Reviews

Worth Another watch

Theme was unique on its own, though the 'transport and wake up' part is similar to an English movie, overall the story makes you want to see it more. Movie felt too short for me and could have been a few episodes longer, though I guess this - not enough is what's enough to want more but more would probably be cringe, who knows. The setup's in the dream were great and fun plus the effects which makes it fun instead of bloody. Dylan and Victoria, they're like a son and mother duo, a hyper kid and a serious mother, maybe caused by their position as well in the story. I liked Dylan's banter with the AI, they're like siblings, trying to irritate the other. I like how it started like it's going to be a fun show but got serious, then even serious as it goes.

Read More

Life Through A Grey Decision

No Other Choice is what would happen if you put a dark character into a comedy. The story always revolves around grey area. You will ask yourself multiple times whether you should root for the main characters or not: "Ain't there really no other choice for them?". All the actions, characters and decisions are morally questionable. On top of that, they were still able to add comedic touch to the story, the unique comedy that isn't slapsticks. Visually, the cinematography is excellent, all of the dark agenda happened with minimum light. No need to talk about the casts, it's very outstanding here especially Son Ye Jin.

For a dark comedy that highlighted a harsh truth about job competition, I still feel this one only delivers minimum number of messages. I also don't like the storyline about doctor Oh that left out hanging.

I recommend this to be watched at least once, and enjoy the cinematography.

Read More

MASTERPIECE

I've been putting off watching this movie for quite some time but it's the best movie of my life. I've seen several similar films, but none have affected me this much.
But this movie is a masterpiece, it's more than just a masterpiece.
Every second of this movie was perfect😭❤️
The actors were incredible too. These roles suit them very well.
Their love is simply unbeatable, it was so cute and charming!🥹
I love it so much but I'm not sure I'm gonna to rewatch it someday because I'll cry even harder🥲💔
I want to erase my memory and watch it again.😭

Read More

Dance Psychotherapy

Office work is very stressful, and employees need some form of refreshment so they don’t carry their work issues back home. The main character in this movie is the office leader, Guk-hee. I heard her name as “Cookie” :) She seems very strong and confident, but she is bursting at the seams, both personally and professionally. Eventually, she discovers flamenco dance and things start to change.

The movie tries to portray a social drama, but it felt overly complicated. It was hard to keep up with all the office issues. Since I’m not an office worker, I had a hard time relating to the characters. On top of the drama, the movie also tries to be a comedy, mostly through weird and childish bodily humor. The main actress often stretches her face in exaggerated ways, probably to make us laugh, but for me it was sometimes uncomfortable to watch rather than being funny. I don’t think the actors did anything wrong — it just didn’t suit my personal taste. Hopefully the movie will be more successful with other viewers.

What I appreciated is that the movie presents dance as a remedy to help people find balance and emotional relief from the stress of daily life. We all need a way to break free from our problems — not to run away from them, but to face them in a healthier way.

Read More

The kind of love which you won't forget even if the whole universe wants you to forget!

painful yet beautiful like damn I really felt sad but like the kind of sad that makes your heart actually ache. And then when she said it- "if the world's forgetting him little by little, she'll try to remember him little by little". So simple but so deep you know? Those words hit me right in the chest and I was straight up crying because it's just so real. It's about this love that keeps going even when memory fades and it hurts so much because it feels true you feel it in your bones and when it's over you're just sitting there with your heart broken but also somehow full but mostly with the pain. WHAT A STORY but plsss I'm out of tissues!!

Read More

Sometimes the happiest scenes never happen. But we still need to believe they can.

I'm pretty sure this movie was supposed to make me sob my soul out, but that is not what happened. It broke my heart into a million pieces. It emotionally destroyed me. I will be thinking about this movie for a very, very long time. But did I sob? No. I didn't sob because this was like a very slow heart attack. I think that's the best way I can describe it. It was a two-hour movie and throughout the entire movie, it was just a slow and steady sense of dread. Even in the beginning when the scenes were happy and joyful, you could tell that something horrible and sad and heavy was coming up because the environment, the tension was always there. And maybe because I know the history of the movie and I knew what to be prepared for, but overall, the foreboding sense of dread was very, very strong.

What really got to me was the last 10 to 15 minutes because after going through a whole, like, two hours of pain and suffering and a little bit of joy, but mainly pain and suffering, we get somewhat of a closure. I personally wouldn't call it a happy ending. It's a very sad ending, to be very fair, but it gives you hope. It's not even a hopeful ending, but it still gives you hope that maybe one day, time fixes everything, that you do get to be happy, that maybe life corrects itself. It is how you interpret it. And those 10 minutes of the two main characters having just such a pure connection, it wasn't a romantic scene, no, but it was two good friends coming together yet again. And that is what broke me. And for the first time, I experienced the situation or scenario of almost sobbing, but not really. Like, I had silent tears pouring out of my eyes because my heart was healing itself in a very, very slow process.

The thing that broke me the most was remembering that this was based on a real life, and this whole story was based on the director's real life. Because I'd known about this movie for a very long time, and I had forgotten this fact. So when I finished the movie and I tried to go and do some, just look at the cast and directors and stuff, I come upon this fact. And this is when I find out for the first time that the last ten minutes of the movie, the one scene in the movie that actually made me, made my emotions cross the line of crying, was a scene that never happened in real life. It's so painful to imagine that all of this is based on a real story, and just the last ten minutes of joy did not even happen because the director never got to meet his buddy ever again. The story ended when they were last together. That's the end. But the director was generous enough to give us somewhat of a happy scene at the end. Just to remind us that yeah, love exists and maybe you can move on and everything heals with time. But in reality, that's not what happened to him. And that was the saddest fact about this whole movie.

There's a lot of wonderful dialogues that are in the movie, but my personal favorite one is "if being queer takes you to hell, then send me there, maybe people there will understand me better". As somebody part of the LGBT community, I constantly make jokes about the fact that I'm going to hell because I'm gay and that's where I'll end up. But I say it both cynically and comedically at the same time, because I do find it funny that people who love so purely can go to hell. I just don't ever understand the concept because love is a very pure thing and at the same time, I do understand how religion plays a role here. I do get it. So this dialogue was like a knife to the heart. It's funny, but at the same time, if I do end up in hell, just because I love somebody of the same gender, it's a relief to think that, yeah, there will be other people who will understand me better, that I won't be alone, even in hell.

I really appreciate the director giving some form of hope at the end. Even though they did not get it in their own life, they choose to give it to other people, and that itself shows you how loved and pure they are, and not a sinner because they're gay. They will go to heaven and so will everyone go loves with a pure heart.

Read More

I can make a better horror story around a wet wipe

I've sat through some proper garbage horror, but at least those movies tried to explain where the damn spirits came from. This one just gave a sketchy ah grandma for that.
It's like the director looked at the script and said 'backstory? Flashbacks? Plot? Nah, too much work.' Half the movie is just random spooky shit happening with zero explanation and the rest is people dying.
The lead looks terrified of water but there is no explanation whatsoever. None of the characters had any character. From the first scene I knew all of them were dying in the most mid ways possible.
Easily one of the most personality-less horror movies I've ever seen. I have nothing to look forward to, but I really hope they explain stuff in the to be continued part.

Read More

My Little Bride is a film built around a question it never answers.

The premise is simple: a 15-year-old girl is forced to marry an older man because of a promise made by their grandparents years ago.

What surprised me is not the age difference itself, but how little the story actually needs it.

If the heroine were a university student, the plot would remain almost unchanged. She could still be in love with the baseball player. He could still have romantic interests of his own. They could still be trapped in a marriage neither of them wants.

The film spends a great deal of time watching them live together, share a house, and navigate married life. Yet it never provides a convincing reason why the heroine specifically has to be a high school student.

The same problem applies to the marriage itself. There is no inheritance, no family business, no meaningful consequence attached to refusing it. The entire plot rests on the stubbornness of a grandfather, which feels surprisingly weak for a story built entirely around that decision.

This is why I found myself questioning the premise more than enjoying the comedy. The film relies heavily on a situation that attracts attention, but never fully justifies it within the narrative.

The strangest thing about My Little Bride is that the more you analyze it, the less you need the bride to be "little."

A very memorable premise supported by a surprisingly fragile foundation.

Read More

Essentially a very cut down version of the original story

I feel like the story is too long and intricate to fit in a movie time limit, as someone who loves the anime (watched it 4 times) it gave me some frustrations watching this.

The first part where Miyo's character and story gets told got completely scrapped, this makes it seem like her life was besides being treated like a servant (which is common for the time period), wasn't that bad. Yurie only meeting Miyo while prepairing for dinner makes it so the characters should feel more distant. The discovery of the Usuba family felt meaningless (also whats with the table of a bunch of old guys at the mansion >.>). Miyo's powers where useless essentially, which resulted in a very anticlimactic ending. The young emperor was useless. And the love between the mains feel nonexistent.

The sets and effects where nice to look at, and for how small of a time frame they have with movies its understandable, however I'd definitely recommend to watch the anime instead >.>

Read More

"I gradually lost my sense of time"

Buenos Aires Zero Degree: The Making of Happy Together was an interesting if overly long documentary. There were tantalizing “what could have been” storylines and deleted scenes. The film was directed by Amos Lee and Kwan Pung Leung attempting Wong Kar Wai’s style.

*What worked for me:

The early clips of Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Leslie Cheung practicing the dance scenes made me want to watch the film all over again. Their intensity, even in rehearsal, was mesmerizing. When the documentary focused on these two whether in outtakes, deleted scenes, or rehearsals, just like the film, you can't take your eyes off them.

There were snippets of interviews with Tony. He told of his desperate homesickness while they were stuck in Argentina hanging out when Leslie had to return to Hong Kong for his concerts. The six-week Argentina film shoot turned into four months putting pressure on everyone. Tony wondered if Wong had done it purposefully to drive them to the edge for the film.

Wong Kar Wai only knew he wanted to tell the story of Ho Po Wing and Lai Yiu Fai in Argentina and little else upon their arrival on the other side of the world. He proffered several story concepts, including Leslie playing both characters and dressing in drag among other ideas. Deleted scenes were shown and a much different ending was discussed. Crew members gave a tour of the various locations used in the film and told of the troubles they encountered.

*What didn’t work as well:

Initially, the interviews with crew members were insightful, but then it faltered as fewer compelling stories were shared. The last third of the film lapsed into a musical montage featuring supporting characters and their story possibilities.

The shaky, out of focus camera style was more annoying than intriguing.

*Was it worth watching?

Yes, with caveats. The first half of the documentary was well worth watching to hear how the director cobbled the story together and abandoned creative conceptions that would have carried the story in very different directions. As much as I loved the film Happy Together, the narrative was thin. Tony and Leslie made the film as they threw themselves into their roles. As their presence dissipated from the screen in the documentary, it quickly ran out of steam. Would recommend for anyone who has not read about the difficulties in making the film, but otherwise it was skippable. (7.25 bumped up to 7.5 only for the scenes of Tony and Leslie burning up the screen with their amazing chemistry and presence, even in short clips)

“…in a land of zero degree, with neither east nor west,
has neither day nor night, which is neither cold nor warm,
I learned the feeling of exile.”
-Wong Kar Wai

30 May 2026

Read More

A Good Dynasty Era Detective Story

First, I would say the casting in this one is top-notch, especially Liu Yong Xi, Zhao Ran and Yang Xing. The specific ally / enemy colleague-hood between Liu Yong Xi's Detective Tang and Yang Xing's Detective Sai is something rare: two female characters of similar martial disciplines who aren't 'catty' with each other but also aren't 'allies' in the common feminist western movie sense. Just two masters whose priorities in life diverged with one being the younger version of the other. I also like how the movie never feels the need to 'soften' Detective Sai.

On the CGI of shadow and light mirror play, I feel like people who are raised on the lexicon that CGI must be 'photoreal' (but it never is anyway) will receive this one awkwardly because the whole point is that the illusory entities should both be lethal AND look artificial, not creatures that look like they exist with solidity in the real world. Since I'm not in the 'CGI must always be photoreal in live-action' camp, I pretty much got what they were going for here.

Lastly, without any spoilers, I would say the action sequences are well-choreographed and elegant but also quite brutal and raw, and of course, bloody. It gives the feeling of a hybrid detective / wuxia underground story that I really find interesting.

Read More

Fun Dramedy with a Strange Message

(I'll warn you when I spoil, which is basically the end of the story.)

I Middle-aged dude software engineer in corporate China loses job and scrambles to find employment to take care of his family and keep their home. Jobs are so hard to find he ends up becoming a delivery 'boy' and perhaps he's too old for the job. But he perseveres to admirable yet mixed results.

The story stars writer/director/actor Xu Zheng -- and he's absolutely great. What brought me eyes to this film was starlet Xin Zhi Lei, but she did her job as a bait and switch actress. Don't see this film to see her -- she's barely in it. And any number of actresses could have played this role. I think Xu Zheng wanted a hottie by his side, and with Xin Zhi Lei -- who can blame him.

The big star of this story is the pacing. Despite being two hours long it's pacing makes it feel much faster. Although this piece has a low budget feel, the sheer number of locations will blow your mind. This delivery company, like the film crew, are all over this city.

My problem with this film was its ultimate point. What exactly was the Xu Zheng trying to say?

One the one hand there was a rather kind message: don't look down on those people delivering your food, you privileged bastards. These delivery people (apparently) work like dogs and are humans too. There's a really nice series of shots at one point where it showed all the delivery people smiling. That they took pride in their work. Teeth and humanity.

My problem was the second message in the story, that was as realistic as it was kind of sad.

(SPOILERS)

Our hero literally risks his life doing as many deliveries as possible to keep his home and family safe. He eventually loses his home and ends up in a smaller place, presumably an apartment. His wife says it's okay because it reminds her of her childhood. The message here is the cliche that we grew up poor but were happier when we were poor. This message is repeated when our hero goes to the home of one of his co-workers and it's basically a narrow shack in an unpleasant area.

The story is saying family is more important than financial security. Hmm. Really? America right now is going thru an affordability crisis and most of us believe financial security is the best way to taking care of your family. I presumed this was a global truth that the Chinese would particularly agree with. But instead this film says "Being fired happens all the time, and beside you're getting old so you kinda should expect this." Hmm...

So the story's message is enjoy what you got instead of what you need, because if you have family you've got all you need. Really? And what if you don't have a family? I guess your co-workers become that? Like I said, strange message.

Despite this major messaging flaw, it's worth seeing if interested. The problem is it's not a strong recommend.

Read More

The story takes place against the chaotic and decisive backdrop of the D-Day invasion in World War II. A group of American soldiers, led by General Haskel (Kelsey Grammer), receives a highly secret and dangerous mission: they must infiltrate behind enemy lines in France to smuggle in a member of the French Resistance. The ultimate goal is purely strategic and lethal: to assassinate a high-value Nazi target. The main cast of soldiers includes familiar names such as William Moseley (the eternal Peter from The Chronicles of Narnia) and Pooch Hall.

Classic and Direct Premise: The "suicide mission behind enemy lines" dynamic is a formula that always generates some initial tension. The film doesn't waste much time with lengthy introductions and gets straight to the point.
Strived Performances: Despite the limited script, the cast does what it can. It's interesting to see William Moseley in a much more mature and raw role than in his teen fantasy films, and Gilles Marini delivers a worthy representation of the resistance.
Short Duration: At only 1 hour and 26 minutes long, the film doesn't drag on unnecessarily, preventing it from becoming completely drawn out.

Visibly Low Budget: Although the setting attempts to emulate the destruction of World War II, the production suffers from a lack of funding. The sets seem repetitive, the visual effects of explosions and gunfire lack realism, and the battles give the impression of a smaller-scale combat than the historical moment demanded.
Lack of Depth: The characters are walking stereotypes of the war genre: the tough soldier, the frightened rookie, the reluctant leader. You don't spend enough time with them to care when someone is in danger.

Expensive Candy goes beyond what's expected of a commercial erotic film. Although it uses sensuality as a draw, the film delivers an interesting character study about expectations, unrequited love, and the socioeconomic barriers in modern romance. It's not a conventional fairytale love story, and that's precisely why it works.

Read More