Reviews

A great found footage horror film for the fall!

With an intriguing introduction, use of clever music and visuals, the movie starts strong. The backstory of the mystic religion and secretive ritual which was conducted by the residents of the village was also very interesting. From the beginning one could see the cleverly placed inklings of the curse among the practitioners.

Off on a tangent here, but I found the lack of respect for other people’s religion quite annoying. If someone says don’t desecrate our altar or respect our idol then follow their instructions or just scram! By the end of the first hour I was supremely annoyed at the trio of ghostbusters who didn’t show a modicum of intelligence, or survival instinct. They were mostly the instruments for spreading the horror and the next hour just reconfirmed my beliefs.

BTW splendid acting by the main female lead and the child. The lead portrayed the emotions really well and the atmosphere created was truly immersive, be it the past or the present. Even the child did an awesome portal of being confused, neglected, loved and cursed. Wide array of emotions here!

The cinematography & use of colours though not as lush as “The Medium” was believable and pulled the audience into the story. The story is peppered with a whole lot of jump scares though the gore was a bit too much for me. The fear factor is definitely high and the BGM tied in perfectly with the eeriness of the horror story.

I found the horror to be more of a creepy feeling that builds up to the finale rather than a classic American horror film, and what a great finale. Finally a movie that has a fitting finale! I loved how they retained consistency with the storytelling through use of psychology. The imparting of a particular message to the audience by presenting the same symbol & prayer at regular intervals was also very unique. The breaking of the fourth wall was vital to good storytelling.

Now as one of the reviewers mentioned previously, this movie should have a trigger warning for trypophobia (it’s not obvious but for those who suffer from it, it’s glaring) as well as child neglect. Another con for me was the constant switching of the two timelines. The yo-yoing back and forth gave me whiplash besides confusing the hell out of me in the first hour.

All in all, this was a great horror film peppered with just enough scares and a good creepy background story. While the movie could do with a tighter editing and shorter duration, the overall horror was good enough to deserve an 8 acc to me. And that’s the highest score yet this year for a horror film.

Recommended for - creepiness, jump scares, mystic rituals/superstitious beliefs and lots of gory visuals.
Not recommended for - slick/fast buildups, trypophobics and people sensitive to blood, child neglect or whiplash.

Read More

who is innocent in this world ?

Innocent Witness is a wonderful movie with a beautiful message. I was overwhelmed at the end because it questions the human beings who think they are normal and every other human being with any shortcomings, diseases, or specialty is abnormal. But they forget one thing normal humans had the ability to lie and commit crimes.

The director, producer, and writer made a beautiful film and focused on the prejudice of society toward autism. Because they are always considered to be abnormal and not fit for the world.

Innocent Witness foretells that the prosecution arrested a housekeeper on the charges of murder, solely on the basis of a witness statement. The defense lawyer tries hard to get the correct information but he had his biased opinion that witnesses may have perceived the murder events wrongly because normal people also make mistakes. Maybe because he wanted to win the case but finally he realized the special skills of Kim Ji Woo and understood her statements. Becoming a man of justice and not just a winning lawyer.

Jung Woo Sung and Kim Hyang Gi nailed her character on the spot! The combined synergy between these two characters was just heart-warming and loved the pace and build-up to the solving of the case.

The only flaw for me was the prosecution part they didn’t really work hard to prove the guilty not just rely upon one witness. They should have gone to prove the motive and other basics. The writer may have left this to show the non-effort of the prosecution which contrasted with the defense attorney who gives time and effort to his cases.

Read More

Highly confusing and disappointing

The second movie left me quite excited for the final part and I sat down happily with my tablet in my hand when it finally came out today. I wish I hadn't expected so much from it!
Throughout the whole movie I couldn't stop thinking about how much I don't understand the story and how pathetically confused I am. It felt as if someone took the interesting parts of the story (and a bunch of incredibly talented actors like Ryosuke, Mackenyu and Keisuke), left the 'boring' scenes out and made a trilogy matching their personal taste. I'm certain that viewers weren't imparted numerous important information which would have been cruical in order to understand the story. I was utterly disappointed because no matter how hard I tried to puzzle out what was going on, I ultimately failed on multiple occasions. I got into a huge maze in the first movie and it got more and more complicated the more time I spent watching the trilogy.
I also must say a few words about the must-romantic interests. Action movies and thrillers would happily survive without these forced cringe romantic elements that make my skin crawl, to be frank. In my eyes, Winry was an absolutely useless and incredibly annoying character, she shouldn't have been given another role than being the one working on Ed's artificial limbs. It simply felt forced from Ed's side, the romantic feelings. As if they just had to exist because the writers thought love must be in the air. It was completely unnecessary and it very much ruined the movie experience. The other romantic couples should have stayed in the friend zone too, if they couldn't make it look and feel natural.
And one last thing I can't leave unspoken is Envy and Greed's death, they had much more potential, I was hoping to see more of them. The Homunculi became too easy to kill by the end of the last movie, I must say.
To sum it up, it's an entertaining movie trilogy but I doubt I could ever sit down again to watch it, maybe the second movie... too bad we didn't get to see Alphonse in his human body in an extra scene in the end, I would have appreciated it, haha.

Read More

Everything stands or falls with the choice of an auspicious place. Insights into Korean geomanticsm

"FengShui" is a historical KMovie that addresses the political takeover by Heungseon Daewongun and his son, King Gojong. Even more, it deals with the Korean version of geomancy - Pungsu-jiri-seol = theory about the relation between wind, water and earth - which has accompanied the country across all dynasties since at least the late 9th century. The traditional theoretical concepts, studies and observations are about which constellations in the landscape bring luck or misfortune to people. In South (and North) Korea there is hardly any building, tomb, temple, or city that was not built from the point of view of Pungsu. To this day, Pungsu is still quite popular.

Against this background, one could understand the movie "FengShui" as a nice, sometimes exciting story that comes up with a pointedly, rather apolitical, and for some even esoteric explanation about the ending of the Joseon Dynasty: At last, it was the (wrongly?) chosen location of the tomb that decided the end of the empire...

In any case, the story dramatically illustrates the importance of Pungsu to the people of (Silla, Goryeo, and) Joseon. And by the way, it gives an insight into the political situation during the last decades of Joseon. Without reference to this, however, one may be a bit surprised about the scramble for graveyards and also the struggle for power at the palace would be an interchangeable one among the many stories available on screen... No matter which glasses you choose, the cast in any case guarantees top-class performance.

Eventually, if you are interested in Korean society and history, the KMovie "FengShui" opens up an understanding of the great importance regarding the harmony (or disharmony) of human life with natural events (such as weather and seasons) as well as in relation to geographic features of the landscape (such as mountains and lakes and landscape) - as they are having a direct impact on human health as well as the fortune or misfortune of personal, family or even national fate. Everything stands or falls with the choice of an auspicious place (Myeong-dang) for one's own house, grave, market square, administrative headquarter, temple, fortification, palace, etc.

The teaching goes back to the Buddhist monk Doseon (826-898). He was a Daoist master and Zen Buddhist student who adapted the Chinese principles of feng shui to the Korean landscape and cultural environment. What is special about it is the concept "grow with nature", which in this respect focuses on an analysis of the spiritual and matter-related energies of mountains and landscapes as well as their effects on human life. (Interior furniture etc. plays a minor role in Korean pungsu.)

The KMovie "FengShui" puts a Pungsu master at the center of the story. Due to the more or less favorable choice of location, he can predict and influence how the fortunes of the people affected will develop. In this case, by using this knowledge to choose the most favorable burial site, he becomes a veritable kingmaker.

By the way:
All 42 royal tombs of the Joseon Dynasty over a period of more than 500 years are largely undamaged to this day. This is worldwide unique. All are arranged in the landscape according to the teachings of Pungsu - at most close enough to the capital for the royal family to visit the tomb within one day. (The concrete design of the complex was based on Confucian specifications.)

By the way:
The historical starting point of the story is the fact that Heungseon Daewongun, a central political figure of the last Joseon decades, moved his father's tomb on the advice of a Pungsu master. The new setting somehow promised that 2 kings would come out of his family. That was actually the case. But after that, the Joseon Dynasty came to an end.






------------------------- SIDE NOTE: --- Myeong-dang and Korean Pungsu ---
Pungsu officially goes back to the monk Doseon. But there are also sources that indicate that there was already a spiritual tradition with human-nature harmony on the peninsula, the aim of which was to efficiently balance landscape and topography, natural forces and sanshin (mountain spirits) in order to determine the fate of the purposefully influencing people.
Doseon's works have not survived. But his yin-yang geomancy was handed down in the works of later Confucian scholars. In the 12th century book "Haedong-Pirok" about the secret history of the country Doseon's theories were mentioned and even expanded. 5 centuries later, Yi Jung-hwan (1690-1752) in "Tangni-chi" analyzed the topography and landscape of the entire peninsula according to these geomantic points of view.

Central to this is the concept of Gi (forces of matter) as opposed to Li (forces of Heaven and Spirit). Mountains, and in particular the central mountain range that stretches like a spine across the peninsula, are the source of Gi. The energy flows, so to speak, from the mountains into everything that the landscape produces, into the water and into the air - all that nourishes the humman being. Gi thus becomes concrete and figuratively the source for a strong, happy people.

Another central concept is "Hyeol": a place of perfectly balanced forces of heaven (cheon-gi) and earth (ji-gi) from which people benefit the most. Such Hyeol with high, positive energy potential include, for example, Jiri-san's Cheonghak-dong valley in the south of Samshin-bong peak or the location of Buseok-sa ​​temple on Sobaek-san. "Hyeol" actually means an ´opening´. Like the 9 openings of the human body, there are also openings in the landscape through which energies can enter and escape. If you like, Hyeol could be considered acupuncture points in the mountain landscape. Knowledge and control of Hyeol thus is highly related to power. A more ancient term for Hyeol comes from the shamanistic tradition: 'Myeong-dang', the (spiritually) lightful or auspicious place. The idea behind it: Bedding the ancestors at the auspicious place can bring prosperity, power and good fortune to future generations. Bedding the kings at auspicious places accordingly brings prosperity, power and good fortune to the nation.

...The KMovie is originally named "Myeong-dang"...
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Read More

I really enjoyed this buddy cop movie!

Technically, PSJ and KHN aren't cops yet just police university students who happen upon a kidnap/egg donor/organ removing scheme. Even with the seriousness of the stroryline. This movie is laugh out loud funny! The scene where they are poking one of the villians with the skewer had me on the floor!!

There were some really dumb moments of course by the police and that pissed me off entirely. They went to look for a moguls son instead of kidnapped women and then the scene at the police station was completely ridiculous nearly runined the movie for me.

PSJ and KHN should be in more comedies together. They were both so good here.

I loved Park Ha Sun as Joo Hee she had a limited part but she was fantastic!

Read More

Really average movie but I did like it overall. It started off well then the middle kind of got stupid but it redeemed itself in the last half. I really liked Hee Min the ML and So Young the FL even though techically I would say there isn't a FL in the traditional sense. I really liked the whole cast. The actress playing the distraught/grieving mother was really good too!

My main negative critique is that the CGI is BAD. There is a scene where a character is throwing up blood and it was terrible. Most of the CGI is not good but I didn't mind that but you would think in 2021 it would be better than this and that particular scene was ridiculous!

Another reviewer said it would be better as a series and I agree with that.

Read More

Just as described and much more

Starting with the description “Hard boiled extreme survival game movie” “Project Wolf hunting “ a movie never seen before.. Well this movie is like that, you have never seen anything like it, even if you think you have, I assured you, there is nothing like it, and if you think you are prepared, you are not.
Director Kim made used of tons of fake blood, so it is a very bloody and brutal movie. Director Kim also shows evil human nature, what happens when heinous criminals are trying to take over, what happens to a body or part of a body gets smashed, cut, etc.. The movie has lots of twists and turns, unexpected situations, and a beyond evil character, who has not a single drop of humanity, but it is only filled with rage and cruelty, a beast like killing machine. There are no heroes, you never know who will survive and how, the movie keeps you in your seat, time flies, there are funny parts, there are really extreme intense parts, and some parts where you will be screaming “No”, also you will be closing your eyes a lot due to the nature of the movie, but it is all part of the experience..
The acting is top notch, so many scene stealers, Seo In Guk transformation is absolutely fantastic, the way he plays a criminal is superb. Park Ho San, Sung Dong Il, Jung So Min, just to mention a few, they played characters never seen before.
All in all, this movie is a must see, but just be aware, it is gory/brutal to the extreme.

Read More

"If I see Wang, I'll be sure to tell him"

Director Zhang Yi Mou ventured onto the wild side when he remade the Coen Brothers debut 1984 noir film, Simple Blood. Instead of 1980's Texas, Zhang took the story to the Gobi Desert in ye olden times. Instead of a black comedy, A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop (WGNS) bounced from slapstick comedy with bucktoothed and cross-eyed characters to multiple murders. At times the film was entertaining and at others confusing with only the saturated colors and beautiful shots of the desert reminding the viewer of the amazing director at the helm.

At Wang's Noodle Shop in the middle of the desert, Wang's wife, unlike the other characters was given no name, buys a gun from a flamboyant Persian salesman. She was sold as a wife to the miserly and sadistic owner 10 years earlier and she's carrying on an affair of sorts with Li, the bartender. The two goofy noodle cooks haven't been paid in months even though the dastardly Wang sits in his room counting his money.

As evil as Wang is he meets his match with Zhang, a police patrol officer, who sells him the news about his wife's affair. Wang offers him more money to murder the adulterous couple. From then on the film becomes entertaining as double crosses, triple crosses and riders crisscrossing the desert with bodies cause great upheaval in the small shop.

I'm not here to compare this with the Coens' film as I have only read about it, but knowing the Coen films, I suspect it was much darker and more gruesome than this farcical murder story. If perchance I watch Simple Blood, I will amend this review. As a film in its own right WGNS had some laugh out loud moments. Because most of the characters were deeply flawed and caricatures, it could be hard to care about their outcomes.

The costumes were outlandishly loud with the exception of Wang's costume. Zhang's electric indigo and black uniform was one of the most subdued. It felt like Zhang Yi Mou also overcooked some of the scenery shots-the skies glowed bright blue- they came across as almost comic strip in style. There were some gorgeous shots of the striped desert, but there were also some shots that looked like he used a fisheye lens as they were rounded on the sides or stretched too far. If all of these things were to remind us that this was just make-believe he succeeded rather well.

Yan Ni had the tough job of selling the shrill adulterous wife. I couldn't find Wang's wife loathsome though, she was a woman stuck in the middle of nowhere perversely tortured by her husband with the scars to prove it. That she was in need of comfort and hoping to divorce him seemed reasonable in her situation. She came across more nuanced than either her dim-bulb lover or her repulsive older husband. The two cooks were there strictly for comedy relief. A rather acrobatic noodle making session between them was fun though. Sun Hong Lei as the greedy and murderous Zhang had almost no lines, but conveyed his observations and reactions all through slight facial and body movements.

Having watched my share of Chinese films, I could find the humor in the story and realize that slapstick is all part of it. More people fell down in this movie than a female lead in a romantic Kdrama. Watching it free from prejudice regarding the original and judging it on its own merit, WGNS had some entertaining moments. It was a strange and nihilistic morality tale of greed and lust, told in vibrant colors despite its dark underbelly. As a fan of Zhang Yi Mou's films I do have to admit it was a bit disappointing. I expect better from this director. I guess everyone has to try something out of their comfort zone at times-A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop was probably out of his and mine.


9/23/22

Read More

“The love in their point of view is based on each other’s happiness.”

Completed: 9/23/2022
Subjective Rating: 8.75 rounding up to 9.0
Objective Rating: 8.0-8.5

Coming into this, I knew this is going to be a tearjerker. I chickened out and chose to watch the movie version, instead of the Korean, Taiwanese or Filipino drama series. I can endure 1.5 hrs, but over 10 hrs would be too much heartbreak for me. Despite somewhat knowing what’s going to happen to the male lead, I decided to watch this (when I am in the mood for it). I am glad tonight is the night. I cried like a baby in the last 20 minutes of this movie.

Surprisingly, this is my first time watching Jasper Liu. He was excellent as K, especially in all the emotional scenes. Took me a little bit to warm up to Cream’s personality but the two of them have great chemistry together. Both orphaned when they were 16 years old, they became each other’s family. Their relationship is so much more than friends or lovers. It’s no wonder they would do everything in their power to make each other happy. Do I agree with their methods? No I don’t, but I can see where they’re coming from. However, bringing an innocent person into their noble idiocy doesn’t seem to be fair.

There’s too much annoying Bonnie in this movie, but maybe she’s part of the Taiwanese comedy charms. I do like cool and sassy Ms Photographer, Cindy. I cried with her during the breakup scene. On the other hand, Mr. Dentist is lacking compared to the other three leads.

I am giving this a high rating because it touched me. The title song “有一種悲傷” (A kind of Sadness) sung by A-Lin and the male version sung by Jasper Liu are both perfect for this movie. This is the second Taiwanese movie that made me cry so much after “Man in Love”. If you enjoy this type of melodrama about an illness, I strongly recommend this movie to you.

Leaving you with a few quotes that perfectly describe the movie:

“If I have a next life, I want to be a ring, a pair of glasses, a bed and a notebook, so that I can always accompany you.”

“The love in their point of view is based on each other’s happiness.”

“If love can be explained, no one in the world will suffer from it.”

Read More

Director Zhang Yi Mou left Gong Li and Zhang Zi Yi behind along with his penchant for saturated colors and rousing scores. He settled into the dust of a poverty stricken rural community far removed from the upwardly mobile citizens of the nearest city. The focus of the film was a crumbling schoolhouse and a 13-year-old substitute teacher tasked more with keeping the kids in school than teaching them.

The majority of the characters were played by local people using their real names. When the film's older teacher has to leave to care for his dying mother, the mayor of the village hires the only person he could find, Wei Min Zhi, a teenager from another village who is barely older and more educated than the children she will be instructing. The school has been hemorrhaging children due to their parent's poverty and she is offered a bonus of 10 yuan (aprox $1.50 USD) if she still has the same number of kids when the teacher returns. In the dilapidated schoolhouse, chalk is like gold and the teacher parses out exactly how much she will need over 26 days.

At first the kids are running the show with Zhang Hui Ke, an energetic 11-year-old leading the insurrections. Wei is in over her head and somedays closes the door to keep the kids in while she sits on the outdoor step. One day Hui Ke doesn't report for class and Wei finds out that he has gone to the city to earn money for his debt ridden family. Refusing to accept his loss she seeks help so that she can travel by bus to the city to return him but is turned down. The kids come up with the idea to move bricks at the local brick factory to earn money for her bus ticket learning math along the way. Even with their work they can't come up with enough cash. Eventually, Wei does make it to the city where the little boy is lost as it turns out. She relentlessly searches for him and runs into more bricks in the form of bureaucratic brick walls, unable to get anyone to help her. This little pink cheeked substitute is not so easily deterred though and begins to wear people down. That she is near penniless and forced to scavenge food and sleep in the streets much like Hui Ke never seems to occur to her.

Zhang Yi Mou's look at the class differences and the detriments of growing up in poverty was interesting. Wei has no identification, no cell phone, no pager, a complete alien in the city. Unlike the village where everyone knows everyone else, the city is filled with mostly hostile strangers, even those with cell phones who sleep in the bus station. At the end of the movie it mentions 1 million children drop out of school due to poverty even as China moves financially forward and this film highlights how 3 yuan (42cents USD) for a Coke is completely out of reach for the children, most who have never tasted it even though it's sold in the local store. And the 20 yuan (less than $3) needed for bus fare might as well be a million.

Most of the children gave bright, emotional performances, especially Wei Min Zhi and Zhang Hui Ke. While I enjoyed the film and Wei's persistence, some scenes ran a little too realistically close to time. The city scenes went on too long for me. Yi Mou might have been trying to show Wei's dogged patience, but it also tried mine until the skies finally opened up for her. Fortunately, Yi Mou glossed over the danger penniless young people can face in the city.

Not One Less made me think of a shepherd searching for a lost sheep in a flock of indifferent sheep. The natural performances and stripped down story came across as authentic and heartwarming even when veering into the realm of a fairytale. The children may have lingered too long in the city but the gratifying culmination of the story was worth the wait and the trip.


9/22/22

Read More

Disappointed !

I watched it mainly for JangHyuk + got fooled by the high rating! and a friend's recommendation..

I'll be honest with you all, it contains too much violence with an empty plot !!

Even after I finished it.. I still didn't get the reason behind all what happened, it was a slow paced and felt like 2 hours waste of time.. kinda boring and confusing along the way .. with no actual stroy!

+ I don't enjoy seeing movies with such violent scenes especially when it includes Minors..
the ML was impressively a Pro Assassin but thinking about it's not realistic + we didn't get to know anything about his story why is he the way he is? where did he train?

this movie was a waste of JangHyuk's acting skills

the only conveyed message was that we live in a trashy world!

Read More

30 minutes well spent :-)

Wow,
I watched this thinking what can they possibly show in 30 mins but man I couldn't be more wrong!
The story is simple and the casting is perfect. The acting, especially of the actors playing the older characters are on point. The sensitive topics are handled with caution and dignity. I did not cry but it really hit me in a soft spot.

The only negative is that it's only 30 minute long but I would gladly take this over unnecessarily inserting fillers and other cringe characters / plot twists which are totally unrelated, cringe and add no value to the story whatsoever. This definitely has the potential to be adapted into a proper movie or a series.











This kinda reminded me of the 2015 movie titled 'Holding The Man'.

Read More

Disappointing

When I heard the female star was a former gymnast who did all her own stunts, I was expecting some Jacky Chan-esque action; instead, all I got was some sword swinging and a cartwheel.

A girl who wants to be an action star gets isekai'ed into a parallel world, which desperately needs a hero... good thing she's trained her entire life for the role!
Yeah, it sounds cool and, though the tongue is firmly imbedded in the cheek throughout, there was a lot that could have been better, leaving my sole title word as a fitting description for this film: disappointing.

Read More

Love is found on The Road Home

The Road Home tells of a simple love story, one that is simply beautiful and sincere. It is also a look at how the past informs the present and ties those in memory together.

Yusheng is a grown only child returning to the snowy mountain village where he was raised upon receiving the news that his father has died. His mother will not be consoled until he promises to have his father's body returned to the village from the nearest city by foot, a traditional custom enacted so that the dead can find their way home. As he discovers, it will not be easy, for the only people left in the village are too old or too young to be of help. He perseveres for his mother's sake and as he does he reminisces about his parents' love story.

The present is told in black and white, but as the past opens up it was like leaving Kansas and stepping into Oz. Director Zhang saturated each scene in color, making every shot worthy of being framed. Zhang Zi Yi as Di, in her first role, was ethereal as the eighteen-year-old girl, wearing pigtails and a bright red coat. The village was building its first schoolhouse and it was love at first sight when Di laid eyes on the schoolteacher who rambled into town. The small village was Luo's first job, though well educated he hadn't been able to find work until someone brought him into the mountains. On the road Di would walk the extra distance to the well by the schoolhouse just for the chance to hear his voice. On the road she would watch him walk children home and then stealthily follow him on his return until the day she emboldened herself enough to meet him. When Luo had to leave because of a political offense, Di waited for his return on the road.

Little happens, but even a broken bowl or a lost hair clip have meaning. A bowl of dumplings carried by a girl racing through the hills, propelled by young love has more meaning than a thousand sonnets. The villagers with their traditional roles look out for each other. Di and Luo have few words of dialogue but their earnest looks and actions speak volumes. Yusheng's voice over narration is almost like he's reading a book as he recites their story that he and the other villagers know by heart.

Zhang Yi Mou's use of light and color never fail to mesmerize me. He gets the most out of natural scenery whether it is a golden forest or snow covered fields. He also knows when to hone in on his actors and Zhang Zi Yi made it easy for him with her lovely expressive face. There was no doubt his camera loved her face and movement as Di ran through the mountains for a glimpse of Luo. The softly romantic music enhanced the picturesque scenes and gently developing story of true love.

The film revolves around Di, Luo and the cherished schoolhouse, both in the past and in the present. Traditions and customs thought forgotten give meaning to many in the present as Luo is brought back on The Road Home to be laid to rest. Love is both lost and found on The Road Home. Remembrance and family ties are renewed on The Road Home. This film resonated with me as Yusheng came to terms with life away from the village and the importance of the past as he traveled The Road Home. Quietly simple, the path on The Road Home is one worth traveling.


9/21/22

Read More