Reviews

Kanta Sato's acting was spot on!

Although the narrative was very simple and not much happens between Yu and Fumika when it comes to the romance side, I still appreciated the authenticity shown by the Kanta Sato when he portrayed a blind masseuse. The way he navigated the subway and streets with his white cane and even moving his face and hands similarly to a blind man was so accurate. There were moments of prejudice towards Yu's blindness, and an uncomfortable but confusing moment where Jerry, Yu's friend seemed to be jealously annoyed that Yu was on a date and came home late. Overall, I still give it a rewatch value of 10 because the blindness was perfectly and authentically represented here.

Blindness is not a burden or a jarring situation in a relationship. There's always somebody for everyone.
(I'm also married to a blind man.)

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Little bit suck

EP1 - Actually as everyone saying EP 1 was good but the ending was kinda not giving. ( Maybe you can say it is an opening ending..that's how i changed my mind ). there acting were so good but there are some wrong points..Such as if I am a her then i would quit the Job right away but she just started to prove that she is right to her manager...( That's not right...Your doughter is with a stranger and you are trying to prove you are wright and not trying to get fired) Maybe that's just a mistake of the writers.

Ep2 - Everyone saying it's boring but for me it was kinda good...Because I am not into too much blood , disgusting things..and to me this episode kinda funny though...:) If you are not that much like those thriller. genre but want to watch something bizzare then this episode is for you.

Ep3- This Episode is the reason why I am writing this review..because I am so uncomfortable. Start up was so good also the middle parts..but ending part was too much for me actually..Also I was wondering why he didn''t received any help...because his coworker knew that he is going to visit that girl because he is the one who suggested to make him go there again but look how measurable he is at the end...Maybe she took 3 or 5 days to make him that Misérables. Let's say 2 days but don't you think that his coworker should help him by that time?

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Watch the tv show first, then you can enjoy(?) this.

Okay so my personal take (prior to reading the other review, which I also think is relevant), was that I thought it was very much a fun movie. I enjoyed the whole thing, albeit a bit too predictable in places. Plot and writing wise I can’t say it was strong, but it’s a movie based upon a real-time reality tv show. I wasn’t exactly here for plot and writing, but the fun of the premise of the tv show - that being - running away from hunters to win money.

Writing wise, to sum up why it seems to have harsh reviews everywhere, is that it feels like it was written for the 6-12 year olds. I’m also 90% sure that wasn’t the audience of the original or the demographic of the fans (of the tv show or the idol groups). So it was an odd choice.

If you’re not into Fantastics, JO1, or the original show (premise), I wouldn’t recommend.

Not really sure what to say beyond that. It’s a fun, easy watch that doesn’t demand thinking and the cast are who they are. For me the highlights were the music and the cast.

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such great potential to become a series

Highly recommended movie abt school bullying and revenge! Despite being quite dark, it doesnt miss on the fun factor at all. The bully is excellent in his own part, and so is the candid-looking teacher. I enjoyed this a lot.
The plot is simple and flows one direction, hardly any character development, but it's quite satisfactory to see the justice being served. No unnecessary side characters. Good fighting scenes.
The ML is obviously past the school age, but his looks and acting compensate this. He is very versatile, it takes you by surprise, and he's got a sort of standard features that help him morph into any character. The FL is pretty and funny and so is the cat mask.
Excellent!

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Disappointment

Just spent 1 hour and 55 minutes to watch Wonderland and received a disappointment😥
The story of the film is about people reuniting with their lost relatives through Wonderland - a video calling service that uses AI technology to revive the deceased.
Listening to the content and cast, I thought the movie would be quite worth watching, but in reality, nearly 2 hours of watching the movie was boring and drifted out of my mind, not retaining anything.
The film's ideas about AI and humans are very close, which is also a topic of interest today, but the film's flow and plot development are slow and predictable.
The movie has 5 main characters, each with their own story and their story lines are not connected or intertwined, leading to emotional disconnection when watching the movie and making it difficult to immerse yourself in the story.
Another bad point is that the film's message is not conveyed clearly.
Summary: Disappointing.

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Artsy and unfathomable Chinese thriller - will leave you pondering

This Chinese thriller is centered around Detective Ma Zhe as he investigates a series of murders that happened in a rural area nearby a river in 1995. It is not a typical "Who's done it?" mystery as it focus much more on psychological aspects (with some quite crazy / feverish scenes) and an unreliable narrator... The spectator is left to ponder about the resolution of the mystery. I'm unsure if I enjoyed the film or if I am more perplexed by how to interpret it. I also think pacing could have been better.

Acting was good. Especially the performance of Zhu Yi Long who brought a lot of gravitas to his role. I personally enjoyed as well the actor playing the sidekick of our main detective. His role was a much needed relief to the overall pressure felt by the main character in his resolve to find out the truth.

Filmmaking is properly impressive as it clearly makes the viewer feel that the movie is shoot in the 1990s. The dark colors, the gloomy atmosphere of the story under a lot of rain contribute tremendously to the heaviness and almost thickness of the unfathomable plot. The background music with a lot of classical tunes has a melancholic vibe properly fitting the story.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a thriller supported by good filmmaking and acting. It features rural China in the 1990s and is quite dark with the scenario deeply rooted in exploring the darkest aspects of people in small town. If you enjoyed series like "Mare of Easttown", you will likely enjoy it. However, there is a part of frustration bounded to the resolution of the mystery as it left a lot to the viewer's interpretation.

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Do NOT read the synopsis.

I've no idea who wrote the extremely hyped up synopsis which, after viewing, is actually quite the opposite of what is shown in the movie. I've never run across a synopsis worded in such a way as to 'cover' for the lack of substance, plot, story, etc, but here it is. I was HIGHLY disappointed in this movie. The acting was great. But that was it.

Their tranquil life was not disrupted. There is no sense of tension between Seong Hye's husband and Chae Yun so she doesn't sense it, and her there is no unease when In Gu (doesn't) threaten to expose her past to Jeong Bong. There are no emotions to escalate and no secrets were unsurfaced, the four were not entangled in a web of jealousy and mistrust. There was no storm of emotion. Maybe if there had been any of this it would've been a good movie. The acting was well done despite the uncommonly slow story? plot?

Seriously, I don't give participation awards to every drama or movie because in doing so it doesn't challenge writers to give their best. Maybe the consequences of giving ratings too high in comparation to the drama or movie's worth is being felt in the poor selection of drama and movies coming out of S Korea in the past 2 yrs or so. Yes, a few have been extremely well written though.

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'Find You in the Crowd 2' is an LGBTQ+-themed psychological drama and thriller, filmed in Shanghai, China, in 2019.
In his third short film, the director and screenwriter Zhang Yun He presents us as the main axis of the plot He Luo (Lei Hao Xiang), a young man who after suffering an accident finds himself trapped in oblivion, which we perceive from the first shots, by showing us his presence in the office of a psychiatrist who subjects him to hypnosis and prescribes the use of drugs.
With his face lost in confusion, we see him in agony in his new lifestyle and hopes to find a way to confront his condition and escape the darkness in an experimental medical treatment.
In this way, he suffers from recurring dreams, in which the face of Chen Jing Nian (Tian Jun Zhang) is always present, but he does not remember why.
Mired in amnesia, he agrees to be Su Jiayi's (Wang Youfang) boyfriend to deceive Shen Lusheng (Chen Qingqi), who had rejected the girl's confession of love.
Su Jiayi accidentally discovers the secret that He Luo had always wanted to protect and is killed by He Luo.
For his part, Shen Lusheng, who hoped to use Doctor Jiang Han (played by Su Jinyuan) to help He Luo recover his memory, could not imagine that the doctor would use the drugs on Chen Jing Nian to complete his experiment on psychiatric patients.
However, through contact with Shen Lu Sheng, He Luo finally discovers that he was Chen Jing Nian, who had lost his memory and original appearance after the accident, and manages to remember all the previous events, which occurred three years earlier, narrated in the short film 'Find You in the Crowd', from 2017.
The viewer will be able to enjoy the film's soundtrack, with music composed by Yang Heng and lyrics by Zhang Yun He, released on NetEase Cloud Music, including the singles "Lost Old Dreams", "The Lonely Whale" and "Farewell", The latter song performed by singer Chen Qingqi, among other songs.
The short film has been well received by specialized critics and the public, obtaining different recognitions both in China and in the international Festival circuit, including the Best Student Short Film Award at the 2019 Los Angeles Film Awards, the Award for Best Audiovisual Work at the Top Short Film Festival, and the Award for Best Foreign Short Film at the Hollywood International Moving Image Film Festival, 2019.
For his part, Chen Qingqi, the actor who plays Shen Lusheng, wins the award for best new actor, known as the "Yunya Award", at the first Duyun Film and Television Festival in Qiannan Autonomous Prefecture in the province from Guizhou, People's Republic of China, on September 17, 2019.

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INCOMPLETE STORYLINE

As it is written in the details of this series on my drama list that this is a movie and storyline goes as at a time Day will fall in love with Itt but Itt has already escaped with help of night , but I scrolled through many websites and found nothing like that happening it only left stranded with Day visiting Night on the island with a gun and Itt was at home ...like where are the other promised scenes? When is going to be a romcom between itt and day ? Is this sequel completed ? Or will there be another season ? Please let us know cause I personally preferred the storyline , It was good but wanted to be completed as a whole please dont leave it open ended.

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In his directorial and screenwriting debut, Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yun He ('Until the Autumn Wind Start', 'Love Ever After', 'Find You In The Dream'), explores college campus love, homophobia, internalized homophobia, the love triangle, the relationship of childhood friends, unrequited love and the repressed desire to live sexuality freely.
Zhang Yun He is one of the world-renowned Chinese film directors who have portrayed homosexuality in their films, series and short films. His work joins others, such as 'River Knows Fish Heart', 'East Palace, West Palace', 'Spring Fever', 'For Love, We Can', 'Looking for Rohmer', 'Wu Yan – Speechless', ' Shanghai Panic', 'Kinematic Theory', 'The Raccoon', 'The Ambiguous Focus', which also address gender issues and sexual diversity in that Asian country.
'Find You in the Crowd', whose original title is 'Seeing Deers When the Trees Are Deep' (樹深時見鹿), revolves around Shen Lu Sheng, a senior college student, who is unable to recognize who is in love with a boy, his friend, the junior student Chen Jing Nian, who did have the courage to express her love for him.
This infatuation is the cause of the harassment that Shen Lu Sheng suffers from his schoolmates, which adds to the hostility that for family reasons he had already been a victim of since childhood. All this has caused him to have low self-esteem.
The film tells us about feelings, the passage of time and the protagonist's regrets for not confessing his feelings. 'Find You in the Crowd' speaks of a very everyday intrinsic truth in the lives of many homosexuals in the world, who remain silent, live repressed and do not accept their true nature. Many will be able to see themselves reflected in the character and the story told.
When Shen Lu Sheng is faced with the feelings he awakens in Chen Jing Nian, he hesitates to acknowledge his love and does not dare to face his own feelings honestly.
Starring Chen Wei (Chen Hao) and Tian Jun Zhang, in the roles of Shen Lu Sheng and Chen Jin Gian, respectively, the film is based on an original script written by Yan Xingjun and Zhang Yun He himself.
Also known as 'Shu Shen Shi Jian Lu', the film begins when the two friends meet again after some time, and discover that their feelings for each other are still intact.
From here on, the precise and frequent flashbacks will take us to know the intimate relationship between Shen Lu Sheng and Chen Jin Gian from when they were children to the present.
Filmed in Shanghai in 2017, the creators make good use of the monologue to expose Chen Jin Gian's feelings. In this way, the character guides the viewer on an introspective journey, revealing the feelings he hides and the desire to be able to confess his love to his best friend and the person he is in love with. Along the way, the protagonist discovers himself and questions himself for not having been sincere.
Equally notable is the cinematography, the color palette and the music, which as a whole reflect the tone of the film and expose the moods of the characters.
The ending is neither happy nor sad, as it is an open ending, as the story continues in 'Find You in the Crowd 2'.

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This is how you do a teenage rom-com

I love this.

The comedy is spot-on, both all of the characters (the students of class 8/1 are a hoot!) and the comedic timing. It's very silly, and still the film has some depth.

The eternal desire of highschool students -- I want to fit in -- is tackled for several characters' perspective. Whether it is that your secret crush is exposed in the most demeaning way, whether you have a condition that sets you apart form the others, or whether your nipples are inverted -- all of us want recognition, and even love. But how to achieve that?

This rom-com is not only funny as heck until the last minute, it also surprised me not only with a positive message, but also with excellent acting, a good pacing, great animation(!), and very, very likable characters.

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Inspired by the director's own youth, Single 8 follows a group of high schoolers who make a low-budget sci-fi film in the wake of Star Wars. This making of the movie... is basically the movie, but what it lacks in narrative, it makes up for with spirit. These kids are learning filmmaking on the fly. Their product is rough (though certainly better than it has right to be) but it's a labor of love. Ultimately, it succeeds, only because the kids succeed, and that it exists at all is the real triumph.

The actual movie itself has a similar conceit: though it has none of the gloss, nor the budget, nor the star power, nor the grand ambition, it doesn't matter. It's a movie people wanted to make, and they made it. Director Konaka Kazuya, a veteran in tokusatsu, reminisces a time in his life when filmmaking was all about the desire to create and to collaborate. The final cut? A happy accident. The real movie is the friends we made along the way.

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Well-acted & filmed, interesting story twist but wished for more in terms of relationships

I enjoyed the nostalgia throwback of this movie. The bound between past and present as well as the different timelines is interesting but I think the romances fell a bit flat. It was cute but no as heart-fluttering and gut-wrenching that I would have wanted.

I still fell a punch in my gut as the events unfold but it is more due to the fact that I loved the main character played by Yeo Jin Goo rather than because I was totally convinced by the romance from the past. The characters from the present had a better romantic storyline. Still, I found the pacing adequate, they spend enough time at the beginning for the viewer to be invested in the stakes...I would have loved to be even more immersed in the romance and to see even more of the friendship that develop across time.

In terms of acting, I think it was solid overall. Especially Yeo Jin Goo who is carrying most of the movie. I am not sure that I would have enjoyed as much the movie with a less talented actor in the role. I also enjoyed Na In Woo in his role, such a dream boat <3. Cho Yi Hyun and Kim Hye Yoon were also quite good in their respective roles. I think Kim Hye Yoon had a not easy role to play as the character on paper can feel a bit flat and relegated to a love interest without a lot of agency. Overall, I will keep an eye out for other works from this quartet of actors/actresses that I enjoyed.

The filmmaking is youthful and bright in both timelines, fitting the atmosphere of the movie. I enjoyed the OST, there were some sweet and soft songs but not very memorable as well.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a youthful romantic movie mixing different timelines, with a nice 1999 nostalgia throwback. The acting and filmmaking is pretty great and even if I have some details that could have been better regarding the story (or at least the development of some of the relationship), I still found it to be a lovely watch with a nice twist.

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Unashamedly celebrating fraud over hard work.

This movie certainly stirs up some mixed feelings, as it suggests that success can come without genuine effort, which is a bit concerning. It had the potential to be a captivating zero-to-hero tale about a group of unlikely scientists working together to create an amazing robot against all odds.

What we have here, however, is an old man, duped into posing as a robot by three electric company employees, who happens upon the truth and leverages the secret for personal gain. The narrative might've taken a more encouraging turn if the main trio had been honest. Better still, they could've simply powered down or redirected their real robot as it moseyed toward a third-story window instead of freezing in place and allowing it to face a rather unnecessary fate.

The film misguidedly tries to evoke sympathy for its less-than-heroic trio, even leading some who initially criticised them to inexplicably backpedal. A particularly outrageous scene occurs when one of the guilt-ridden trio threatens to drive them off a cliff, but is luckily interrupted by a policeman who happens by. While these characters definitely have some accountability coming their way, suicide is most drastic when a public apology would obviously have sufficed.

Throughout, the 'robot' lacks any solid evidence of authenticity yet manages to win over audiences at various events and lectures. It's only after an uncalled-for remark at a college student that anyone pauses to question whether someone might be inside it—comically, international robotics experts were skeptical from the start.

Much of the humour misses the mark, at times veering into the realm of immature fart jokes. One character’s growing admiration for the 'robot' after being saved by it could've been charming, but it ultimately leans toward bizarre and obsessive. Additionally, Gramps’ sweet bonding moment with his family as the 'robot' is sadly overshadowed by the looming secret.

And to cap it all off, the ending brazenly promises more of this monkey business to come, showing that the trio haven't learnt their lesson—now with a capricious and consequently hypocritical accomplice.

It’s quite the letdown from this legendary director, celebrated for gems like "Swing Girls", "Wood Job", and "Survival Family". That said, thankfully, he returned to form immediately afterwards.

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