Reviews

Could've been better.

It's a decent one time watch movie.

But, as the headline says it all, this movie could've been better.
I didn't, at all, get the vibes of Korea in 1988. I'm not a Korean and born in the 90s. So, I truly don't know what it would be in Korea in the 1988. But we do have a parameter to compare it with, Reply 1988. And the only thing common in these two were the presence of Go Kyung-po. Nothing else. Nowhere I got the vibe of 1988.

So, ignoring this basic thing, I would now focus on the story.
Honestly, it was quite good. It was funny, thrilling, entertaining and the actions were good. That being said, there were many glaring mistakes too. I felt that come characters were way underutilized like that of Lee Kyu-hyung. Bok Nam will make absolutely no difference in the story if he wasn't in it. So that's a big flaw. All other characters were good and engaging, but not the same with Bok Nam. But I understand this as it's very hard to give importance to all the characters in a movie with an ensemble cast.
So letting this one slide.
Now I will address another problem, the climax. It seems to me that they tried to copy a bit too much of Hollywood movies like Fast and the Furious. I know it's a movie, but still does it make nay sense to see a car parachuting its way down to the car from a fucking cargo plane. I know it is possible, but this scene is frame-to-frame like that of Fast & Furious 7.

Coming to the acting, I think all the actors did a very fine job. I watched this movie because of Oh Jung-se and Moon So-ri, and I wasn't disappointed by it. Yooh Ah-in was exceptional, so were rest of the actors from his gang.

The best thing about this movie has to be the music. The songs of 80s provided that nostaglgic feel which was missing from the production setting. Korean as well as English songs were used quite well in the form of mix-tape.

Overall, this movie is nice and would appeal to fans and those who haven't watched much of Korean cinema.
But as someone, who has watched many Korean movies and dramas, this movie was way below mark.
Still, the acting and the funny sequences will make it a worth watch.

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9/10

What I like the most about this movie is that it did not portray the work of an undercover agent as cool as other movies and dramas do. This movie showed the life of agents quite realistically, and how dangerous their line of work is. One little mistake can end their life. And I liked how it also tells about their mental state. The characters' played by the agents affect them psychologically. For that, they also have to check their status with psychiatrists. I'm glad that this movie also included it.

I liked the acting, especially Tony Leung's. He has his charms. The cinematography was good.

The movie kept me on edge till the end. I really liked it.

And about the ending, I hated it with a burning passion.

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lightweight, humor with touch of retro action

A wine bottle from 1988, I know the taste is good. I wouldn't mind sipping it again someday. It's a light humor action movie that gives the audience an escape to feel the retro fast and furious in 80’s style.

The story had nothing special to offer, few youngsters who dream to live big get entangled between prosecutors and villains, trying to save themselves from both. Riding on modified fast cars, and wearing 80’s fashion on the Olympic opening day is the chosen for the movie climax D-day, and that's the reason for the movie title as SEOUL VIBE.
It isn't super complicated but within the first half one can probably guess what's gonna happen next. Although the story is not fresh its stellar cast which performed outstandingly without a doubt wouldn't let anyone down for watching the movie. They kept me entertained from beginning to end with pro acting and semi-humor.

The Chicago Typewriter duo reunion of Yoo Ah In and Go Kyung Pyo in one frame reminds me of TCT as if am rewatching the drama again. The fake gold chain is super funny on both of them. They are both amazing and YAI never disappoints its viewers, he always had the depth of the character he portrays. He is leading the team and drove like he is fast and furious.
GKP gave its usual pleasant and easygoing performance.
Ong Seung Wu had a messy curly hairstyle portraying the youngest of the team. His small and thin build added the necessity of the youngest and loving member. I loved seeing him because he lit up the screen with humor.
Park Ju Hyun, rode the bike like a pro. She had a good wardrobe of the ’80s and I loved her to see in that crop tops which enhanced her long hairstyle.

The 1988 Olympics of Seoul is just a time taken to intensify the fashion, funk, racing cars, and color palette of the movie which serves its purpose. Because it picks up the viewers and takes them on the nostalgic, retro ride of the 80s.

If anyone wants a deep story, with lots of action this isn't the one for you. Because its story is weak and has mild action. But yes it has amazing car chasing sequences, which are thrilling to watch.

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If you´re in the mood for divertingly wasting your time in (retro-)style...

If you´re in the mood for divertingly wasting your time in style (retro-style to be precise).
With a lightweight story, lots of action and some fun, too, this will perfectly do.
Its professionally done. You won´t regret it.

Other than that:
Too fast to be substantial or something that lasts or give something that remains. The focus here is on visual and acoustic effects. Storytelling is secondary. At least there was no saving on top-class actors. And, yes, they are in a good mood.

Recipe:
-top-class cast
-action with car chases
-hip scenery locations in the look of the 80s
-speed
-fancy retro styling - cool retro fashion (if you´re into it)
-all sorts of retro cars - styling and tuning (and noises, too)
-light and camera effects
-deliberately/supposedly ´cool as cool can be´

Final remark:
Never mind the drop of truth behind the backstory - corruption and money laundry in the context of the 1988 Olympics in SK. The bad (and good) guys could be anyone, anywhere. That's just the hook to give an interchangeable action movie at least a coating of its own: a Seoul-Vibe - here in an 80s retro look. (However, even this particular ´SEOUL´ Vibe shown could actually be anywhere - It´s more about an ´80s´ Vibe)

Overall, the movie comes across as a solid action movie production for an international audience.
Don´t expect unique Korean-style. (Except for the cast and their acting of course ... and even they can usually do much better, too...)

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80s nostalgia at its worst meets suspence and 80 nostalgia at its best

This movies starts off all colorfull as it ooses of 1980's refrenses making me wonder if the writers/stylists started this movie by just googling the 80's-1990's USA and then copy pasted whatever words they could find.

As The Fast and The Furious/ Oceans goes to Seoul, the view of tiers burning to the sound of disco is actually not that bad. What is however a ceime against humanity is how they could take some of koreas most good looking men and make them look unatractive as no one and I mean no one not even Go Kyung Pyo can look good fake gold chains, 1988 or not.

While I get that the point of this show was action and nostalgia, it could have been achieved without ruining the boys images. As the sight of Yoo Ah In in gold chains is now forever loged in my brain. However Park Ju Hyun won the styling lotteri in this as she got to wear the best if the 80s and came off bad ass and cool unlike the boys who just look silly most of the time. Jokes aside this drama does have some ok stayling for the boys here and there too, as well some good car roaring vibes, not to mention raging lunatics, some beloved old characters without a pulse and beautiful use of colors and PPL that shows the evolution of popular brands combining nostalgia with modern day product placement. All light... And to be honest not that interesting/slightly annoying.

But once the first hiest is over the movie turns dark (not only the lighting) and becomes more and more bloody, nailbiting and interesting (styling gets better too), thus making pretty good use of colors, light and contrasts working perfectly together enhance whatever they are trying to enhance, and creating a situation where dark/light, betraial/loyalty, comedy/suspense, friendship/rivery, issues/nonsense... work together pretty well. And though Ill admit most of the comedy is not really my bottle of vintage coca cola the twists and my appreciation for these contrasts did end up making me go from thinking this is meeh lets just get thrue it to see what happens to thinkig oooo now this is interesting.

So in numbers:
Suspence: 8
Nostalgia: 10
Friendship: 9
Cinematography: 8,5
Emotional: 7
Annoying elaments: yes
Twists: 9
PPL:10
Styling: -10
Explosions: 8
Use of cars/trucks/skatebords: 10


So deffenetly an ok watch once you get passed the first half of second hand imberrisment and meehness

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Love is... Cringe... Cowerdley... .

This is a movie you watch in-between stuff to completely shut off your brain and just watch the joys and hardships of friends to lovers while being surrounded by dead people, mental illness, co dependence and living with a mentally ill parent. Some parts portrayed better than others but mostly cringe and with horrible acting from most of the side characters... 80% of this movie makes NO sense at all, dude can't to anything because he is color blind... and keeps losing his jobs... + is taught "to feel color with emotions" as if he was a 2 year old. Just got on my nerves. There is just so much cringy dialog that I almost had to throw up. While some parts were actually pretty good, reminded my of past (painful) experience that are rarely shown on film that way... Yet ruined by the poor acting, odd choices and the oh so bad acting by the side characters.

That said I love watching Belle Mariano and Donny Pangilinan (the leads) on screen together I just do! They are fun, their acting varies in quality but Belle has this thing where she can convey frustration, stubbornness, and sweetness really well. She is probably one of few people who can portray a girl throwing herself at a guy without seeming the least bit bathetic. So kudos!

So if you can shut off your brain, ignore all these annoying elements and love these leads I say go for it, have fun! If you have never seen these leads before, and want to watch something good, go watch something else.

P.S. may be a slight spoiler: I am also critical towards the messages this movie tries to convey... it over simplifies things and seems to try to tell people that they must get their s*** together on their own before they deserve to be loved. I am in no way advocating for co dependency, but there should be some thing in between, giving up on oneself just to support a person or leaving the person when they hit rock bottom so they can get their S''' together.

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Puppy Love - I’ve got my eyes on U.

I chanced upon this movie and after doing some brief research on it, I decided to watch it. No regrets. It made me relive (sort of) my teen hood and recall my own puppy love.

What I liked:
- The two leads have chemistry. The boy is tall and good-looking. I only found out belatedly that he is the son of Chen Kai Ge. I searched him up after this watching this movie. It’s a pity that he doesn’t have that many good works to his name (as yet). By good, I mean works with overall ratings of 8/10 on dramalist. The girl is quite plain but she’s okay. They are kind of cute together.
- The movie has touching moments.
- The movie has a happy ending.

It’s not a perfect movie - which one is? But, it’s fine to watch. Overall, good enough! I quite enjoyed it.

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its not for everyone

the gore in this is extreme, and most of the movie is unconfortable to watch, because of scenes like rape, murder and just general torture, but the representation of society in this movie, is pretty accurate, like the ignorence of people not taking the virus seriously, very much like what happened during the beginning of covid, and the scene in the train, before everything got brutal, represented mossogony and harrasment.
the quallity is actually pretty good, but not for everyone, if your looking for a classy typical zombie movie, this may be it, but this is more of a virus outbreak, the people are not dead, they are consciouse and living, they are just commiting brutal acts that, in a way already happen in the real world , this movie just portrays it to the extreme.

it is disturbing to watch, so viewer discretion is advised

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A fun ride, but...

Special Delivery is an action movie that is certainly not ground-breaking in any way. When I am watching action movies, my goal is to be entertained and throw my logic out of the car window. However, in this case, the movie did not offer the kind of entertainment that would make me turn away from all the ridiculous things that were happening at times.

The plot was structured like many films of the same genre, and the action sequences were definitely fun to watch and very well-made. In other words, if you are looking for some nicely shot and fun to watch action scenes, you will surely be entertained.

What ruined it for me the most was the acting. The female lead is a badass protagonist, and Park So Dam definitely didn't have a hard job, when it comes to the acting department. Her character was mostly expressionless, but in my opinion, she didn't deliver even in the scenes that she was supposed to show the slightest bit of emotion. She was very wooden. The main antagonists mostly overacted and to be frank, I couldn't take them seriously. Generally, the majority of the cast was mediocre.

It was obvious that the scriptwriter tried to make this an action film with some kind of emotional impact, taking into consideration the way the plot progressed. However, the characters were poorly developed and the acting was lacking. As a result I didn’t feel anything for any of them.

All in all, even though there are some aspects that are there in almost all action films, like people not dying, unless the script says so or individuals suddenly turning into super humans with great abilities, the acting and the way the plot was structured didn't make it entertaining enough to make me feel for the characters or ignore some of the absurd things that were happening on screen. Don't get me wrong though. This is an entertaining ride and an ideal movie to watch, when you are looking for some fun after a long and difficult day.

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Badly Aged Poorly Made Horror

Perhaps if I watched this movie at the time of it's release I would've enjoyed it more however watching 2021 it is out of date and for lack of a better expression meh.

I am guessing but I guess for most the pull of this movie would be the plot, a cursed K-pop song sure does sound interesting however the execution was messy. Also again in 2021 the K-pop industry has changed quite a lot and while it's still if not more cutthroat, the movie feels outdated. There were a lot of plot points that were straight-up comical and made absolutely no sense. The ending was messy and I came out of the movie slightly annoyed.

The horror felt cheap, extremely low budget, most of the scares were predictable and the blood looked like raspberry syrup. The cheap white wig also made me laugh a lot, that's no lace front that's for sure.

The women in this movie were really beautiful though giving a star for that.

There is far better Korean horror out there, don't waste your time on this

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Sometimes you have to risk all to have a safer and better life

When you open up your mind, you never know where you will meet your Best Friend. Set in the tumultuous 1980's in Korea, this film was very loosely based on real events and presidential candidate and activist Kim Dae Jung.

During a time of martial law, student protests, brutal interrogations and arrests, Lee Ui Sik finds himself and his family under house arrest for being in opposition to the ruling power. As the intelligence chief states, anyone not like himself is a "commie" and "commies" are detained, or deported, or killed. The chief calls upon Dae Kwon, a part-time patriotic helper, to move in next to the Presidential candidate, Lee Ui Sik and his family, who are serving under house imprisonment and surveil them. The goal is to prove Lee is a commie with ties to North Korea and finally rid themselves of him. Through a series of comic adventures, Dae Kwon and Lee meet, even ending up in a bathhouse with Lee's son. Though on opposite sides, both men are lonely and in need of friendship. The more Dae Kwon listens in on the upright Lee and the more he sees how the current government covers up its own dirty work, he slowly begins to change his mind and his ideas.

Like many Korean movies, Best Friend's mood changed on a dime and went from comedy to tragedy, back to comedy and a host of other emotions. Some of it worked and some of it didn't. It could be uneven and even jarring at times, but it was never boring. Veteran actor Kim Byung Chul as Dae Kwon's assistant was the catalyst for many of the laughs. Lee's family played it dramatically straight for much of the movie. Though a few scenes went fully into melodramatic territory, the final act revealed the dangers of attempting to change a corrupt regime.

Jung Woo gave a complex performance having to work both the comedy and melodramatic beats of the film. Dae Kwon not only dealt with spying on his neighbor, but he was also a husband and dad and not a very good one. Through his clandestine observations, Jung Woo shows Dae Kwon's epiphanies as old beliefs and habits make way for new ones. Scandal plagued Oh Dal Soo was fine as the beleaguered candidate having to make decisions even as he faced personal crises and death threats.

I have to give Korea points for being willing to look at difficult times in their history and work through them artistically. Though a fictional work, bordering on fantasy at times, Best Friend did push forth the idea that in order to change society even when it might come at great personal cost, it had to be done for the good of all and future generations.
With the themes of enemies to friendship, sacrifice for the greater good, and personal evolution, Best Friend, if not inspiring, could be funny, entertaining and even heartwarming. Not a perfect film, it was too erratic and sometimes heavy-handed, but one worth trying sometime. (7.75)



8/24/22

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Hard to Be Righteous, but Easy to Be Evil...

Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok returned as the characters they made famous a decade earlier in Storm Riders. Wind and Cloud were an unbeatable team who kept the bad guys at bay until The Evil Lord Godless and his son Heartless with their Japanese army kidnapped the emperor and searched for the treasure within the Dragon Tomb.

I enjoyed The Storm Riders (1998). It was cheesy and the CGI was rudimentary, but the story was coherent and the action fun. The Storm Warriors (2009) took itself way too seriously and replaced storyline with endless slow-mo action scenes. Dialogue and character development were kept to a bare minimum. If you haven't watched the first one it may not matter because the atmospheric boys were hard to distinguish with the poor writing for them.

Simon Yam as The Evil Lord Godless seemed invincible and pretty soon it was just Wind and Cloud left to fight him and save China. They didn't have long for a super charged training montage so that they could take their revenge on the over-compensating dressed warlord. Wind went to Lord Wicked and took the, well, wicked route via an evil mud bath while Cloud went the righteous way and was trained by the wounded Nameless at the same time. Before you could say Buckets O' Blood, super slow motion, comic book style fighting with plenty of dismemberments and red goo flying through the air, took place and Cloud had to try and bring Wind back to the good side.

The story was frightfully thin and convoluted. Shu Qi knew what she was doing when she passed on the sequel and left her role to Tiffany Tang. The movie could have easily been 20 minutes shorter if the fights had been shot at regular speed. By the last twenty minutes I didn't really care about the consequences or who lived or died I just wanted it to end. A few of the fights were beautifully shot and the CGI was better than the first movie, but they dragged on at a glacial speed. When CGI replaces actual story and character development I lose interest quickly. During one of the overcooked fight scenes I really thought one of them might yell out, "Kamehameha!"

The Storm Warriors had a cast I was very excited about but they were criminally underused. Ekin and Aaron had grown as actors since the time Storm Riders was filmed but it was irrelevant as most of the time they were filming fight scenes in overly dramatic slow motion. They certainly didn't have to worry about learning many lines. Simon Yam was at least properly menacing as an undefeatable warlord, a nifty trick given how little time he had on screen. Nicholas Tse as Heartless had little to do except look pretty and scowl. Charlene Choi as Dream had little to do but look pretty and worried for her few scenes. Even for comic book characters the lot of them were mostly lifeless. Ultimately, I didn't care about any of them.

The OST was nice if melodramatic at times. As with many of the movies in this genre, the costume department used a lot of leather, gold lame, and metal looking armor. There was no shortage of wind machines as Ekin and Aaron had their long layered mom hairdos seemingly always flowing in the wind.

If you enjoyed The Storm Riders, don't get your hopes too high for this sequel. Several storylines were left dangling, completely forgotten. Maybe I am truly the Heartless one because I actually laughed during the last scene which I'm sure was so supposed to be emotional but came across as absurd to me. As one of my favorite TV baking judges would say, The Storm Warriors was style over substance. It might have looked good, but it didn't taste very well going down.




8/24/22

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The first part was a bit boring, but...

The action in the first hour of the film developed very slowly. This is definitely a disadvantage for me. I watched the first part of this movie for three days because it was hard to get through it at once.

The second part was more interesting. I liked the acting and the further development of the situation. While watching, I gave up on my theory that the main character remembers her childhood, so the plot twist surprised me a bit.

The movie could have been better, but I still enjoyed it. Despite this, I cannot give a higher rating because of the first half.

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