Again and again and again...really fun!

Wow, just wow! What a fun film this was! I hear "time loop" and I am buying it immediately.

The story takes place in an inn somewhere around Kyoto (apparently a very well-known area!) in the winter. All of a sudden, the whole area finds itself inside a 2min time loop. After the first incredulity and shock, the staff and the guests quickly get used to the looping and bear it calmly. Until they don't. Until they do...

The film portrays magnificently people slowly realizing what is important, finally talking to each other and being honest with what they want. There is Mikoto who is angry that her boyfriend, the inn chef, wants to go to France to study cooking. She takes this opportunity to tell him honestly what she thinks of it but at the same time, while trying to figure out the reasons for the time loop, they talk more, laugh together more, come to understand each other better. There are guests of the inn: a writer with a writing block using this opportunity to rest, relax and think at peace which turns out to be very effective. There is a pair of old friends reconnecting who end up arguing and telling finally the truth, stop pretending..;

The time loop serves as a motivation behind the character growth. People are very polite and do not dare break society convention; the time loop liberates them and they become stronger and finally truthful about their hopes and wishes.

The film is funny. I loved the cool attitude the characters held. It was fun to watch one conversaton continue through multiple loops. Everyone was in the loop, retaking the same start position every time but doing different things during each loop.

One problem though which was never explained properly; the weather. They did go through many loops and since it was only local, the weather kept changing but how likely is the weather to turn from winter with 10cm of snow to spring to winter and snowing again literally from one loop to the next. I think there is a serious continuity problem here hence the rating...Other than that, highly recommended!

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One night only

"In this world, we were only meant to find each other not but not end up together"

A simply beautiful short film. A story of former lovers reconnecting for a short interlude and then separating, probably for good! They only have one night to pretend and they do: they pretend they are happy, they pretend they are on a date, they pretend that everything is fine. But there is that nagging feeling: why? They need closure. Or at least one of them does, Niko. He never really wanted to admit to himself the reasons for their breakup. But he needs to hear them and what he hears makes him regretful. He starts to buckle under the feelings brimming, brought out by this night and the presence of his first love. But at the moment he starts expressing those feelings he is brutally brought back to reality! The dream, the fantasy is over, never to be again!

Regrets remain. Feelings remain. But the pressure of the society is far too strong for him to deal with. Even though we are well advanced as a society, our tolerance is high and we are open-minded, there are still places and people for whom gay love is unacceptable and frowned upon. These two young men are their victims.

This short film was, as far as I understand, a student project made on a shoestring budget. Again, we were shown that great storytelling does not need an excessive amount of money but an excessive amount of talent!

And last but not the least, the music is amazing. The final song Leaves by Ben&Ben is so beautiful....

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First love forever....

I wonder if one day we are going to be lucky enough and have a drama in which the first love main couple does not remain together, happily ever after, but the second lead wins the girl ..... Sometimes I am really fed up with this trope. And in this drama, more than ever!

The story continues on from the first season: Futaba and Kou have sort of admitted to having feelings for each other and then he goes away on vacation and upon his return, he keeps seeing a friend from his old school and ignoring Futaba. That friend actually wants Kou for herself and makes him believe she's so unhappy and so misunderstood and so alone and so...Kou falls for it and neglects to explain it to Futaba. When she starts seeing Kikuchi and moving on, he gets too clingy, needy and jealous.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was a story about teens. But, while Futaba's words and actions reveal maturity beyond her age, Kou is the opposite. he sulks, does not talk, behaves as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders and nobody understands how brave and responsible he is. So he goes around with a sad, desperate expression on his face. And he takes it up with the whole world instead of himself. He blows hot and cold with her, sacrificing himself and not being with her but not wanting her to be with anyone else: so selfish and self-centred. On the opposite side, Futaba is the epitome of reason and generosity.

I wanted the FL to stay with the SML but I knew from the beginning that that was never going to happen. Heart wants what heart wants and the reason is abandoned! The SML acted too quickly in wanting to replace Kou but all his kindness was not enough to delete the first love, no matter how bad and unkind, from her mind.

This was an extremely frustrating slow watch. The side couples were more interesting but they were given the minimum time . Every minute was devoted to Kou and his tergiversations. One question, though: where are these kids' parents? So we have a couple of dead ones but not all of them? Do they work so much that the kids practically raise themselves? Are kids really abandoned to this extent in Japan? This made me very sad....Very often in dramas based on mangas, we never see parents! I wonder why?

Everything considered, this was an unnecessary watch they could have done away with by condensing the plot in two episodes and finished it with one season!

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Too short....

....I want more! This was too cute and I only wish it were longer, like a full drama instead of 8 short, 7min episodes.

Nevertheless, they managed to tell a sweet story about a café restaurant owner and his employers, who, when the place is closed, use it as a set in order to fulfill the owner's dream of becoming a film director. The cook has a crush on the part time waiter/main actor/her best friend and spends her time mooning over him not daring to say anything. Eventually she gets the role in the film her boss is making and has the opportunity to confess....

The main topic of all dramas, though not only, seems to be lack of communication and the courage to say what is important. The girl is in love, the boy as well. There is another couple having crushes on them but they are completely oblivious. They are young and think that they have a whole life in front of them, that they have enough time to take things slowly. But if you do not stand up and bravely face the issue, it might disappear, never to come back. Unrequited love is such a time waste! Friends to lovers is a very difficult step to take because people are afraid of losing a friend without getting a lover in return so they prefer status quo! The FL here found a way to live her romance through filmmaking. The ending is open: will they stay friends, or will this push them closer together. The FL lobbied for the role certainly in order to push their relationship gently in the wanted direction....So much clever thinking and plotting....

Another topic here is your dreams and what are you willing to do to realize them. The doubts the cafe owner has are made more evident with two incidents: a visit from a former uni friend now a famous director and a disgruntled customer raising hell. Soon enough he is shown that his passion for film making has infected his restaurant staff and that they want to continue with him. The spirit of creativity, friendship and respect has made the little group a tight unit, like a family where nobody is left behind....

The actors were all good but the main actress Deguchi Natsuki is the most beautiful Japanese actress I have ever seen. She has a dazzling smile, there is light shining out of her evident just by her mere presence. This actress is young but will go far....

Everything is warm and sunny in this mini drama: the cinematography is just full of sunshine, very uplifting ! I wish it were longer.....

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Move on and smile!

No matter how difficult the relationship turns out to be, you should not lose hope. There is always light at the end of the tunnel, and a random act of kindness from a stranger is the proof of it.

It's Christmas. Late for a date, a man remembers another Christmas, a year earlier, when he was happily in love. But that happiness did not last and his boyfriend cheated on him both with men and with women. When he eventually caught him, he punched him and then dove into sadness and depression.

This is ultimately a very uplifting short film. It is nicely filmed and acted. The cinematography with its shots of busy and overcrowded streets conveyed the feelings of being alive, rushed and happy. The actor is excellent: sad, desperate and crying, trying to come to terms with a betrayal. Still, through all the tears he manages to crack a smile: life is far from over and he will recover! Only one thing: I would like to shave off his stubble... The story is told in a monotone voiceover: the actor just read out the text. Cold and emotionless in spite of a rather poetic text.

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Emotions and how to show them or not....

Lifeline: more than friends but less than affaire is a story of two couples and their lack of communication on all levels. It is a slow burn drama showing how people deal with infidelity. But mostly it paints the portrait of two people completely incapable of showing their emotions to their respective spouses which brings them to the limit, to the point where they feel weighed down by life and in need of lifeline. The young woman and her husband's boss who lives next-door help each other get out of the place where they feel stuck. They become each other's lifeline saving them frow drowning.

I don't know if I am right, but japanese education is a very strict one. You are supposed to follow the rules, obey your elders and never ever show your feelings, never complain. You have to grin and bear it. Maiko, the FL is like this. Restrained and closed off. Only when she meets her neighbour, she sees herself in him and realizes that things cannot last like they have been going. Their respective spouses are having affairs but Maiko and Futaba, the neighbour, do not do anything about it. They sit quietly on the side waiting for it to pass. As the things ^progress, Maiko finds a compassionate ear in Futaba, so much so that she falls for him. She starts gently stalking him, waiting for him to come out and eventually she asks for more which he refuses point blank. His wife is having an affair and he is conscious of the reasons for it: they cannot have children and he thinks by letting her have the freedom to do whatever she wants, she'd be happy. Maiko's husband is having an affair because he is under impression that she does not love him or care for him, she always acquiesces to whatever he says, never tells him anything that may be disagreeable but all that is actually the very things he finds unbearable!

The main topic of this drama is the lack of communication born from the long marriage, strict upbringing and obeisance of rules. But all of that makes for four very unhappy people. When finally, they do start talking it is somehow too little too late. By the end of the drama, Maiko splits from her husband aware that she needs to stand up for herself. Fukada is transferred to another city. He leaves with his wife who, in spite of being childless and having devoted her life to work, sees a younger woman promoted in her place because of the politics: the woman is married with kids and the politicians, because of the low birth rates, demand of companies to show that the women can be mothers and successful at work.

The drama pictures the pressure the main characters are under really vividly: in her imagination, we see her tied to and pulling a tire and drowning in the sea. After they meet, she sees him throwing her a lifeline to save her. But eventually, when they realize that they had come to depend upon each other too much, he tells her to learn to swim so she does not need a lifeline, ever again.

The drama is slow moving, maudlin. Maiko is not a very likeable character: very pushy with the neighbour and subdued as wife. I felt actually sorry for her husband: he went looking for warmth and laughter elsewhere since all he got at home was a cold and polite housekeeper who never said a word wrong and kept a tall, unbreakable wall of politeness and efficiency between them.

This is a short drama with good production values, excellent acting and some really good music. An interesting watch though a bit depressing...

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Date jitters!

I wish it were longer. Here with eng subs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uT_r4dZP_s

I have never watched Dilraba in anything (I am not a c drama fan! lol) but I was looking for a short movie for the alphabet challenge and this one came out on top. And boy, aren't I glad i found this!

The story is simple: we see a girl getting ready for a date. She is annoyed when her hair clip breaks, so orders one on line and is again annoyed, when the delivery guy is late. She takes out her frustration on him but is immediately sorry when she finds out that he is deaf. Just like her!

This is a cute short film: and the actress is perfectly portraying a person, nervous and anxious before a date. I wish we could have seen more of the delivery guy: he had such a lovely smile and the sparks flew when their eyes touched. I was secretly hoping he would be her blind date. But unfortunately for me, the date was not blind, she met someone she's known for a long time.

It is a cute short watch. Silent but with a great big number of text messages which are translated in english!

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Spoof historical

"No Contract Change Allowed" should not in ANY case be considered seriously. You were warned!

I needed a drama for my alphabet challenge and I decided to watch this short c drama. It took me almost 10 episodes to actually comprehend which genre this drama is: a comedy spoof of historical dramas. Everything is nonsense in this drama but eventually everything makes hilariously sense.

The story follows a stressed out painter brought to baldness and exasperation to hire an embroidery loving assassin to kill a customer. But the customer turns out not to be the person she thinks so they both embark upon a quest to discover the real customer. Along the way they meet a cast of characters each more outrageous than the previous one.

If you think you are getting another short chinese historical drama you are in for a surprise. It looks like it, it sounds like it but it is not it. They take the usual drama tropes and put them upside down. And it starts with the first episode when the assassin explains some forms of killing cannot be broadcast.

I was a bit disconcerted with the genre and I kept waiting for this to turn into a serious historical drama but it never did and it was eventually great.

What I liked:
- assassin killing with fruit being afterwards whitewashed (costume going from black to white) with a fan
- bromance was bromancing over the top (smouldering looks🔥)
- taking mickey out of a variety reality shows: confession interviews, dancing competition, survival shows
- anachronistic lines of dialogue
- using tropes the unusual way (a man used as a woman)
- one actor playing a myriad of different incidental roles throughout the drama
- Lord Pei's disguise in layers
- silly visual effects cheap looking on purpose
- awful dubbing
- Harry Potter inspired duels (Adava Kedavra etc....)
and a lot more!

The production is excellent: writing and acting on top! I am not a big c drama watcher but the piques at the historical genre abound and I am certain that the more seasoned watchers can come up with a long list of dramas and tropes referenced in this one.

If you need something light and a good laugh, you cannot go wrong with this one.

Last but not least, thank you Subbing Paws for the subs! I enjoyed the bickering and the nonsense some of the characters were uttering.

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Will they or won't they?

I don't know why I like this film so much. It completely lacks chemistry, essential for a love story, the actors seem to be on different sets, the music is meh, the story is cliché ridden...and still I have seen it about 5 or 6 times already! There is something about it that just draws me in....

The story is rather basic: Mico and Xavier are not together anymore. Xavier went back to his girlfried who threatened to kill herself if he left her. They meet again when their class goes on a writing camp at a seaside hotel and, surprise surprise, Mico and Xavier get to share a room together. Finally realizing that Xavier is not in love with her anymore, his girlfriend breaks up with him at which he goes running back to Mico who turns him down.

Mico is the character I liked the most: he is a real mature adult dealing reasonably with the misfortunes of his love life. Xavier is a sweet kid who just does what he's told afraid to disappoint his loved ones, who lacks courage to stand up for himself letting other people make decisions for him. He finally grows up when Mico refuses to take him back!
There is a fun group of support characters: Mico's group of friends dealing with their love life and still there for him, a mix of students: machos mocking gays and ordinary students not accepting that attitude, their flamboyant teacher and of course a new love interest for Mico (who is tempted for about 30seconds!)!

This movie is mainly about Xavier and his character growth and that was treated well. I found his parents' reaction when he comes out to them one of the most realistic ones ever in a BL. They do not reject their son but they are not throwing a party either to celebrate: they are shocked, tell him they need the time to process it but that they love him. No matter how open and accepting one is, in our societies, when it is about your own kids coming out, it may be difficult to deal with it.

The film looks like the crew went for a holiday at a seaside resort, placed cameras all over the place and filmed what was going on while the actors improvised! There are not many people in the resort (COVID) so this seems very likely! I mean the scene where Mico is stung by a jellyfish and Xavier wants to help him...hilarious! Worth the watch just for that scene!

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What a drag!

After Something Crunchy Crunchy (BL cookies in love musical! go watch it it is so weird!), this must be the weirdest, the quirkiest and the strangest thing I have ever watched. I am still trying to figure out what I just finished watching! Was it a cartoon for kids so it is not serious? Was it an adult cartoon so there is some hidden, higher, more complicated meaning behind it? Was it just what it was, a silly little story to pass time while thinking of nothing? I don't know.

Gudetama is a raw egg, who is pulled into adventure by a chick wanting to find his mother. Gudetama is only interested in soy sauce and lazing about and the quest is not his thing. On the chick's egg there was a QR traceability code while they try to find the farm and the mother (Julia) they meet different people who may or may not see them: kid in a restaurant, journalists, politician, other kinds of egg...

Even though the story was funny to begin with, eventually it became repetitive and boring and even 10min episodes got to be too long. The animation is excellent and the interactions with real actors convincing. The raw egg, Gudetama is a fascinating character with his laziness and lack of care about the future: he only perks up in the last episode!

While watching this I kept thinking of children's films like Chicken Little and Chicken Run: the story skeleton is the same just it is much more weird here! The raw egg and the chick here go through numerous adventure and eventually they find their mothers and the raw egg gets eaten (in spite of starting to rot a few episodes earlier but was cured by soy sauce and silica gel packets! That scene was rather disgusting!).

So if you are in the mood for something extremely weird japanese way, go for it! It is only about 100min long!

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A highly predictable love triangle

For a moment, there in the last episode, I thought that they were going to spring a nice surprise on us and have the SML win the game. But no such luck. Well, this is a K drama and the SML is there to cause trouble between the leads not to win the girl. Unfortunately!

The drama started badly, so much so, I almost dropped it after 15min, but I persevered (another forum challenge! LOL) having decided to watch an episode a day. But after a few days I found myself glued to the screen and hitting the next episode button very quickly. The drama got me hooked from the 7th episode on. In spite of it being very predictable: the whole plot was obvious after the first episode!

What would you do if your first love, first long-term boyfriend, suddenly appears 5 years after your painful break-up and when you are in a new stable and loving relationship? The FLs solution is: LIE. And she keeps lying for 15 episodes, her friends keep lying to cover her lies, even her ex lies for her. Of course, this cannot end well!

The FL is a strong woman who's made a mess of her love life. She's very unlikeable: getting caught lying by her long suffering new boyfriend and saying "Sorry!" which he keeps accepting having decided to trust her. She never really crosses the line but she is sorely tempted and is having trouble resisting the temptation. He just keeps standing by her.

I went through all sorts of emotions while watching these two together: they were annoying, they were butterfly inducing loving, they were sad, they were happy but there was the expiration date stamped on their relationship from the get go and it was frustrating watching him do everything in his power to save their doomed relationship.

The drama credits music makes you believe this is a comedy and there are some funny bits, which are not half bad , involving support characters to balance out the heavy drama of the three main ones! The best character, by far, is the FL's mother, a drama screenplay writer: I loved her dry humour and direct and frank remarks, telling her daughter home truths she needed to hear without sugar coating anything. I wanted to see more of her!

The one original feature of this drama are the character interviews, which replaced inner monologue and narration. The idea was good, the execution a lot less: it was quite messy and often difficult to understand whether the scene was an interview or the dialogue. The interviews came as explanation parts after important events.

The acting was top notch and the chemistry was there. The music was appropriately tugging at heartstrings, heavy on violins, nice but not to be listened to regularly since it may provoke depression!

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Pretty beach, handsome men

I started this one on a whim: I was in the mood for a short BL and it fitted the bill! The first thing I noticed was the emptiness: there was nobody around in this resort on a New Year's Eve! It looked like something which was filmed during pandemic lockdowns: three main characters and that's it!

Golf is in Lo on assignment scouting location while Pond is forced to stay because his car broke down. Golf is cheerful and Pond is closed of, stern and too serious looking. They are staying in this tiny hotel on the beach and when Pond loses his key, he has to share Golf's room. Slowly, the reluctant Pond, opens up under the cheerful Golf's influence. Something is brewing between them!

The drama is too short to show more than the way these two meet but we are led to believe that there is a future for the both of them. They were cute and nice together, the characters developed slightly, which is just enough for two days.

The location is pretty but empty so not very convincing as a party spot! The scenery is not shown enough for this to be a resort commercial and the hotel is ridiculously small: actually it is not a hotel but a guest house with two rooms! The side characters were all extremely annoying and unnecessary: the ridiculous, grimacing and OTT hotel receptionist, the ridiculous, grimacing, screaming and OTT Golf's boss. And of course, they had to use an awful amount of comedy sound effects.

Considering all of the above, I am fairly certain that this was filmed at least three years ago because not even Thais do this kind of silly and unnecessary comedy any more! Nevertheless, it is worth the watch for the main couple!

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Versus....

I needed a change of pace so I stumbled upon this drama and was hooked from the first minute in spite of terrible cinematography (I am really sensitive to pretty visuals and this one was cold and frankly ugly).

The story follows a disgraced, former bodyguard who is offered a second chance at it. Through a series of jobs, we discover his past, the reasons for his fall from grace and his redemption.

The bodyguard, Shimazaki Akira, is a complex character, all the nuances perfectly painted. He does not say much but sees everything, quick on his feet with dry humour. The relationship with his "rebellious" teen son is so on point: behind the sulky teen hides a boy who deeply loves his father. His coworkers, who know nothing of his pas career as a bodyguard, appreciate him barely considering him an oldtimer. As the cases pile up, his skills become evident and the reluctant colleague becomes a friend.

The drama also pits the official police security services who are armed against the private unarmed ones, proving over and over again that being armed is often a wrong solution. The police security boss is vehemently against the private firm, trying everything in his power to discredit them while they keep proving to him their competence and skill which the official bodyguards sometimes lack!

Beside "case of the week", there is a drama long arc following a female politician as she tries to make it in the macho world. She recognizes Akira's skills immediately and is drawn to him. There is a spark of romance here, very slight and which is eventually nipped in the bud: she choses her career over having a private life! This is another point this drama is trying to make: the gender disparity in Japan. How to make it as a women in a man's world? What sacrifices a woman needs to make which are never asked of men? In a way it is tragic but it is also, thanks to the women like this one, that societies evolve, open up and become more tolerant!

The drama is well written, the music is grandiose, sometimes even pompous for a bodyguard show (probably on purpose: sacrificing one's life to protect others and so on...), the actors are all perfect.

An excellent watch!

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A perfect lockdown confession

One thing is certain, Philippines have nailed it in the department of lockdown BL romance, nobody does it better! This short film must have been one of the first ones and it is practically perfect! So please, can someone tell me why is this so badly rated? It is a wonderful, well written, produced and acted short film. So why you don't like it, people?

When you finally realize that you are actually in love with your best friend, you want to tell him, in person, immediately, right? But with the lockdown, it is difficult so Tristan cries not knowing how to tell Chris about his feelings. To comfort him, Chris takes out a box of shared memories (tickets, toys etc.) giving Tristan courage to confess when he realizes that that box means more than just best friends!

The lockdown seems like a distant memory these days, we have all moved on and seeing this short movie brings back the memories of uncertainty, fear, doubt. The characters here feel all that which makes Tristam, in particular, take stock of his life and dating experiences and finally accept that the most important person in his life, the person he loves the most , is his best friend.

The three short songs are just the right means to convey sincere feelings. The actors are cute with those dimples (sorry, I fall for those every time!). The production values are high, the editing is excellent considering this is basically a static film where they both barely move. It is cute and butterflies inducing, so go watch it! Only 15min long but they managed to tell a story of a lifetime in it! Talent does not lie so I will start digging now and try to find their other works. If there are any. Fingers crossed!

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A robot and an idler

An absolute gem of a drama with a quirky and funny story and characters; the synopsis is accurate so I am just going to gush a bit about this drama.

A robotic girl and an idler meet, and reasonably decide to sign a contract and get married. But before that, the social convention says they should date. So they do! And it is hilarious. She shows up at the first date with a fake flower on top of her head and the duck mouth expression on her face, scaring the living daylights out of the ML. Through a series of such dates, they unwittingly and unconsciously start changing, becoming less rigid and stubborn! Eventually, they try dating other people without realizing they had actually fallen for each other. There is an emotional scene towards the ending, when their love is obvious to all except to themselves, and when they argue how unfit they are for each other! So perfect! So unexpected, though completely within their characters!

There is a number of support characters, helping them along the way: her long suffering widower of a father, the ML's mother and friends and of course the ghost of her mother (actually, the FL's subconsciousness).

Often, I had an impression of watching a theatre play: there are long dialogues, with very fast exchanges, no music and interior sets! The writing was rather good though I must admit that it became a bit repetitive and therefore boring in the second half: I did not laugh as much as during the first episodes and they could not help themselves: they had to introduce the most annoying and useless trope: a childhood connection! The actors were perfect. I admire japanese casting directors: how do they manage to find child actors who look perfectly like the main actors! It is uncanny!

This was a great watch, funny and uplifting!

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