Reviews

This movie is not for everyone!! (Explicit content n psychologically twisted story)

ALERT:
DON'T WATCH THIS, WHEN U R ALREADY DISTURBED OR AGITATED EMOTIONALLY ! 😆

Very Disturbing, Dark, Crippled, Weird n "Strictly A NO" way of saving someone by someone who is equally tormented n lost everything in life! :o :( 😂

In the first watch, U'll be shocked or disgusted with all the torture n sxl content.
But in the second watch (towards the end of the movie), U find a beautiful emotional Love story of two people, unfolding, who reached rock bottom in life, n mentally exhausted, healing together with each other's company, care n warmth.

LOVE AND LIFE DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE ALWAYS!! :(

PS: How on Earth did this Manga Author get "that idea " of saving someone!? (For the first half of the movie) ,
OmG!! Haha

**** About TITLE:
I always wondered why this is named so.

Haha, that title is very apt to the acts in the first half of the movie:

Usually, Saving someone from Trauma or depression is done by using medication/ physical n psychological treatments.

But here, Ryoji saved Makoto n instilled an idea in him to survive by using DANGEROUS DRUGS called "S*xl Abuse", OmG!! 🤯😂

If he can survive that abuse, he would surely value being alive.. this motto n thinking of Ryoji, No, the thoughts of the Author , OmG, Creepy Philosophy! 😂🤯

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Quiet, adagietto, yet impactful. With plenty of heart hidden behind an apparently repellent shell.

Unsentimentally but lovingly, "Springtime" tells about people at the lower end of the social pyramid. They live a simple life. They also have dreams, but not too much hope. Nevertheless, "Springtime" offers soothing, encouraging positive vibes. Soulfully beautiful.

Slowly and deliberately, we glide into the world of the protagonist. (Don't be put off by the pacing!) Once we arrive, a story full of heart takes its course unobtrusively, true-to-life and down-to-earth. Authentically idiosyncratic: Choi Min-sik, as a passionate musician and anti-hero with principles (as well as a warm heart).

However, these principles make the protagonist's life quite difficult. He feels he cannot afford his girlfriend, which is leading to their separation. His music is sacred to him, and he does not want to prostitute himself with his trumpet in any no-name establishments. But with his stubborn ego he also cannot get into any of the prestigious orchestras in Seoul. He is broke and in debt. Even though it is hard for him, he has to take a job – in this case, as a teacher for the school orchestra of a middle school in a mining town.

The protagonist's life changes when he has no choice but to let go of his concepts. In that mining town, he inevitably engages with what life has to offer: the people there. He steps out of his comfort zone and teaches the mediocre but committed boys. He opens their hearts to music... and in turn, his heart to them and their lives. They become more important to him than his principles and thus for him, ultimately, is opening a healing bridge to freedom.

One of those quiet, adagietto, yet impactful KMovies, with plenty of heart hidden behind an apparently repellent shell.

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Heartwarming yet heartbreaking

The actors did great, they made me hooked to the story pretty much from the start. There was some misunderstandings, but it get cleared soon, and the story progressed in the right way. They delivered what we are yearning for.
When Woon-ho was leaving, I was crying and waiting for a good ending, atleast a meet up.
And I was certainly not ready for a heart breaking death, that too with a beautiful clip in the end.

I watched a film yesterday and it too has a bad ending, but no one died in that, just the ML left for good, and I was tramatized by that ending for whole day.
I want to see some comforting story after that , but it turns out to be more heart wrenching, now I want to cry like shit. I am not watching anything for a while. This is so bad. 😞😞

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Poorly Written & Directed

******SPOILERS ABOUND - DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200 IF YOU HATE SPOILERS*****

What should have been an interesting who done it is a poorly written, nonsensical mess. You know almost immediately that Yu Ji Yun, the main suspect is not the killer yet her husband, Seong Ryeol does everything in his power to make her look guilty. The director wanted to make a noir film but just b/c you have a lot of dark scenes doesn't mean you have a crime noir film.

They have Ryu Seung Ryong, one of my favorite actors playing the most cartoonish villain's I have seen in a long while. He doesn't care about his brother's murder and only cares about getting his stolen goods back, specifically these poop coffee beans. This film stars Cha Seong Won, Ryu Seung Ryong, Song Yoon Ah, Oh Jung Se and even this stellar cast can't save this poorly written foolishness.

I loved Lee El in this she was super cute and adorable playing the coroner.

The big reveal was very predictable, as well. I knew from jump who the mastermind was. This part I won't spoil for any one who really wants to watch.

2/18/25

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Short but great :)

Kiba-san works in a welfare-type facility for children with disabilities, where children who cannot live with their parents due to various reasons live together. One day the little boy Ritsu arrived who has been neglected by his parents, who does not speak but is drawn to Kiba. After some weeks of happy living Ritsu has to go back to his mum...

Overall a heartwarming movie, based on a true story, about a social worker who does care about all the children he is responsible for. Jun of course acts believable and he's heartbroken when Ritsu has to leave. I won't spoil the end, but it's not a bad one. So, if you have free 23 minutes, watch this short-movie!

Edit: This silly site has no way to add a youtube link, so if you are looking for this short-film:
https://youtu.be/mII6nUlTNZk

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Kitano does what Kitano does best

Can't believe this got shadow-dropped onto Prime a few days ago and I'm only just learning about its release now 😭... Takeshi Kitano may be in his twilight years but that's not stopping him from doing what he loves and doing it well, with Broken Rage he paints a rollicking self-portrait of himself; an artist rethinking his relationship with the medium he's mastered and having a decidedly grand time in the process. It's a remarkably clever tactic to initially convey your story one way, only to backpedal in the second half and present it in a completely different style; it's a move that massively pays off and delivers some prime Kitano hilarity; tackling the two genres he's always been most known for, starting from a drier deadpan before rebooting into unbridled absurdity, a concise lesson in parody, creating a simple form and then breaking it with the subtle force of a sledgehammer through wood on a nail bed. In many ways, it can be seen as Kitano mocking the current filmmaking climate we live in, poking holes in everything and everyone he can, a perfect amalgamation of his works distilled into a crisp 66-minute runtime. It is a significant departure from traditional storytelling, that pays off tenfold in many ways with Broken Rage adhering to the two most significant adages in show business: always leave them laughing and wanting more; it's utterly hilarious, Kitano knows it and embraces it delivering both a love letter to himself and his fans while also ridiculing both.

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A tasteless spit in the face of OOO's legacy

Without any exaggeration this is the worst movie i have ever watched. I would rather watch the most disgusting, depraved, cheap porno or watch paint dry than ever glance at this movie again. It is so unbelievably blind and tone deaf to the core ideas and messages of the show that it almost feels like it was specifically made to tarnish it's legacy. It is a soulless, heartless, depressing conclusion that fails to do justice to any narrative aspect of OOO, be it the story, characters or messages. If this is how Toei view OOO I'd rather they never touch the character ever again than try to follow up this disaster.

The only good thing to come out of this movie was Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Regained. It's not a perfect movie, but it showed that Toei learner from their mistakes and will treat all future anniversary movies with more careful thought.

If you are an OOO fan: i do not recommend you watch this. The good this movie has does not make up for it's flaws.

0.5/10

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"Just because you see it with your eyes...Do you believe it?"

Unidentified was anything but straightforward. File it under absurd arthouse, low budget, independent, allegorical tale, and musical sci-fi endeavor. The movie combined seemingly random vignettes and documentary style scenes. Weirdly, it worked on different levels, but will likely not appeal to most.

In 1993, giant spheres settled over major cities around the world. No first contact, just silence…for 29 years. As people became accustomed to the new sky décor, an international theory developed: Alien Mind Control Syndrome. Whether aliens were controlling people’s minds or masquerading as people was up for debate. Those under 29-years-old began to question if they were aliens. Three people in black could have been aliens, from somewhere else, or just mentally stressed from the ever present spheres. Were oddity and social alienation a sign of being an extraterrestrial or just being odd and lonely?

The acting was not great, but better than most low budget films. Romantic love, heartbreak, an alien cult, dream interpretation, burned-out workers, even Korean reunification all made appearances. It was not unusual for characters to break out in dance and/or song. Luckily, the music was actually quite pleasing.

I have no idea what director Jude Chun wanted me to take away from this strange film. What I got from it was how we all deal with the “aliens” in our midst, those who are “different” or foreign. Do the “aliens” in a foreign place still dream of home? Are we welcoming, seeking to learn from each other and peacefully co-existing or do we shut down and listen to our lizard brains and determine we must protect ourselves from the “aliens” and their different ways of thinking, looking, and doing things whether in society or in our personal lives? Chun didn’t spoon feed his vision. The film dragged in places and was obviously not well funded yet it provided interesting existential perspectives and what alien film couldn’t be improved by song and dance?

17 February 2025

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HERS STORIES is a more accurate title of this charming little film

Overall an extremely well made little film about a Mom, her daughter, and a young lady neighbor This should have been a 24 episode series, at least.

1. The cast is excellent. SHE AND HER GIRL FANS will love seeing Song Jia playing her smart but emotionally stunted self, with her now classic hand gestures. IMPERFECT VICTIM fans will be amazed at how lovely and fragile Zhong Chu Xi is in comparison to her frustrated cop role in that series. And (apparently) newcomer Isabella Zeng is terrific as the young daughter trying to navigate her way in the adult world of patriarchy, demanding mothers, annoying Dads, Mom's new boyfriend, etc. Really all the men are just as great as the women -- KUDOS to the casting agent.

2. The story isn't really much but a slice of life of women in China. Like a quality Woody Allen story, the story relentlessly pursues social commentary on topic. Woody is obsessed with infidelity, whereas HER STORY focuses on feminism issues. I'll say if 7 dashes of a spice does it, this had 9. It didn't ruin the recipe, but two dashes could have been removed and only made the 'discussion' tastier. Again, that's why I say this should have been a series where all these interesting women topics didn't have to be crammed into two hours.

3. The costumes, sets, lighting, camera, music -- they were all top notch. When those are this good you don't really notice them at first. Halfway through the film I realized they were all perfect. Watch this filmmaker and her crew.

4. Both posters for this film are TERRIBLE. It's neither a bright Disney affair nor some exotic floral journey. The Mom, Daughter, and friend need to share a poster, that's it.

4. To talk more about this film makes it out to be more than it is. It's just a very good little film. You watch it to observe these characters bump into each other. I've seen many American arthouse films fill a movie with quirky weirdos and sh!t goes down when they get together and eat. It's a sort of tradition of these types of films. Well, it happens here too -- BUT -- it doesn't feel like a sitcom stuffed with weirdos but instead real people in real situations.

Makes a perfect matinee. Don't hesitate. See the comment fields to find a subbed version.

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[As always, the categories don't make sense for a documentary, so please just ignore the rating.]

Intended for a domestic, not international, audience, this documentary does not need to tell the story of Tsukemen, the ramen variant invented by Yamagishi-san in 1961, and it does also not need to tell us about the dish itself.

Instead it focuses on the last active years of Yamagishi, and some of his years after retirement -- as well as how his work and marriage has shaped his life and his legacy.

As always with these documentaries that follow a person's personal life, I admire how close the film maker is able to get to the subjects of his film. The raw honesty with which Yamagishi can show us his life is the main reason this documentary can evoke the deep feelings viewers can feel while watching it -- personally, I cried throughout the last third until the very last second of the closing credits -- they were tears of suffering, of relief, of nostalgia for a life I did not live. Every moment of happiness was tinged with a deep melancholia for the passing of time and the changes it brings with it.

The way Yamagishi suffers through most of the film, and how he is still able to look back on his life and see the good things -- how he can accept the finality of age will stay with me for a long time.

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About coming of age and to raise awareness about coming out and social problems

If contemporary audiovisuals have taken one function seriously, it has been to raise awareness about social problems that harm certain people or groups. Among the themes that fiction increasingly explores is pedophilia and violence against minors.
Many times, the stories that the viewer sees in front of the screen are not a mere result of narrative creation, but of real faces and names that suffer daily from the actions of sexual predators.
Although there has been a worldwide tendency to address these issues through fiction, especially that directed at girls, there is still an interest in making such attacks visible also on children and, as a society, reflecting on it.
That is precisely what 'Hidden' is about, the third short film and also the graduation production, by Taiwanese director, screenwriter, editor and producer Hsuan-Chi Kuo.
From the first frames, the creative and aesthetic seal of the director who graduated from the National University of the Arts in Taipei, known for focusing his films on the problems of growing up and sexual aggression of homosexual teenagers, is evident.
In just under 30 minutes, the film addresses a story about coming of age, self-discovery, first crushes and gay dating apps, through which Xiao-Wei (You-Lun Lin, known for his role in 'Wo men yu e de ju li', 2019), the young protagonist of only thirteen years old, must grow up, although to do so he must face childhood sexual abuse, this type of traumatic experience that can interfere with the proper development of the attacked, as well as having a negative impact on both the physical and psychological state of the person who suffers its consequences.
It is not the first time that the experienced director approaches the universe of childhood and adolescence, since his name has become a reference in terms of gender perspective, exploration of sexuality, gay identity, sexual curiosity and the perplexity of growing up.
Hsuan-Chi Kuo knows well the themes addressed in his filmography, with their evident complexity, when it comes to bringing them to the screen; but also with a beauty achieved from the visual and a particular workmanship that immediately reveals its authorship.
The name behind 'A Boy's Mind' and 'Fly' turns on this occasion to tell a story about a young boy who little by little has been understanding his sexuality and has begun to use dating applications to explore the sensual world, but in his case with a crude setting as a backdrop.
Xiao-Wei, who hides his true self in real life, has complicated and indescribable emotions for his best friend Pin Rui (Chih-Hsuan Wu, known for his role in 'No Strings Attached' (2023), 'Shiba San and Meow Chan' (2018). When Pin Rui confessed to his friend that he has a girlfriend, the friendly relationship between the two gradually drifted apart and made Xiao Wei feel distressed and depressed.
Will the protagonist, who musters the courage to meet netizens in search of solace, get answers, or will he become even more confused?
Presented at the Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, the International LGBTQ Film Festival, nominated for student narrative short films at the Golden Harvest Awards for Outstanding Short Films, and the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival, all in 2021, and at Wicked Queer Boston's LGBTQ Film Festival, 2022, this short film offers good camera focuses and very excellent cinematography.
As a man highly committed to reality, Hsuan-Chi Kuo sought a thoughtful treatment that would connect with the recipients. With a marked and conscious distinction between explicit and suggestive scenes, the film constitutes, among other things, a call to denounce a clinical, legal and social problem called pedophilia, to destroy the myth of good or bad victims, to understand that child sexual abuse is a type of abuse that has no face or specific social stratum, to internalize that it continues to be a taboo subject that is not talked about enough and, above all, to recognize all forms and not remain silent.

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