Great!

It needs to be noted beforehand, I watched the dubbed version on Youtube.

I had huge expectations going into this series, and was not at all disappointed. The battles were well done, it has political intrigue aplenty, and the acting seemed like it was well done overall (even though it can be hard to tell when watching in a different language). Special mention also needs to be made about the costume and set pieces, which were very well done and not at all overdone. It is all very befitting of the time period, and the primitive technology can be felt at each turn. I did feel there were some slower episodes, but I also felt they were necessary to build upon the law intensive plotlines. There are definitely a few surprises along the way as well, despite the fact that this is historically based.

A word of warning, the dub can be a little rough to get into at first. You get used to it after a while, and I did think the voice actors did a pretty good job. The major issue is that there were not a lot of voice actors, so they could only disguise their voices so much between characters. Another thing is due to copyright, some scenes had the audio completely taken out, and there were 3 or 4 episodes that had the audio out of sync (fixable if you have two windows open to sync it yourself). It was kind of a pain to deal with all these issues, but if you're as keen on seeing this series as I was, it's still worth it.

I do have a few complaints about the story, however. It doesn't stick 100% to historical accuracy, for one. And it can sometimes be hard to wrap your head around some of the logic behind character actions. I also was completely baffled by the deaths of two major characters at the end and the way it was conveyed. It made absolutely no sense, was intentionally vague (almost to the point of ambiguity), and just left me feeling cheated. A show that tries to portray itself as serious and realistic shouldn't all of a sudden leap into the fantastical for one scene, as it completely pulls you out of it and leaves you scratching your head.

It's hard not to get into the positives of the story without getting into spoiler territory, so all I'll say is that if you like these sorts of costume dramas, it's absolutely worth giving this a watch.

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Incredibly stupid.

My take on the first season was that it was kinda dumb, but also mildly entertaining.

This sequel series takes place a year later, and actually begins with a decent setup/plot. Someone is aiming to take down the Golden Time Team, starting with a very important member of the police.

Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there.

I actually just ended up all out hatewatching this by about episode 4. It's that stupid. It isn't just laziness either, these writers are actually some of the stupidest people in showbusiness anywhere in the world. I could go into spoilery details, but I don't have the time or energy to spend on this. There are just too many examples to grab at - from an entire police squad being too afraid of apprehending a 90 pound girl, to the continued interrogation of suspect in order to obtain the name of a perp instead of calling the hospital and preventing something bad from happening (WE NEED A NAME FIRST BECAUSE....!), to the lead protagonist (who, let me remind you, has superhuman hearing) not being able to hear two cops walking up behind her while she's on the phone with someone she isn't supposed to be - and so on.

There's turning your brain off to enjoy a show, and then there's absolutely killing yourself to get through it. This second season took the other path this time around. My god... I feel filthy for finishing it. It admittedly is good for a few laughs, however, at all the random things that happen which make zero sense. Occasionally. The rest of the time it's just frustrating.

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BWH&H 1: The Beginning

I can't believe there are no review of this here yet.

I'm a huge Yakuza/Like A Dragon video game fan, and have been for many, many years. That's essentially how I stumbled across this series of movies, as many consider it to be a sort of blueprint for those stories. I wasn't disappointed.

I'm not going to run through all of my loves and gripes from this entry. Instead, I'm going to give tips on how to watch these. The first thing you need to know is that these are best viewed back to back, at least within a short period of time. If you don't, you'll lose track of who is who, who is sworn to who and which gang, what their backstories and relationships are, etc. This is how I watched these five films the first time around, and I did the exact same thing recently for my second viewing of them. If you like this film, the others are pretty similar, and flow really well together.

As for this particular first film, it's an amazing start. It only scratches the surface of the yakuza world the series builds, but it's a serviceable starting point with a lot going on, and possesses a great cast of characters to follow. It moves a t a really fast pace and utilizes shaky cam, complete with all the poor choreographing you'd expect from a Japanese film from this period. If you can get by all that, you'll love it. If you can't, you're gonna hate it. It's broken up with historical narrative bits too, so you have to pay careful attention all throughout. It's a very involving plot, but ultimately it proves very rewarding in the end.

I'm giving it a 9 because it was just as entertaining on my re-watch as it was the first time around. If you like mafia-esque stories then you owe it to yourself to at least give this one a try.

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Better, but still rough.

Finally got through this, and I won't lie... I almost quit a few times.

It did everything it needed to do after such an awful first season. This includes 1) Getting a more memorable cast, 2) Upping the production quality (by A LOT) and 3) Getting a competent director. The sets really are astounding when you compare them to the first season, so I don't even know how they pulled this off. And the music actually fits for the most part, so post-production members actually cared this time.

The story, while also better, is still quite a bit of a slog. It's convoluted and confusing at times, sometimes on its own and sometimes because it's just THAT boring that you miss something crucial. The whole thing just feels very aimless and stupid. This could very easily have been 20 episodes, given how often you're just watching characters walk long distances.

I have to compare this season more to a CW show in America. It is very intentionally aimed at teens, but the humor misses the mark and hits to an even younger demographic. That only adds to the inconsistency of the overall tone, which is kind of all over the place. I still don't even know what to make of what I just saw. I'm a total sucker for these Tomb Raider shows, but if I weren't I'd definitely be giving it an even lower score and would not be planning to continue on to the next chronological season. I still might not, we'll have to see.

All in all, while it's a mess of a show and a bit hard to get through all 40 episodes, it's such a massive improvement over the show that came before it that I have to at least appreciate that. Maybe it will keep getting better as it goes?

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An utter waste of time.

Thank the heavens I watched Candle in the Tomb before this mess of a show. If this had been my gateway into the tomb raider cdramas, I'd have given up before finishing. There are so many things wrong with this series, I don't even know where to begin. I had heard before jumping in that this was a) based on a novel that started out initially as a Candle in the Tomb fanfiction, then morphed into its own thing and b) that this entry in the series is far and away worse than its sequels. I still wasn't prepared for just how bad it would be.

Let's start with the plot. It moves way too quickly, cramming far too much into its 10 episodes than it should have. Half of the cast has what I can only describe as super powers, and basically everyone knows kung fu. The plot itself is incomprehensible, and the background histories are convoluted at best. I still can't tell if this was meant to be a serious show, because it is so chock-full of half-witted numb-skullery at every turn.

Then there's the cast, of which none of them know what they're supposed to be doing. Wu Xie at one point starts falling to what he could only assume would be his doom, but shows absolutely zero emotion in his face as he does so. That's pretty much how this whole thing played out. Everyone is non-committal to their roles because it's anyone's guess as to how the tone of the show is supposed to be conveyed. This is due to some very poor direction, from a director who probably wished they were working on some sort of super sentai clone instead.

The visual effects are laughably bad. The set pieces rarely more than green screen backgrounds or really cheap looking plastic obstacles. The music rarely if ever fits (except of course in those moments of loathsome slapstick humor), and the dialogue meanders many times without ever getting to the point.

This is a bad show. There's no other way around it. When you read reviews telling you to skip it, you should listen to them. I sure as heck wish I had.

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TR1: Off to a good start!

I've been meaning to check out this 10 movie series for quite a while now. It starts Bunta Sugawara of Battles Without Honor and Humanity fame, but in a comedic role this time. I think the worldbuilding is where this film succeeds the most, as we're introduced to a large cast of characters and primarily focus in on a circle of truck drivers and their acquaintances.

I'll be honest, the movie felt like it should have been done after the first hour, as the ending felt a bit tacked on. What I learned afterwards, however (after doing some digging online), there is a reason for it. This was meant to follow the same formula as the Tora-san films, and in that way I kind of better understand what they were going for. That said, it did feel a bit unnecessary, and it's obvious they were hoping to do a bunch of sequels.

Most of the antics are amusing, and aside from a small sidequest that seemingly comes out of nowhere (and offers absolutely nothing to the plot, in my opinion), the movie does a good job of being entertaining. I also admit, I find it hilarious that the last few minutes go out of their way to prove our protagonist is a good and decent guy, all the while as we watch him mow down police cars without a second thought to their well being. I have no idea if this was intentional, or just completely overlooked by the writer(s?)., but it got a good laugh out of me.

Curious to see how the sequels go.

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SEoD4: Not quite the bounceback I'd hoped for

This was another sort of mid entry in the series. Although, I need to say it up front, the subtitles stopped working with 20 mins left in the film, so there is a chance that there was some sort of twist I was missing all along that was revealed during a particularly long conversation. And I want to be clear, it is in regards to his past, so it is entirely possible.

I think, on the whole, this one suffers from all the same issues as the previous movie. Nemuri is a hard guy to like a lot of the time. I'm also unsure why this was titled as it was, as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot in the way of seduction happening here. I think, even more so than the first movie (but probably only because it was the first one), this has been the most forgettable instalment so far. And not only that, it felt like the storyline was almost ripped right from the third one.

This one relies less on swordfights to draw you in, but the few that are here were actually pretty cool. I think the main actor is getting more used to Nemuri's style, as you can tell he's more confident in using a few small strokes to take down crowds. I'm still holding out hope we'll get another really great entry in the next one, as it has the same creators behind my favorite one.

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SEoD3 - Mixed bag.

I was pretty excited for this entry in the series after having really enjoyed the second movie. There are some really good things about this one as well, but a lot of not so great things as well.

Forgive me, it's been a couple weeks since I sat down to watch this and I must admit that it's a bit forgettable. I didn't like the new characters in this one and I felt that it hurt the overall story. As well, I think our main guy went through a bit of character digression, as he's more rakish (kinda like he was in the first movie). The way he treats women is pretty unforgivable, and here I thought he'd moved past that since the end of the first instalment.

I think that's the main issue we're running into here. Each movie is quite different, featuring new crew members behind the scenes, and none of them can seem to agree who this protagonist is supposed to be. It's jolting, and coupled with some convoluted plot twists, it can make for a pretty unsatisfactory output overall. On the plus side, this still feels like a full production, unlike the first entry.

Hoping the next one ups the ante again a bit.

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SEoD2 - Redeemed!

Now THIS is what I had been hoping for when I started watching this series. It took me a few weeks to finally delve back in, since I was not impressed with the first entry. This film does everything right where it's predecessor faltered, and my excitement for Sleepy Eyes of Death is once again quite high.

The direction is easily the most evident change here. It doesn't look for feel like a TV movie anymore, and it's not wonder, as the director has done a lot of really good movies (including a bunch of Zatoichis). The actors are better and more recongnizable, and the protagonist is much more likable now. Story pulled me in right away, and I expected to be bored going into it.

This isn't an amazing samurai film, but it is indeed a very good one, and stands up to many of the Zatoichi films. The fights are much better done, and captured pretty well too. I can't wait to start watching more of these!

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SEoD1 - Sleepy eyes indeed.

I was really excited for this one, but was quite let down. The entire production felt very cheap, and reminded me of old TV movies. The story wasn't anything special, and I think the actors agreed, because none of them seemed very enthusiastic about their roles. The worst offense, I think, is that the protagonist is pretty insufferable all throughout. He's basically everything you don't want your hero to be.

I could go into detail about all the things that went wrong with this movie, but there's not much point. It's just a very low budget and forgettable film overall. While it does have a few interesting pieces here and there, the only thing that really grabs you and keeps you watching is the hope that the series gets better as it goes along, because this is a 14 film long series and became quite popular for the time.

A bit of history, there were earlier films based on this character and the novels he originated from. From my knowledge, they aren't available to be seen in English yet. This is the series of films that everyone knows about, however. While I didn't love this entry, the ending is left pretty wide open and does give a case for the protagonist to at least (hopefully) become a better person moving forward.

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O:G 6 - Ending on a lower note

By the sixth entry in this series, they had definitely exhausted the formula. That's not to say that this is a bad film, but it is on the lower end of fun when compared to the others, and feels more by the numbers overall. The story is a bit forgettable, as are the characters involved, and we've seen this 5x over already. But... on its own merits, and not being compared to the others, it's still incredibly watchable, with some cool set pieces to detract from the poor choreographed fight sequences (something the others could have used more of).

A few things would have improved this final instalment for me. One would be giving us an actual ending, rather than the same one we've had every movie. And I know that this is something that was more rare back then, but BWH&H did it just a short time later with its fifth film and it was perfect. Another thing would have been to have this one set years and years after the others, as it seems to take place shortly after the fifth instead. And finally, maybe some callbacks to the previous films.

I've really enjoyed this series on the whole, but can understand why it ended with this one. Audiences were tired of the same old, and it really didn't have anything new to say. I wish they'd done another final chapter many years later, as it would have been cool to see where Goro ended up in his older age. It is what it is, however, and that's just fine.

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O:G 5 - Continuity returns!

So for the first time since part 2, we have direct continuity with the previous film intact. I'm a fan of that, however, again with the weird re-casting Chico in a new role, she actually plays 2 separate roles in this one. I guess we're just meant to understand he has a definite type.

I found the pacing to be in line with the 4th film, for the most part, and the plot was fun despite its over-familiarity at this point. I can see how audiences might have been losing interest and/or patience with the series by this point, however, so it's not a surprise that they ended the franchise at 6. Overall, I do tend to think the entries are stronger when they at least acknowledge past entries, so this one is amongst the strongest of them.

I do believe if they had linked all of these films more closely together it may have been possible to keep them going for a longer time. Fear of breaking what seemed to be working well is what probably did them in. Still, it's a very good series and I'm looking forward to watching the final instalment soon.

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O:G4 - Back on track

I enjoyed this instalment much more than the previous one. It follows the formula a little less so than the others, and it was a bit refreshing because of it. And I wasn't going back and forth in my head over where this one fit within the timeline of this series, thankfully. It takes place 5 years after the third instalment, so in my headcannon, the first and second movies happened in between the third and this one. Despite the fact that we aren't given any recaps or references to the previous movies, it feels like this one forges forwards in time, as Goro is a bit less hotheaded overall.

The story isn't anything super special, and it is a little contrived at times, but the performances and occasional twists more than make up for its issues. The only one glaring flaw I had with it was its ending battle. None of these fight sequences have been well done in the past, but this one was a little extra pitiful in its execution. One can only imagine what this series would have been with professional modern choreographers at the helm.

This movie was exactly what it needed to be as a fourth instalment, and I am not left feeling let down in the way I was with the last outing. Can't wait to keep going with the final two!

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O:G3 - Outlaw Gangster zero?

I've read a few reviews that back up how I feel about this third entry in the Outlaw series, which is that it is actually a prequel rather than a sequel. There is no mention of anything related to the other 2 films, and the girlfriend Goro talks about is not the one we knew from them either.

Speaking of which, something very weird here: Matsubara Chieko plays basically the same girl as in the other 2 movies but is somehow a different character named Keiko this time. It's jolting and distracting and unnecessary, so it boggles my mind why they chose to do this, but whatever.

While is somewhat sticks to the formula we've been given so far, it isn't as overdone as in the second film. That said, I did find this one dragging a bit from time to time. Even though the fight scenes improved a little, I can't help but feel this one is a step or two backwards in quality. I'm left with a feeling of indifference, overall. It's a must watch if you're going through all six films in the series, but it's best to look to it as a sort of prequel focused on a younger Goro.

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O:G2 - A worthy part 2!

Outlaw: Gangster VIP 2 takes place shortly after the first film ends, and is very closely tied to its story. I do feel as though it attempts to tie up loose ends from the first, however, the formula sort of ruins that a bit. And let me tell you, this thing is formulaic as it can be. Basically every story beat from the first film is repeated here, with only some slight differences. This includes the ending, which is pretty much exactly the same. It's not a bad thing, because the first one is amazing, but it does keep it from ever hoping to be better.

A few things have improved. The direction is better overall, with music placement and action scenes being markedly improved. We see a few familiar actors from this genre pop up too, which is nice. There's a potential love triangle that doesn't overstay its welcome, further holding up mirrors to the previous instalment.

If you like the first one you're going to like this, but the formula is very persistent, and I've read that much of it carries over though all six movies.

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