Reviews

Great Cast Mediocre Story Telling

Honestly I was very excited to watch this because I am huge fan of some of the actors in this movie and seeing Song Minho practically play a gooft version of himself was quite interesting but the story lacks any serious stakes for us to get attach to the characters. Yes we root for them but we are not quite sure why.

It's fun and easy to watch but I had higher expectations from the premise and the cast. They acted but it feels like a waste of talents who can act raw emotion... You can watch it while doing something like knitting etc where you dont want to pay 100% attention to the movie.

Read More

This movie really warmed my heart.

I clicked on this movie with absolutely no idea what this is about. I saw Jung Hae In and I was sold. That being said, I absolutely had no expectations for this. I even almost dropped this within the first five minutes because I thought I wasn't feeling any chemistry between the leads but oh man, I was in for a treat.

This movie really warmed my heart. The mood and the aesthetic was very nostalgic and the music is just perfect. When "Fix You" by Coldplay started playing in the end, I was just bawling my eyes out because I was just so touched. The actors have the best chemistry I have ever witnessed and it's just made so much impact on me because I didn't expect it. The story does felt a little underwhelming especially the conflict towards the end. It was messy and unnecessary so the ending fell flat but the execution by the actors kinda made up for it for me.

One of my takeaways from this one is how timing is really everything. You could be trying so desperately for something but if it's not yet meant to be, it won't be. That being said, have faith that in time, everything will fall into place.

Read More

"Only when we treat our land with friendliness will it treat our offspring with friendliness in return."

I was going through the list of highest-grossing domestic films in Taiwan and was really surprised to see a nature documentary tied for 15th place. I'm a big nature documentary fan myself, though that side of me hasn't crossed with MDL before, so I was excited to track it down. As someone who has only seen Western-produced nature documentaries, watching this was an eye-opening experience! The first 25 minutes of this film have about five lines of narration. Mostly, the viewer is left alone to watch aerial shots of Taiwanese nature accompanied by beautiful instrumental and folk(?) music. I'm used to there being a story or constant facts in nature documentaries, so the lack of narration was a challenge for my attention span. I decided that the director must have expected the audience to meditate on the natural beauty being shown, and since this obviously wasn't a problem for Taiwanese moviegoers, I should work out my meditative viewing skills.

After those 25 minutes, the director decided that we've meditated on nature long enough, and the narration returns to tell us how human exploitation of the land, greed, and over-consumption are causing huge environmental problems for Taiwan. This was much easier for me to get engaged with, as I greatly care about environmentalism. Even in this part, I could still feel a difference from the Western documentaries I'm used to seeing. When those tackle environmentalism, they usually focus on the need for action: "If we don't do something in X amount of years, the impact will be irreversible." The focus of this was, "Look at the harm we have done, are doing, and will do to our country unless we make changes today." So the call for action was mixed with a call for personal accountability, which I think a lot of Western documentaries shy away from because they don't want the audience to feel they're being guilted. I liked this approach. I also thought it was funny, because I read a review on Letterboxd that said this film was only advertised in Taiwan as a nature documentary and NOT an environmentalist film, so people who went to see it in theaters expecting only to feel pride in Taiwan's beauty got hit with an environmentalist message that they might have otherwise avoided.

The film ends on a hopeful note, highlighting organic farmers who are trying to live in harmony with the land, before returning to its meditative origins and showing the beautiful scenery of Taiwan accompanied by a song calling for change. I thought the ending nicely balanced out the earlier, heavier middle. The viewer is left with the feeling, "Yes, we are personally responsible for hurting our country, but we can also be personally responsible for healing it."

Read More

Unique & Brilliant

Okay so I went into this thinking it might be a bit more silly cuz of the image that showed up for it ? However it was actually a pretty serious story that just had a few silly moments.

So the story is a cop that is a very "man of justice" type can see ghosts and wants to bring justice not just for the living but also the dead. He gets kicked from his main department and transferred to the secretive 9th Precinct. Here he's entered a world where ghosts are the clientele and your job is helping them move on. As the story goes we meet his coworkers, an interesting journalist, and learn of an ancient evil.

Now I know a lot of that seems like typical supernatural cop thriller stuff. I get it. However, I feel like they did it in a pretty unique way that really makes it shine.

The only drawback I have is the mid-credits ending. It leaves the floor open for a possible sequel but I'm unsure if there are talks of one being made. If not, then I feel like they shouldn't have had it in there.

The ending before the credits was perfect and brought the whole story full circle, in my opinion.

Either way I truly recommend people give this a chance because it is really beautiful.

Read More

"You weren't given a hand grenade for nothing!"

In the waning days of WWII on a small jungle island in the Philippines, the Japanese soldiers found themselves outmanned, outgunned and perilously short on supplies. Fires on the Plain showed the ravages of hunger and despair not only on the human body but on the mind as well.

This film was a fascinating look at war through the eyes of PFC Tamura. He found himself in a foreign land with no place to go. He had been to the army hospital to be treated for TB but returned to his company only to be rejected by his squad leader. The company had been decimated by enemy fire, lack of artillery and ammo, but more than anything starvation. The men took turns foraging for yams and bananas to feed themselves and Tamura was too weak to be anything but a drain on already strained resources. He was told if the hospital refused him again to stay there and when the time came to use his grenade on himself. Upon returning to the hospital Tamura found himself with a group of "squatters" kept outside the makeshift hospital presumably left to die. He made quick friendships with two of the squatters. Peace did not last long as the hospital was shelled and those who survived scattered.

As the days dragged on, Tamura found himself wandering alone, knowing he would die. Yet he still filled his canteen, still put one foot in front of the other and continued walking though he had no destination except survival. Along the way he met others and found that everyone was going toward one town with the hope of being evacuated. Poignant scenes of bodies left to lie in the muddy tracks of the road with Tamura refusing to look as he continued on were searingly painful. Even during these dark moments, lighter ones were interspersed as a boot exchange took place one after the other. Before the bedraggled and exhausted men lay a muddy marsh beneath a road on a hill, and a cleared field to cross, dangerous obstacles where the enemy could take advantage. After a disastrous attempt, Tamura found himself alone again wandering up a rocky hill with bodies strewn about like dead ants. Still resigned to dying, he trudged ever onward.
Eventually, he was reunited with two of the squatters and introduced to "monkey meat" and the madness hunger and despair can bring.

Tamura was an affable character rejected for being too weak, yet he never accepted much from anyone and shared with others. He survived when much of his company died and never gave up his humanity as he witnessed humanity in all its varied shades of black and gray around him.

Filmed only 14 years after the end of WWII Fires on the Plain was a critical look at war. These were not glorious, patriotic, die before capture soldiers. The men were starving, defeated and only wanted to go home. The enemy was not only the Americans and Filipino guerillas, but also hunger, desperation and even each other. Many struggled with the will to live and the will to not die. Some wanted to be captured so that they could eat corned beef and others were afraid the Americans or Filipinos would kill them. With American fears of booby-trapped bodies it was a real concern, yet they also showed American medics picking up the wounded after a skirmish. It was also a harsh admittance of stories of cannibalism of both Japanese soldiers and captured foreign soldiers. There was nothing easy about this film.

Funakoshi Eiji gave an understated performance as Tamura as he navigated the roads of death, clinging to his humanity, not even sure where his will to live came from. The skills of the supporting actors varied but most carried off the madness, stoicism, and fear so many of the characters endured. Filmed in black and white the movie had beautiful cinematography. You could feel the claustrophobia of the jungle not knowing where the danger could come from, the muddy paths and rocky ground under bare or near bare feet. The music perfectly reflected the feelings of the characters and the situations they found themselves in. I'm not a film student but I can say this was well made and edited in the eyes of an amateur.

Fires on the Plain showed desperate men and what they would do and would not do to survive when left abandoned without hope or rescue. Though it could be starkly pessimistic in its view of war, tiny rays of hope pierced the gloom on occasion keeping it from being overtly oppressive. Fires on the Plain might not be for everyone but it is a movie I will not soon forget.



8/30/22

Read More

After an amazing first movie, they somehow completely butchered the sequels.

The first of the original 3 Rurouni Kenshin live-action movies was absolutely brilliant (as I elaborated on in detail in my review for that entry). Unfortunately, however, the second and third installments of the live-action trilogy are not only not anywhere near as good as the first (either overall or in terms of adaptation), they're really just not very good movies, period (nor are either of them standalone). Don't get me wrong, the production, fight choreography, and acting are (mostly) all still at the same level (indeed, the fight with the dual-blade-wielder in movie 2 is at least worth watching just on its own), but movie 2 is otherwise quite forgettable, some of the violence becomes overly OTT to the point of tastelessness by movie 3, the story is bizarrely (and fruitlessly) butchered to hell and back, and-- most egregiously-- the characterization flies right out the window, utterly ruining one of the manga's more interesting characters and caricaturizing more than several others.

TL;DR: Don't watch these 'sequels' ?-- just leave it at watching the excellent first one (and then read the manga afterwards instead).

Read More

After an amazing first movie, they somehow completely butchered the sequels.

The first of the original 3 Rurouni Kenshin live-action movies was absolutely brilliant (as I elaborated on in detail in my review for that entry). Unfortunately, however, the second and third installments of the live-action trilogy are not only not anywhere near as good as the first (either overall or in terms of adaptation), they're really just not very good movies, period (nor are either of them standalone). Don't get me wrong, the production, fight choreography, and acting are (mostly) all still at the same level (indeed, the fight with the dual-blade-wielder in movie 2 is at least worth watching just on its own), but movie 2 is otherwise quite forgettable, some of the violence becomes overly OTT to the point of tastelessness by movie 3, the story is bizarrely (and fruitlessly) butchered to hell and back, and-- most egregiously-- the characterization flies right out the window, utterly ruining one of the manga's more interesting characters and caricaturizing more than several others.

TL;DR: Don't watch these 'sequels' ?-- just leave it at watching the excellent first one (and then read the manga afterwards instead).

Read More

Amazing adaptation - but skip the sequels...

The first of the original 3 Rurouni Kenshin live-action movies is absolutely brilliant. It's mostly a very close adaptation of the section(s) of source material that it covers; the occasionally-silly humor and OTT feel of certain elements are well-done and form a nice balance with the serious parts; the directing, filming, acting (including an especially impressive performance from the actor playing main character Kenshin, as he actually did all of his own fight scenes and stunts! ?) are all excellent; and the action is *perfection* (not to mention that said action somehow manages to be realistically bloody when called for without being excessively graphic, which is pretty impressive in and of itself). There were of course some cuts and condensing of plot due to the restrictions of the movie's length, but they were minor and didn't affect enjoyment (or mine, at least, which is saying something coming from an adaptation-faithfulness stickler like me ?). Indeed, literally the only complaint I have is that Kaori is quite a bit more badass in the manga than she is here; however, I could live with that simply due to the sheer awesomeness of the rest of the film. It's an excellent standalone movie that is easy to enjoy whether you're a fan of the manga or not, and I definitely recommend it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

...Now, that said, I was *EXTREMELY* disappointed with the 2 followup movies, and you can read my thoughts about that on their entries. However, thankfully, this first movie is self-contained, so you can easily just watch it on its own without losing anything (and that is exactly what I would suggest).

Read More

the title isn't there just for show at least

wow. this was probably one of the most disjointed k BLs I've ever seen. and that's saying a lot for k BLs.

i can forgive the obviously lower production, and even some of the not-good acting, but the script? wow. i just....had no idea what was going on half the time.

time just kinda jumps around randomly from the daytime to night, characters have...a little bit of a visible reason for why they're acting like they are? kinda? i've watched this twice and i really don't understand why either of the leads like each other, like, at all, besides physical attraction, which doesn't really work with the conflict given in the plot....unless I want to believe that their love for each other is shallow which. eh. either way, it was hard for me to really understand why junho ended up killing his 500-year something long friend for minhyun, or where minhyun's faith in junho not accidentally (or purposefully) killing him came from.

also, what was up with junho's friend sudden over the top villain acting after the convo about junho's ex and the hug? it was such a 180 degree turn from how mostly-normal he was acting before that i got confused and genuinely thought he was a random third vampire dude who came into the movie.

me being baffled about the plot aside, the leads' acting and chemistry was surprisingly decent for such a bad movie. they're not AMAZING actors, but decent enough that you can believe that the lead characters actually like each other, even if you have no idea why. junho's actor had that predatory "i want to eat you" vibe down well, while minhyun's actor gave off the "innocent naïve prey" energy in return well.

the chemistry is a bit off in the beginning because of that, but that's actually not a bad thing as minhyun was probably more confused/unsure than fully all-in with what's going on, and it works better later when they're both fully into it rather than the predator-prey dynamic at the start. you can also visibly see this in the good kiss they gave us later lol.

the sad ending makes...sense i guess, but i do wish they would've tried for a happy ending even if it wouldn't have made sense or been too contrived because. honestly it would've matched the rest of this movie. it really is not that good.

tl;dr: didn't disappoint with the kiss, decent acting and chemistry, terrible writing.

Read More

Not so Deep After All...

This movie is the typical desperate girls/s take/s desperate measures to survive in a world that feeds on the week... meet a bunch of insomniacs that figure if I can´t sleep any way why not make some money out of it which marks the start of a beautiful friendship... in true Bee Gees ah ah ah ah staying alive spirit.

The movie is ok not very good and not very entertaining and lacks substance but it is not bad either. It does indeed show some lovely friendships and more or less i interesting twist, I would say twists but I am not sure if there is more than one twist or maybe a twist and a half... There is a bunch of darkness here and there, some stalking, some fluff and even a pretty decent kiss somewhere in there.

It is easy to find on Netflix so if you don´t have anything better to do, want to use it in a challenge are curious about the cast, have a crush on the cast etc... then I say go for it! t is not poorly executed or anything, so your crush is likely to stay intact. If you are in need of something good or highly entertaining I would suggest you look elsewhere.

Read More

This movie would of been great if they stayed inside the burger joint the entire movie

Not a lot of chemistry between the leads and they weren’t really given the time to build some anyway. It’s like they wanted to fast forward this relationship without any of the actually meaningful conversation. The burger joint looked so awesome, I really wish they would have just shot the whole movie inside of it. They give you the bare minimum in character writing and depth. Not enough writing about the actual characters and what their personalities are like. Not a hint of actual romance between the two so if that’s what you were expecting not the best movie to choose

Read More

Fun like Fast & the Furious!

If you are looking to get your fill on some thrilling car chase scenes, I would suggest giving this entertaining movie a try! Sure, a lot of these maneuvers you've probably seen before, but it's still a lot of fun. The story is not going to win any awards in originality, but the action more than makes up for it. At first, I didn't quite believe Park So Dam as her character as I found her nonchalant expression a bit too exaggerated, but as time went on, it started to get better and I started to believe her and her ass kicking. The kid also did a great job with acting esp for someone so young. I'd def recommend this to those of you who feel like watching a fun popcorn movie!

Read More

The original book is best seller in JPN, and K-drama did great job making this movie

The original novel is very popular in JPN and I had to read it twice to fully understand the twist in the end. That’s why it was said to be impossible to make movie or drama of this book. I watched the JPN movie version then watched this Korean version. Both are made well despite the hard story to make in movie.

I also experience long distance relationship , so I was able to relate to main couple. Some reviews criticized the cheating issues, but this drama’s core is the ENDING. . It’s a fantasy so you cannot take it too seriously.

I wonder how many viewers are able to guess what is the outcome. Very interesting story and recommend to watch for some fun.

Read More

"It would be amazing if I lived!"

Hopping vampires! Ghosts! Count Dracula! Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave had it all. Except for decent special effects and a coherent story. It had me at hopping vampires, one of my favorite bonkers things in kung fu movies.

Billy Chong's Chun Sing wasn't always the sharpest knife in the kung fu drawer, but he was diligent in pursuing revenge for his murdered father, once his dead father's ghost appeared to him during the ghost festival a year after his death. Revenge is revenge even when it comes late.

Lo Lieh played the evil Big Bad who had his chief priest Addy Sung, and his henchmen, murder the good citizens of the area and steal their hearts to perform an unholy blood spitting rite to make him immortal and impervious to weapons and kung fu.

Chun Sing had his hands full fighting the priest and his black magic kung fu. In one fight he hired some hopping vampires to aid him and Addy hired Count Dracula in return! Thank goodness for kung fu garlic! The story bounced around, often making little sense. Somehow torch wielding mobs knew just when to appear and prostitutes threw female accessories that could thwart evil.

Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave had rudimentary special effects, a step up from a high school play. Pretty sure they were able to film this for $12.99 (USD). Having said that, the movie was funny---in all the wrong places. I laughed at the absurdity of many scenes. The dialogue was hilarious, probably unintentionally in some places. When Count Dracula pops up-"hahahaha!" I thought I was going to lose it. It was good laugh therapy. The lighting often went from daytime to night to daytime to night again, sometimes in the same scene!

The fight scenes could be uneven. A couple of the beginning fight scenes were quite well done, aided by Chong's quickness, kicks and fluidity. I have enjoyed his fighting in the movies of his I've seen. Later fight scenes were poorly choreographed looking like they were made up as they went along. Lo Lieh, at 50, was starting to lose a step in the fights but still made for a believable villain, a role he seemed to be relegated to.

Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave was campy, comical, cheaply made, and only for hard core fans of old martial arts movies. But honestly, how could you pass up hopping vampires?



8/29/22

Read More