Despite the mega huge cast and great premise, I was actually a bit reluctant about watching this film. South Korean films started to shine after the millennium so watching something prior to that date is very risky but considering Swiri’s year of production (1999), it was a pretty cool film about a very appealing theme: The North and the South. I tend to adore productions about that theme; they always leave meaningful messages behind. This one didn’t disappoint.
Being a thriller, Shiri handles some plot turns wisely while others were plain predictable. Many “twists” didn’t surprise me at all. I don’t know, maybe because this is 15 years old so smart screenwriting didn’t actually hit hard but it wasn’t very fun to predict many turns of the plot. It’s not that serious though, it didn’t prevent me from enjoying this film to the fullest. Being a film about the two Koreans gives it too much potential to hit many important elements. I hate reviewers who compare this to some Hollywood films; this handles a very personal issue about Korea so it has nothing to do with the US’s filmmaking.
The other side of the coin is action; there were some pretty cool action sequences although I clearly saw some imitation to Hong Kong’s heroic bloodshed genre. I find nothing wrong with that because it added a delicious flavour to the action making of Korean thrillers. It was a pretty violent film and very up to my taste; brutal and pleasant. However, Swiri is not all about action; there were many dramatic moments and even romantic ones. It contained a good variety of genres to enlighten the mood, even the politic parts weren’t any complicated. I like entangled political clashes especially with the Korean peninsula issue but I know that many would find that very boring to follow. Fortunately for them, the plot followed a very simple political approach.
The acting was A class with both big stars Han Seok Kyu and Choi Min Sik ahjussi’s leading the film in the most stylish way ever. Beside them was another big Korean star Song Kang Ho ahjussi who succeeded in playing a supporting yet a well-crafter role. The characters weren’t that deep to be frank, they’re your usual action films’ leaders with great shooting skills and some intelligence to keep them going. But they didn’t feel shallow either, they had some interesting personal traits that made them feel memorable.
The cinematography was actually pretty good for a 1999 film. The explosions were alright but some of them felt completely fake, I can be lenient toward that because the director handled his camera angles and action scenes in a satisfying way.
Watch if:
-You like Korean thrillers because this is one of the films that started it all.
-You like Action thrillers.
-You like films about North and South Korea.
Do not watch if:
-You dislike Action thrillers.
Shiri is a remarkable Korean thriller considering its production year. It has potential to bring you immense entertainment if you appreciate recent Korean Action-Thrillers.
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Forever my favorite japanese bl ever..
Since i just watched the new movie that came out for them on kisskh with ai subtitles, it was kinda confusing at times since the caption wasn't always correct, but its really easy to understand after. This movie was as amazing as the series and i really don't care what anyone says, if its a toxic relationship, no its not, its just a lot more realistic and not all happy like some shows are. Its such a deep meaning inside of this movie and all the shows and i absolutely love it. I don't write reviews at all but i just had too. Please make sure to watch it ( after watching both series of my beautiful man though). It will forever have such a personal space in my heart and it kinda hurts knowing this is it and i have to let it go, but thank you so much for making such an incredible show/movie. Its a one of a kind experience i hope for everyone to enjoy, thank you so much whoever read this and i hope you enjoy as much as i did!Was this review helpful to you?
Feel-good time travel story that leaves its viewers smiling.
A seemingly one-take sci-fi comedy that makes up for the lack in budget with creativity and lots of charm.I had the best time watching this hidden gem. Starring a bunch of actors from a popular theatrical troupe and directed by Junta Yamaguchi, who doesn't have many credits to his name yet. The fact that this movie accomplished so much with so little is what made it so outstanding to me.
Given the time loop setting, it's a bit repetitive at first and takes some time to get into its flow since all characters have to understand the whole concept first. But as the movie progresses it just keeps getting more inventive, hilarious and absurd in the best way possible.
A compelling and whimsical take on time travel shenanigans proving that sci-fi doesn't always need a big budget.
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What I really liked about the movie was that it was told from the four hitmans perspective. Their personalities and habits were really entertaining. I really liked the fact that one of them was narrating some parts. The characters were all well shaped out and the actors did a good job portraying them.
I think this movie is worth watching because it is funny, has action and some emotional
development from the characters. The mix seems just right.
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This review may contain spoilers
Revenge means everything
I think that the storyline is pretty good but could not get the two sisters concept straight. Also, I understand that the FL wanted revenge for her mother and sister but she caused a lot of unnecessary deaths in the process. How do you claim to love someone and them treat them the way that you did. FL knew what her sister did to the ML and then she spent all that effort to get him to fall for her and then just dumped him the same way and went to the emperor. It's a wonder that the ML didn't just take his life right then and there. As the FL breaks all her ties and moves into the palace she even gets here servant, that was very loyal, turned into a eunuch and all she says is that she will get revenge for him too. Really? How does that work? He's already lost his ability to have offspring and you don't really seem to care. I think that the ML should have dropped the FL and let her just get killed by the many assassination attempts. If you die you can't get revenge yet the ML that you just crapped all over keeps saving you and you don't seem to appreciate it one bit. And the main issue I have is that FL whores herself out to the emperor even though she really didn't have to. How could the ML still have feelings for this woman?Was this review helpful to you?
The flow of the story is so perfect that you won't notice it's almost the end! I really enjoyed watching it even I am alone. My mom was staring me with weird expressions because I was like crazy laughing by all by myself.
I fall in love when Hee Chul sang in English! OMG! he really has a nice voice, so you guys out there, watch it out!!
I freakin' laughing how they mistreat Hee chul because of Young Jun!
The love chemistry between them is so natural and they really match!
Guys who love romantic comedy must watch this! It also show lessons in life so it's not wasting your time!
Anyway, it's a two thumbs up and must watch movie! I will again watch this and laugh by myself again!
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1Teenage Girls & Coming of Age: How to Deal with Love, Sexuality and Friendship
This coming-of-age drama focuses on five teenage girls who have to deal with first love, the journey of discovering themselves, and their own desires. We are able to take a glimpse into their youth and the way they express new, unknown feelings and their sexual identity. They are part of a literature club at school and even though it seems embarrassing for them to talk, instead to just read about sex, they realize that they all actually are intrigued by experiencing love and sex. It's important to normalize these topics and show that such thoughts and desires are not restricted to boys/men. It is also important to note that this drama was written by a woman and directed by women.If you are like me and enjoy entertaining slice-of-life stories, you will definitely end up liking, maybe even loving this drama. Being a teen is difficult, being a teenage girl is even more difficult – especially when it comes to love, sexuality, and friendship. Proving yourself in a world full of adults, who are also pretending to know everything can be exhausting. It can make you angry.
This is not for people, who are looking for some dramatic twists. In my opinion, the ending was a realistic way to end this drama. Honestly, it's kind of like what actually teenage life and self-discovery are, without any dramatic twists but depth and cluelessness.
What I really like about this drama is, that everyone – even when someone makes a mistake or has a bad thought – is mature enough to reflect on it. We see them admiring each other, cheering each other on. Of course, there are moments where they don't like each other. You might even get angry with a character. But these characters are able to find solutions, sometimes in a childish way and sometimes quite a mature way. They grow and learn together.
Figuring out who you are is a life long journey. I enjoyed following everyone's journey. I enjoyed the bravery and the confusion and the awkwardness of the characters. I loved witnessing their personal growth.
You can see and feel how the directors are female. No character feels flat. They all have their own problems.
These characters are vulnerable, scared, curious, and in love.
If you enjoy literature, you will also find interesting imagery. There's a lot of symbolism with the sea, lilies of the valley, the colorful paint, white - purity, freedom, and laughter, etc.
The cinematography is absolutely wonderful. The opening song is catchy and fun.
If you are already finished with this drama, I would recommend this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XDAnF6hr4Q
One of my favorite things about this drama is Momo.
I really appreciate how Momo actually is such a kind, brave and honest character. She has so many new experiences, but she is still never afraid to speak her mind. She does not appear to be the most confident person from the outside, but she has so much to offer.
I also really enjoyed the beginning of the last episode with all the chaos. It was a fun and chaotic moment.
I do wish that they would have focused more on Sugawara's trauma. I guess it's difficult to fit in that much of character development and healing in 8 episodes. She appears to be very mysterious from the outside but maybe is just better at hiding her cluelessness than other teens.
All in all, there are some things I would change and some characters I would like to put the focus on more, but I still would recommend it.
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The best version of BOF
As someone who has seen all the other remake and is a fan of the BOF franchise, I was skeptical about this version. I didn't think there was anything new they could bring to this adaptation. I was convinced it'd be just as disappointing as previous versions. But this version turned out to be the remake that renewed my love for this franchise, and give me the update that I needed from the previous adaptations. I kind of wish this version came out first so that my love and excitement would be stronger. Both the script and the directing were superb!!!It's on brand for BOF to be cast with actors with little to no acting experience so I won't flag them too much for that. In fact I think they did better than others in previous version. Bright is such a talented actor. He's carrying the show to be honest. From watching interviews with the cast he seems like such a happy-go-lucky guy, but when Thyme is angry I believe it, when he is distraught I believe it, when he is happy, being dumb, or smitten 🥺🥺🥺🥺 (I believe it). Tu isn't doing so bad for her first drama too.
Truly, my only complaint thus far is that its coming to an end. This is the best version and the shortest.
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Reeling from the brutal murder of her childhood friend, Cha Young-jin (Kim Seo-hyung) becomes a detective and devotes her life to tracking down the 'Stigmata' serial killer who hasn't killed for 19 years. She is an obsessed workaholic who lives alone but has a somewhat unconventional friendship with her neighbour's young son, the 15-year-old Go Eun-ho (Ahn Ji-ho).
When Eun-ho has a terrible accident, Young-jin pursues the truth with the same determination with which she has approached her friend's murder. And in doing so, she begins to uncover the truth about what happened 20 years ago and why.
Kim Seo-hyung is transcendent in this role as the tough, ass-kicking cop with a heart full of love and empathy. Whip-smart but not cynical, she has the ability to see through people's facades to the core of who they are and provide support, care, empathy and safety to those who need it: a classical warrior fighting to protect rather than to enslave or dominate. It's through this powerful female character that the show examines what it means to be a community of adults to children who need guidance and care.
Young-jin may be grim and black-clad but her home is full of light and plants and is a safe haven for the neglected Eun-ho, forced too young into adulthood. Nobody Knows is full of abandoned, overlooked ducklings needing a mother duck to follow and its overarching question "What happens if the duck that saves them is leading them into darkness rather than the light?" is something it never loses sight of for 16 episodes.
In fact the show's Duckling scenes - children that need to be tended and cared for to grow properly just like the plants on Young-jin's balcony - are Nobody Knows' emotional core and its greatest strength. We care about these children and we want them to be saved. More importantly we care about Young-jin and the way in which the trauma and pain of her life never causes her to lose sight of the kind of person she wants to be.
Young-jin's three most important ducklings - the beautiful ray of sunshine that is Eun-ho, the brooding Ju Dong Myung (Yoon Chan-young) and the privileged but deeply unhappy Ha Min-sung (Yoon Jae Yong) - are a joy to watch as is their homeroom teacher Lee Sun-woo (Ryu Deok-hwan) who gets drawn in trying to protect his young charges.
Are people parasites or symbiotes? Do they prey on each other or build each other up? What kind of adult do you want to be? Is a question asked not just of Sun-woo but of every other adult on the show and of the audience itself.
Not to say that the show is perfect. It isn't. Stretching it to 16 episodes clearly took effort. The show relies too much on a MacGuffin and the back half gets mired in flashbacks and treasure hunts, and even gets a bit heavy-handed. But with an ending that's almost perfect, a beautiful emotional core, and quality direction that pulls you in and keeps you tethered, Nobody Knows is definitely a drama that's worth watching.
It never forgot what it was about and that's a quality reserved for only the very best of Korean television.
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So why did I like this? It just sounds so cliché...
Like, you know: Meeting someone through e-mails and loving him while hating the real life person yaddayadda...
Still this drama leaves a very warm feeling. It's nothing you have never seen before, that is for sure. But it provides a lot of memorable scenes and you gradually get to know and love all the characters (well, all except one... which is the "boku"guy.... He's too weird to like. Too weird... Believe me.)
And at least one character will totally surprise you at the end of the show.
Also there are some e-mail messages that I'll never forget in my whole life. Haven't forgotten them for 5 years, so I guess, I'll remember them in another 5 years too~ Some very very wonderful lines written by both of them that make you start to think about life itself and about love.
The music is not that great. But there is that once piano piece that keeps returning nearly every episode and that I loved so much.
And it actually has an important role~ But that you have to find out yourself.
The whole show is really slow paced. 12 episodes, a few e-mails and a lot of meeting-people in between. Still you don't get bored with it. Rather you want to see more of the two main characters spending some time together.
It's a wonderful romantic drama. If you want to watch something for the heart, it's a good choice. But you have to deal with the slow pace...
Enjoy it~~
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The story isn't new for me since it's taken from the manga and the anime i've got to admit that i felt extremly good seeing it come to life by this great cast that couldn't be any better, i mean Siwoon and Donghae were good plus i discovered the uncredible actress Ivy Chan i wouldn't find any one better than her for this role.
The music performed by Super Junior M , Donghae and several other chinese singers was nice, i am not even into chinese language but the songs choice was great.
When i was watching Skip Beat i felt that the episodes were so fast and i always wanted more : i am still demanding a second season because i feel there's still a lot to tell and a lot for us to watch, it has been fun watching this drama.
Basically if you're skip beat fan this is a must watch!
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This review may contain spoilers
The funniest thing happened to me with this drama. I watched the first trailer when it dropped some time ago and was not impressed, I read the synopsis and decided that this is not for me, yet I still jumped into the first episode as soon as it got realesed and fell in love instantly. I was looking forward to every single episode completly capitvated by the sizzling chemistry of Sonya and Lookmhee. They just got something that kept my interest till the end, even though the plot started to crumble down in the second half. Wan and Pleng's chemistry is stellar. Sonya and Lookmhee can act restrained desire and sexual tension like it's nobody's business. I think this is the first GL pairing that works so well for me. Usually I think that one person is doing better than the other when it comes to romantic or intimate scenes and is overll more "into it", but LMSY are so comfortable and natural with each other, they totally won me over. I could believe their tears and saw sparkles of feelings in their eyes.
I've never had a problem with anything that happened in the first half of the show. Self sabotaging petty schemes, tumultuous unresolved feelings, irrational actions - it all makes a very compelling depiction of teenage angst where nonsense makes sense. Both actresses did a very good job, their natural and intense chemistry added another layer to this complicated relationship. Pleng's reserved nature and Wan bold personality makes an interesting combination - one always hides her feelings and feels like she doesn't deserve the other, when the other doesn't hide it at all to the point that her love becomes an obssesion.
The thing is, the characters don't go beyond that. We have a time skip of 13 years and they both are the same as they were as teenagers, even though the circumstances are vastly different this time. The push and pull and jealousy never stops and it doesn't make much sense later in their life. I've been told that this type of running in circles is a Chao Planoy's modus operandi but it's such a lazy way to keep the conflict going. There are some valid points that make this "affair" a bit more complex (Pleng's psychological issues due to her past, the guilt that she must felt for basically throwing Ek in the middle of their petty drama, Wan obsessive behaviour that went so far that she didn't even care that she and Pleng could be potentially related) but they are left to our interpretation, instead the show is more focused on Ek going psycho and Pleng going back and forth with her decisions.
The last two episodes got me thinking that perhaps I was just blinded by the main actresses' natural charm all along. It exposed the flaws of the script that I was able to ignore up to that point. The penultimate episode was supposed to be the height of the angst, as the major plot point got revealed, but for some reason it mostly focused on men and not the main couple. It basically showed that there is always a man waiting to lierally save the day whenever woman is struggling. The notion that women cannot deal with their own problems, with their own relationships, without a man stepping in rubbed me the wrong way. Especially because it is a wlw relationship and this type of heteronormative chivalry is not necessary here. Now, the last episode was simply all over the place. Introducting a new character and semi-new conflict in the last 30 minutes of the show is just dumb. Also can we stop giving the last minute redemption arcs to people who showed no remorse before? We need more character development, not sudden changes of heart.
It's not a terrible show but I'd say that the level of enjoyement will realy on how much you like the main pairing. The writing is not the best. I think we need to put Chao Planoy's Universe to rest and get more original scripts or adaptations of other people's works, because hers are just too shallow and overcomplicated. This drama is solely carried by the main actresses. I enjoyed it a lot more that I could possibly imagined only because of them. My rating is a reflection of that fondness, if I tried to be more objective it would be lower.
8/10
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