Reviews

"When we feel bad, we cast a shadow over our children"

Sincerity was a film by Naruse Mikio adapted from a short story. The film had great potential but was marred by wartime censors. I would love to have seen what he would have done free from their interference. The film had lovely elements, two schoolgirls were friends despite coming from different economic classes. And their friendship wasn’t harmed by one girl being ranked higher than the other in their class, no competition or ugly jealousy. The young actresses were particularly engaging in their roles which helped enormously. I would have been happy if Naruse had created a slice of life with just their delightful story. But underneath the surface of their sunny friendship, lay a darker tale between the parents which threatened to upend their joyful existence and friendship.

Tomiko and Nobuko both bring home report cards. Tomiko who lives with her mother, Tsuta, and grandmother is ranked first in her class. Her mother works as a seamstress to support them. Nobuko is reluctant to show her mom her report card as she has dropped to 10th in the class. Her father, Keikichi, isn’t concerned but her mom blames the new teacher. Keikichi says education is the mother’s job and maybe she is spending too much time away from the house. Late one night Nobuko’s mom brings up Tsuta and her past relationship with Kei. Nobuko overhears the conversation and shares it with Tomiko the next day. The girls’ reaction to the news and their parents’ reactions once they realize the secret is out leads to uncomfortable confrontations and conversations. And to add a bit more drama, Keikichi receives his draft notice.

Naruse managed to pack a lot of story into an hour though the ending was emotionally and narratively abrupt. The censors may have had a hand in that as everyone came together to send off the soldiers waving flags and cheering. Draft notices were met with happy congratulations. The film also began with the Greater Japan’s Patriotic Women’s Association meetings. I found it strange that Mrs. Asada, she was never given a name like everyone else, was scolded by her husband for spending too much time with these patriotic groups. In fact, he gave her a dressing down at one point that was particularly harsh, one of the harshest comments to a wife I’ve seen in a movie. Future soldier Keikichi was immune from criticism regardless of what he did.

The stars of the show were the child actresses, Kato Teruko and Etchan. They brought a wealth of emotions to their characters. Regardless of what was going on with the adults, Tomiko and Nobuko, showed great care for one and other. They were unable to be as close as they would have liked because they weren’t allowed to visit each other’s houses. Ostensibly this was because of their different economic classes, but the hidden feelings of the parents’ may have also had something to do with it. The parents wore their masks until the truth came out and then slipped them back on again, teaching the girls how to mask their feelings and pain as well.

There was a wonderful movie hidden inside Sincerity that was unable to fully blossom. Like a too early frost, it was nipped in the bud just as the depths of the secrets and story were about to be fully revealed and dealt with. If you are a Naruse fan, this is definitely one to try in order to watch as the young friendship was shaken by the adults’ deeply buried emotions and how the children fought to keep their friendship. All while the specter of war lingered in the background. I just wish the resolution had been fully explored instead of chopped off suddenly.

25 May 2024

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Only 2nd paragraph contains spoilers

I usually don't write reviews for anything unless it's bad. This is one of the worst movies I have ever watched. I'm not saying that to be mean either, I just have to be truthful to people who wants to watch this. The acting was bad, the movements they made were unnatural, when they were hitting things I couldn't keep a straight face because they wouldn't actually touch the thing they were hitting, the special effects looked free in a video editor app on your phone, nothing was explained so the story was bad too. This truly looked like a school project, and the teachers would fail them if they saw this. Nothing made sense. If you're considering watching this, just don't. It's only an hour, but it's not worth any of your time. The whole movie looked like it was made for free and posted against their will. Honestly.

Spoilers!

The ghost looked like a zombie rather than a ghost. He was moving like one too. The make up made it look like a zombie as well. The way he tapped on the phone to text them looked ridiculous. Considering they couldn't afford more than like 5 actors for this movie says a lot. I just feel pissed off after watching it. It really made 0 sense.

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Wonderful cinematography but predictable

There will be minor spoilers, but I wouldn't watch this film again tldr;
I loved the way it was filmed, I like the director and his other movies, the acting was great and I enjoyed chemistry and it's not.. a bad film. But the story and this man cheating on his wife the entire time left the most awful taste in my mouth and it took away from the movie for me personally. A predictable ending and the 'second act' felt tiresome.

If you want to watch this because of the director I think you'll enjoy the film in that way and less so for the story or plot. The filming locations, the slow way of pace and movement, The Mist song coming on over and over. Actors are enjoyable I think this would have scored higher had it been not for the whole cheating story point which a lot of movies and dramas have done before, and for me personally cheating is a HUGE irritation for me. Emotional counts, lack of communication, and maybe you're supposed to dislike the main lead and thats also the point. But it made it a grind to watch for us (myself and my partner) I really thought there was going to be more... suspense and crime and this movie is not that. Its not even a big mystery because its been done before so you catch on fairly quickly and then the second portion feels dragged on because its a repeat in a way of what happened the first time. The ending was... an ending. We looked at each other and sighed, not because of her choices but this man is tiresome haha. Had he simply not been married and been cheating I think the way this movie would have come across so differently and being able to really get into the chemistry of the main leads, but alas.
Overall when it wasn't the ML's unwise choices with FL it was an okay movie. If cheating bothers you like us then I would recommend skipping it. Felt like something from some eras ago, the cooking scene with them where she's smoking, them out in the rain visiting the temples, mesmerizing. I dont even wanna talk about the snow scene near the end, it did not draw us in in anyway apologies xD Beautiful filming spots along the water. I'll look forward to more from this director in the future

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Hit or miss

Not a bad adaptation, less erratic than the anime in pace and tone, but still a bit of a flop for me

First 40ish minutes are very slow paced, although once it picks up it stays quite stable thruout the movie, but this improvement feels a bit of a too little too late situation

Casting especially was a hit or miss for me, some characters are cast to perfection, big bad Tokushiro, the hilarious Yoshitake, and psychotic twins Yohei and Kohei were the stand outs of this movie, i howevere wasn't so convinced about the two leads...
Sugimoto and Asirpa had near zero chemistry on screen, resulting in their scenes together coming off as quite lifeless.
Sugimoto does get a lot more animated when interacting with other characters though.
Asirpa on the other hand... unfortunately it seems her role is cursed for me, as i wasn't a fan of neither her live action nor her anime portrayal

On a more positive note, the action scenes are a feast for the eyes with their breathtaking fight choreography

And of course Retar is always adorable :3

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From Anime to Live

I really enjoyed watching the anime series when I finally pressed play to watch it (I saved it on my playlist since it appeared on stream, but never took the time to look at it until now)… and was pleasantly delighted when I found out there was a live version of it, but as a movie instead!! I love the choice of actors for the main characters pairing of Miyo and Kiyoka, and enjoyed it just as much as the anime. Miyo’s half-sister Kaya was pretty hilarious too. Too bad she didn’t have the light colored hair like she did in the anime, it seemed to match her personality haha. Both the anime show and the live movie get ten stars across the board.

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Beyond all expectations. WAY beyond.

The Hollywood trash that is, Godzilla 2: King of Monsters, was on TV the other night, playing to itself before I remembered it being pretty bad and turned it off. My point is that it reminded me this film was out, so I thought I'd give it a go.

To be honest, after Shin Godzilla absolutely shattered the mould of what a giant monster film should be, I couldn't possibly imagine this being able to compare to it - Shin was just incredibly inventive, insanely fast-paced and packed a punch. If Shin had a weak spot though, it was that it was - even for a lifelong viewer of subtitled films like myself - stupidly difficult to try to keep up with all the text and follow what was happening on screen!
Well, that and the fact that, by effectively reinventing the genre, it was hit-and-miss with audiences.
I'd also really, really enjoyed the animated films years ago when they came out, so I didn't expect this to be much good - I mean: we'd had pretty much the ultimate sci-fi in the cartoons and wonderful innovation in Shin... in this, we moved back in time to post World War 2. Gotcha.

SURPRISE! This was BRILLIANT!

I just finished the film and I still can't believe what I saw - this is writing at its finest with the cast to pull it all off. Survivor-guilt, desolation, people trying to pick up their lives after all the destruction, and then along comes a freaking KAIJU!
This one hits all the feelings.

So, not much of a review - there are plenty of those here already, so, like Shin, I went for a different approach - but I will definitely advise you to watch this.

I did consider knocking off a point for the predictable ending but... nah! After all these people had gone through, the message of hope was plain nice.

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Both versions are good in their own way.

I placed spoilers at the end of this review.

The movie/series: For a low budget production, it was an enjoyable and cute series. It had a great story concept, but the execution was not the greatest at times. It had a good script, but it was a little disorganized and had some inconsistencies. Although it had one of the most annoying story elements to me, it was used in the correct way and had a purpose to the story. Because this was a low budget production, it had some audio and camera issues. The majority of the actors did a great job with their characters. There are a few big differences between the series and movie version involving the editing. I noted these in my spoiler alert section.

The series: I watched the series on Viki. My main criticism is the series wasted a lot of screentime in many of the episodes by using too many flashback scenes. There were also a few flashback scenes with a flashback scene which was not needed. Another miss use of screentime was many of the episodes started with reshowing the previous scene from the last episode which added up to 4 minutes of wasted time. The episodes on Viki are actually around 35 minutes long and the last episode is only 28 Minutes long. After the closing credits of each episode, they show you behind the scenes footage and actor interviews. They also did not edit out the in between credits.

The movie: I watched the movie on Ultimate Troop’s YouTube channel. Overall, they did a good job editing this into a very cohesive movie. Even the parts that were edited out within the same scene was not choppy and had a smooth transition. It was able to weed out one unneeded side storyline from the series. There were a few scenes that were deleted that I wished they kept, but I understand they had to take time into consideration. However, the material they edited out had no negative impact on the movie.

Random Notes:

The series on Viki had better English subtitles, but the movie on Ultimate Troop’s YouTube channel had better sound quality.

You will get a great experience with either version you decide to watch. I will stick with the series version when I rewatch this. I just like the scenes that were edited out for the movie version. I also know what parts I can fast forward, lol.

******Spoiler Alert******

The differences between the series and movie:

They cut all of the scenes involving Prem Warut Chawalitrujiwong’s character (Puen) which was not a big deal for me. He’s a great actor, but this was an unnecessary storyline that was used to fill screen time for the series.

They also cut out most of the scenes with Nut’s brother Note (Tonnam Piamchon) and boyfriend Tar (Get Sorawut). I understand they had to do this due to timing, but I enjoyed their scenes, Note’s interactions with Nut, and the additional info the scenes provided.

There is no 1-year time jump at the end in the movie version.

The series ended with a small cliffhanger involving the side BL couple (Note and Tar). Maybe they were planning on doing another series involving them as the main couple, but I’m guessing that fell through.

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Quirky and illogical....

....if you trust the human vampire movies. But, as they say, "Don't trust the human vampire movies!"

There are 4 vampires: three men and a woman who is fed up with living and wants to die but does not know how. So the men come up with different ideas. So this introduction part was interesting but after that I found everything they did illogical to say the least.

So she wants to die but has never tried to go out in the sun? That is THE big vampire trope: sensitivity to sunlight. But she never thought of that? Has she been living in a bubble for over 70 years and learned nothing about herself and the vampire species?
Then one of the guys says that vampires die if they have sex with each other. I find it hard to fathom vampires living for centuries (700yrs!) together and never once trying to have sex especially since they seem to have feelings for each other. So the woman has sex with the guy and apparently it is mindblowingly good but they are both still alive.
So she tries garlic, crosses and eventually sunlight. Nothing kills them.
In the end, they just have to keep on living like "ordinary" immortals.

If you do not try to nitpick like I just did, it is a funny little film I would not mind watching a much longer version since it shakes up all known vampire tropes.

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Peer pressure

Thank God for small mercies: halfway through this film I was certain that one character was going to off himself, everything was pointing in that direction. Korean shorts usually have a tragic ending. Well, this one was not tragic just unhappy. And very much expected considering the topic: high school boys and the power of appearances.

Two boys are friends and more (couple of chaste kisses prove that!) but a third boy is jealous, bigot, suspicious, discriminating and he manages to influence one of the boys to stop seeing his friend/boyfriend. That boy is very susceptible to other people's opinions and caves in easily in spite of having deep feelings for the other boy, who is used to be talked about in derogatory terms.

The film manages to say a lot in the space of 20min. The usual topics arise: high school, coming out, discovering one's sexuality, experimenting, peer pressure, gossip, self-confidence and the lack thereof. The cinematography is cold and dark and the direction rather straightforward.

Nice short film probably describing first experiences of many young men: it feels very raw and real.

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Started this with many questions. Is it a fantastic movie? Will she be turning 17 after eating something or smelling something?

It began with Liang, leading a “perfect” life. She wakes up before her boyfriend to look beautiful, weighs herself to check if she's in shape, and prepares breakfast—all narrated by her, emphasizing how she’s been doing this for 3656 days. But today was different because she thought her boyfriend would propose. It was a misunderstanding, though, so in rebellion, she pulls out the snacks and starts eating while watching TV.

That's when she sees the advertisement for The Lifetime chocolate...

When she eats the chocolate, her mind reverts to her 17-year-old self. She discovers she's been in a relationship for 10 years and never painted or studied in France as she once dreamed. So, she starts doing whatever she wants for 5 hours, then returns to being 28-year-old Liang, with her best friend watching over her.

The plot was surprisingly not that bad. The dynamic between her present self and her 17-year-old self was entertaining—they bicker because they're opposites but learn to compromise and help each other. However, they can't both live: each loves a different man, one enjoys her youth and the thrill of life, while the other struggles with a 10-year relationship. One paints with passion, the other struggles to find that passion again. It's as if her 17-year-old self came to wake her up, saying, "This is not what we wanted. We are the same person. We have to change, we have to thrive. It's never too late."

Even though I guessed the ending, I couldn’t stop watching. It couldn’t have ended any other way.

So yeah! Because I enjoyed the movie, it was funny, light, and the surprise of finding Darren Wang was a treat. I’m giving it an 8.5/10.

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Pinky promises

I remember watching this as a drama a couple of years ago and not liking it very much: I found it messy, lacking chemistry and with low production value. Ever since then, I keep stumbling on occasional review and feeds post and they are all praising it highly. So I decided to rewatch it as a movie and to see if my original appreciation still holds!

Unfortunately it does! Even though I like this concept of red string of fate, it was nevertheless underwhelming. The motif of the red string is repeatedly used in different ways throughout the film which I found rather original: scarf, rope, pinky promise.... The characters are complete opposites: a cold debt collector and his fiery dancer debtor. Their relationship and bickering was nice, the actors were very much at ease with each other and yet still something was missing. They looked like they were not in synch while filming. The rest of the characters are just caricatures, barely sketched clichés: the cruel lady boss, the idiotic flamboyant sidekick, the mean rival (actually we never find out what happened to him after they spent so much time on him and when he left their last showdown with a cocky smirk!). And the sets? Pretty winter scenery but no heating inside: it was very cold on sets - that is very obvious!

Again, we have a korean mother who abandons her child after getting him in debt and cutting all means of communication with him. Are korean parents really this cruel? This is something that keeps repeating in k dramas so there must be a sliver of truth there. And that truth is ugly and it paints korean parents in a very bad light!

But everything considered, it is an OK single watch!

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Misleading synopsis, messy visual effects.

Yes, unfortunately you read that correctly. I spent the first 15 minutes wondering if I’d somehow stumbled into the wrong historical piece, to which the answer was unfortunately, no, I had not.

The bloom and lighting in this film is so intense I had to look away from brightness hurting my eyes periodically, combined with some immersion-breaking visual effects and background choices. The bloom was more intense than that in most video games, so be aware if you’re sensitive to bright lights.

In regards to the synopsis, it is not false words, but more that it gives the misleading impression that this is a film of revenge and calculated action - the reality being that it was largely slow, meandering, and seldom had action.

Why isn’t my rating lower? The short answer would be casting and supporting characters. The main character’s daughter, his underlings, the rather scary lady who ran a local establishment, all provided engagement. Overall, the acting and casting were solid, if not much else in this film.

It was a funny moment upon realising Kiyohara Kaya was also in this film, being as only two weeks before I was watching her in 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days. She must have been busy.

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Love surrended because of another's fate

This has been on my watchlist for so long because of Kim Hyeyoon but I didn't want to watch it thinking it's about cheaters based on the comments and reviews I've read. Turned out it wasn't.

I like this well enough but I wouldn't rewatch. It's about two people who became friends despite living 20 years apart because of a HAM radio. Where the friend from the past learned that his friend from the future will not exist if his lovelife succeeded. And so, he chose to be a non-toxic person, sacrificing his love and allowing fate to do what it will to the three people who became close to him.

Right after watching this, I also watched the Kang Hanuel 2000 version which is basically the same story with genders reversed. Though I liked this movie more (the plot twist at the end made me cry) the pacing of the 2000 version was better, with the MC's love story and decision being more fleshed out. The people in the past were well acted. Thanks to Kim Hyeyoon's nuanced acting, I was able to see the Hansol's expectation and interest for Yong (Yeo Jingoo) but there should have been more scenes where she was showed her love after they became official. For the people in the future, they might need a little bit more improvement. Choi Yihyun as Munee and other MC could have been more vibrant as her counterpart in the 2000 version was, played by Yoo Jitae. Frankly, I was a little bored whenever future scenes were shown.

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Will Twitter users save manhole-man?

A man after party falls accidently into the manhole in the middle of the night. His phone battery is alive, yet his friends are sleeping , police thinks he is faking it, and the time is running out, because he is wounded.

As last resort he creates a twitter account to ask for help. But will keyboard-enthusiasts save him in time or will he meet his demise for sake of their amusement?

The main lead carries this whole movie with his performance. As audience we are stuck with him and his phone. Not only it is entertaining to see how events unfold, but it also mirrors how internet-help is two-edged sword in real life.

There were few twists in the end, so your enjoyment of the movie, will be dictated how much you enjoyed those reveals.

BUT overall it is good experience, surprisingly well paced, and has a commentary on internet culture.

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