Zsanyka
The story is set in a prison with a murder/suicide investigation its focus. It focuses on the two main characters Jun the potential murderer and Shiro, the victim, their background and possible relationship, and the mistery surrounding the case.The whole movie is constructed as a theatre play with stage sets and loaded symbolism. As such, it is rather trippy in parts with pyramids and rackets appearing in the middle of the prison representing where the main characters would like to go after death (outer space with the racket or ascending to heaven on the stairs of the pyramid), or prison cells being just numbered squares drawn on floor with chalk.
I found the story really interesting and engaging to watch to the end with surprising and funny moments as well. Especially memorable was the old sensei telling the young Jun to go and give a blowjow to the miserious tattoed stranger as coming of age ritual at the very beginning of the movie.
I give the acting a 9, extra points to the prison ward. Minus 1 to some of supporting actors, but overall great.
The music is sparse, it only there when it serves a purpose like a dance sequence, otherwise mainly just a church bell here and there.
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ACTING: 10/10 Perfect in every possible way. The acting is the heart and soul of this drama series, while the script and the production value might not be the greatest, the acting alone is enough fo me to recommend it wholeheartedly. The lead actors are absolutely flawless as Shen Wei and Zhao Yun Lan. They are both familiar with the source material, and did a great job delivering stuble references to the not so bromance nature of their relationship without getting in trouble with the censorship. The supporting characters are also perfection. I really loved the Chu and Guo dynamics,they are absolutely adorable, and they even got their happy ending :)
PLOT: 7/10 It starts off great, then in the second half of the series it starts to go all over the place, mostly due to sensorship. They had to eliminate way to much of the supernatural elements and rewrite the whole background story to remove the risky parts. At the end it kinda makes sense, but there are plotholes and it is very rushed. Tipical sad case of a great story falling victim of censorship, In this case it is also the supernatural part of the story that suffers, since the original novel incorporates daoist and chinese buddhist mythology, actual deities and other mythological creatures, zombies, spirits, ghost, exorcist elements, and the whole battle has a way more cosmological meaning, and on top of it there is the Tibet thing... Obviously none of these could make it to the series.
PRODUCTION QUALITY: 7/10 the CGI is rubbish, and some of the props make you feel like you are watching a stage play, but it adds to the overall cute goofyness so I am not mad at it. They made the most of the resources what they had.
Worth mentioning that the series take place as a side story of the original novel when the main characters get trapped in a time loop, hence the different storyline and ending. This was the author's way of incorporating the series into the novel's universe after not being able to film the original story due to censorship issues.
For those who say it is a sad ending:
If you consider the novel's timeline, the series has a positive ending, finishing the 81rst loop and can go back to their happy ending :)
If you never read the novel and don't plan reading and just assume they died, I still consider it a somewhat positive ending since the whole story is about reincarnation, so they will meet in their next life and can start over again.
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This review may contain spoilers
Trigger warning: full-on incest and sexual abuse, drug use, violence, prositution, self harm.If these are things you are not comfortable with, do not watch it.
If you liked the first season for being cute and funny, then you might gonna be in for a surprise this season, because the tone shifts quite a lot and not towards comedy. The main characters are still cute, the acting is still so-so, but not terrible, the show is a lot more streamlined than in the first season being only 8 episodes long and kudos for tying up the storylines for most characters well, but boy does it go to some dark places! From the whole season what stood out was the incest storyline. It was quite a shock. I really did not expect it from this show. I am used to "fake" incest in asian dramas, where adopted siblings fall in love, but this is not that. They really went in and explored some very real subjects from siblings who are did not grow up together, and find each other later in life being attracted to each other, to extreme violence and self-harm.
It was different from what I expected based on the first season, but overall I still liked this season, even though I feel like the quality of writing and directing was lower, which is shame because the storylines had a lot of potential and were still interesting and most of the times engaging.
I do not want to spoil the ending, but let´s just say this is one of those series that where you look back at the first season after completing the second and start wondering, did they have this ending in mind all along...
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The actors are of course superb, we are talking about the late Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung. They are both excellent is their roles, but Leslie's performance is just perfect.
If you are looking for a movie with a deep emotional impact that most likely stays with you for a long a long time, this is a great choice highly recommended. Excellent soundtrack, too.
However, if you are after a happy ending and an uplifting story, probebly better avoid this movie.
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