Reviews

An all round ambitious work. (However, 'beautiful' is different...)

"Three Sisters" has won numerous international awards. 12 to be precise. But I'll say it right away: it's overall rather painful to look at. It's even painful to the point. Again and again. So true-to-life that it even hurts some more. Some might seem crass being focused that intensely. But at the same time it's not that crass, actually. It is the normality shining through behind the story, that is almost the most painful part of this KMovie.

Three sisters, each in their unique way coping and trying to live with the pain that forces their souls into a corset from which they don't know how to free themselves. They live with their trauma. Are alone, captured within their traumatic past. They don't talk about their trauma. They are emotionally rather surviving than actually feeling alive. They are still trapped in their unresolved past today, because they don't recognize or acknowledge the corset as such. But as long as that doesn't happen, they can't put it off and thus learn to approach life, experience life without a corset...

Haunting portraits of women! So intense that the pain reaches the audience, as vicarious emotion so to speak. Fantastic actresses. An excellent KMovie in all aspects... lighting, scene, shot, cut, etc. too... An all round ambitious work. (However, 'beautiful' is different...) About a topic that is one worldwide. About a topic that is also a big one in South Korea with such a strong patriarchic family hierarchy. A trauma that far too many people on this earth learn to endure. Have to cope with one way or another. Suffer from for the rest of their lives. Being ashamed of it. Yet, actually rather being ashamed of themselves. Because they can't explain the incomprehensible in any other way. Thus they remain trapped in the ineffable.

No movie for every mood.
Yet, when the time is right, then definitely worth it.





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Spoiler alert:
Here the unspeakable is spoken out at last. There is an unexpected showdown that has it all. Something that is liberating. Yes, it hurts, again – just like cold fingers starting to feel the warmth… True enough, healing is a process. (Life hardly becomes smooth&easy overnight.)
Acknowledging the corset. That is the first step. Feeling it, joggling it. This is the next step. Then get on the trail of your own feelings. Find some expression for it. Surrender to your vita and what you sur-vived so far. Let go of the corset, by now being grown and old enough to stand by your side. Grab your inner child´s hand and allow yourself to be who you are, embracing the feelings you have. All of them. The anger, helplessness and desperation, too. Be proud of who you are. Daring, step ahead. Longing to be. Being free to be. Being palpable. Being. Sharing. Communicating... giving life a second chance...

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this is terrible don’t let those tiktok recommendation videos fool you

This movie is utter trash and if you enjoy spending your time watching paint dry you’d probably enjoy this. Pointless and stupid attempt at trying to make a deep/edgy movie which doesn’t really have any sort of bigger picture it was just a bunch of randomness with a depressing backstory for the main character thrown in to mask the lack of an actual story. Main character was insufferable and stupid and why did that dude randomly just start beating her after wanting to help her (which didn’t really make any sense in the first place they were strangers and were introduced like they knew the two girls) ? and if I can remember correctly why did the second fml start joining in ? All in all this movie makes 0 sense no matter how much you look at it and is a waste of your time. Do not be fooled by the ppl on tiktok recommending this under the thriller genre it’s garbage.

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THIS MOVIE WAS SO GOOD

I recommend this movie to everyone. If ur having second thoughts about watching it just watch it, I promise u this movie is good. It was sad and made me cry a lot but was also very eye opening. The acting is super good. The way the actors portray the emotions is just *chefs kiss* WATCH IT PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need 500 characters to post this review so don’t mind me I’m just gonna allskdkwowlalsndnfjjeeu ueywiwoaoskdnfnfnjfueueieowoaoldndndnfwkkslslskskwkwkwkwkwklwqllwlwlwlwlwlwkekejfkeoowlwnwndnfjhfueieowlskkdlwoqowieuruytghcjldlsirfuueiwoworuufjcjcnskslwieufueioqoqowoeorirkrk I think this should be good enough

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Intentional Nudge in the Right Direction

For all intensive purposes, I was rather impressed with this movie. It had been sitting in my To Watch list for at least 2-3 years. I might have watched the beginning of the movie in the past, but just never committed to finishing it. Finally sat down and watched the whole thing.
It took a very poetic approach, which I wasn't expecting. Even though this is about a director that wrote a play about two men that have a romantic relationship with each other, the movie doesn't go in depth about it, but it should of, because the play talks about very important issues, like what its like being in a toxic relationship, and how the dynamic of the two actors shifts drastically because of the nature of the play. Its also about having such a strong hold on someone, like your chained to them, and you can't escape, and that is what made this movie so suspenseful to watch.
Something that also impressed me was how the older ML takes method acting very literally, and how that is reflected off stage. I could almost sense what Jae Ha was feeling in the moments when he was alone and there were no cameras, and in that way, this movie shed a light on societal pressures on how men are expected to behave and conduct themselves. A part of me wanted to believe that he wanted to be the person he was suppressing, but in a unique, unexpected way, he was just always in character.
If anything, I wish it could've been longer, and had more to say. It was a very light watch.

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Cute but Unnecessary.

I really enjoyed the romance between these two while watching the drama so when I heard about the movie coming out I really had high expectations and I think that made me biased while watching the movie. It was really nice to have the couple back on my screen but they really didn't have any story to tell it just felt like they wanted to give us more of the couple, as a fan of this ship I loved it, but as a movie watcher it felt like a waste of time as there wasn't anything to show. the plot was like "oh they wanted to do something dramatic but didn't want to make it too dramatic so it doesn't clash with the series". lol if you're a fan of the actors then yes you might enjoy this but if you're actually looking for movie with content please skip..

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Alone again, naturally

An Autumn Afternoon was director Ozu Yasujiro's final film. The main character and Ozu were in the late autumn of their lives, far closer to winter than summer. Somehow, this film so reminiscent of Late Spring, with a father facing solitude as his children were leaving home was a fitting ending for the great writer and director.

Ryu Chishu, an Ozu regular, once again played a father deliberating marrying his youngest daughter off. His character, Hirayama Shuhei wasn't in any hurry to find a suitor for her until he and his buddies held a reunion for an old teacher. The teacher's middle-aged daughter still lived at home and worked in their noodle shop taking care of her father. Instead of feeling sorry for the lonely, sad woman who was well beyond the age of marriage, they pitied the old man. These were the older men who mercilessly teased the one man in their group who had married a woman his daughter's age, worrying she would be the death of him. Most of the women in the offices were young because by the age of 24 they were supposed to marry and quit their jobs. As Shuhei makes the decision that Michiko should marry soon, his other children are only worried for him, not whether Michiko would be happy and well cared for.

Ryu did a superb job as always encompassing the character designed for him by Ozu. This time his daughter was played by Iwashita Shima who was actually age appropriate for this role. Young and vivacious, Michiko was in no hurry to marry but also was a dutiful daughter and followed her father's lead which Iwashita portrayed perfectly. It seems like there is always a strange casting in Ozu movies when it comes to age. Tono Eijiro(the old teacher) was a year younger than his movie daughter Sugimura Haruko!

The three older men felt like they could have been the school boys from Ozu's earlier films. All grown up, but still mischievous and pulling pranks on each other. I did find it oddly disturbing how often they made innuendos about the one man's very young wife. Though everyone was worried about Shuhei being alone, in reality he spent long hours at the office and then seemed to go out drinking with his friends every night. Michiko stopped making dinner for him and her brother because they never called to say if they were not going to be eating at home after she had gone to the trouble to cook for them. Though it was Shuhei we were guided to feel sorry for, it was the women who earned my pity. Michiko had little say about her life which was mostly laid out for her by men. The old teacher's daughter had been used by her father as a surrogate housewife to care for him after his wife died. Michiko's sister-in-law had to deal with a selfish husband who spent money recklessly. Shuhei was proud of his daughter for handling a rejection so well, then found out she had cried. Thankfully, Ozu had allowed her to be human and experience sorrow even for a moment.

This is the first Ozu film I've seen where WWII was mentioned so much. Shuhei had been the captain of a destroyer and met a crewman in a bar. The crewman lamented their loss, saying if they'd won those blonde haired, blue-eyed Americans would be play the samisen now instead of the young Japanese dancing to rockabilly. Shuhei blithely tells him then it's lucky they lost. Ozu rarely delved into the past with his characters. They lived and dealt with problems where they were---in the present.

Regardless of my misgivings for the lack of autonomy for the female characters, this was Ozu's world, not mine, and the old childless bachelor was feeling the sting of loneliness after the recent death of his elderly mother. Despite the characters in the film doing what they could to ameliorate their circumstances, there would always be suffering. Ozu never flinched from two difficult life lessons: Life is short and loneliness is hard. Shuhei bitterly said, "…sons are best…No point in having a daughter…" His friend understood the meaning beneath when he responded, "Boy or girl, it's all the same. They all go sooner or later." It's in the nature of children to grow up and leave the nest no matter how much love, attention, and money has been given to them…just as their parents did. One day Michiko may face solitude, maybe not in an Ozu film because the women all seem to die young, but parents all tend to fade from their children's lives. Old age is filled with empty, quiet rooms.

In the final scene, Shuhei sang from a military song and then said, "I'm all alone." The camera took one long loving look at Ozu's meticulously decorated set and the actor who had accompanied him for so long on their theatrical journey as Shuhei poured one last glass from Ozu's ubiquitous teapot. A fitting ending indeed.


4/26/23

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Not a great deal but not a bad deal as well

A good action movie with a little mixture of thrills The killing scenes and the blood splattering scenes were we-portrayed. The cinematography was great. I liked the way the movie was shown from many characters perspectives. Bok Soon's character was very well cast. This movie shows how Bok Soon is trying to balance her professional assassin life with her personal motherhood life. I adored the mother-daughter relationship; it was not sugar-coated, but rather more convincing as in real life. Bok Soon's hesitancy to reveal her jobs true nature and her daughter's struggle to come out as lesbian were well portrait but that's it, the only positive things about the movie. Other characters I don't know what they were even trying to show but the characters lacked DEPTH. 
The thing I first remembered while watching this series was John Wick's world. I won't say they copied John Wick, but I could definitely say they got their inspiration for making this movie from Wick. It was like I was watching 2 John Wick movies crumpled up into 1.
But the action and cinematography saved the movie for me.
I loved that Boo Soon's daughter was able to accept herself the way she is.

Let's live, Let's Love and hope you enjoy your time by doing what you love 🫶

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CRAZY UNPREDICTABLE PLOT TWIST!!!

I love love love a great thriller. Especially when it comes with a good plot twist. When my friend told me that the plot twist was shocking in this one, I knew I had to watch it immediately.

I’ve tried watching Korean movies and dramas below the year 2012 and I don’t think it’s my cup of tea. This movie was from 2003 but it was surprisingly easy for me to watch. The acting, the BGM, and man… the storyline were satisfactory. I’ve seen a lot of thrillers with plot twists which means I’m pretty great at guessing on what comes next, so if I couldn’t guess it, that means it’s great. All in all, an 8.5/10 for me! The ending could be summarized better, but the movie was great!

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Walking a mile in someone else's shoes

So, you're an uptight, self-serving lawyer. You die suddenly and have the chance to live a little longer, but not as yourself. You find yourself married with two children. I don't know how many times this story has been done, but there was something very endearing about this version.

I have not really cared for Uhm Jung Hwa as an actress before, I always feel like she's trying too hard. Does she want to be funny? Serious? I could never quite figure it out. She was PERFECT in this role. Her emotions were spot on. Funny when she was supposed to be, but able to wring emotion from me as I watched her in the serious scenes. I loved how she was able to use what she knew from her previous life to benefit her "new" family.

I can't remember the last time I've loved a husband/father as much in a Korean drama. The ML was great. I've not seen him in anything else, I'm going to need to check out his filmography.

W.C. Fields said never act with children or animals. The kids in this movie were great!

I loved the ending!

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What r u gonna do if you can re-life your life....? To what timeline will you go back...? What will you learn from the re-life...? Will you change your life with that timeline...?

Arata Kaizaki get the chance to re-life his life. He went back to the 3rd / last year of high school. Some of us will gonna said that the best time, some of us will said no not really.... But yeah High School sometimes is the best year to repeat your life. We still got our youth, the future ahead of us, the friends that we can make, etc....

But the concept of the movie quite unique and strange. Haha... Arata Kaizaki (AK) went back in time, but it's only like dream, where nothing actually change nor he can make memories to anyone around him. So yeah it's like a dream, he can experience it but also at the same time like watching the movie.

What I really like from this movie is the spirit AK gave us. He know he can't change anything nor make memories to anyone around him, but he still he still decided to make a difference. He still decided to make friends, help his friends change & gave them the courage that they need sometimes. The positive energy he gave really make a change. Even they don't remember him in the end, but his courage & motivational word stick with people around him. And after that he also finally get to know himself more & found his purpose, what he will do when he get back to his life.

What can be better! For me only 2 things can make this movie better & get the 9 ⭐️ that I originally want to give:
1. I would like see the photo. Haha... They took the pic at the graduation (I think) I really want to see that photo. Will AK be there or not...? Is he only disappear on people memory or also in the photo...?
2. The weird ending. The last sentence is really make me want to bite or scream or kick the director. Why...? Why...? Why...? They must leave us with that weird conversation...? Why not ending it with the meeting of AK & the new teacher...? Or at least gave us full sentence that go fade out still gonna be better... I just don't like the hanging ending like this....

Overall this one good movie to reflect your own life...

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Plot holes everywhere

I watched this because it was recommended on Bilibili for its brilliant integration of ethnic culture with modernization. Yes, the actors and clothing are beautiful, however the plot is just trash. What even is this?
Duo falls in love with Yue at first sight and chases her around like a creepy stalker. The screenwriter tries to justify Duo and Beibei's touchiness as "stereotypical American culture," but what girl in their right mind would believe these two have nothing romantic? If I was Yue I would also think Duo is frivolous. Yue refuses to admit she's Duo's childhood friend for some mysterious reason, but this is never resolved even in the ending. There is no explanation. There are plot holes everywhere. There are random time skips. On top of that, there are so many random filler scenes with no dialogue. This feels more like a travel commercial.

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"Misfortune makes people stubborn"

The Quiet Duel was the second collaboration of Kurosawa Akira and Mifune Toshiro. The story was told from a field hospital during WWII and then in a small clinic for the poor right after the war. Due to the immediacy of the filming so close to the war the characters' struggles felt authentic. A young Mifune gave one of his most restrained performances as a doctor suffering in silence, refusing to give into desire or despair and living out his conscience dispensing hope to those who had less than he did.

Mifune's character, Dr. Fujisaki Kyoji, performs surgery on a man in a ramshackle field hospital low on supplies. During the surgery he accidentally cuts his finger and he continues on for another hour. Kyoji discovers that the patient has syphilis, contracted from his promiscuous lifestyle. The doctor contracted syphilis but had nothing to treat it with until he was sent home much later. The treatment would take 3-5 years, maybe longer. Knowing the stigma of being considered dirty with the disease the pure in heart doctor broke off his engagement with his fiancé. Minegishi, a probationary nurse at his clinic, was snide to him when she saw him treating himself with Salvarsan. Suffering her own shame from being a pregnant, single mother, she came to take his side when she heard the reason for his suffering. Into Kyoji's personal duel of desire and conscience walked Nakata, the man he'd contracted the disease from. Nakata had refused to seek treatment and had also married and impregnated his wife. Kyoji sought to help the couple only to find Nakata as reckless with his wife's health as he was with his own.

Mifune Toshiro had to portray the doctor's silent struggle to deny the desire of his heart and his body, to kill that desire with his conscience and commitment to being a doctor. His stethoscope became his armor against his desire for the woman he loved. He was torn for he had done nothing to deserve being kept from her, so why must he suffer? Minegishi made the correlation that some patients screamed when they were in pain, others dealt with their pain quietly, dripping in sweat. Mifune did an admirable job of portraying the selfless man writhing quietly in pain, refusing to retreat from helping others.

Sanjo Miki's Minegishi had the most character growth of anyone in the film. She went from an annoying, self-pitying probationary nurse to maturing into a caring person and mother. Initially she was one who would have been screaming in pain but learned to focus her attention on becoming a better woman and nurse biding her time for the doctor she had come to love.

As a modern viewer, I did question the good doctor performing surgery. Just as he had contracted the disease from a surgical accident, couldn't a patient be at risk as well? I suppose the poor people who came to see him unable to pay had few other choices.

Kurosawa kept the framing tight, never leaving his tormented doctor's face too far from sight. He was careful to make the distinction between Kyoji, an innocent contracting the disease and Nakata, a sexual scoundrel. Of course, there are many shades of gray with this medical issue, but in 1949 he was not going to explore those.

Despite the melodrama and heartbreak, the movie did end on a hopeful note. Kyoji and Minegishi learned to walk with their chins up and face their problems head on, teaching their patients to do the same thing. They might have to suffer as well, but where there are clouds the sun is also present if you can reach high enough.

4/25/23

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