I will admit that I was already a fan of BBC's Sherlock, so my expectations of this weren't as high initially. Despite my negative thinking, this turned out to be a welcome surprise!

The winning part of this is by far Takeuchi Yuko who plays Sherlock; she portrayed very well the intricacies of this complicated character who is a loner that thrives in solving puzzles. While some cases were not as great, her acting saved the day with her colorful depiction of what a really intelligent sociopath is like. Unfortunately, her relationship with Wato was very unconvincing... Maybe there were not enough scenes with them to see how they bonded? It felt like their "friendship" was forced down the viewer's throat, because they really had no chemistry. I do appreciate though how Sherlock had her ups and downs with facing her own feelings, albeit a bit rushed sometimes.

On the other hand, her acting can't save the entire series as the plot can be really predictable at times, you can pretty much guess who is who and what will happen, which definitely lowers the excitement as some things that should have been obvious to Sherlock, they just are not. Also, it does not help that Wato is almost as uninteresting as watching wet paint dry (ok, exaggerating a bit) and the show could have gone almost the same without her. That says a lot about a character! The rest of the cast did not really add a new spin, but they were good at what they were supposed to do! (Except maybe Sherlock's brother, he seemed not as smart as he was supposed to be.) As another positive, I count "Moriarty"'s motivation, who tried a different approach to the character which was mostly a good thing for me.

What really lowered the show's value is the last episode. The pacing was really fast, events unfolded in a very unrealistic way and it was just not what someone would expect for the final episode. Too bad since it should have gone out with a bang!

All in all, I did enjoy this, hence I give it a 7. The music was fitting for the show, as well and I was excited for every new episode. Definitely a pleasant surprise for anyone who is a Sherlock fan.

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Time travel on crack

Having seen no other entry of the franchise and thinking this would be mostly a romantic comedy based on the trailer, I was surprised to see that this was a mixed bag of comedy, action, romance, time travel and slice of life. One of its strengths is that despite the movie being 2.5 hours, it does not drag all that much. Granted, I watched it with a friend, so we were commenting on it a lot, but still!

I realize now that there is a direct prequel, but at first I wrongly assumed that they were just different stories under the same umbrella. Yet, it feels like nothing was truly missed by not seeing the first movie. Yes, the previous lives are mentioned throughout, but it's not really what the plot is about in the end. Phop wanted to win her over and Kesorn wanted to do her own thing, but what actually brings them together is Methas, a random time traveller from the future. So, you get into this story knowing that the main 2 characters were reincarnated versions of some specific names, then you learn that Kesorn's previous life was basically someone from the future stuck in a past body and then you have an actual time traveller. It makes no sense, yet it is fun.

So, the point of the movie is really about Methas and his effort to get back home and in the meantime, they come across political games. Of course, Phop's goal is just to win over Kesorn, so everything he does in the movie is to basically make her look at him, which eventually works more or less. It is commendable that despite the obvious jealousy Phop felt around Methas and Kesorn, there was a beautiful friendship born among the 3. Their scenes were often on the comedic side and Methas was such a surprisingly cute character that no one could ever really get mad at him. At first he makes you think that he is an irresponsible kind of loser, but he is adorable and sticks true to his character. If anything, this movie is fun to watch them all interact.

Sound-wise, it was trying too hard sometimes. It tries to make some scenes funny by adding a funny sfx, but most of the time those sfx were out of place and there was no continuity with the story, so they stick out like a sore thumb. Acting-wise, their chemistry was natural enough and often were on point with their exaggerrated gestures/faces. The action itself is mediocre, but still there was enough attention given, albeit not great sometimes.

You want to watch something fun with a friend? This is for you! The story could have really been half, but it's easy with a friend. Want something with substance? This is not for you! This is more a pointless fun with lots of convenient and unrealistic things going aroun (apart from all the reincarnation/time travel stuff, of course).

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