Reviews

The genres that are not quite fitting.

Honestly speaking, this is far more of a comedy drama, and I don’t see many thriller elements in it. The poster presents what the mood of the movie will be far more than the genres listed, so take that into consideration when watching.

I have to say, it’s been a while since a movie made me so excited to watch. I was interested in the characters, in the court case, in the truth behind the case. Each element was so well written and constructed, and intertwined into the overall plot, there wasn’t a second wasted of the screen time.

The movie seems like a low key battlefield between the professional judge who forgot the core aspect of her work and a Juror 8, who got himself involved in the case and now simply wants to do a good job with it.

The aspect I enjoyed the most was the character development and clever ways they indicated how and when specific Juror’s started to be more engaged in the case. Especially Choi Yeong Jae, with whom they did a brilliant job.

The acting was amazing. Not surprised with a cast like that. Having great and well established actors playing supporting, and even guest roles made each scene truly enjoyable. Big props to Seo Hyun Woo, even though he did not have that much screen time, his depiction of the defendant was stellar.

Is the movie realistic? Definitely not. I do believe the comedic leaning makes it okay though. It still presents the importance of the job jury has, the potential issues in the system, but also the benefits it might bring, while adding a lot of entertainment with the exaggerated scenarios.

On the other hand, saying it’s even loosely based on the original story is nothing but misleading. The cases are nothing alike, the result is not the same, the behavior of the jury is completely different. It especially bothered me with the last narration on the screen, where they mixed the events of the show with real life statistics - it was simply confusing. Before I did some research, I was sure that part describes the real life case from 2008, which was not correct. Hence I’m not sure selling it even to that extent as being related to real events was a wise choice.

Overall, extremely exciting, interesting and engaging. Has some amazing situational comedy, but does not forget to have good content behind the jokes.

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Happy Pride! I was SO scared to watch this because I really hate sad or tragic queer stories, I just can't handle them. But I'm so glad I watched this because, while it wasn't a smooth, wholesome love story by any means, it was FASCINATING and just...life. The acting was fantastic. I loved how they jumped around a bit in time, it didn't make anything confusing. I really enjoyed this and I wasn't expecting to really. A lot about it hit home strongly and I really resonated with the struggle within them all. If I had to name something I didn't like it would probably be Father Oliver, he just didn't work for me, I didn't care for him. Also, even though this was a 2 hour movie, I really didn't mind the length, I was invested the whole time and the pacing was great!

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A Great Action Zombie Movie!

I couldn't resist, and decided to write a review on this underrated movie. Honestly I don't understand why it received so much hate; because it's actually very good.
Many people compared Peninsula to Train to Busan, meanwhile although they're slightly linked, they're completely different plot wise and cast.
Train to Busan targets more of a psychological genre, and the relations between people, whilst Peninsula is more of an action packed movie.
If you're currently in that stage, wondering whether or not you should give this movie a try, do it, watch it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed! The amount of negative reviews also put me off from watching this movie, but I'm so glad I still gave it a chance nevertheless!
Peninsula is honestly very entertaining and worth a watch. I loved the cast, the acting was outstanding, and of course the plot didn't disappoint itself.
Plus it has a more positive ending, compared with Train to Busan.
Either way, give it a go!

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i feel like the movie was good confusing made me feel like wtf am i watching
the actors did really well but i feel like it needs a pt2 on explaining properly or in depth why he kiddnaped him and decided to use him as a toy and r@pe him why he kept him in the basement of the hospital and to show how their new relashionship will progress
the whole movie is a what the fuck it kinda scared me the actors did so well thats its one of thoes that you hat the actor like they are the charecter they embraced their roles

i do hope for a movie 2 the start was confusing until the full movie pieces fit together but a second movie would finish it all

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If the Male Gaze Were a Movie

Let's be real, this film has a very specific audience, and that's cishet men. That is not to say that no one else can enjoy this film. I must say I quite enjoyed it, much to my chagrin, and the 6.5 is indicative of that.

What led me to watch this film despite the tropey romcom blurb were the three main leads, all amazing actors in their own right. Alas, the performances are what make or break a film, and in this film's case, they very much made it.

On to the story, or lack thereof, if you're interested in enjoying the film, don't think too hard about the logistics of the entire plan, because it is incredibly stupid. The writing (I'll bet my non existent million dollars is also by a dude) makes no sense even from a romcom perspective, and there's barely enough scenes with the two leads to make their love story convincing. Dong Zijian and Elaine Zhong get props for trying their best to make something out of nothing, because they did have some chemistry together.

On the other hand, what this film does have are boobs, tons of them. Also problematic dialogues like the second female lead saying that women and airplanes are one and the same, thank you for taking us back to the dark ages, madame. You have your manic pixie dream girls, your simpleton who, for some reason has two incredibly gorgeous, accomplished women fawning for him despite having the personality of wet cardboard, and two dudebros who honestly got better character development than the entire leads' arc.

So there you have it. Take it as you will. In case you're not a reader and are more of a visual learner, just check out the thumbnail of the YouTube video posted in the comments below that has the link to the entire film. It will perfectly illustrate everything this movie is about.

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Melancholic Youth Drama

Based on a novel by Katsuse Masahiko, Matsumoto Hana's “The End of the Pale Hour” follows an unnamed protagonist that just graduated from college and is about to enter the workforce. He meets a young woman, and we follow him as he falls in love, makes friends and struggles with his monotonous life.

Kitamura Takumi perfectly portrays the young man's enthusiasm, growing disappointment and apathy over the years. His portrayal feels genuine, and the male lead's relatable struggles make it easy to connect with him, even if his character is quite the passive guy. Kuroshima Yuin is excellent as his love interest, and they both had very convincing chemistry. Inoue Yuki as the Naoko, our main lead's upbeat friend, was easily my favorite character. Their friendship made for some heartwarming moments.

The End of the Pale Hour is an empathic depiction of heartbreak, growing up, and a realistic portrayal of the struggles that come with working for a big corporation and finding your place in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. While the first half was light and sweet, the later half shifts in tone as our male lead has to face reality. Personally, I thought the twist was well done and gave this movie another interesting layer. Apart from the wonderful performances of the cast, I also really enjoyed the soundtrack that matched the youth theme and melancholic atmosphere of the story.

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Interesting to Speculate on

I love reading peoples thoughts and saw some here, speculating on what Sung Kyu (the adopted brother) felt especially during the ending scene where his smile disappears. So I decided to give my own two cents. In the beginning it felt like it was already shown to me that Sung Kyu was pretty apathetic and didn't necessarily feel strongly towards acting a specific way to be liked. Barely being able to choke out the words 'it's delicious......... mom'. He wasn't shown trying to connect with Sung woo other than randomly picking him up at school once either.
The first time Sung Kyu shows assertiveness is when the shower scene happens. Because of this detail I didn't feel like he tried to appease Sung woo like someone else did. (which is why I like seeing other peoples perspective since it can be so different!)
I also don't think it was suppose to be about sexuality at all and whether or not Sung Kyu is attracted to men in general. For me this was more an exploration on how Sung Kyu didn't really feel anything and therefore tried to fill the emptiness within him with a new family and the shower scene mostly to me looked like 2 very empty and emotionally tired people that desperately needed to feel 'something', just anything. But just like most one night stands, it didn't fix the initial problem, that Sung Kyu felt a loss of identity and therefore remained apathetic after not being able to find it with his new family either.

Thinking back, Everyone in this movie seemed to fill up the emptiness with something, The mother keeps filling the emptiness the loss of her son caused her, by adopting multiple people. Sung Woo seems to fill up his emptiness coming from a broken home with physical affection from a significant other. And Sung Kyu as a grown man being adopted into a new family with a new identity because he feels like a nobody.

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Wordlessness Is Not Silence

A show-stopping movie I have kept in the closet for later perusal for a long time now. We rarely see such profound acting anymore in popular cinema, and I am grateful for this website especially for the movies it recommends me and which I would never get to know about or to see in theaters in my country.

I don't know where to start praising: the cast, the music, the filming, the deceptive play of plain colors, the themes of abandonment. The fact that rather than having the two lead characters have open conversations, the dialogue is spoken over them, instead of by them, by other characters. It doesn't matter if these characters are the nice cop or the mean one, the bullies or the acquaintances, family itself. Decisions are taken over their lives in discussions they will not join, and their true feelings and wishes remain wordless—but not silent.

Facial expressions, isolated words, the ways of physical contact: those are the dialogue that the main characters engage in. And nothing is as breath-taking about it than the entirely silent exchange they have through the glass window, looking at each other with the other's reflection superposed to their face, the slightly off-tempo of the smiles and tears and begging they give.

The flash-forward at the start which becomes the time-skip of the ending is all the more poetic. This was, used to be, is, their playground: their relationship has not vanished despite the years of separation, and the revolute time can always be brought back. And here comes the play of colors: the little girl's yellow clothes and Chen Nian's yellow prison uniform, and how Chen Nian takes the shackles of those clothes off the girl as she walks her home...

In fact I would say this story is not so much preventive toward school bullying as it is a tender testimony of loneliness, although its public interest did cause significant changes in order to help victims. It is abandonment by family, friends—Chen Nian refusing to answer the dead girl's plea at the beginning,—the school system, the justice system. But it is also about bringing the lonely together and how lifestyle does not indicate the humanity in one's heart.

Dialogue crushes and avoids the scarcely-speaking main characters, but they are certainly not silent.

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Amusing infidelity comedy with pacing issues

“It’s fine that you’re working, but you need to act more like a wife.”

"Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me?" smartly blurs the lines between fiction and reality when manga artist Sawako decides to write a story based on her husband's suspected infidelity. When Sawako's husband Toshio finds the drafts of her new work, he realizes in shock his wife not only suspects him of cheating on her, but she is also seemingly cheating on him with her new driving instructor.

Given the subject, I didn't expect to be so amused by this story. Seeing Toshio lose his mind and second guess every word Sawako says to him, while we try to figure out who knows what and did exactly what with whom, was the most entertaining part of the movie. Kuroki Haru perfectly portrays Sawako's insecurity and sadness while delivering snarky remarks with an innocent face that would make me regret and confess no matter if I did something wrong or not. Emoto Tasuku is convincing as the fumbling, chaotic artist in a midlife crisis. Seeing him try to figure things out while trying to not give away anything himself made for some hilarious moments. The cast was good in general, and these two played off of each other really well.

The dialogues are clever, the mix of fiction and reality is creative and well done. Sadly, the plot is rather thin, so the movie would have benefitted from a shorter runtime to add more suspense. I also feel the storytelling was too timid at times, and a more daring approach would have made this one far more entertaining. Overall, I did have a good time with it and particularly enjoyed the last 20 minutes that were unexpected and satisfying.

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Non's Sophomore Effort Is Slow But Charming

This is Non's second film, and this time she "only" wrote, directed, edited and starred in it. It's an art film about art which is always dicey territory, but Non manages to keep the story from being pretentious or self-indulgent by grounding the narrative in the mundane lives of its characters while limiting her representations of the impulses of creativity to brief but necessary moments of cgi and practical images of ribbons.

Set at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, it captures the stress of the time and the way it forced us to isolate. Here the stress is compounded for Non's character Itsuka and her friend Hirai as their art school is being put on hiatus right before their graduation and their final projects and exhibitions are canceled. Itsuka shelters in her apartment alone and utterly fails to find a way to continue painting even though she routinely had done so there in the past. It is a story about reconnecting to that creative impulse through the not always welcome intrusions of friends and family.

The film has a larger budget than her first film, Get To The Punchline, and her editorial skills have improved, but the film is a bit slow and probably does not merit it's 2 hour runtime. That being said, it has some solidly funny moments, a beautifully moving climax and a satisfying denouement. The cast is solid and Non exhibits a greater range as an actress than she has in her prior roles.

All in all, it's a good journeyman effort and a surprisingly satisfying next step for this interesting young filmmaker.

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My name is Liu Chieh Lien, you killed my father, prepare to die!

Angela Mao kicked and punched her way through this movie with the grace and agility her fans have come to expect. Her character Liu Chieh Lien was merciless to her opponents and the men she had sworn vengeance against. Born with a violent rage in her heart due to her mother's dying wish after giving birth that her daughter would seek revenge for her parents' demise, Liu was too ferocious for the Buddhist temple where she grew up and just ferocious enough to be a match for the four men who determined the course of her life. Along the way, she teamed up with Bruce Leung's undercover agent. She didn't really need his help as she was more than capable of a deadly rampage all on her own.

Yuen Woo Ping with the help of Hsu Hsia choreographed the fights and it showed. A few were slightly slow but stopped short of kung fu posing. Given that many of the fights involved a large group it was understandable. Angela was quick and agile enough to keep up with every kick and step they designed for her. Her rapid-fire kicks are always a treat to watch! Baddies had better beware when she glared at them. The fighters used a variety of weapons and styles, scorpions were even featured! This movie included a long list of talented stuntmen and bit players from the era making the fights extra special. Sammo Hung even had a non-speaking role as a knife wielding baddie. Bruce Leung did a superb job in his fights, though it highlighted Michael Chan's less sophisticated fighting style when they faced off.

The story was a typical kung fu revenge trope aided by Angela's fiery presence and the cast of superlative kung fu stuntmen and supporting characters. The major flaws were that the story started slowly as the mother entered prison and slogged through the backstory. Once Angela was grownup and causing a ruckus at the temple, the story kicked into high gear. And as with many of these movies, the ending was quite abrupt. There was also a gratuitous nude scene in the flashbacks which was not warranted.

The location scenes were beautiful with sets and costumes of a higher standard than many movies from this time frame. You could tell they spent more money than usual to showcase this story, and Angela deserved it. If I sound like a fan, I am. Angela Mao was beautiful and fierce, elevating many of the mediocre movies she was in.

This movie had its flaws, but Angela and the cast were not among them. Fast paced, dark, and brutal once the rampage started, Broken Oath was an entertaining kung fu movie to experience.

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Remembering the pain of the past.

A quiet, slow and beautifully shot movie about an aspiring manga artist in search of inspiration who finds meaningful connections to the past.

Ring Wandering doesn't only explore the subject of loneliness and personal relationships, it also highlights the importance of not forgetting the past. It's a movie that slowly reveals its different layers and leaves room for interpretation. What stood out to me the most were the visuals of this movie. The gorgeous nature shots, especially at the beginning and the end of the story.

While I did appreciate the atmospheric nature shots, the narrative would have benefitted from a shorter length. Some parts are too slow without adding any value to the story. I didn't mind it as much since I enjoy slow movies, it's still something that you should be aware of going into it. In an effort to convey universal messages, it neglects the connection of the audience to its main characters, which made me feel pretty indifferent towards them.

Ring Wandering is a serene movie with gorgeous cinematography and an almost meditative atmosphere. I genuinely appreciated the different themes it explored and its subtle depiction of loneliness, showing that even the smallest connections between people can go a long way.

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