But with barely any of what makes them great.
Also, where’s Zhang Ziyi?
Not that I dislike Shu Qi but that’s not what I was promised at the end of the last one!
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Stunts - 81/100
Narrative - 51/100 | Lesson number 1 when making a Hong Kong Triad movie: length should be 90 minutes, not 120 minutes, unless there’s an interesting dynamic going on like in the previous movies. This sequel was excruciatingly boring because it’s half an hour too long. And the absence of Shin Eun-kyung severely hamstrings this movie. Clearly, she was the central pillar that made this whole thing work, at least for me.
Fight Choreography - 78/100 | Steady camera with exciting athleticism always gets a thumbs up from me on the fighting front. Shu Qi is obviously doubled but they did a good job with it. Minus points right there because of the huge missed opportunity of having Ken Lo be the final boss in your movie and not have him throw a single kick. -sigh- It is our lot in life as Ken Lo fans to suffer, is it not? He always plays overconfident mob bosses so why the hell don’t they make him back up that confidence? He certainly can. Oh well, enough ranting about that…
Enjoyment - 42/100 | Hold that thought, still got one more in stock. The translator was so annoying, I couldn’t figure out whether she was a comic relief character or one you’re supposed to root for... or totally hate? I’m lost on this one.
I’m all for their attempt to make a girl empowerment movie but it just falls flat on its head. Stick with the previous entries in my opinion, you get a fully-developed character that’s much more interesting. And a better story. And better comedy. Better everything.
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And then it gets even better. I never thought in my life that I’d ever watch a South Korean movie ending on a Zhang Ziyi cameo flying around Crouching Tiger-style and fighting to the tune of—yes you guessed it—I WILL SURVIVE
Oh my god, YES
Kick-ass movie! And kinda trash at the same time.
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Stunts - 80/100 | When the guy drops Eun-jin at the beginning I physically cringed, especially since I fell this way once and had a concussion from it. It’s like a short blink and you’ll miss it stunt that nobody probably remembers, but it was the most impactful for me lmao
Narrative - 72/100 | What I like most about this movie is just how much the character of Eun-jin grows. There’s a deplorable attempted rape scene in this movie (played for laughs…) but apart from that I was engaged throughout. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea since nothing happens for a while with the plot but I thought it was an interesting character-driven story carried big time by Shin Eun-kyung’s central performance in her role of Eun-jin. Wonderful range of expressions, demeanor, and body language on this one. Oh and a very physical performance too.
Fight Choreography - 81/100 | Haven’t seen the third one yet but the fights in this sequel are a definite step up. I really liked how they just went all in on the wires and crazy stuff, I dunno I thought it fit pretty well with how the character is basically a legendary figure at this point. It was filmed and put together a lot better.
Enjoyment - 82/100 | You can feel the Hong Kong influences here, they’re everywhere, but with this lovely touch of South Korean out-of-place comedy that I very much appreciate as well. I love amnesia-fueled stories. It just brings so much to the table sometimes, as evidenced by how much I enjoyed this, however nonsensical it was at times.
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Blend in the famous Hong Kong Triad power struggles/dynamics with South Korea’s perpetual game of Genre Musical Chair and you get this, whatever this is. I liked it!
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Stunts - 83/100 | Somebody high up in the creative team is a fan of Hong Kong movies. They even included the staple humorous sidekick that we all love to hate (more like hate tbh)
Narrative - 68/100 | (Melo)Drama, Crime, Action, Comedy all merge together to form a weirdly functioning mess.
Fight Choreography - 68/100 | Only part that I wished they had studied better in their efforts to replicate fights from the best school of action cinema. Still, there was an attempt here, with a brutal end fight sequence that was pretty decent. Performers had it in them I think but the editing… bleh. It really was all over the place and the fights were hard to follow, which is the opposite of what you’d want. I liked the wire bits though.
Enjoyment - 79/100 | I was surprised by how much depth the main character had. It was really fun to see her struggle with basic life stuff and yet, be so respected and feared by her peers. Funny and yet intense central performance by Shin Eun-kyung. She’s a stone-cold certified badass.
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>> "When exposed to room temperature, the vaccine turns into a mutative virus. Within 6 minutes, it will modify all living beings in the country and kill them."
Okay I have no idea who wrote that shit but I am VERY pleased at the mess it results into. Definitely my drift.
Except it’s not even that much of a mess, this movie’s actually pretty good and hella entertaining.
Well... for an action movie anyway.
But the action’s terrible.
So, it’s a good action movie with shitty action.
What?!
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Stunts - 72/100
Narrative - 69/100 | It’s South Korea’s Mr. And Ms. Smith. The plot, attention to clever details, and characters kinda make this work.
Fight Choreography - 47/100 | You can clearly see that the villain’s got some moves but they over-edited everything to death in this movie. Like I said, shitty action. But daring stunts, somewhat.
Enjoyment - 75/100 | Some parts of this movie are in “so bad it’s good” territory but the thing is, other parts are genuinely good. I’m a bit confused. I like how the main bad guy is a Russian woman who speaks Russian to South Koreans all the time and doesn’t give a damn that nearly nobody understands.
I should mention that this aligned pretty well with my (sometimes shitty) tastes. I just thought the sense-to-nonsense ratio in this film was quite on target (as if it was in any way measurable… ?)
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Stunts - 69/100
Narrative - 48/100 | It’s way too silly at the beginning. The tonal shifts in this movie and weird editing in the beginning are quite jarring, whether they’re intended or not. It seems nobody stopped at some point to ask themselves the question “wait, what are we going for again?”
Fight Choreography - 77/100 | This is basically sword-fighting ballet. If I got this right, they meet and engage in metaphorical sex through duels? Except yelling at each other there doesn’t seem to be anything of substance to their relationship. Eventually becomes excessive slow-mo melodrama for no reason, but it looks damn good.
Enjoyment - 52/100 | The mise en scène in this movie is quite something, and so is the cinematography. Great-looking movie, that’s for sure. But I’m not sure I got the message, if there was any to begin with, except the usual “love is not something you can control”. And I’ve always preferred plot and characters (basically, writing) over visuals.
If you liked Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster, give this movie a try. It’s basically a more messed-up and less coherent version of it.
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Today was a strange day.
Guy looks bit too feminine I thought.
He tells her that, as his master, she can have him do anything, anywhere she pleases (she also confesses that she's lonely), and somehow this movie doesn't involve any kinks whatsoever for the whole runtime. Nothing, not even a small something? Criminal!
Some legitimately funny scenes and a pleasant dynamic between the duo almost salvage an ultimately cringy movie about a love triangle the kind of which we've seen everywhere that's also 20 minutes too long. Random but it was interesting to me how the woman was 10 years older than the man here. And it doesn't play into the plot at all. That's not something you see often, at least not in Western movies.
It's just so absurd for a premise that I just had to watch it.
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…
> Mission: Operation Nun Sense
xD my sides
Quirky and effective South Korean comedy that I found way better than it had every right to be, thanks to the charming performance of lead Kim Seon-a and some surprisingly good action sequences for a movie in that genre.
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Stunts - 71/100
Narrative - 72/100 | It helps that I have a special (and biased) fondness for pretty much everything that happens in this movie: quirky lead performance, awkward high school setting, undercover high school setting, "forbidden" romantic undertones, good fight sequences…
Fight Choreography - 79/100 | You know, I wasn't expecting good fight scenes in a movie like this. The lead could certainly act the part of someone who could fight. Not too many cuts, decent stunts, good choreography, good flow… Some hits could have hit harder but thumbs up!
Enjoyment - 80/100 | I was never bored, not a single second throughout, and that says a lot since it's a 2 hour comedy movie (which usually bore me at some point). As usual with South Korean movies, expect some tonal whiplash near the end. However, I appreciated the melodramatic turn at the end, I thought it fit the moment and wasn't out of place.
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South Korea's Charlie's Angels
Okay don’t go in expecting a masterpiece, this is basically South Korea’s Charlies’ Angels… if they had yo-yo’s and stressball grenades. And if it was set in the 19th century. And starring a real-life kpop diva.But for what it’s worth, I enjoyed this. It’s cheesy as hell but when you have 3 charming girls like this kicking ass flying on wires and swinging metal yo-yo’s around the place while delivering heavy-handed dialogue, I’m in awe as to how exactly a movie like this got made.
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Stunts - 58/100 | Lots of cutting around to hide the CGI and stunts of average quality.
Narrative - 65/100 | Okay I may be getting a little generous on this one. But I didn’t mind the cheesy storyline so yeah. 65 it is. I liked the gender-reversed situation at play here, with the rescue operation.
Fight Choreography - 64/100 | They’re using yo-yo’s to seriously hurt people. And swinging around like Spider-Man.
Enjoyment - 74/100 | I think this movie establishes really well that the lead Ha Ji-won is incredibly photogenic, that much is certain.
It was an energetic and fun movie with lots of silly moments and a trio who are basically the three female musketeers and I liked it. The main theme, which starts every time the three girls get into a fight, is also exactly as corny as you would imagine from the poster.
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Too slow
The nonsensical writing sinks this. Also the pacing, which is terrible with easily 25 mins of bloat, but I kind of expected that one. There seems to be this unwritten rule with Korean films where they need to clock in at around 2 hours even if they have nothing to show for it, not sure why. A shame because the actors were good and the story was compelling.I know that they're supposed to be the same age in the movie, but in real life, Kim Ah-joong is 5 years older than Joo Woo, which I thought was interesting because you don't often see a casually older female lead like this. Well, as far as Hollywood movies are concerned.
I guess Korean films couldn't be further from them in that regard.
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I headed into this because it looked funny, and I wasn’t wrong.
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Stunts - 64/100
Narrative - 62/100 | The main character was so good at looking clueless, it’s like it was second nature for her. Hilarious at times. I remember her from The Huntresses, quite a funny actress!
Fight Choreography - 49/100 | Jump cuts are the only way you can show a 100 lbs girl successfully taking on 4 guys in a fight. The fights are just… bad. Seen worse though.
Enjoyment - 68/100 | Somehow this movie kept me engaged. The main girls had great chemistry, the plot had a few surprises of its own, and it was funny enough. Definitely not boring, even though it was a tad too long as most standard fare South Korean flicks tend to be, since they aim for 2 hours even if it means forcing it.
Really loved Chae-ah's overly fierce attitude like she's about to brawl with anyone in sight all the time. Also, her seduction scene in the office... damn!!
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This review may contain spoilers
This is a movie very much of its time. The camera work, the editing, the type of storyline, the type of humor, they are all hallmarks of the period this movie comes from. It's filmed in a slice-of-life way (despite not being a slice-of-life story) with what another MyDramaList reviewer referred to as a series of vignettes that all connect together. I think that's an accurate summation and a good thing to know going in. There is an over-arching storyline with a beginning, middle, and end, but it doesn't feel quite the same as most mainstream movies today. This style of filmmaking isn't something that was done in all Korean movies made at the time, of course, but it was a somewhat common form of storytelling from what I can tell. Initially, I found it a bit confusing, but I got the hang of it about halfway through, and now that I've finished the movie, I think I like the directing/editing decision.The one thing that really hampers this movie is some of the humor. The male lead is a rich, sexist, jerk in the beginning. This isn't a new trope, and it's not one that bothers me if the male lead grows as a person and sees the error of his previous behavior. But the way the filmmakers chose to portray him in the first half of the drama involved a number of inappropriate jokes/scenes that I found tasteless and unnecessary. For example, the male lead arrives for his new job and immediately a fantasy plays in his head of a bunch of teen girls (although the actresses look like they might be in their early 20's) coming out of classrooms and running past him in skimpy gym uniforms, all the while laughing and giggling with their long hair flowing behind them. I was not amused.
If you take out the crude jokes though, this movie does work surprisingly well. Like I said, it's filmed in a sort-of vignette sort of way that I came to enjoy, and the male lead actually becomes quite likable by the second half of the story. The catalyst for his character growth happens about halfway through. Something terrible happens to one of his students, and he really pulls through for her in a way you don't expect. From there, he continues to improve, and by the end, he's become a decent guy. The crude humor also goes away in the second half, for which I was very grateful.
I don't know that I will ever watch this movie again because of aforementioned crude humor, but it was funny when it wasn't crude.
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This review may contain spoilers
Pornography disguised as social commentary
A landscape photographer finds himself entangled in some nefarious forest business: what was meant to be a search for some rare local flower turns out to be a trip fraught with mysterious murders, crazed women, and sexy jungle fairies. When he finally uncovers the true nature of those he meets in the woods--animal poachers, unauthorized loggers, and murderous human traffickers--he is must choose what he deems more important: his safety or his morality."Virgin Forest" could have been a story about sexual exploitation, environmental politics, and the need for restorations; but instead the movie ends up spending most of its screen time on sultry forest spirits, scarcely-clad sex workers, and waterfall-themed orgies. Any attempt at meaningful social commentary is overshadowed by erotica, and I wish the director had committed to making this either a full-fledged porno or a proper art house film-- because this weird combination is just messy.
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Really disappointing
The Admiral is one of my favourite Korean flicks, so I was waiting for this since I saw it announced, a little over a year and a half ago!Sadly, this failed to live up to both its predecessor and my own hype, as I often found myself checking how long was left, since the battle seemed to take forever to start!
Even worse: once the battle came about, it was a one-trick pony... which is all I'll say, as to not ruin it for others.
Yes, the cast is strong, the music is somewhat rousing and the effects are all decent, but the story failed to pull me into both the human elements and the strategic build-up (and massive anti-climax).
I rated this a 6 instead of the 5 I wanted to give it, because I probably judged it (slightly) too harshly, but I'm so disappointed now, I may even go back and watch, The Admiral again, just to brighten my mood.
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Ordinary and messy but fun
Feature debut of Cho Eun-ji, who has been making a name in the Korean film industry as an actress of films like “The Villainess” and “Concubine” since the beginning of the millennium, “Perhaps Love” is a romantic comedy that tries to stray away from the norms through a number of different ways and an intensely episodic approach.Cho Eun-ji has a great comedic cast under her instructions, and she manages to make the most of them in that regard. Ryu Seung-ryong’s immaturity and awkwardness, Oh Na-ra’s frantic mood changes and short temper as Mi-ae, Kim Hee-won’s despair as Soon-mo and Sung Yoo-bin’s multileveled frustration as Seong-gyeong create an explosively funny mix that carries the movie for the most of its duration. In that fashion, the interactions of the many protagonists are hilarious to watch a number of times, with Cho including enough episodes to allow them to do so. Even Mu Jin-sung as Yoo-jin, who is the main “advocate” of drama here, has its funny moments, even if in a more subtle fashion, in an overall approach that both highlights and benefits from the chemistry of the cast. The fighting scene inside the apartment is a great testament to the fact.
Through this approach, Cho also manages to present her comments about love, parenthood, mentorship, creativity, all of which seem to showcase how difficult life can be both in professional and social terms. At the same time, though, the changes the protagonists undergo during the many events they experience and the way they change them induce the movie with a rather optimistic note, which works quite well here, particularly through the whole persona of Hyun.
What does not work though, is the number of episodes, and to the point, of characters, here, which prolong the movie to almost two hours, and become somewhat tiresome after a point, even if individually, they still make sense. Particularly close to the end, when elements of (melo) drama come to the fore, Cho seems to lose control of her narrative, resulting in a movie that could definitely have ended much sooner. This also dulls the effort of editor Kim Tae-gyong, who has implemented a rather fast pace in order for all the episodes to fit in, but could have trimmed the movie, particularly close to the end.
Kim Tae-soo’s cinematography is fittingly polished, with his framing being quite enjoyable on occasion (the fighting scene once more) without any particular exaltations.
Cho Eun-ji seems to have hit the reef of the first time directors, who frequently try to do as much as possible in the feature debut. However, the result is rather entertaining for the most part while she seems to have many interesting social comments to make, which deem the film hopeful.
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The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves to Die
4 people found this review helpful
For Action lovers only
The story is what is just written in a synopsis, with an ample amount of action. So if you want a more deep story of character growth and bonding please just avoid watching this movie and bash it later.It serves an audience who loves action, and we all know Jang Hyuk doing action sequences, killing the baddies, and firing guns as if in a war is a treat to watch. Not much for acting but he really put a lot of effort on action, as viewers we know that action requires more physical strength.
Since I like watching JangHyuk's works, this was an OK movie for me but I enjoyed it.
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