Reviews

Did it really happen or was it only in her mind?

I just got done watching this on Tubitv and, it was an interesting watch. I really like cinema from the past so, it was interesting watching this movie that came out in the 80s. In the beginning it started with the main character needing some help at home so, the husband brings back someone who was from another town to let her live with them and be a housekeeper also. In the beginning she was happy to have an extra hand to help out but, after a while she started to get paranoid that the housekeeper was having an affair with her husband and, also trying to kill her. When it came to the part about her husband having an affair it felt vague and unreal. I really couldn't tell if he really was or not because, every time she sneaked to catch them in the act it felt surreal. I just couldn't really tell or not? Then she started to get paranoid that Mi-ok was trying to kill her because, when she was outside a flowerpot almost hit her. That was the first attempt to try to kill her and, then the second one was when Mi-ok left the gas on in the kitchen. Was it an accident when she did it? She did say she wanted to live there forever so, I could see that being possible for her to want to kill Seon Hee so, she can always have a place to live. I really like the ending how it showed she went crazy and, the aftermath that was left by it.

Read More

This is a live action Jmovie based on a manga. I haven't read the source material so I can't say how faithful of an adaptation this is but I really liked it. The special effects were incredible, the sound mixing honestly outta this world, the music was fantastic... and the themes right up my alley: friendship, brotherhood and family.

It's a story of three brothers who live together in an ancient temple in a village in the country. And, well, there's also this scary supernatural being that might destroy the world if not sealed. But it's mainly about these three brothers. And they love each other dearly. Yeah, the two younger ones are mightily frustrated with their big brother because Tenka is always fooling around and he can't take anything seriously - and he's also a super awesome martial arts master, unbeatable and determined to always protect everyone, sure, there's that.

I loved Fukushi Sota as Tenka. I wish the story delved deeper into his relationship with the other five family descendants, his best friends from way back when, before Tenka left them to take care of his little brothers after their parents were murdered. Alas. It feels like there's a whole another story there, left untold. Too bad...

Overall, a great movie with no romance and all the brotherly love one could wish for.

Read More

It’s not easy to be a nobody

In the martial arts world being #1 means a relentless road to the Death Duel. Whatever you are ranked someone is waiting in the wings to knock you off by any means necessary to move up.

The Third Master of the Supreme Sword tired of the daily challenges and blood on his sword and went into hiding as menial labor in a brothel. Nicknamed Hopeless Ah Chi, he and the prostitute Hsiao Li, fell quietly in love but he left after a confrontation with rowdy customers. Coincidentally, Li’s brother and mother took him in. Eventually, she finds him at their home and it looks like for a while Ah Chi can live the contented life of a nobody.

Being that it’s a martial arts movie there are all sorts of people who want a piece of him when rumor spreads that his death notice was premature. Famed swordsman Yen Shih San is determined to know once and for all who is #1. But he will have to get in line as evil clanswoman Chiu Ti wants revenge for The Third Master spurning her.

The body count in Death Duel is staggeringly high. Almost no one is left standing by the end of the movie. Tang Chia’s fights are well done for the time. Most of the fights were filmed at a distance whether for artistic reasons or to cover the use of the stuntmen. I prefer to see the faces of the fighters though that didn’t happen often.

Lo Lieh as his Killer Clans character and Ti Lung in his Magic Blade costume made cameo appearances and showed the young Derek Yee what stage presence means. David Chiang made a cameo near the end of the film as a mad swordsman and Yueh Hua dropped in as an evil doctor. Ku Feng played against type and was the kindly brother of Ah Chi’s love interest. The movie was full of familiar kung fu faces. Yee did an admirable job as the lone swordsman who wanted to be left alone. Ling Yun didn’t have much screen time as the rival but made the best of it.

The movie was filmed on the lot but the settings were all quiet nice and didn’t look like they were meant to be torn down by marauding fighters. The OST fit the mood of the scenes and was quite lovely in comparison to others of the time. The Shaw Brothers’ gold lame costumes made an appearance though most of the costumes were more understated.

The huge cast could be overwhelming at times as fighters appeared out of nowhere to challenge The Third Master. The story itself was straightforward and led directly, albeit over a plethora of bodies, to The Death Duel. Entertaining with a a pleasing cast, Death Duel is worth watching if you are a fan of old martial arts movies. Derek Yee went on to direct the remake in 2016, Sword Master. If you’ve seen that movie this one is well worth your time to see its inspiration.

Read More

Forgotten comedic treasure

This film was a great comedy with just the right amount of violence. Absolutely loved Jang Pan Su in Kim Dong Hyun's body and his character development during the two-hour film.

The one thing I loved the most was Jang Pan Su's relationship with Oh Mi Sun while his soul was in a body of a teenage Kim Dong Hyun. Their relationship didn't come off as illegal or perverted because Mi Sun was a middle-aged woman and Pan Su was in a body of a teenager as she set clear boundaries. However, their conversations were really humorous as she talked about their kid and how he ruined her life and left while she was talking to a teenage boy.

Totally recommend.

Read More

A bit predictable...

First things first, I have not seen the original so this will have no comparison whatsoever.

I don't really have much to say about this, to be honest. Initially, I was excited. I had watched the trailer and had high expectations because of it, along with the fact that I'm familiar with most of the actors in this film.

But ultimately, it fell flat.
Visually, it was great. The set was amazing, and the acting was good. They all played their characters well, despite not having much to work with because this of course all takes place in a cube. It was clear the type of people they all were. But, it sometimes felt repetitive. Like yes, we know you hate young people, but you don't have to complain about them every five minutes. And I feel like I've seen Okuda Maskai play similar characters before - is it just me, or is he typecasted to play roles where he's a bit crazy...?

The only other problem was that it was so predictable. Like I mentioned above, it was made clear what type of lives they all lived which made it easy to guess everyone's outcome. Because of that, it sucked the fun out for me, unfortunately. It was also bizarrely long for a film which covers so little situations and is constricted to one location.

Maybe watching this again and also the original will change my opinion though. Either way, I'm not sure who I'd recommend this to - I assume fans of the original would be curious to form their own judgement. And also if you're a fan of any of the actors. I was initially only interested because of Suda Masaki (but any project with Takumi and Masaki is always a plus in my books).

Read More

Very sad but beautiful story

This movie was a really nice watch for me. Although I cannot say it was something extra special, it was done nicely and with strong impact on your emotions.
The story begins with quite a bit of hapiness but tears your heart apart in the end, so be ready to have a lot of tissues ready.
The main characters are great, I really like their relationship, although some scenes could be done better and we could have a little bit more insight into their dating.
I didn't like the biggest decision of Misaki and I think it would be probably more interesting if she decided otherwise, but on the other hand I get it was necessary. But the scene with the cap - why? This was really heatbreaking and too cruel. The ending was as expected but at the same time I was not ready for it. I was just sitting, tears flowing down my face.
Overally the story is well written but with some bits I didn't like so that's why my rating is at 7,5, but you should definitely watch this if you'd like a bit of bittersweet romance and if you are ready to cry a lot.

Read More

cute if a bit simple

throughout the entire movie I kept feeling like something was missing? even through the pacing was pretty decent for a k BL, and I realized it's because the story felt a little.....thin? It's fine the way it is but I also kept feeling like there should've been more, idk it's odd to try to explain in a way that differs from other k BLs that may have similar story-related issues

even if the story felt too thin to hold up the series/movie, the characters are cute. the most important thing to me for k BLs is relationship development, and it was VERY cute to watch how the tsundere chef started to soften up, which naturally lead to the moment where you can see how guilty that made the flirty chef feel lmao

(I"m very bad with names sorry lol, but I trust that you'll know exactly who I'm talking about.)

Read More

the weird last-minute rushed conflict strikes once again

I actually....liked this despite its many....many, flaws idk. I think the characters really saved it for me.

the characters are likable/charming, the main leads had pretty good chemistry, I barely felt any awkwardness from them, and no dead fish kiss! congrats!

the two leads are also pretty cute together, so it's a shame that the rest of the movie is. all over the place. I saw a lot of people call the series "choppy" but I don't think it was that bad until the last 30 minutes or so. Not sure if that's just a personal taste thing or it flows better as a movie.

they really like leaving certain plot points just....dangling, probably because of time constraints, but it doesn't really work because they never give you enough hints to actually connect the dots yourself? there felt like a lot of those here but I think even those would've been more easily forgivable if not for that WEIRD last 20 minutes. I've been binging through a lot of korean BLs lately, and I've noticed that a lot of them have this weird, rushed conflict and then equally rushed resolution near the end ?? I think this happens with regular length kdramas too but it's noticeably worse since K BLs tend to have like...10-20 minute episodes....yeah.

but anyway, so the last minute conflict in itself isn't too weird for me, it just gets lumped in with the other common issues for me to expect when watching a K BL but it was REALLY incoherent here. Usually, I at least vaguely know what's going on even if I'm a little confused, but here, I went back to rewatch the last 20 minutes twice and was still confused. What the heck lol

It's a shame because if they stuck the landing, this could've been a weird but still really decent series, (a better ending wouldn't have fixed how the characters and the time itself sometimes seem to jump all over the place), and it had a promising start, but I guess that sentiment goes for a lot of K BLs tbh.

also this literally has nothing to do with the actual story or quality or whatever but I adored the fashion designer's outfits. he always looked quite cool and trendy and I loved it.

Read More

Derek Yee returned to direct the remake of Death Duel, the movie he starred in as a twenty-year-old in 1977.

Peter Ho starred as the tattooed face swordsman with only one challenger left to fight before he died. Kenny Lin followed the trope of the disgruntled swordsman who refused to fight any more, gaining the name Useless Chi. This is one of my least favorite tropes because the swordsman/fighter waits until innocents are killed before deciding to stand up and take care of business.

The Sword Master felt like an old school kung fu flick only with better special effects and grander scale fights. The sets and costumes were all beautiful and believable. The characters could have been fleshed out more but for a wuxia they accomplished what they needed to.

Norman Chu who was in the original made a return as a clan leader in this one. There weren’t any good or bad clans, they were all pretty disreputable making it hard to root for anyone except the innocent civilians.

The Sword Master was not the best of its kind but it was an entertaining wire-fu wuxia with quality fights, a little romance and a bittersweet bromance. Worth checking out for a fresh take on an old classic.

Read More

Tokyo, a city of culture…a capital of debauchery

Tokyo March is a film fragment and thus difficult to rate. Originally 75-100 minutes long it now clocks in at a scant 27 minutes.

After orphaned Michiyo was laid off from her factory job her uncle wanted her to become a “geisha” like her mother to help support the family. The translation geisha was probably incorrect as it seemed she needed no training and was expected to sleep with men as well as entertain rowdy crowds.

She met Fujimoto, his son Yoshiki and Yoshiki’s best friend, Sakuma, during their visits. Each of the men fell in love with her. Papa Fujimoto discovered a secret bordering on Greek tragedy that set off an emotional bomb in the group.

An early Japanese melodrama, with a relatively complete beginning, middle, and end the 27 minutes were a worthwhile watch to see the director’s take on social and gender issues. I would like to have seen the completed work to hopefully better understand the characters’ emotions and why they were as devoted as they appeared to be.

The acting was fine for the most part though there was some hammy overacting by a couple of actors. Instead of just dialogue printed there was also some narrative content though I don’t know if that was done by a later party. The original music was missing as well.

Tokyo March was a quick and entertaining watch. The opening scene is badly damaged but most of the rest is discernible.

Read More

stop what you're doing, watch this movie right now

this movie is a f****** anxiety inducing thrill ride.

the cast is amazing and some would later be casted in Parasite and Squid Game respectively. The story is just a little more complex than you're average heist movie, it's just what it needs to be. not too convoluted either. It than evolves into a cat and mouse type scenario, reminiscent of GOOD 80s action movies like Predator or Terminator. The story continues where most hollywood movies would call it quits and it elevates the story and character building so much.

where this movie really stands out is allowing it's characters to feel emotions it's really refreshing to see. The characters aren't reduced to super cool, always level-headed and stoic anti-heroes archetypes. but flawed human beings, quite a rare occurance int this kind of movie. (for example: Wrath of Man/Cash Truck 2021, Jason Statham)

the music is excellent, in one scene in particular, The sound of a car alarm echoing through a parking garage seamlessly transitions into the soundtrack, and you realize you were listing to the soundtrack all along.

I showed this to a few friends and they loved it, I even showed it to my dad who hates watching Asian movies and usually refuses my recommendations with some utterance about "the Squintys" (he can't help what he is) and he loved it too.

We need more movies like this, that will take us for a ride.
9/10

Read More

learn to laugh while crying

the story is about a group of north korean spies who are given a mission in south korea. my feelings after this show are sadness, anger and despair. but in the meanwhile I laughed a lot. perhaps do you need to understand why: the story is very funny, the situations are so awkward that you cannot help but laugh. but at the same time, being human and understanding the world as it is, you very much know that these kind of dramas does happens. it does. using humans as tools, it does happens. and it is very disturbing, and sad and infuriating.
it is easy to guess then that the movie was very well done. the cast is so good that you dive into the story at once.

I highly recommend even though I hate violence. I came to watch it after the drama "crash landing on you" and didn't regret the journey. watch it with friends as it is too sad and violent for a lovers or family gathering. have fun!

Read More

This is a Carter Wong vehicle about a young man who has to fight the 8 Masters as punishment for his father's misdeeds.

When Chu is younger he is taken to a Shaolin monastary to protect him from his father's enemies. While there his training and studies begin, and he grows into a skilled fighter. When he's older he goes back to the village to find his mother and to live in peace but once the 8 masters find out he's left the monastary. They all still want to fight and make him pay for his father's misdeeds. He adamantly refuses and takes beatings constantly.

Ultimately, he fights the 8 masters and learns that one is significant to him. The fight scenes were really good.

Read More