FrothyMix

He got beat up at least TWICE by the bullies, in defense of the bullied girl. Yes, he joined the bullies...it takes a while sometimes to figure out which way you want to go at that age, and once he saw them abusing her and getting him into trouble he stopped hanging with them. Dare not speak up? WTF? How much more can you speak up than to go into physical battle against a bullied classmate's tormenters? Do you think running to the teachers would do any good? Do you honestly think th e teachers and administrators of that school weren't already fully aware of what was going on? They were looking the other way, and more than likely doing their own gossipping and bullying of her father at the same time.

You seem to be a person who thinks in black and white and is very self-righteous about it, because of course had you been in his position you would have done all the perfectly right things immediately and been very holy about it at the same time. The world is nothing but GRAYS, like the color palette of this film. It's good you didn't finish the film. You can't handle it or reality.

You don't think the label "groomer" is a negative thing? For the young King to be a "groomer" that would mean he fully intended, for years, to befriend and grow close to the young Chief through martial arts and military training, so as to later sexually abuse him. I don't buy that as the case.

I clicked out when the credits started so totally missed the second ending...YAY! (But I hate when directors do that. I don't get the purpose.) Also, I knew this was adapted from a novel so assumed it was fiction and had no idea it was based on an actual occurence.

You know, anti-bullying programs and all are great, but I believe 90 percent of bullying has always been pretty obvious to see if teachers and administrators didn't choose to look the other way because it was inconvenient to deal with reality. There is no way the teachers of her school didn't know at least some of what was going on. And I'd like five minutes in a room with the parents of bullies, who are almost always at least partly to mostly to blame for their kids' behaviors.

Well, I agree to a point. Bel Shan convinced her he'd get a light sentence and he said he was a juvie, and he'd be out by the time she graduated, which makes sense to me if they're going forward as a couple. She'd work her ass off in college and be a CEO in no time and Bel Shan can play golf and hit the beach. But yeah, I had the same misgivings about her willingness to send him to jail for her mistake, even for a few years. But if she didn't agree, they'd BOTH be screwed. I liked this ending a lot. Things aren't spelled out and apparently I didn't watch the credits long enough to see this "walking in the sun" bit but it doesn't surprise me.

By the way, I don't agree that Chen Nian "murdered" that hideous We Lai. There was no planning or forethought involved and I don't think even in the moment she intended to KILL her. A good lawyer could use that, along with all the extenuating circumstances leading up to the incident in which that little bitch tortured Chen Nian relentlessly for god knows how long, to get her a light sentence. Plus she confessed, was a top student, no criminal record at all...yeah, I bet she's out in under 2 years.

How did I miss this walking the streets, heads held high part? Was that after the credits or something? I hate when directors do that. I believe the commenter above was referring to her earlier apparent willingness to send him to jail, before the cop lied to her about his sentence.

I agree with you about her apparent willingness to send him to prison for decades. But remember he told her was a juvie and would be out before she got out of college, then they could reunite and she could make big bucks while he finds HIS purpose in life.

WOW is right. I second the comment below. Just finished watching and am exhausted in the good way a great movie can wear you out.
Only because I don't think ANYTHING on this Earth is "perfect," I'm giving this a 9.5/10, which I've only given to about four or five other films.
Zhou Dong Yu is nothing short of spectacular in this role. There was not one false note. She is a treasure and will have a great and long career. Jackson Yee and Yin Fang are near-perfection as well in their support roles.
Yes, I wept at least the entire last 40 minutes and a few times before that. Loved the way the script kept throwing my assumptions and conclusions aside, burrowing down until we got to what really took place and what it meant for everyone involved.
Excellent freaking film in every way, but the two lovers and their slow-burn, innocent passion slowly unfolding under such awful conditions, had me by the neck all the way through. They were just beautiful to behold. LOVED the selfie of them together after the buzz-cuts. Chen Nian was bad-ass beautiful.
My imagined future for these two includes a light you-know-what, given the horrific ordeal of what she had endured, and the un-premeditated nature of the final incident, which reunites them in a couple years. :)

BRAVO TO ALL INVOLVED. BREATH-TAKING!

Gross.

I thought this was OK...good acting across the board, but it felt like there was no pay off and no suspense along the way. And of the five or so guys out drinking that fateful night, I kept getting their names mixed up and couldn't even stay clear on which one was dead. lol

OK. Thanks for the explanation. I can get riled up, especially when other people tell me how or what I should be thinking. Yes, "SJW" is totally an easily recognizable derogatory among people who also don't like to be told how and what to think, do and say by others, regardless of their motives. What always strikes me is how similar SJWs and Fundamentalist "Christians" often sound. They want the same things but for different reasons.

I know all about the transsexual issue so no need to educate me there. My point, again, is that the MC perceives himself as not a woman because he hasn't surgically transitioned, whether that is or is not medically or psychologically accurate. It's how the character feels. It's also how ALL of his friends, family and colleagues perceive him. So the title "MAN In High Heels" perfectly sums up the movie and conveys the awkwardness of his situation. Made all the more poignant by the fact that because of his height and masculine physique, he is NEVER going to easily pass as a cis-gender woman.

I was well aware of the comment dates when I added my own. My point doeesn't change at all according to the dates. Something that was dumb and SJW-driven is still that way after seven months or whatever. I just now watched this movie, so I reacted to it and the comments NOW. Is there some way to do that seven months before I see a film? I write comments for my own sake and when replying to older comments I don't expect a reply at all...but if I get one, unless it's from you, I consider that a good thing.

As usual, Spermberry, you manage to create a good-size paragraph that pretty much says nothing. I KNOW the title was changed, which is stupid. I KNOW the pronouns he/him/his were gotten rid of. That's my point: that those changes are not warranted by the content of the movie. The MC does not consider HIMSELF a woman because he hasn't had the transitional surgery yet; that is the crux of his struggle and it's also the reason at the end we see HIM presenting entirely as a MAN, not a woman. The movie is about the MC's struggle, not yours. "you really thought you did something...?" You've made two or three strange comments like this. I think it's YOU who think I really did something. lol

Just had to drop in here to say I can't imagine why you would give a movie a 10 rating, say it is a "great, great movie," and that it is "very unique," then turn around and also say it has zero re-watch value. How can a movie you rave over to that degree not be worth a second watch? I've always felt that ti's really only on second watch that we pick up a hundred things we failed to catch on first vieewing. So a movie as good as you say it is is bound to be full of such tidbits. OK, that's all.

Meh, I'm out after 3 1/2 episodes. Just kind of bored. The characters and situations seem predictable and many of the young actors are pretty bad. The fake artist girl was REALLY bad. I hate fake crying and moaning when there's not a tear to be seen. I don't mind that who or what Nanno is is not explained...the whole thing could be someone's dream or whatever, it doesn't really matter. Its' the situations she creates that are supposed to matter and I find myself uninvolved, uninvested. Again, lots of meh acting and the constantly moving camera work in episode four is extremely annoying. The whole thing feels like a horror-light after-school special. I don't find Nanno really all that creepy. She's more just an amoral, non-feeling sociopath who enjoys manipulating and humiliating people by tempting them into disastrous situations. For anyone old enough to remember, there is also a Twilight Zone-light feel about it, or maybe that's what the makers were going for.

I guess it must have gotten good enough numbers on Netflix to warrant a second season, so I will leave it to those who like it to enjoy.

That's OK. I don't really like America either and I've lived here all my life.

Where do you live? You sound like an American Fundamentalist Christianist Social Justice Woke Warrior.

Because the 20 year-old and the 13 year-old have been working/training/living together as Prince/King and future warrior for many years and they have formed a strong emotional attachment to each other. And once more: This movie takes place many hundreds of years ago. People lived a lot fewer years. Man/boy mentorships were not unusual. Puritanical panty-sniffers who worried about such things were not around yet.

WHY in the world would the younger brother mobster leave himself wide-open and undefended to being attacked and murdered by the MC at the end? And HOW in the world could the MC have survived all those multiple stab wounds and the subsequent bleeding? Both of those things seem silly.

Whoa. More breath-takingly realistic fight scenes from Korea. I'm not a fan of gore and violence for its own sake, but a lot of Korean films present it with such style and flare while keeping it in the realm of the believable so it doesn't take you out of the film or make you roll your eyes, that I'm becoming a fan, even if I do watch from between my fingers now and then. Blows my mind to think how much time and effort goes into the choreography, rehearsals and performances of those fight scenes. EVERYONE has to be right on cue with their moves for it all to work.

It's sad that MDL let the SJW/PC crowd here whine and moan it into changing the English name of this film. Anyone who doesn't understand why it is called "MAN On High Heels" and NOT "Trans Woman On High Heels" or "High Heel," the cop-out name given to it here, is being obstinately Woke and obnoxiously, aggressively PC. The MC's PHYSICAL transformation had not yet been completed and there are a hundred other references as to why, that being the case, the MC did not consider himself fully a woman . Why do you think he looks the way he does at the end? Jesus. Thank goodness most of the rest of the world doesn't cotton to this horseshit, at least yet, and the name of the film remains as it should be in most other places on the web.

So as not to drop spoilers, I'll say no more, but the SJW mob here is out of control. Their eagerness to showcase their self-imagined, self-righteous status as the voice of the voiceless everywhere very often short-circuits their ability to reason and discern in the region where ALL of life is lived: THE GRAY AREAS.