Bad Lands (2023)

A cool & calm thriller with a captivating story that unfolds little by little.

With 2:22 hrs an unusual long movie, that needs patience and concentration.
By vibe it was very cool, and calm. Most thrillers are action loaded and therefore very loud and you are stimulated visually all the time by fast cutting scenes. This one is different. Somehow a lot happened all the time, and the plot kept going, but it wasn't obvious. It's like you are absorbed without noticing. There was a detail oriented steadiness that kept the tension unconsciously.

Don't know how to describe it, but like you are scammed and not aware of it, that some unavoidable incident already happened, because you don't see it yet. This movie has some kind of subtleness. So someone who is used to apparent spoken out concrete happenings might find this movie very boring, because it took it's time to introduce all characters in the beginning and slowly unfolds to give the big picture,

Personally, i really loved the vibe and feeling that was created by showing different places and the environment and the people. I think a very successful novel adaptation in regards of the feeling that was transported by the mood. It reminded me of the vibe that documentaries give off, because there was a focus on places and how a place is shown from different angles. In this it was somehow atpical to the usual japanese camera-work.

I'm a big fan of Ando Sakura and Yamada Ryosuke, and seeing them together was really enjoyable. Waited full of anticipation for subs for this movie for a few month now and i was not disappointed.

The best aspect is still the plot, characters and storytelling that makes the time worth watching.

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SURPRISINGLY GOOD?!

The first thing that you have to understand about me, it's that I don't like Asian Entertaiment that involves women most of the time; not because I don't like them, no. I love women, I love female characters, hell I'm a girl....But Asian directors and scriptwritters don't EVER seem to get it when it comes to write female characters. Even on action related shows or movies, I always see the girls needing the male character to pull through and GOD I HATE THAT, so I always end up not liking the things I watch, most of the time I opt to just watch all boys movies or shows because I get less angry. I was expecting that BAD LANDS was like that, the lead was the girl but for experience I had only clicked on watching solely for Ryosuke Yamada's ass (quite literally as I've seen, thank you Jesus), but the movie as a whole turned out to be SO GOOD?! The female character is strong from the beginning, which is surprising, I loved how the scriptwriter made her strong since she was a child and not because of abuse, I love that she's disabled and specially I love how everything is handled. I did not see coming the ending, though, saddy sad for me as a fan of Ryosuke, but overall, specially the handshake between the two girls was SO FUCKING POWERFUL! GOD ASIA GIVE ME MORE OF THIS!

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