them. Instead, we get a random subplot that made the daughter act super out of character and was honestly not needed. I understand it was a way to introduce what the FL wanted to do after her daughter got into college, but that could have been introduced in a completely different way.

Other than that, I liked it. Everything else was great and I binged watched the whole thing in 2 days.

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Sweet and Cute

The series is a sweet series but should be a stand a lone series and not part of the 2 moon story. The main couple are cute and sweet and have good chemistry. The rest of the cast lack the Sam chemistry that they had in season 2. I love the twins in this one bad one good ?. The storyline was good and fun but did not fit with the rest of the 2 moon series. I really wish the kept the cast from season 2 but I was not at all a fan of any of the side story. Tat and Lom are the only ones that fit and had most of the storyline and sadly all the other characters were put for dumb background and they should still have more storyline that were not cleaned up but put into one episode each, which was annoying. The series should have been it's one series would have made more sense. Overall good for start actors.

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Wouldn’t be too bad

if they had chosen a better actress for the FL role, made her character smarter and not dubbed her with such a childish voice. Oh, plus maybe losing the makeup and lipstick when pretending to be a boy.

The FL is annoying, immature and dumb plus the actress has absolutely no chemistry with the other characters. I like the ML as well as the Crown Prince and Talented Lady Wu. The rest of supporting actors are all fine.

The story line is interesting enough with the expected villains, misunderstandings back stabbing, poisoning and scheming.

I often wonder if I’m the wrong audience for many of the drama since they often involve an immature. FL.

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Unexpectedly good

Looks like this is the gay year! This is the second watch of the year and this year is off to a great start with one great surprise after another! I had no expectations when I picked up this film but it was so hilarious, emotional, and well-crafted. It made me laugh so hard, but it also shocked me with its plot twists and made me cry. That's so special since I've just gone through some shows lately that were so emotionally uninspiring or lacking. Then there's this film. It goes the extra mile in its silly, goofy humor but also stays level-headed enough to tell an interesting story with a logical plot and give that extra emotional kick by the end.

Summary: A homophobic policeman accidentally gets himself into a ghost marriage with a gay guy. In his desperation to get rid of the ghost, he tries to help him reincarnate by fulfilling his wish. The last wish? Avenge his death by finding the killer.

Plot: It's not super complex but it's very well-made and it just works so well from start to finish, it was so satisfying. It also had some elements that I'm so not used to seeing from East Asian shows that I was a little shocked! hehe... I also liked how bold they were with both trying to land the jokes and also just pushing the characters out of their comfort zone. The film was committed to the gags and that was impressive.

Acting: Everyone did a great job. Better than their other projects that I have seen before. Now, if I think about it too hard, I can see some people complaining about cliche stereotypes but I feel like that would need a dive into some philosophical arguments about heteronormativity and socially expected behavior and asfdaghshd....it's not that deep! The acting worked in context.

Music and production: It was good.

Rewatch value: Sure, if you have the time.

Overall: This was a good funny film and I really enjoyed it. Highly recommended. Warning: It has nudity. Just...saying.

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A good drama to watch

I loved this show. The actors were amazing, it made me follow their other work as well.

Ayan/khaotung is so spunky. I just love his attitude. Hes adorable. I love his teasing of Akk even though he knew he was up to no good he still was interested in the boy. He still protected him and took care of him. He was so sure in what he wanted. It was refreshing to see.

Akk/first - while he had pretty much the same expression the entire series (mix of a stattled bunny or deer in the headlights) he nailed the roll. Akk was doing what he thought would help the school. It wasnt right and he deserved to be punished. People could have seriously gotten hurt, but in his mind he did what he thought was right. I dont agree with him but im also not in the situation where i chose to go to a school that required rules like that.

The only thing i had a problem with was the faxt that in foreign countries Thailand inclided you get to pick where you enroll in high school. So why did the 3 boys (i forget their names) choose to enroll in a school that had rules that went against their beliefs other than to start issues? If you dont like the rules or strictness of a place then dont go. I mean the whole drama could have been avoided in the first place if they didnt enroll in a school they were morally against.

Other than that. Acting was pretty solid. Neo / khanlong has improved so much in the shows hes been in. If course we hinestlt coukd say that about all of the boys to be honest.

I know this show wasnt perfect and there are things that could have been corrected etc but it still holds a special place in my heart.

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Not great, but pretty good

I’m fresh out of finishing this drama right now, and unfortunately I think I went in with too high of expectations. PYHOMS is pretty darn popular, and after seeing it around a ton a finally decided to give it a shot.

I finished the drama in about a week, and while I did enjoy it, it was a bit lacking too. There isn’t much going on plot wise, which I don’t always think is a bad thing, sometimes I enjoy a brainless fluff romance. And this show was definitely that.

While there is a bit of story going on with both the ML and FL’s careers and college, the story is really just about their romance. Which by the way, takes quite a while to kick off.

Overall, I liked Situ Mo and Gu Weiyi together, they were adorably awkward and I enjoyed most of their scenes together. Compared to the romances in a lot of C-Dramas, this one seems a little more real, they’re awkward and unsure about their relationship for most of the show, and I did enjoy slowly seeing them get more comfortable together. I did however find Gu Weiyi and how his character was being played maybe even a little too awkward.

There’s tons of cute fluff moments once they get together and plenty of fun banter before they do, so there was usually something going on that I liked.

There aren’t many conflicts throughout the show, and those that arise tend to be delt with quickly, so if you want a really low stress watch, this is perfect for that. You’re not going to find anything plot heavy of thought provoking though.

The OST, while not my favorite, served its purpose well, and there were one or two songs that I liked pretty well.

I found myself pretty uninterested in the secondary romance plot line, though some people really did like them, so it’s a bit of a gamble I think.

The ending of the show did leave me with a little more to be desired, even after watching the thirteen-minute special episode after it. The story ends pretty abruptly, and I would have liked several parts of the story to have been wrapped up a little cleaner.

Overall, PYHOMS was just pretty good. Though it didn’t stick out as a masterpiece, I enjoyed it well enough and would recommend it for a pretty short brainless romance story if you’re into that.

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Everyday Relationship

Let me start by saying this was a pretty decent story that depicts an everyday type of relationship. The story wasn’t mind blowing but it wasn’t typical either. My review is based on a fresh take since I’ve never seen the original Korean version of this show.

The Good:

Adding on to my original comment about the story not being typical, there wasn’t a lot of CDrama tropes nor was this a fluffy romance tale that didn’t depict the negative sides of a new relationship. If you’re a person that likes more realism in shows, this one may be for you. The acting was okay and I feel that each character was well represented and casted appropriately for this type of story. Lastly, I enjoyed the OST as the songs were very chill and had a sense of mature romance which paired well with the scenes.

The Bad:

Although I enjoyed the story, of course there were still some nuances that frustrates or makes you question the characters/writing. This is a slow burn so if you do not like the draggy bits, this may not be for you. Next I will say again that the story was okay… it’s a good and bad thing because sometimes the characters were a little dull and either expressed odd emotions or not enough emotions for the situations. It led to a little bit of over acting or under acting at times. Lastly, there are parts where it becomes monotonous and nothing new or exciting was happening. Again, it’s a slow drama that depicts everyday life when dealing with relationships so it could be boring at times.

This won’t be for everyone but check it out and make your own decision.

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Entertaining, yet underwhelming ending

In short, this drama looked promising at the start and was entertaining, but the ending felt unsatisfying. The acting was good, engaging and believable, especially the main leads. Some parts were amusing while other parts were frustrating or sad.

The biggest concern is that there isn't a clear premise or moral stance. Not sure what was the point writers were trying to make- that cheaters stay powerful and victims are obliged to forgive quickly? A story like this ought to give the message that adultery/cheating is never okay by showing the cheaters getting their asses kicked and suffering serious consequences, and the victim becoming more and more empowered. But here they whitewashed the adulterers and gave them happy endings where they both became more powerful in their careers, when it should have been the opposite. Meanwhile the victims, the FL & all the kids, got unsatisfying endings, they weren't thriving in every way, which should've been the case since that will give hope to viewers who have similar circumstances in life, and it will make the moral stance clear.

In the beginning, FL was being controlled by the cheaters, and by the end the scales should have tipped, but that didn't happen and she continued to be the recipient of their selfish demands. And one of FL's grievances was that she had never been loved & cherished by a man in her life, therefore it's necessary for her ending to show that being fulfilled with her being treated right by 2nd ML or another guy, she doesn't need to be dating him but it should be shown. Her ex, the ML was the cause of all the problems, so he should be given proper retribution for his poor choices, but he didn't suffer as much and instead he continued to reign over everyone as the patriarchal authority figure, as usual.

Overall I guess this drama felt unsatisfying because the characters didn't change much inside, the story makes you expect character arcs and some ass kicking but nah didn't happen, and it's a bit of a waste of potential 'cause it had all the materials to be so much better.

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Great Start, Confusing Progression

Moon in the Day started well and caught my attention right from the beginning. One of the best things about this show is the actors. They're talented and do a great job in their roles. Their acting made the characters come to life and added a lot to the show. In the beginning, the story was engaging and made me want to keep watching to see what happens next.

However, as the show went on, it started to get a bit confusing. There were too many flashbacks, which made it hard to follow the story sometimes. It felt like the same scenes were being shown over and over again. This repetition made the show less enjoyable as it progressed. Even though the actors were great, the way the story was told with all these flashbacks and repeat scenes made it harder to stay interested in what was going to happen.

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It's not your typical "follow your dreams" show

At first, I thought this is going to be another typical "dreams come true" story, boy was I wrong. What makes this unique is that it's inspired by true story. I'd love to meet a family like that, how fun are they!?

Firstly, it is a unique perspective to be seeing family photos like this in the "art scene". I mean, most award winning photographs we often see are like nature, still photograph, or just anything but something that looks like a "family photo album". Yet, this man did it.

Secondly, it shows us how important photos can be. In digital world where taking photos are so easy, the art is sometimes taken for granted. Yet, when one's family got hit by Tsunami, suddenly these photos become precious moments that are left. I really love how ML took the photo for the little girls' family. That really got me choked up in tears.

Thirdly, it teaches us to continue showing up. If no one wants to publish you, do your own exhibition. All it takes is one person to spot you. But, it takes showing up consistently. This actually reminds me a little bit of La La Land

Overall, it's really worth watching. It's so healing, touching and inspiring.

Honestly to me, this is more about family love than following your dream per se, although that's big part of the show

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