"What's the real threat to us, man or Gojira?"
I had watched Shin Godzilla five ago and was underwhelmed. I’ve wanted to rewatch it in order to write a review and see if my opinion would change but the film has been unavailable for years. HBO Max recently added it to their content. I donned one of my Godzilla T-shirts in order to set the mood for a rewatch. SG still had the elements I didn’t care for on my initial viewing but I did bump my score up this time around.When a giant googly-eyed creature arises from the harbor and inexplicably crawls out onto land, Japan’s government has to act quickly in order to deal with the destructive beast. Best SpongeBob voice~~Two days later~~ Bureaucrats argue over who needs to take responsibility and who has the proper rank to make decisions and can be listened to. The Prime Minister refuses to use military force if even one civilian will be harmed. Um, dude, did you not notice the giant mutating monster crushing buildings, cars, and mass transit systems with hundreds, possibly thousands of people in them? A rogue government official puts together a team to find alternate ways to deal with Gojira, but the wheels of government move s-l-o-w-l-y.
The first time I watched this film I was bored out of my mind. It was described as a political thriller. Suffice it to say I found the endless meetings of stuffed shirts sitting at long tables with microphones less than scintillating. Same feeling this time around. Every time the rigid hierarchy blathered on and on and on and on I completely lost interest. I get that it was supposed to be a scathing commentary on the slow-moving ineffectual decision making processes of the government but it felt like watching it in real time. Yaguchi’s team which included Takahashi Issei was much more entertaining.
The PM’s decision-making process was mind boggling. "Evacuate the people!” “Where?” “Come again?” Later, evacuation was bad. “We can’t evacuate the people because it will cause them to be fearful.” You mean, a giant monster that has destroyed most of Tokyo didn’t instill any fear or panic in the people? Nearly two hours of bureaucrats fearful of making the wrong decisions and hurting their reputations dragged interminably. Even the international “intrigue” was bland.
What did work? While I was no fan of the initial googly-eyed bleeding carpet that crawled on shore, the rapid evolution of Godzilla was interesting. When he reached his “final” powerful form he was a destroyer to behold. Whenever the film shifted focus to Big G my score went up and then came crashing down as the government officials went back to their meetings. “We would have to convene a meeting to stop having meetings!”
The pointed commentary on the weaknesses of the government and international issues would have worked better for me if they’d tightened the story, reduced the length of the long ineffectual meetings (we get it, these guys are bad at making decisions!), focused on Yaguchi’s team and of course the star of the show. When the spotlight was on Gojira he was a terrifying sight even if the government was too busy deciding what to order for lunch to notice.
9 December 2025
Pet peeves: The one team wore their respirators wrong, unless they wanted the gaping spaces which defeated the purpose of wearing them. The bombers were B-2s, not B-1s. When on a limited evacuation schedule, instead of using helicopters to evacuate handfuls of people at a time, bring in the C-5s that could evacuate the city quickly. Eventually, as film producers and drama/tv show producers realize there is an international audience, perhaps they will work harder to find people who can believably speak what is supposed to be their native language.
Spoilerish comments: The final scene was a little on the nose regarding Japan always having to live in the shadow of its past and the atomic age. While the image was imposing, the climax was decidedly anti-climactic.
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This review may contain spoilers
Heartbreaking
I actually watched the last 40 minutes of this movie like 15 years ago and didn’t dare to pick it up again until now. I finally completed the whole movie today. It totally broke me into pieces.Despite some flaws in the plot, which is understandable for a Korean movie released in the 2000s, I gave it 10/10 partly for my nostalgic feeling about the older days, and partly because of Kwon Sang Woo’s sad eyes and soft voice. I swear he had one of the saddest eyes and the softest voice in this movie. When I looked into those eyes and heard him speaking with that soft voice, I felt like the whole world just collapsed, and I just wanted to give him a warm hug. But I also know that only Cream could warm K’s heart. Actually, I think they were already a married couple for a long time without realizing. Their love for each other was natural like a breath in the air. It existed without them noticing, and they couldn’t live without it.
The acting from Lee Bo Young and the rest of the cast was amazing too, and Lee Seung Cheol’s ballad soundtrack and his singing voice made the movie even more emotional.
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1This review may contain spoilers
Hilarious
Silly story, but hilarious, like most of other Stephen Chow’s films. I enjoyed it a lot, and specifically found it so funny when all the villains in this movie are from the Chinese government lol. Obviously, it’s a Hong Kong movie.I don’t know if I was a little biased when Anita Yuen was in this. She’s one of my favorite Hong Kong actresses that I grew up watching in a few Chinese series. She looked so pretty and funny in this movie. I love her short hair. And her interactions with Stephen Chow were great too.
One thing I didn’t like throughout the movie is that one specific scene in the shopping mall where a father was brutally murdered right in front of his toddler. I found this scene unfunny and unnecessary. The film would have been much better without it.
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What did i watch?
This was a very weird short film. The best thing about this film was the music, it was really beautiful.The story was weird, 5 novelists staking 2 men in a very weird way. And trying to push the story and men into a relationship.
It was also weird that you don't find out anything about te man who can't speak. He writes things down, but what is written down is not shown, so you don't have any idea wat he is saying...
The acting of the leads was ok, the acting of the 5 novelists was very bad!
There was no chemistry between the leads.
I don't recommend watching, it's a waste of your time.
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Weird and lonely
I loved this so much! Wong Kar Wai is so great at making films about loneliness and feeling outcast in the society.I could see a lot of references to Chungking Express and it made me laugh every time.
I don’t know exactly how I felt while watching this movie. I just know that loved it. Maybe because I’m also a weirdo, and this is a story about ‘the night’s full of weirdos’.
I definitely need to rewatch it more and maybe I will write a longer review then.
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short and sweet
I see that no one's reviewed this so thought i'd add my 2 cents. I really liked how this short used its time. The story was clear, the music choices were good and the main actress did a great job considering that her body language and face had to tell so much of the story. If you have 10 minutes to spare, I'd watch it (it's free on gaga too)Was this review helpful to you?
The sheer contrast between vivid, peaceful, utterly gorgeous and pristine rice fields and the teenagers growing up around them is painfully sharp. The intense guilt a weak bullied kid can feel contrasted with the fuck-it-all rage of a kid whose world went from stable with the kid a very easygoing sort to a financially ruined house with us only getting to see how the kid copes, completely transforming after a sudden rebellious trip that was the last bit of fun before a downward spiral…
Nothing I am saying here is a spoiler. This is not a linear timeline at all, and it is less a plot than being thrown straight into a middle school hell and reliving what you’ve likely either experienced or been afflicted with the pain of witnessing but having no way to change the horror someone is enduring… even with helplessness, though, we see how different the results are for kids enduring nightmares with just one person checking on them versus ones with no real sense of safety net to shoulder to lean on or even, as we see at one point, someone to physically inflict a tiny portion of one’s pain on and not be abandoned. There are powerful moments throughout if you tune in with a sense of compassion and curiosity. Those same moments, though, can easily be ignored by viewers, casting a mirror on how callous and apathetic a person might very well be seeing emotionally wrecked peers, neighbors, family members, or even total strangers. It demands your attention. It screams at you to not ignore their plights… yet does so without preaching one bit, only showing you the different kinds of humans all around and letting you see in some of them parts of yourself, some possibly uncomfortable, if you let it test your compassion and don’t throw on, even in the physically safe space of a room with a film on a screen, a shield of apathy as a defense against those preying on the defenseless.
I can absolutely recommend it to some and absolutely can NOT to quite the majority. It depends on what art you find value in. While this is not at all a BL and only has faint flickers of a couple of straight crushes that are by no means the story, just pieces of young teens’ psychological makeup, the two recent stories that I might be able to say “if you found value in… then consider this…” about are Smells Like Green Spirit (which has some overlap in story elements and likewise sharply contrasts the feelings of being stuck in your home you find hellish and finding a place you can breathe and just be a kid) and Happy of the End (because you need the same sort of ability to get immersed in the wretchedness of others’ lives and find worth in the media presented to you to really appreciate this).
It is hard hitting, and it is LONG (just 20 minutes short of 3 hours)… but it is phenomenal. If you ARE young and enduring bullying, mental health struggles, social isolation, or are witnessing it happening to others, this won’t be suitable. It is something I would absolutely put restrictions on in a cinema—R level for the content.
It also needs a dozen trigger warnings, among them sexual assault, bullying, and possible epilepsy triggers from fairly frequent fast and intense flashing of black and white graphics that are critical to read but might also induce a migraine in some. In any case, this is a rare film I took a break from mid-viewing. It starts in a disjointed manner that you just have to trust will go somewhere… but once you are locked into their world, it can feel exhausting. It might also be something many start, can’t get into, and go back to later. It is very much a mood piece.
I had to think a long while about my rating, but I found no flaws in this as I did indeed “lock in” which Debussy and my past experience with his works as a lover of his music certainly helped. Brilliant use of music, especially as the music heard the vast majority of the movie is not even the music the youth are getting immersed in. It got a truly hard-earned 10 from me. Every technical detail, every cast member’s performance, and the story told through stunning cinematography and painfully realistic performances wowed me even through an incredibly simple overarching narrative.
This may be a slight spoiler in terms of how this closes out this chapter of their lives though I won’t give details on the plot: The main near-end event of it which is both a negative and positive for characters in it (a cruel truth I’ll leave at that) and the simple thought of how different things could and would have been had someone not been fighting to survive and fighting others in that process… it is so incredibly poignant it kept hitting me harder and harder as I reflected on what I had watched.
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Should be watched by those who are either currently in or want to be in a relationship, because ---
It asks a fundamental question --- what is happiness (in the context of a relationship)? In its 36 minute run-time, it invites you to consider what aspects of a relationship make you happy, whether you put more value on what is (living in the moment) or what is to come (building the future). The movie is clearly about two people who love each other, so it begs a second question --- why do two people who love each other end up the way that Inho and Yoonju did? I might be overly optimistic, but I feel like the perspective that this show provides might just save a few relationships out there...
Story: Not very complex (so you can leave your thinking hat in the closet), but still very engaging.
Acting: I've watched many (if not all) of Kim Seong Hyuk's dramas. While I may not necessarily like some of those shows (one in particular was painful to watch, but it's not listed in MDL or even in Seong Hyuk's filmography, so if the universe is kind, no one else will have to suffer the way I did), I invariably like the work that Seong Hyuk delivered. Both he and the female lead (unnamed in the cast list) did a good job here of shifting gears when the script called for it.
Music: As in most (if not all) Korean dramas, the music served to underscore the emotions behind every scene. One even made it to my playlist. 😅
Rewatch Value: This would depend on what's important to you. It's 36 minutes long. If you're looking for cathartic release, this would be a great option --- you won't be wasting a whole lot of time. Personally, while I do plan on watching this again, I probably won't do so very often. My poor heart might not be able to take it.
Fair warning:
- The MDL blurb says that this is "the romance drama of two men and women", but it's really just about two people, a man and a woman currently in a relationship.
- The subs in the version that I watched on YouTube were not entirely accurate all the time. But it's fairly easy to extrapolate given the context of the dialogue.
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Better than expected
Honestly I confused this one with another movie called Target, which also had SHS a lead so it took me so long to watch this movie and I regret not watching this sooner.The movie starts from KGT's point of view so this automatically makes the viewers sympathize with him which can lead to not realize he is also a criminal just as Sora. Nevertheless, it's kind of a fresh breath of air to watch a movie from an antagonist pov too.
In my opinion, Sora is a sociopath rather than a psychopath. She thinks she is the most pitiful in the world and her background made things harder of her but in reality she is just using others to cope with the decisions she made along the way. Generally, psychopaths don't search for reasons to justify their bad decisions. Also, she is a really good manipulator too which could be seen in a lot of sociopaths.
If we talk about our stalker friend KGT, he describe himself as a good stalker but in reality there are no good in stalking. To be honest, I didn't even knew there are people who like to peep into a strangers' house before watching this movie so this is also good for spreading awareness.
About the ending, everything was well put together and I can say that I was very satisfied with the ending.
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When I first watched it I was slightly confused about the nature of their relationship, are they together but hiding, are they together and showing it, are they just too closely connected friends.
The way the ML was suffering from his one sided love and jealousy at first, on the other hand the intimate and very touchy tachibana... It was confusing a bit I wish they had shown what kind of relationship they actually had.
Later it was clear to us what type of relationship they had but still i didn't like that part~
Overall nice and light jealousy story.
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English and Portuguese Review
𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥The short film feels so raw and sincere that, at several moments, it seemed more like a personal outburst from Gu Gyo Hwan himself than just acting.
It’s really a mix of emotions. There are moments when you feel his tension, others where things get lighter and even a bit funny. And the way he tries to go through his day normally, even though he’s clearly affected, kept me completely invested. It feels very human, very real, like something that could happen to me or anyone else.
Another thing that stood out to me was the atmosphere in his home, that sense of loneliness. He smokes a lot, almost like he’s trying to cope with what he’s feeling after being left out by his friends. The scenes switch between small outbursts, irritation, quiet moments… little details that make everything feel incredibly intimate, as if we were watching a very personal moment in his life.
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𝐏𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐚𝐥
O curta passa uma sensação tão sincera e tão crua que, várias vezes, parecia mais um desabafo do próprio Gu Gyo Hwan do que uma atuação.
É realmente uma mistura de emoções. Tem momentos em que você sente a tensão dele, outros em que tudo fica mais leve e até engraçado. E o jeito como ele tenta seguir o dia normalmente, mesmo visivelmente afetado, me prendeu muito. Parece algo muito humano, muito real, como algo que poderia acontecer comigo ou com qualquer pessoa.
Outra coisa que me chamou atenção foi o clima da casa, a solidão. Ele fuma muito, como se estivesse tentando controlar o que está sentindo depois de ter sido deixado de lado pelos amigos. As cenas vão misturando surtos pequenos, irritações, momentos quietos… detalhes que deixam tudo extremamente íntimo, como se a gente estivesse espiando um momento muito pessoal da vida dele.
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English and Portuguese Review
𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞From the beginning, I thought the story was going to be something completely different, so I was actually surprised. One of the first things that caught my attention was the fact that the movie takes place in Somalia. I’m not used to seeing Korean films set in an African country, so seeing people from different ethnicities, languages, and cultures all mixed together really grabbed my interest. At the same time, I’m always a bit cautious about how Korean productions portray other cultures, but I feel like they did a good job here.
The movie is heavy and even pretty sad at several moments. It’s painful and nerve-wracking to watch so much war, so many bodies, and so many situations where it feels like no matter what the characters do, danger is always there. The movie keeps you tense the whole time, especially knowing that all of this really happened.
One thing I feel like I have to mention is that, since this is a South Korean movie, they do end up making the South Korean characters look a little too “good.” Everything is framed in a way that makes them seem like the moral ones, and I really doubt things played out exactly like that in real life. This becomes even more noticeable when the North Korean characters show up. Even with the historical rivalry between the two Koreas, the movie still puts the South Koreans in a more favorable light, while the North Koreans come off tougher or more aggressive. But at the same time, it’s interesting to see how both sides end up helping each other out of pure survival, and that creates some really good and tense moments.
Still, the acting is really strong. The actors pull you right into the chaos and confusion, and you end up feeling the desperation with them. It’s the kind of movie that keeps you hooked because of this mix of tension, harsh reality, and a little bit of hope in the middle of all the destruction.
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𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨
Desde o começo eu achava que seria um tipo de história totalmente diferente, fui surpreendido. Uma das primeiras coisas que me chamou atenção foi o fato de a história se passar na Somália. Eu não estou acostumado a ver filmes coreanos em um cenário africano, então ver pessoas de várias etnias, diferentes línguas e culturas misturadas me deixou bem interessado. Ao mesmo tempo, eu sempre fico com um pé atrás com representações coreanas de outras culturas, mas achei que a representação foi boa.
O filme é pesado e até triste em vários momentos. É triste e angustiante ver tanta guerra, tantos corpos, tantas situações em que parece que não importa o que os personagens façam, o perigo sempre está ali. O filme te deixa tenso o tempo todo ainda mais por saber que isso realmente aconteceu.
Uma coisa que eu acho importante comentar é que, como é um filme sul-coreano, eles acabam puxando um pouco o saco dos personagens da Coreia do Sul. Tudo fica parecendo que eles são sempre os bonzinhos da situação, e duvido bastante que tenha sido assim na vida real. Isso fica ainda mais evidente quando os personagens da Coreia do Norte entram na história. Mesmo com toda a rivalidade histórica entre as duas Coreias, o filme tenta colocar os sul-coreanos num patamar um pouco mais favorecido, enquanto os norte-coreanos aparecem de um jeito mais duro ou agressivo. Mas, ao mesmo tempo, é interessante ver como os dois lados acabam se ajudando por questão de sobrevivência, e isso gera alguns momentos bem legais e tensos ao mesmo tempo.
Apesar disso tudo, a atuação é muito boa. Os atores realmente te puxam para dentro do caos e da confusão, e você acaba sentindo o desespero junto com eles. É um filme que te prende justamente por essa mistura de tensão, realidade dura e um pouco de esperança no meio de tanta destruição.
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Long awaited and It's worth it.
That felt like, after a long time i just watched a good movie and enjoyed it whole. Thia movie was merely for jackie chen but I'm surprised seeing the cast. I specially love action movies and that's another reason i tried it.Overall i am satisfied with it. Waiting for second part. Now Let's talk about why you should try it out and why not.
So it has beautifully captured Fight Choreography ✅
A strong and well written story which you Won't be bored ✅
Most importantly if you are a Jackie fan then you must.
And why not to try it out? I Don't know. For me it was a well spend time. I loved it and wanna watch Again.
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Simplicity is the answer
I loved the writing, cinematography and editing in this film. I’m a sucker for the found family trope, and since this movie seemed to include it, I gave it a shot. The storyline is easy to follow. It makes this film a genuinely enjoyable viewing experience.The cinematography and editing are great. The aspect that drags my rating down from an eight to a seven point five is the acting. The actors do have chemistry, but in some scenes they overact. It made me cringe several times during the film. Overall, everything else comes close to perfection.
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What was that?!?!
I seriously cringed through the whole thing. It tried too hard, it was all over the place, and there were so many opportunities missed about social commentary. And what was the ending?! I love the main actor, but this was a waste of time. Time that I will never get back.This is probably one of those things that you either love it or hate it.
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