Reviews

A well-intentioned story with a troubling execution.

Being a caretaker for a loved one and requiring loved ones to be caretakers is often a complicated situation for everyone involved, and "Shakespeare In Tokyo" does its best to approach this situation from both sides. The goal of this short film is to promote understanding and a different perspective on life, and it does largely succeed despite some clunky moralizing along the way.

A lot of Ben's interactions with the people he meets in Tokyo are very wholesome and offer several sweet demonstrations that art and literature connect people around the world, but two scenes in particular pulled me out of the sentimental bonding moment they were setting up.

I really didn't like the way Ben inserts himself into situations with women who very politely tell him that they would prefer to be alone, ignores their requests, and uses Shakespeare's words to explain their careers, their problems, and their lives to them. The seemingly well-intentioned writing frames this as charming because of his Down Syndrome, focusing on the way people transcend cultural and personal barriers to relate to each other, but the fact that I have been in situations like this with strangers who made me feel unsafe when they crossed my boundaries (especially with physical touch) made it hard for me to relax or find it as sweet as others have.

Overall, this movie asks us to live our lives to the fullest and be more understanding of each other - so if you're searching for media about people with disabilities just living their lives, you may want to consider adding this to your watchlist.

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Life is really beautiful.. let us live it as we want

Life is Beautiful (2022) is a musical romance film that stars Yum Jung-ah, Ryu Seung-ryong, Park Se-wan, and Ong Seong Wu. The film depicts the journey of a woman who discovers she has cancer and takes a road trip to meet her first love from high school.

Despite wrapping filming in 2020, the film experienced long premiere delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Korea Times. After a nearly two-year-long wait, the film premiered at the 36th Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland, and is now ready to take us on a beautiful adventure.

The film takes its audience on a wonderful rollercoaster of emotions, with seamless mood shifts. From the sadness of a terminal illness to the hilarity of the main couple’s endless bickering, you can’t help but be immersed in the drama and empathise with every character. By the end, there wasn’t a single dry eye in the house.

Of course, with a star-studded main cast, hopes were high, but the actors’ performances exceeded expectations. Yum Jung-ah and Ryu Seung-ryong’s chemistry as a married couple was especially fun to watch.

This musical extravaganza will not only bring you on an emotional roller-coaster, but also take you on a tour around Korea through the ages.

Needless to say, audiences can be sure to walk out of the cinema with that nostalgic feeling of first love, knowing that life truly is beautiful.

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ambitious clickbait title leads to astounding discovery

this drama was truly a diamond amongst hundreds of other films, and definitely not what I expected. to be honest, this drama far exceeded my expectations, and without a doubt i would definitely be rewatching this with my friends. Somehow, even though the story is somewhat unlikely to unravel the way it did in a real-life situation, it is undeniable that this is one of the most compelling movies I've ever seen, and I really appreciate the direction this movie took. Lim Soo-Jung is a very talented actress, and definitely followed the assignment. In this movie, she maintains her composure, even in the most trying of times, and not only is she the FL, she also carries this whole movie. This movie has suspense, thrills, drama, romance, action, and crime, all wrapped up with a perfect pretty bow. The Fl and ML executed their roles with undeniable commitment, and I wish more people could be exposed to this gem of a film.

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A thriller that will blow your mind with every plot twist

Parasite easily became my favorite movie as soon as I watched it, over a year ago.
It has to be one of the best narrative films I've ever seen! Nothing can be truly compared to it.
Every single scene feels super intriguing, and it had me hooked from very beginning because it just keeps getting crazier and crazier.
The plot revolves around two families, a rich family, and a low class family, that "without a plan" starts making their way into the wealthy's life to work for them in order to get away from their flooded apartment and the poor Wi-Fi connection, not knowing that it'll just just make things even more complicated for them.

This movie made me reflect a lot on capitalism and how much society makes us think that in order to be happy, you have to be living someone else's life. And unless you fake it till' you make it, you will be looked down upon because you stink.

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I haven't watched the original, but I thought this was a truly great movie. There's just something nostalgic about movies set in the 90s, and this delivered everything to make it special: the props and set design, the outfits, music and the slang used within the script. Not sure why this is getting relatively low ratings, but in my opinion, this was a great watch that leaves you feeling warm and able to reflect. A super lighthearted movie, definitely put this on if you're craving a simple slice-of-life genre movie to watch.

Edit: so I did see a couple of reviews saying that some questions weren't answered at the end, but I feel like they shouldn't necessarily be answered. Us, as watchers, we can assume and play around a bit to see how the story played out. I do agree however, that the plot dried out towards the end, but the feel of the movie itself made it up for me to enjoy it a lot.

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why can't love ever be easy

This was a wonderful series. Even though it had a sad ending but it was still was very good. It shows the hardships of love, how a relationship is so hard to get into but so easy to fall apart. It killed me everytime the two leads aren't together. I was like small needle piercing my heart. This shows how the chemistry was so damn good. The actor did very well with their characters. I loved it so much. It was funny, sweet, romantic and sad all at the same time. I also loved at the end when the ML apologize to her, that he realized that she was the one that made him the man that he is today. I love how he bid her farewell even though it was killing him inside. A really bitter sweet movie.

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The last Korean BL movie that I saw left me so disappointed because of the way they handled a good storyline and turned in to an incoherent mess that I decided to lay off Korean BLs for some time. When I finally decided to give it one more go, I am glad to have found this movie. It has almost every thing that I am looking for in a BL movie.

Great Storyline: The movie is Kang In Soo a talented singer who is struggling to make a name for himself in the music industry. He wants to become a successful singer and with the help of his friend posts videos on YouTube and even performs on the streets. Yoon Sang Yi, a keyboardist and a part timer at a music company meets Kang In Soo on the street and is captivated by him. The music company scouts Kang In Soo and signs him up to record a label and Yoon Sang Yi moves in with him to help him as an assistant to the producer. In the course of them working together, they start sharing a special bond and a new relationship takes root.

Strong Characters: The movie is about 2 characters, Kang In Soo a singer who wants to make big in the music industry to prove a point to someone. That strong conviction is backed by talent. He is a great singer who we see smile against all the trouble he faces in making his dreams come true. He is a fighter and won’t compromise when it comes to his love for music. He also is aware about his limitations and doesn’t shy away from asking help from friends to make himself better. The second character is Yoon Sang Yi. He is a keyboardist who is part of a small band that performs on streets. He also has a part time job in a music company that hunts for new talents. He appreciates genuine talent like when he encounters Kang In Soo and works hard with him to help him realise his dream. He is caring and shy and we notice this through the multiple interactions that he has with other characters in the movie.

Reasonable Obstacles: Many a movie and series feel that a misunderstanding is what is required to create a drama in a budding relationship. Not this one though. There is no 3rd act breakup. Instead, we see genuine issues that you would face in the course of realising your dream and how it can hinder your progress and make you re-evaluate your life goals. Kang In Soo feels defeated at a certain point due to constant hurdles and takes a break from everything leaving Yoon Sang Yi feeling abandoned.

In conclusion, after previous disappointing Korean series this was a breath of fresh air. We had great characters, amazing actors who performed exceptionally well and a great storyline that was handled well.

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"Everybody has to die, but I won't be murdered!"

I Live in Fear dealt with the fear of atomic bombs and the dissolution of the patriarchal household giving all new meaning to the term nuclear family. It asked the question, "who is more insane---the one who fears a real threat and overreacts or the ones who know it exists and ignore it?"

It would be difficult to overstate the fear and paranoia of nuclear war and nuclear testing in 1955, especially 1955 Japan. This film was made only ten years after the atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Korean War which had left that peninsula carved up had ended two years before. WWIII had narrowly been averted on their front doorstep. In some countries bomb shelters were dug in backyards and duck and cover drills in school were a reality due to the Cold War and nuclear bomb proliferation. Not to mention, a giant irradiated lizard named Gojira had trashed Tokyo only the year before on screen. Living in the shadow of potential world destruction was a new fear that was being dealt with in books, movies, articles, coffee klatches, and political arenas. Kurosawa brought forth his own talking point in this film.

Nakajima Kiichi, the patriarch of his large family, can no longer live "with the fear of nuclear war or being down wind of nuclear testing. After a failed attempt at creating a large bunker in southern Japan he has determined the only safe place for his family is to move them to Brazil. His family resents his unilateral decision for them, but even more the money he has spent. If he sells the foundry he owns they will have to start over and actually have to go to work and not live off of their father. Kiichi is doing what he sees is best for his family out of his concern for them. Most of his family is more concerned with his financial viability thus ensuring theirs.

The family takes him to court and tries to have him declared incompetent. A judge, a member of the bar, and the local dentist-Dr. Harada, are tasked with mediating the case. Kiichi has been found to be psychiatrically sound. Ultimately, two of the three determine Kiichi's response is excessive and the greater kindness is to stop him from using his money to attempt to emigrate his family to Brazil. Harada, however, has his doubts. Everyone he knows fears nuclear war, but has found a different way of dealing with it than Kiichi. But does that make Kiichi's excessive response wrong?

When Kiichi is unable to buy the land in Brazil, his mental stability begins to crack. He meets with the family and begs them to go to Brazil, bowing deeply causing his wife to capitulate and ask the children to follow him. The children refuse his "unwelcome kindness" and Kiichi collapses. No one seems particularly concerned about him, instead they are like sharks smelling blood in the water. Everyone is concerned where they stand in the will, especially his mistresses and illegitimate children. They only need the foundry, not their father. This causes an explosion in his mind and it further cracks, in a moment of last desperation, Kiichi burns the foundry to the ground. His workers confront him about their loss of livelihood. He tells them he'll find a way to take them all to Brazil with him. Once again, he's faced with people unwilling to leave their homes to avoid a theoretical danger and instead willing to live in uncertainty. Kiichi's son yells at his father that there is no safe place on Earth, no place that will remain untouched if nuclear war begins, not even Brazil.

Kiichi suffers a mental breakdown which in the end takes him to a safer place. Visiting the asylum, Harada witnesses the change in the smiling older man. He's left wondering if he'd done the right thing. After all, is it really madness to fear a real threat or madness to pretend it doesn't exist?

Mifune Toshiro as the 70-year-old Kiichi gives his usual powerful performance but is hampered by the makeup created to make him look twice his age. I finally had to tell myself this was like a stage play to accept the awkward look. This was not an easy person to play, Kiichi is a complicated character and not always likeable. He loves his family yet also thinks he can tell them what to do, never asking their opinion on uprooting their lives to move to a foreign land. Cantankerous at times, yet also gentle, shown lovingly rocking his grandson to sleep. Lightning and thunder trigger a frightened response reminiscent of PTSD. His fear is real especially for someone who lived during the time when nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan. His response was to run from the danger instead of ignoring it knowing that one citizen could do little against the world powers building the insane weaponry as fast as they could.

As much as the film was an indictment on the nuclear age, it was also an indictment on the modern post war nuclear family. Kiichi's children were far more concerned about their standard of living provided by their father instead of his physical and mental health. While the children had some valid concerns about their father's actions, ultimately, it was his property and money, not theirs. They were content to feed off of his efforts. The greatest toxicity Kiichi was exposed to came from his own flesh and blood.

Decades after this film was made we still face the same decision Kiichi had to make. With enough weapons of mass destruction to wipe life off the surface of the planet, we each have to decide if we will live in fear or accept that the fear is the price we pay for the times we are living in. And that with any luck some day our collective wisdom may catch up with the terrors we have created.

2/10/23

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Unbelieveable!「不敢相信!」

A sincere-introspective-queer-supernatural-action-comedy movie sounds like a mishmash recipe for disaster. However, in director Cheng Wei Hao's deft hands, he is able to command these genres effortlessly. With no one genre overpowering the other, each transitioning into another seamlessly and blending beautifully. Thus, culminating into a film that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Wu Ming Han, Greg Hsu, is your typical homophobic chauvinistic CisHet male police officer who believes he is God's gift to mankind. After messing up a high speed chase with a member of a drug cartel, he is assigned the task of collecting all the debris from the car chase. He mistakenly picks up a red envelope, and a chill runs down his spine when he realizes it's an arrangement for a ghost marriage. To make matters worse his ghost spouse, Mao Bang Yu (Mao Mao), is a gay man.

Mao Mao, Austin Lin, was killed late one night in a hit and run incident. His loving and supportive Amah didn't want him to be lonely in the afterlife, hence creating the red envelope for him. After Wu Ming Han performs the marriage, Mao Mao reveals to his husband that he is unable to reincarnate until all his affairs from this life are settled. The driver from his hit and run incident was never apprehended, and he demands Wu Ming Han find the driver that killed him.

Well, what's a crime film with out its action sequences? "Marry My Dead Body" ticks off all the must haves: high speed car chase-check, stand off gun fight between police officers and the drug cartel-check, main character in a hand to hand fight sequence-check. But all these standard actions sequences have a bit of a cheeky twist, which are played for thrills as well as laughs.

Speaking of laughs, the humor of this film works on so many levels. Wu Ming Han is the straight man in both his sexuality and as well as being the comedic straight man. Forever the foil to all the shenanigans, but without him all the comedic elements would fall apart. Some of the best bits from the film are references to specific Taiwanese colloquialisms, culture, and queer culture. My personal favorite is a throw away joke when Wu Ming Han recites his badge number. The comedy in this film never talks downs to its audience by going for the easy joke.

Come for the comedy, but stay for a gut punch to the feels. Both leads go on a reluctant journey of self-reflection. Wu Ming Han to see others and a world beyond himself and Mao Mao must face the rift between him and his father. Both of their personal journeys come crashing to a head in the climactic scene between Wu Ming Han, Mao Mao, and Mao Mao's father. All three actors deliver exceptional performances, but Greg Hsu steals the spotlight with his masterful ability to swallow his sadness through forced smiles. The movie patron who sat next to me in the theater perfectly encapsulated the experience of watching this film with "I though this was a comedy..." in between heavy sobs.

Cheng Wei Hao cleverly weaves a poignant narrative of love and acceptance under the guise of a goofy odd couple trope. With an assist from two of Taiwan's rising stars, we are able to believe the growing and maturing friendship between the two leading characters. An excellent cast of supporting actors rounds out the ensemble, with Wang Man Chiao standing out as the Amah every queer person wishes was in their life. Wang Man Chiao exemplifies how beautifully ordinary it is to love your grandchild for who they are exactly as they are. By normalizing the acceptance of queer identities, this is the exact type of positive queer representation pop culture needs. "Marry My Dead Body" is the rare comedy that will make you laugh with tears in your eyes, and leaves a lasting impression as you leave the theater.

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A game sequence as a liaison to introduce the people who are going to help him. The idea is good, but it would have been nice to specify how long they have been together as a team to give more weight to their dedication. As for the violent scenes (heavy scenes), I'm surprised that there were no physical or psychological after-effects.

~~ I can't say that the actors are bad but this is the kind of film where the cast is interchangeable, all of them w/o exceptions.
~~The sequence of events are rushed in the second part. Some scenes are shown to surely pique our interest, to anticipate the next action but in the end they are poorly interwoven.
~~ The golden rule for this kind of scenario to work and keep me hooked on my seat: come up with smart, please smart, villains. I don't need a guy who blabs for a minute about his sense of accomplishment.
~~ Were the fight scenes (or at least what were supposed to be fight scenes) supposed to be done in the dark? How am I supposed to appreciate the quality of the choreography?
~~ It didn't reinvent the action genre with the typical "wrongly accused" + "revenge" + justice seeking ingredients but it's watchable.
~~ Don't expect an emotional connection from the gang or their inner thoughts on what motivates them. No, everyone does their own thing and everything works out fine.

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Another Great Squad to Remember! Indeed a Very Exciting Movie

9/10 It's all about the enjoyment.

Story:
The story is quite new to me but believable and interesting to watch unfold, though there are a couple of plot wholes that were unexplained it didn't affect the enjoyment much. Like how they got their tools the sec time, or if the kid is real..

Character:
With the work being a movie it's understandable that most characters don't an indepth look,but for the main character to be barely explored is something I consider as a weakness. We finish the movie with knowing barely anything about anyone. It was kinda disappointing especially with the funny credits cuts they could have added something about them instead. That is my main problem with the movie.
Aside from that, the cast were great! I only knew SIG which obviously is why I knew about this movie in the first place, and the villain forgot his name but this guy is always an A+ as a villain! These two as always meet my expectations, and surprisingly the other cast members were just as great! I loved every single one of them! Definitely gonna check their other works! Even the policemen were interesting and shined over their small roles!

Enjoyment:
I'm quite impressed by how good the movie is, it had everything, thriller, comedy, action! I was kinda skeptical that it would turn out as slapstick comedy with somescenes being borderline silly but the movie didn't fail to amaze me with how genres are well incorporated. I laughed, was on the edge of my seat, had teary eyes, and showted loud as if they could hear me.

Rewatch:
Although I don't see myself watching it anytime sooner, but I think I would definitely do a year or two from now if I was alive.

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A Harrowing Depiction of Reality

“Chen Nian, you’re the first person to ask me if it hurts.”

Went in without much expectation, but left feeling utterly exhausted— both mentally and physically. "Better Days" is one of the few films I would classify as "masterpieces," which are very few.

The film centers around two young adults who both met eachother connected by their pain and stuck to eachother because of the comfort both provided to ease their pain.

ZDY and JY’s performance in 'Better Days' was more than phoenomenal. The two acted with their eyes. Just scenes of pure silence with the two staring at eachother spoke a thousand words and coveyed thousands of emotions.

Cinematography and production are awe-inspiring. Although the cinematography was relatively simple, the directors really knew how to incorporate the little details, such as background music, certain angles, and other visual enhancers to weave an atmosphere so suffocating, depressing— yet undeniably fitting to the theme of the movie.

That being said, if you’re looking for a tear-jerker, I can’t recommend "Better Days" enough.

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What a difference a day makes

A Day takes the tired trope of the repeated day and gives it a karmic twist. Part taut thriller, part redemption story bordering on melodrama more than once, it managed to make all the parts work together to pull off a satisfying story.

Kim Joon Yeong is a famous surgeon who travels the world and is on magazine covers and hounded for autographs. At home, his daughter is less than enthralled with his career because he misses important days and times with her like her birthday. Lee Min Chul is an EMT who argues with his wife when she asks about having a baby. Both men are tied up in their own lives and careers and can't see the negative impact they are making on the females in their lives. When both the daughter and the wife are killed over and over and over regardless of how cleverly the men act, they find that there is someone else caught up in their endless day of agony, someone they have also impacted negatively.

Karma comes calling as they find themselves in hell. Because the victims are innocent it's impossible to not root for the men to break the curse and find a way out for their loved ones. Despite their herculean and sometimes murderous efforts the day seems to never end. Kim Joon Yeong finally realizes his part in the bloody drama and what needs to be done to stop the deaths and who actually needs to be saved.

As well made as the film was, the thriller dragged during some of the unremitting days and the bloody streets began to feel repetitious losing some of their emotional intensity. The overwrought score had a tendency to overwhelm the scenes instead of enhancing them. As well as all the actors portrayed their parts, there are only so many tears that remain effective scene after scene. There were one too many scenes played for overly dramatic effect for my tastes. Finally, Kim needs to spend more time with his daughter and tell her about stranger danger and to pay attention to traffic and not ignore her father's desperate requests.

Yet for the drawbacks, I did find much of the story and acting compelling. Redemption tales are catnip to me. There's a reason the film is also named Haru. For though something was taken, something was also given. Where life was lost, life was also created. A Day managed to weave together a story of revenge, grief, rage, and forgiveness culminating into a beautiful ending.

2/9/23

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