Reviews

Shell-ebration of life and keeping the oceans clean!

Leave the Door Open is a short film by director Lee Ok Seop. This was ostensibly a Samsung commercial or at least funded by them. At six minutes long, there’s not much to review, especially since the English subtitles were not working in the version I watched, but I’ll give it a try.

Kim Hyang Gi is traveling home with her new refrigerator in the back of a pickup truck when it comes to a screeching halt due to a scallop in the road. She has pity on the shell and takes it to the ocean only to see the waves bringing in copious amounts of trash. Instead of abandoning the scallop she takes it home and refrigerator magic happens bringing more than just whimsy into her life!

This was cute, surreal, and also had a message about cleaning the oceans even if you had to drag Neptune out himself! Worth 6 minutes just to watch the short story of a girl and her shell living their best lives.

18 August 2026

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Mr. Butterfly was a melodramatic film set in 1980 after the assassination of President Park. Two lovers with matching butterfly tattoos are separated, reunited, and torn apart once more. Despite nefarious forces at work they seek to reunite again.

Min Jae leaves his rural town for Seoul promising Eun Ji he will return in a year when the snow falls again. But Min Jae forgets all about Eun Ji and joins a gang. When that doesn’t pan out he takes on work as a gigolo. Five years later he runs into Eun Ji scarcely recognizing her. When she brushes him off, he tracks her down and discovers she is the mistress of an evil colonel. The two decide to flee together but Colonel Cho has other plans for Min Jae.

That first hour of this film was agonizing. The acting was awful and the story was patchworked together. The director must have decided that rain and snow were powerful emotional indicators, so one or the other was nearly always falling. A comedic side story was included with two warring men volunteering to be on the bus to the Samchung Revival Camp. Of course, Min Jae ended up on the bus involuntarily. The camp was renowned for its brutal treatment of prisoners being “re-educated” so it was not surprising that Min Jae was constantly being tortured.

The biggest problem I had with Mr. Butterfly was not even the overly dramatic acting, music and story. Min Jae hadn’t given Eun Ji a thought for five years and suddenly he was ready to die for her. Both he and Eun Ji made stupid, disastrous decisions. Not unlike the Butterfly Lovers or Romeo and Juliet, you just want to tell the characters, “Hey, guys, why don’t you stop and think things through first.” But that wouldn’t have resulted in dire situation after dire situation with all the accompanying emotional crises. If you enjoy melodramatic tragedy interlaced with slapstick comedy and dated acting, this might be one to try, otherwise better to make like a butterfly and flutter away from it.

18 August 2026
Trigger warnings: Physical abuse, sexual abuse, torture, smoking.

Butterfly note: The prisoners commented on butterflies being a weak species. I beg to differ with them. The Monarch butterflies migrate over 2000mi/3200km each year, braving weather, predators, cars, food scarcity, and all manner of danger. Sounds pretty badass to me!

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Mongolian sound

I don’t know if this can even be called a film. It is so experimental and complicated that it would fit better if it were screened somewhere in a museum accompanied by an explanatory note. The film shows close-ups of static things that feel more like photographs than cinema, accompanied by strange sounds.

The sounds are sometimes present, sometimes absent, sometimes just noise, sometimes a murmur, sometimes the sound of construction work, and sometimes a Mongolian song. I think the director’s intention was to place the emphasis on the sound, so that we listen to his film rather than watch it, but the problem is that the sounds also seem random and it is hard to connect them into any coherent whole or story.

A story can be vaguely discerned, yet it is still difficult to say what is reality and what is imagination. The film is abstract and somewhat depressing. I got a little refreshment from the audiovisual experience of Mongolia in the film. Watching this film is certainly a real experiment. I had a similar experience watching it as when I was renovating a room in our old house together with my father.

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A Girl at My Door was an ambiguous story that brought up numerous social concerns without really addressing any of them in a satisfactory way. The highlight of the film was the acting by Bae Doo Na and the late Kim Sae Ron.

Lee Young Nam has been transferred from the Police Academy to a small coastal town to serve at the local police department as Chief. She discovers the town is hardly idyllic. The oyster farmers use illegal immigrants as underpaid labor brokered by Park Yong Ha. Park is also the “stepfather” of Sun Do Hee whom he beats every time he drinks which is daily. His mother is also an alcoholic who berates and beats Do Hee. After a particularly rough patch, Do Hee shows up at Young Nam’s door and the officer takes her in for the summer break. But Young Nam is hiding her own secrets.

A Girl at My Door was an ambitious low-budget film. Due to its content, July Jung could only secure $300,000 worth of funding. Bae Doo Na and Kim Sae Ron agreed to forgo their salaries. What was the terrible content? Young Nam was a lesbian. That fact alone seemed to be the reason the character was reassigned and treated as abnormal. The problem I had was that there were times the film came close to crossing the line with her relationship with Do Hee. Not because of sexual orientation but because of age. While the film attempted to show Yong Nam as only protecting Do Hee in a maternal manner, sharing a bath with a fourteen-year-old could be construed as inappropriate in any type of relationship, but especially one as a non-relative guardian. As a police officer she should have known better where to draw the lines regardless of her sexual orientation. Of course, when their relationship was called into question, everyone jumped to the homosexual equals pedophile conclusion which was rather infuriating, yet Young Nam knowing the state of homophobia still made questionable decisions as an officer of the law. Director July Jung seemed determined to blur lines which made it difficult to understand aspects of their relationship.

The film brought up the plight of illegal immigrants. How they were treated as less than, underpaid, overworked, and abused. Yong Ha’s actions were illegal. Yet nothing came of it. Yong Ha was known to beat Do Hee, something Young Nam warned him was a crime. Yet even after seeing the significant bruising on the child, she didn’t arrest him. Didn’t call child services. Do Hee was clearly a disturbed child after bearing daily emotional and physical abuse from Yong Ha and his mother. If anyone needed therapy it was this poor kid, yet none was ever offered. Do Hee made terrifying decisions that affected Young Nam and Yong Ha*. And finally, alcoholism was rampant in the scenic village. Young Nam drank at least 1.5 liters of soju every night. She managed to be a high functioning alcoholic, but it may have led to some of her questionable decisions. Maybe she should have focused on finding a therapist for herself and Do Hee.

There was a lot of pain, abusive behavior, mental illness, homophobia, racism, and alcoholism on display in this film. The adults made terrible decisions on a regular basis. Even Young Nam who tried to help Do Hee was guilty of leaving the child in a dangerous situation. As much as I wanted to root for Young Nam to be Do Hee’s surrogate mom, she really needed to hit rehab and get herself sorted out before dealing with an emotionally troubled child. Great performances by Bae Doo Na and the late Kim Sae Ron could not quite overcome the script’s shortcomings.

17 August 2026

Trigger warnings: Alcoholism. Physical abuse. Sexual situation with a minor.

Spoilery rants below:










































*Do Hee’s final actions against Yong Ha were understandable as he had started to show sexual interest in her. She did what she had to do to survive. But no rape kit or hospital visit? And they just kicked an underaged “rape” victim loose to go home by herself? Where was the concern for her when Young Nam was seen to be the problem?

Also, I have very real concerns about an underaged actor being in sexual scenes and sexualized.

The interviewers seemed to be very interested in Do Hee when the concern was she had been molested by Young Nam, but they had zero problem sending her home to a drunken guardian who beat the crap out of her as well as emotionally abused her. So as long as it was just daily physical and emotional abuse by a heterosexual man, that was okay?

Do Hee’s jealousy and possessiveness were dangerous, but understandable given her living conditions. Again, she needed therapy to understand what she was feeling and how to gain control over her violent outbursts. I still cannot comprehend them sending her home to a vicious guardian after the molestation charges or to an empty house after Yong Ha was arrested. Where was the care she so desperately needed? Also, Young Nam seemed to have no problem sending Do Hee home for the school year knowing nothing had changed at home with Yong Ha.

No concern that Do Hee could also be a murderer? Might have been self-defense but the film never said.

Lastly, the local police department didn’t seem to have a problem with having a woman as chief. They had no problem arresting her, even though they refused to arrest Yong Ha for his many crimes because he was integral to their local economy. At least the jerks who interrogated her apologized to her. This film could give a person whiplash.

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Strong Performances, But Too Predictable

I started watching this because I heard Ding Yuxi and Peng Yuchang played roles that were different from their usual ones, and I agree that they did. That made it an interesting watch. But overall, I thought this was just okay.

The biggest issue for me was that it was very predictable and easy to figure out. When I can recognize the formula and predict the next five steps, the journey becomes tedious because I'm no longer discovering the story—I'm watching it to confirm what I already expected. Predictability isn't always a deal breaker for me, but when a story feels too familiar, I need something else to offset that. Unfortunately, I never found that here.

The story often felt like it was simply following a script, with very little surprise in the reveals. The arcs also felt somewhat stilted, so there wasn't much opportunity to become emotionally invested in either the narrative or the characters. The only time I felt any real emotion come through in the storytelling was toward the end, when we got some backstory into the life of one of the villains. That was the best part of the movie for me because it finally gave me a reason to feel for the characters and see them differently.

If that kind of emotional depth and backstory had been layered throughout the rest of the movie rather than saved for the ending, I think I would have enjoyed this much more.

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It would be cute if the production wasn't a mess.

I know this is an older short. But I still don't like it much. The production seems a mess. Maybe it's just me but I seem to often care a lot about the acting and production rather than the story itself. Although I rather not be critical I really have to be for this one. Not gonna larp this time.

So my main issue was the production. That colour correction hurt my eyes. It's sooo bright. I often see this happening in older Thai media. But one of the things I rarely see is this bad of an editing. I can't. it's like you can see them saying action ON CAMERA. There's like a millennial pause. Another thing I really disliked were the unnecessary shots that were shaky. Many times it's chosen to do but this sucked. One thing I learned while editing myself is that those fade's are absolutely forbidden and I finally understand why.

Some shots didn't even have any background noise. Although this short was silent in general I really hated the scene's without any noise. It sounds unnatural. I don't think a silent film is that bad but it was soo weird. Also, it was really funny to me how he had payphone downloaded on his phone.

Overall watching this was as if I was watching a film project from a first year film student. I don't even think the director was a film student, it was that bad. It's funny to me that the assistant director now makes amazing shit like love you teacher. She's still an assistant director but now she actually makes good stuff. I can't find much info on the actual director so that makes me a bit sad. Rlly hope he makes cool stuff now tho.

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Title and Earth??

Been watching shorts all day and came across this one with Earth and Title?? I never knew they had a small short together. I can't even see them together as a pair and they looked sooo different in 2017. Barely able to recognise them.

I don't know who Guide was sitting with but he was clearly jealous of Guide's crush. Or maybe it's rlly just me. Also I don't think he was sitting with Cooheart or am I being stupid now?

This poster is soooo misleading. It looks so adorable but in reality the colours are sooo different. I would've chosen a cute poster but with darker colours. It was cute but like really short and a bit of a stupid plot. I get why they never kissed at the end.

It was really cute just a stupid plot and it's kinda giving 'older' bl. I don't even think 2017 is long ago but there is still this weird 2017 vibe to it. If you've been watching bl's for ages just like me, you might be able to understand what I mean.

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When Things Go Wrong at Every Turn

The story is really simple. Hwang Sukmi reigns in the women prison with her bulky built and fighting skills, but a rich girl who had just got incarcerated there decides to take over the helm by bribing the whole prison officers up to the warden and prosecutors using her dad’s money and influence. The rich girl had her goons plant poppy in the prison garden and plans to ship them off to China when the gender equality program ends. Hwang Sukmi then decides to investigate and foil her plan.

All I can say is the writer and director totally wasted Jung Youngju’s talent with this piece of crap. I mean I have seen her in lots of kdramas and she always catches my eye even as supporting character. Clicking this to expect another phenomenal performance led me to utmost disappointment instead. It’s not about the actors really, yeah well, some of them are really bad, but the writing, directing, editing and the technical dept did most of the work of beating this movie into a soggy blob of mess.

The finale where Hwang Sukmi and another inmate was fighting off rich girl and the bribed prison director was ridiculously done with other prison guards and some top brass from dept of justice just standing around watching. The sound effects, especially of the gunshot, and the makeup of the fight injuries were so comical it felt like I was watching 80-90’s HK movie. The fight choreograph is one of the worst I’ve seen so far, they looked too rehearsed, awkward and stiff. Like seriously. Everything about this movie felt so wrong at every turn, leaving me in a total “what-did-i-just-watch” moment in the end.

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Terrifying Without a Drop of Gore

It didn’t have even a single splatter scene, yet the jump scares were absolutely insane. 😭 This is the perfect example of how a movie can be genuinely terrifying without blood being splattered everywhere — all you need is a good story and someone who knows how to tell it.

It’s been a long time since a movie scared me this much. The tension and atmosphere worked incredibly well, and the actors’ performances were perfect. 👏

My only complaint is the lighting: some scenes were just *too* dark, and at times it was difficult to see what was happening.

Still, such an effective horror movie. No gore needed — just pure fear. 👻

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Bad friends can turn you into Bad Genius

What this film did to get so many adaptations, I don't understand
Watching this pissed me off at soo many levels
Bank was the only sane guy in it, and they corrupted him so badly. Why do people even question his villain arc when he was the biggest victim in it. It was interconnected; a bank would never have agreed to help them out in the stvic exam if the rich (Pat) hadn't made him lose the scholarship. They put hurdles in his way, leaving him with no choice but to work for them.
and that Madam Lynn trynna be the hero in the end because now it was her being blackmailed? fack off , you pushed him in this whole misery when he was just trying to help you out during that school scholarship test
Friends like Grace and Pat are nothing worse than hell !
Especially, I blame Grace more because WHY can't you just shut up and NOT tell your jerk boyfriend that your friend helped you out? This all could be prevented. Lynn helped you out of pure friendship during that first school exam. It was a one-time favor because you were so desperate to pass your drama class. She turned her friend's genius into social currency to impress her boyfriend, completely disregarding the massive risk Lynn took for her, again and again. Freaking manipulator, she didn't want to lose the lavish life Pat's parents were offering her.

The whole plot was just about rich people exploiting poor people for their own ends. They didn't even help them when they got into a bad situation, which resulted in the poor people becoming addicted to that exploitation as an escape to achieve their dreams. The rich can buy their way out of trouble, whereas the poor are forced to risk their entire futures just to get a fraction of that wealth, ultimately corrupting their morals.

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a little too vicious at times but we get a happy ending

Zombies are NOT my thing, so take that into account in relation to my * rating.
The zombie stuff (attacking, gore) happens mostly in the first part of the movie & then moves onto much less gruesome things. I wish that there had been more time spent showing us the training of the daughter than time spent on the zombies (in the beginning) as I felt there was alot of potential for more short comedic moments with the daughter.
Male lead Jo Yung Sook shines in this role & the young female lead did a really awesome job with her body movements (assuming they didn't CGI her). The comedic relief being a cat was amusing, but I wasn't sure if there was something sketchy implied when the cat sat upright, legs spread & tail twitching when it watched another cat on T.V.
I was disappointed in the way they handled getting rid of the biological father - it was a complete fail for me.
The last part of the movie was an unexpected & creative way to present a happy ending .
I didn't give it a perfect score because:

********* Spoilers********
They said "f-----" a good many times .
Having the biological father return made for an impossible resolution.
They COULD have had his arrival trigger memories that caused regeneration.
They COULD have made the uncle getting attacked cause regeneration due to memories of the bond between niece & uncle. They COULD have had the daughter bang her father with the stick & knock him out, OR even had uncle & niece drive off & leave the girl's father. after just punching him & knocking him down...but instead there is regression & all the progress of de zombification is lost in a moment where she gives into rage. that it's implied that the uncle finishes off the uncle (off screen) makes him less heroic & good. That the girl was still able to pass on the virus was also disappointing. that she does indeed bite her uncle as the end (even though it was invited) is also disappointing. I think there were better ways to handle these issues.
I also did not like that the uncle's former female class mate was so blood thirsty & un nurturing as she is presented as a probably love interest & new mother for the zombie girl.


So though it could have had more sweet & more comedic moments with the leads not going vicious, it was still good enough that i would rewatch it in the future.

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