A really fun light-hearted movie

When the trailer of this movie was first released, I had assumed that the the movie was set in between the last few episodes of Geats. Imagine my surprise that the setting turned out to be set after the series end!

I had already anticipated a lot of laughs from the movie, especially with Kan-chan playing 4 different versions of Aces but I hadn't expected the way the plot end up leading to that point. Yet it was still interesting to see and have different versions of Ace interact with the rest of the cast, it which surprisingly matched with some specific qualities of Ace and the other players.

And I love the core theme of the movie which was basically about asking the question of what's the most important qualities of a hero.

I love the casts. Kan-chan really doing his best to bring up a lot of comedic acting that he really didn't get to do much in the main series. And I love how Ryuga's acting was so on point in support of Kan's (alongside the rest of the casts) and made the movie really enjoyable to watch. Some bits of the villain plot and the general plot might've felt to be moving too fast... but I had fun watching this.

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This movie was so funny... and so unexpected. Suppose it's because Kanna was in this as Akazukin, this whole setting felt like just another Gintama setting but it just made for an amusing setting. Just throw away all of the previous fairytale lore that we used to know of these characters because we're in for quite a different adventure!

We already know the original story of the Red Riding Hood, yet this movie was not about the young girl's trip to visit her grandmother and encountered the Big Bad Wolf. Akazukin has set out on a journey, yet along the way encountered an incident that led to the discovery of a murder! And it's up to Akazukin to identify the real culprit.

Akazukin met with Cinderella, and decided to help her to go to the ball. Yet they ended up involved in a murder investigation. And the truth later on end up unlike what anyone could've expected.

I totally didn't expect how Gintama-like this movie end up being. And Sato Jiro playing the king just brought back the old Kagura-Henpeita banter that always amuse me. And seriously I love the different take on the 'fairy god mother' trope in which in this movie was just an old witch who's a bit bad on magicking people's shoes and her niece who's a bit better at it.

I really enjoyed this movie, and it's a pity that it's not a serial drama. I would've love watching what other kinds of adventure that Akazukin would encounter.

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It actually surprised me that this drama was not actually an adaptation of the Black Jack or even a parody of the manga, considering the fact that the main character Hazama Eisuke had a lot of throwbacks to Black Jack.

But seriously though the plot felt like an interesting scenario of what kind of story it could be if there's a genius doctor like Black Jack who can only practice medicine illegally yet still try to save lives in the current age and sociopolitic environment where there's an inequality in terms of people access to health care between the poor and rich.

And it's interesting how despite the Masked Doctors seemed to benefit in offering their service at an extravagant price, they managed to also execute their own brand of 'justice' in the form of medical vigilantism in order to save people's lives.

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A satisfying and great end, which is quite rare for revenge dramas usually.

Honestly I didn't know what to expect for this drama to be concluded, but I'm quite enjoying the ride Part one let us witness Dong-eun planting her seed of vengeance all around and preparing her ultimate revenge. So part two is when we're finally able to see how Dong-eun utilize everything that she have planned!

Have to say that I really was so excited here, since part one had been leading us to the climax and the climax in part two managed to keep the momentum going without faltering. And something that is worth to note in this part two was, that so far as much as she have been planning this revenge for so long... her side hadn't really taken any active aggressive actions against her enemies and instead use her opponents weaknesses and arrogance to cause them to lead themselves to fall to ruin. If that wasn't brilliant, I had nothing else to say. But seriously I'm enjoying the mind games. It's nice to see that as much as Dong-eun barely committed any illegal acts aside from stalking people, instigating and manipulating people's actions to suit her plan; she still managed to get her revenge plan going. It was pretty clever, like I know revenge is bad and all that jazz, but dang... technically it'll be hard to prove that she have committed any wrongdoing (cos ultimately the ones who ended up doing the deeds of destroying her enemies was not her.) Real world moralities aside, who would not enjoy a story where people who do bad things be punished and getting their just desserts? And in this story, we're seeing stuff like victims of violent abuse taking charge of their lives and taking back their honor and selfworth.

And as much as there's no glory in doing bad deeds or even of committing acts of revenge, I'm really glad that this drama had a happy ending for Dong-eun. I mean, in the past, for revenge dramas that aren't daydramas, we usually don't often get a real happy end... and the MC tends to get sad endings after their revenge was completed. But this trope didn’t happen to Dong-eun. And as much as this part 2, still have some loose ends left wide open... it's still a pretty good conclusion to the story. Got to say that the whole cast and production team really did well to make this drama so engaging.

While some might say that it's dissapointing that Dong-eun's revenge didn't end up becoming more violent, I really like this outcome since despite the fact that the original five bullies did bad things deserving of violent punishments, there are still innocent people like Yesol and Doyeong. And I'm just happy that Dong-eun's revenge did not end up consuming her and allowed her a chance of a happy end (to which many other MCs of past revenge dramas didn't get. )

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A story of first love and of one true love, suppose we could find plenty of such kinds of stories being written throughout the years. As much as everyone would've at least experienced love at least once in their lives, what are the odds that your first love would be the true fated love for you? Chances are that the odds of that coming true could be one in a million or may be more. But what it such a miracle could happen to you?

First Love: Hatsukoi was such a love story yet it wasn't quite a full fairy tale love story. Unlike love stories in faity tales our main pair didn't quite get their happy ends so easily. Through a fated encounter, their lives started to change. And as they strive to reach out achieve their dreams, they encountered many obstacles along the way as their lives took a detour into different directions before crossing paths again in order to reach the end.

As much as this drama was a love story, it can also be considered a coming of age series. At first Namiki Harumichi's life didn't seem to have any specific direction, but after meeting Noguchi Yae he started to have a dream to which he aimed to achieve with everything he's got. You can't help noticing how Harumichi and Yae start to shine as they strove to achieve their dream. Yet due to an unexpected accident, both of their lives took a different turn. The two parted way afterwards and that seemed to be the end of that relationship, but what if fates decides to give them a second chance? This drama basically try to explore that possibility.

The drama had a very beautiful and cinematic visuals and it also had a unique storytelling where past and present intertwined to tell us the story of what shaped the lives of both Harumichi and Yae. And because of that, it made this story pretty refreshing despite the recurring theme of first love as well as amnesia as a plot twist.

One would argue that the story could've been better if Harumichi and Yae's circumstances were switched but I'm glad that it wasn't. Since the plot would've been a bit too similar to Winter Sonata and I wouldn't have liked that.

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Long time since I've seen Rain in any dramas so I forgot how charming and funny he could be. I certainly didn't expect to really love this drama which was basically a medical Rattatoulle drama with coma ghost instead of a rat.

Rain is really so lovable as the genius cardiothorasic surgeon Cha Youngmin. He really embodied the character description of being like a viper on the outside but actually a softie inside. Kim Beom was unexpectedly adorable as the cute chaebol resident doctor Go Seungtak. I totally didn't expect to be endeared to the childish Seungtak who seemed out of place at a hospital when he didn't actually have any skill besides being studious.

Rain and Kim Beom really did well in potraying the mentor-rookie relationship between Youngmin and Seungtak, even when this relationship didn't actually start on the right foot. Between a kind-hearted doctor who had worked hard to achieve great skill that could even be called genius yet ended up becoming jaded due to some twists in life and a resident whose merits was only on his vast knowledge he learnt but never did any surgery work due to the trauma from his childhood as well as his ability to see spirit causing him to be scared of doing surgeties, it was interesting to see how their life started to change when the two of them meet and forced to work together. It was interesting to see how Youngmin start to recover his old self and to see Seungtak becoming more determined to overcome his fears and become a real doctor.

That said, Uee and Son Na Eun were great as the romantic interest of both the male leads respectively. As much as most of Youngmin-Sejin scenes are quite melodramatic, there are still some cute parts in between and Sejin does still have parts where she had to remain strong. The same can be said about Soojung, and I love all the comical and heartwarning interactions between her and Seungtak.

While there weren't much romance in the drama, I love the fact that the actors were still able to subtly bring out those elements and show that these characters really do love each other. Like as much as we barely see Youngmin and Sejin interact normally aside from the flashbacks, we can see how both of them struggle with their sorrows as Sejin tried to find ways to revive Youngmin and how Youngmin couldn't do anything but watch her suffer because of him. There's really a lot of melodrama in Youngmin-Sejin pairing that it make sense why Youngmin would've wanted to reset that and made it a romcom. Soojung and Seungtak pairing was also cute seeing how the pair tend to support each other in their own way, which made it even more interesting when we get more revelations on their relationship beyond just being childhood friends.

Tae Inho's character reminded me about another similar character he played in Descendants of the Sun, but hey, every medical drama do need its villain and he seemed a perfect fit. Gotta say it was interesting to see Sungwon's relationship with Seungtak and compare it with Youngmin.

Sung Dongil was amazing as the resident ghost that still haunts the hospital and still occasionally helped out with things at the hospital. It was really heartwarming to see Tess calmly watching over the living and those stuck in limbo for 20 years at the hospital, even more once you find out about his real identity. Honestly, with every episode we receive tit bits about Tess's true identity and I just can't stop feeling amazed at how the little pieces of the puzzle just fits together.

As much as the drama was medical and supernatural in nature, one can't deny that it was also a family drama. This drama was really heartwarming as it reminds us to be kind to people as well as more thoughfull to others. I wasn't expecting to be drawn towards the stories about the patients and doctors beside the whole premise about a ghost doctor who continued to save people by possessing a living person. It was really fun watching this drama from the start till the end.

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I hadn't been aware that there was a Chinese adaptation of the novel and seriously I'm surprised that this movie somehow slipped my radar lol. But since I was rewatching Perfect Number, I ended up finding out about this movie.

This is a very interesting take of the novel, in which the plot more or less closer to novel but 'Yukawa' is now a professor at a Police University and also a Police Consultant. As much as I had mused what an adaptation of Devotion would be like with the original setting, it was a pretty unique experience to see Professor Tang as a police consultant who also still somewhat well-versed in physics.

In terms of adaptation accuracy, this Chinese one was like a merge of the Japanese and Korean version mixed together. I could see parts that are similar to some scenes in Perfect Number (the circumstances on how the initial murder happen, the extra interactions btw the teacher and single mum, how the math teacher end up having himself be arrested) as well as parts from Suspect X (the mountain climb scene, Ishigami/Shihong's attempt to 'kill' Yukawa/Tang Chuan). I'm also amused that the movie also used a bit of reference from another earlier Galileo plot (murder using a sonic device to cause accidents) to add a different twist in the movie.

Still, of all three movie adaptations, I have to say that this one was the least emotional to me. The lack of Higashino-sensei's touch despite the movie was based on his novel was really telling, the movie did feel like its soul had been missing. The plot, as much as it follows the novel much more closely compared to the original Japanese adaptation, felt like it was moving too fast to really allow you to feel anything for the characters. And it still feel weird seeing a 'Yukawa' who willingly helped in police investigations. I guess you could call it a personal bias, since the biggest emotional impact that I love about the original story was the struggle that Yukawa felt trying to investigate the case on his own while also wanting to protect Ishigami and helping Kusanagi to solve the case. When that important element is gone, it just felt weird.

Nevertheless, this was an okay adaptation. Like I did at one point mused about wanting to see how it'd be like if there's a movie adaptation that follows closely to the novel (without Utsumi), and well... here it is.

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Haha... after so long I ended up rewatching this old thing, but this time a bit more properly than before. For someone familiar with the Tantei Galileo series, it's hard to not watch this movie and see how the Korean adaptation would adapt the novel compared to the Japanese liveaction version.

Well, to sum it simply... this Korean version followed more closely to the novel compared to the Japanese movie. In term of the overall plot at least. But of course, this movie do still have some parts that are changed. To describe it in one line, this movie is what would've happened in Devotion if Yukawa Manabu hadn't existed and instead of him, it was Kusanagi who had been close friends with Ishigami and being the sole person who had to break the trick created by the 'suspect x'.

Got to say that it was an interesting take on the novel, tho there was one con to this. That we didn't have the confrontation between two geniuses, math vs physics, and instead we get the basic detective plot trying to break an alibi trick created by a person who made use of blind spots in logic. Still it was interesting seeing this movie, that we get to see some parts of the novel that wasn't shown in Suspect X. It's also interesting to note that in this movie, the mother-daughter relationship of Yasuko and Misato was changed to aunt-niece relationship for Hwasun and her niece.

The first time I watch this movie, I haven't really paid attention to the casting. But now I really loving it. It's interesting to see Jo Jinwoong play the Korean version of Kusanagi who was played by Kitamura Kazuki. It felt so fated, seeing how later on Kitazuki-san end up playing the Japanese version of Jo Jinwoong's character in Signal. I was reminded of Masha's quote about having a KOH+ song to accompany every Galileo adaptations, and I gotta agree... it does feel like something was missing in this movie when there's no KOH+ song playing in the credits.

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So far I've watched several dramas featuring autistic characters with Savant Syndrome trying to tackle a certain profession in which normally one wouldn't have expected people with severe autistic traits to do. I gotta say that an autistic detective with a Savant Syndrome was something I haven't expected to see. In a way, this was a very interested take in the usual detective genre.

That said, as much as the series tackled with cases that was referred to as 'discarded mountain' or cases that tend to be discarded once it was determined to not be criminal in nature, the series itself tend to not be on the serious side and more comedic at times.
The tone could also be intentional as well since I do note how at times certain scenes somewhat contain a parody of other shows (like the Galileo references) or real life (like how there's the running joke on Sawa being a divorcee, which may be influenced by the fact Kitamura Kazuki had divorced with his wife the same year). The show even in some instances broke the forth wall.

Overall the drama was really fun and quirky. Gotta say that the characters really start to grow on you after a few episodes and that was one of the reason that it felt easy to keep watching the rest of the episodes till the end.

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I somehow managed to find a way to watch this SP so I might as well put down my thoughts on it. I seriously wished that there's an English translation version of the novel tho, so that I can read it. Somrhow the English novels skipped this one and release Silent Parade despite Forbidden Magic was set prior to the events in Silent Parade. Regardless, I'm kinda glad that this SP exist since there was that brief mention of Yukawa going to New York in Silent Parade.

While more Galileo live action adaptations are always welcomed, I do have some mixed feelings about it. It's quite obvious, of course since the reason was plain clear; I wished Utsumi was in this. I have nothing against Makimura to be honest, but the moment the character appear on screen I could tell that most of her characterism was based on Utsumi's template. Which was another reason why I wish it'd be possible to read the novel in English.

The case itself this time was still interesting. But unfortunately for Yukawa, this case also ended up having deep connection with him as one of his precious student was a possible suspect in a crime. Such thing had always been a sore wound to him ever since Ishigami, and obviously knowing his stance about how science should be use to enrich humanity he wouldn't like to see someone misuse it to harm others. And of course conflict will happen between him and Kusanagi due to their different opinions.

It was nice to be able to see Kuribayashi-san again, it was pretty amusing to see the old lab assistant fumble around to help Yukawa since we don't get to see him in Silent Parade. Overall, the SP was kinda neat. But I still wished that Utsumi was in this instead of Makimura (though I may understand why Shibasaki-san can't reprise her role as Utsumi in this SP)

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Yanno, I was kinda glad that I decided to watch this movie after I finished the Grand Invasion event in the Touran game. Because knowing the little bits of background info on some of the main events as well as some of the sortie expeditions from the game just adds to the experience in enjoying the movie. And I like the fact that this movie add the involvement of the Saniwa to the reason the Grand Invasion happen since that event was still some of my most favourite part of the game. Not to mention the fact that this movie feature two of the most well-known story set in the Sengoku era. I lost count of how many different animes and games made their own interpretations of what happened to Oda Nobunaga during the battle of Honnouji as well as Azuchi Castle.

The cast were perfect as well. And I really have to appreciate the fact that most of the Touken Danshi casts (aside from Iwanaga Hiroaki) turned out to consist of the Tousute and Toumyu casts who may have reprised their own characters or took new roles in this movie. I also love the fact that most of the main formation swords consisted of the swords I already have in game (except Nihongou). Because of that I'm mostly familiar of many of the Toudan's characters and personalities. And it's pretty nice that the movie feature Mikazuki as the main Toudan who leads the expedition and whose POV we're following. Since in Hanamaru it had been Yamatonokami Yasusada (and Kashuu Kiyomitsu) being the main, while in Katsugeki, Izuminokami Kanesada and Tsurumaru had been the main Toudan. (In both anime, Mikazuki was mostly a support character.)

That said, I appreciate the fact that the Toudan involved in this movie consisted mostly of swords that belonged to the Nobunaga, Akechi and Hideyoshi's factions. Because then we could see as well how the respective Toudan react to the things they witnessed as they fought to protect history from the History Retrograde Army. It certainly adds to the emotional impact as we see the Toudan struggled with completing their missions while also witnessing the deaths of their previous wielders/owners.

I knew Suzuki Hiroki and Shiina Taizou mostly from the Saiyuki Kagekiden. And I'm really glad to see their performance, this time as Touken Danshi. The two, as well as the rest of the cast had performed really well in this movie. I look forward to seeing the second movie next year.

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Yanno when I first heard that thr drama was based on an American movie I totally forgot that I actually seen the movie with Zac Efron much earlier before. It was only after several rewatch that I started to wonder why some parts are mighty familiar.

Honestly there was plenty to love about the drama and plenty of things to chesish. And I love how the drama expanded a lot of the many plot since the original really moved the plot quite fast that you may not be able to appreciate many of the details.

I really live the choice of casting for both of Hong Daeyoung. Lee Dohyun and Yoon Sanghyun really do resemble each other and even have similar sounding voices, to which whenever the two transitioned to each other you'd barely be able to pick up the differences. And I love how both of them were really great at bringing up the many emotions and how great the two of them in carrying out their characters to the best of their abilities. I really love the focus on the relationship as Daeyoung works to mend his relationship with his wife and kids as well as reconnecting back to his father, whom he missed so much.

I've seen quite a number of dramas with Kim Haneul, and quite a lot of them involved her playing middle-aged women who happened to be caught in a marriage crisis. Of all those dramas, I have to say that I enjoyed 18 Again more than I ever expected. While that may partially be related to the fact she's acting alongside Yoon Sanghyun and Lee Dohyun, I have to say that that the writing play a lot of importance in making Jung Dajung a very likeable character. And I guess because of that, like Hong Daeyoung, we also inevitably couldn't help ourselves from falling in love with Dajung and her family.

I really love the expansion of of Deokjin's story. To which, aside from showing that Deokjin had quite a geeky collection he also dabbled in the world of cosplay. And I really love the focus on Ms Ok and Deokjin as an older geeky couple, not to mention how the relationship was portrayed in a very normalised way.

Loved all the comedic elements and how it always looked natural whenever Deokjin and Daeyoung argued heatedly to the point of exchanging slurs to each other that they didn't even care if other people would see their weird dynamics. I really loved all the tiny additions to the plot that made the drama even more relatable compared to the original movie. This drama was really well-made.

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Not quite the sequel you'd expect

Having watched the first film this one was based on, I was expecting a new adventure featuring our favourite pirates and bandits team in action again, despite the change of casts. But it turned out that this film was somewhat of a reimagination of the original Pirates 2014 movie.

Like the first movie, this one features a group of pirates led by a female captain as well as a group of bandits who were former Goryeo soldiers. But unlike the first film, this one didn't really spare some time to build up the main character's origins. Unlike Yeowol, Haerang was already a captain of her own ship without revealing much of how she ended up in that position. And as much as Haerang did have a scene where she and Muchi had been saved by a whale, Haerang's connection with the whales wasn't as deep as Yeowol's in the first film. And as much as Haerang kept referring to her crew as her family, I can't quite relate to her the way I did with Yeowol as we're never really shown much of Haerang's past to make us see as to why family was important to her.

Likewise, Wu Muchi also seemed to have some similarities with Jang Sajung, but unlike Sajung... Muchi wasn't really quite as charming and charismatic as Sajung. And similar to Haerang, Muchi's past wasn't as developed as Sajung was. The film didn't really gave impression that Muchi actually spent much time being a bandit prior to being rescued by Haerang. Unlike Sajung, Muchi felt more like a pretentious, homeless man calling himself a bandit. Even as his past as a former Goryeo soldier was revealed, his character still felt unconvincing.

That said, there are few other similar points that was similar with the first film. One, this film also had a mention of Lee Seonggye and other notable characters of the time but unlike the first film, the connection was pretty vague. There were also some parallels between Mo Honggap and Boo Heungsoo who were the sworn enemies of Sajung and Muchi respectively, but like everything else in this film it was depicted very shallow. Kwangsoo's character in the film seemed to take the role of Yoo Haejin's character in the first one, but it felt like this movie relied too much on Kwangsoo's betrayer trope from Running Man to deliver the comic relief, which doesn't really work all the time.

On its own, this film was quite enjoyable with some bit of fighting and adventures on the high seas. But if you've already seen the 2014 film, watching this one would feel a bit underwhelming. The comedic element in this film was more slapstick compared to the first one and personally, I didn't feel that the jokes to be as funny as they were in the 2014 film. The same could be said about the romance element in this movie.

Unlike the first film, this second one was quite weak in terms of story. As much as some of the visuals were quite stunning, I couldn't quite immerse myself into the story as much as I did the first. I feel like this film would've been better without the whole pirate king sequence as well as the wholw Haerang can't cook joke because it took away the opportunity to properly develop the relationship between Haerang and Muchi. Other than Muchi pestering her about liking him or scenes of Haerang cooking badly and force feeding Muchi food, we don't really see how the two ended up really liking each other. Not like how Sajung and Yeowol did because they were forced to stay together for a while due to them being chained together. In that sense, Haerang-Muchi's relationship felt shallow compared to Yeowol-Sajung's relationship.

One can say that this second film was a much sillier take of the 2014 film. And as much as the visuals and CGI was much better in this film, it end up being lacking in terms of writing.

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When I found out that the Japanese Signal was going to have a movie alongside a special, I was really happy. Since it probably gonna be long wait before we would ever get any news of a sequel on the original. And then I got curious on what kind of plot we'll get, since aside from the one used in the SP, I think there wasn't any other cases from the original that haven't been covered in the series. And it turned out that it'll be an original case.

Since the SP already implied that the corrupt politician who had been the bane for our pair of detective and profiler finally had their crimes revealed, it makes you wonder what else for our heroes to do. But it turned out that we still have the the underlings of the corrupt politicians and a whole new kind of villain. So I guess that's enough to set the stage for Oyama and Saegusa to work together again, as the SP left us with yet another cliffhanger.

So this time it was murders via poisonous gas and terrorism. A whole new story unconnected to the original kdrama plot. I guess they decided to base the movie plot to something that's familiar to the Japanese audience, cos the moment I see the mention of a poison gas and terrorism, I immediately thought about a Sarin gas attack that I once read in the news. And Jdramas really do love to reuse the plotwist about Public Safety being full of dark secrets.

Overall, it's a fine movie. It kinda took me a while to get used to seeing a much more excitable Oyama in the special and movie compared to the drama, but I guess with Oyama already getting fond of the adult Saegusa and his younger self I can't really blame Oyama to be super happy about being able to work together again with him.

There are some parts that I likes and some I didn't like, but the movie was quite decent. It's cool that BTS still contribute a song for the movie's ending cos I thought they just gonna reuse Don't Leave Me or something. We still got yet another cliffhanger--our faves can't seem to be able to meet properly--but that set a possibility of another sequel. Wishful thoughts, haha. Like I think I used to hear that there's a possibility for the kdrama to get a sequel after so long, so I guess they wanted to keep the open end to allow for such possibilities.

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Yanno when I first watched the Japanese adaptation of Signal, I really can't help noticing that there was at least one case that were in the original that weren't included in the Japanese version. I usually assume that it's because Jdrama tend to have shorter runs so when adapting from Kdramas that had twice the usual length, some parts from the original would have to be omitted.

To be fair, I never expected the series to revisit the case--heck, I didn't think that the Japanese adaptation would even have a sequel, so when the movie and sp was announced I was very delighted.

So the case that haven't appeared in the jdrama made appearance in this sp, which was the case of a woman who was supposed to be dead end up actually still alive. It's interesting to see how the case was rewritten in the sp to be set much later than in the original. So instead of this case being the origin as to how the secret evidence of corruption came to light, it end up becoming a way to reveal the truth of the death of one of the corrupt officers.

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