a fairytale with a sinister twist

PLOT 8/10

Koharu's objective was already clear right from the movie: to be a mother she never had. This was the very base of her character and her own weakness as it would be later used against her. On one unfortunate night where she almost lost everything she had, she found everything she was looking for: a prince who will save him from being poor and an instant daughter to fulfill her maternal dreams. And they lived happily ever after...NOT.

This was perhaps Tsuchiya Tao's best performance up to date. While she is expectedly good in dark and heavy roles, she was just perfect as Koharu. She was the perfect cinderella: excellently portraying a person with a sorrowful past but still has a good heart, although has a tendency to grab on the first light she sees after years of what might feel like crawling through a long, dark tunnel...too bad for her, turned out that light was just an illusion. Her dream family turned out to be a crazy trap. Tao was specially amazing at showing how her character went through a cognitive dissonance; just by her eyes, you can clearly feel her confusion and struggle to do the right thing but ended up falling short.

The ending was quite predictable to me since Koharu already declared that she would do ANYTHING for her family...maybe I just didn't expect it would be that drastic, it was funny to think about it to be honest.

ACTING 10/10

Everyone was fantastic! Tao was the perfect Koharu, Kei was as usual excellent when it comes to strange roles, and Coco was really good for someone who acted for the first time and with such a heavy role. The chemistry between the characters really match; the dynamics makes so much sense that you'll understand how their characters developed 'til the end.

DIRECTION 6/10

Now this is where I'm having a bit of a problem with. While the cinematography and the music are very appropriate, it's how the scenes were pieced together that I felt fell flat. I do understand that they might be going for a fairytale kind of pacing where it starts slow then suddenly whimsically fast, they must've forgotten that this was also supposed to be a suspense/thriller which needs a proper build up and then a sudden blow up. I just didn't find that in that movie.

OVERALL 8/10
Like from all fairytales: DON'T GET MARRIED TO FAST! Lol Kidding aside, despite the points for improvement, Aishu Cinderella is still a good watch even with Tsuchiya Tao's performance alone. A lot to think about parenting and having a family.

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The werewolf game is a series of survival movies involving highschool students tasked to kill it each other. It's like battle royale but remade seven more times which is a lot, I know, but The Beast Side is a good start, sometimes the only part worthy of watching.

Tsuchiya Tao is, as expected, excellent in dark roles. She was cunning and manipulative, a character that everyone would truly hate. I would love to see her in more similar roles like this.

Other than the main character, the rest of the cast performed well too, showing the carelessness of teens, the desperation of those who wants to live, the pain of betrayal.

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