Reviews

A sapphic, bittersweet coming of age romance

A bittersweet coming of age film created by high school students. While it is a bit clumsy at times, the film perfectly captures the fear and elation and adrenaline and peace and sting of falling for someone you shouldn't and having to let them go. The romance between the two leads is equal parts tender and heartbreaking and the ending, while painful, does feel very authentic and earned. One of the best aspects of the film (besides the acting of the two leads, which is incredible!) is the ways in which the director has used Chinese poetry to add emotional and thematic depth to the film. As for the cinematography and editing, it is clumsy at times, but it really shines at the most tender moments of the film. The opening sequence that shows the quick cut montage is a great example of this.

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This movie proves that Dramalist ratings are never to be trusted!

This was one of the most beautiful and raw movies I've ever watched. It was steamy, well paced and I legit never once felt there was a filler scene. There was character growth, as well as smooth story progression. By the end I was convinced this is on my top 5 for best chemistry between two leads. This is a bit of a side bar, but they didn't sleep on their female characters at all! They were phenomenal actresses and each one unique, as well as gorgeous. I would be more sad that I missed this until now because of the low rating, but it's honestly not easily accessible to watch. It gave me such a positive outlook for going through DL to watch all the shows/movies I wanted to, but put off do to ratings.

The rating of 7.4 has to be solely on the fact that it has an open ending, one that I think we can all agree we know where it'll go. For me it was one of the healthiest open endings and I was actually really satisfied, you'd have to watch till the end to understand. It makes me seriously sometimes wonder if 80% of the BL fans on here are stuck on SOTUS or something fluffy, refusing to never look forward. Demanding in most comments for something realistic, then getting it and refusing to embrace it for what it is.

The Japanese are still the tops for me on angst and gritty romance, this movie can't be missed!

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An important and beautiful short film starring Elijah Canlas and Rex Lantano

To make this clear from the start - ”Ang Nagliliyab na Kasaysayan ng Pamilya Dela Cruz” ("The Blazing Hisrory of the de la Cruz Family" )is no Boyslove film, but it stars two of the most famous and best Pinoy BL actors. Elijah Canlas rose to international fame for his amazing acting in the movie ”Kalel, 15”, where he plays an HIV-infected boy, and for setting new standards in the history of BL series and movies with Kokoy de Santos in ”Gameboys the series” and ”Gameboys the movie”. Rex Lantano is well known for his outstanding performances and his readiness to risk something new in various short films like "Siphayo" and the series ”Daddy Love”, ”Meet my Angel Season 2”, as well as for co-producing and acting in ”Love at the End of the World” and the upcoming series ”Papa, what is love?”.

This short film depicts the fight of peasants in the Philippines against landowners who usually live in the big cities, using the De la Cruz family as an example. With stylistic elements of a documentary as well as fictional scenes, it shows the hard life of poor villagers, and the brutal methods of land-owners who try to steal their land by force.

Rex Lantano plays Jun, the son of a family who has joined the non-violent peasant movement in Central Luzon after his elder brother José was killed in a fight against the landowners' minions. He tries to persuade Tonio, the son of the de la Cruz family, played by Elijah Canlas, to join the movement. Tonio is reluctant, because his father doesn't want the family to be involved in the movement.

Things change when Tonio's mother eye-witnesses the killing of a neighbour. In a moving speech, she calls upon her husband to join the peasants' fight for the good of their son Tonio. The father, who was crippled by gunmen when Tonio was very young, is still reluctant, because he is afraid Tonio may face a similar fate as himself, and he has no hope that the peasants' movement can ever be successful against the minions of the landowners.

Tonio, however, agrees with his mother. During their discussion, the village is attacked by gunmen, huts are set afire, and Tonio is hit by a bullet. He dies, so this movie does not have a happy ending, just as the fight of the Filipino peasants has not come to a happy ending, but is still going on today, and with the return of the Marcos family to power, there is no hope it will come to a positive end any time soon.

The short film follows the tradition of Filipino movies that display the social conditions in the country, and it is remarkable that actors like Elijah Canlas and Rex Lantano have the courage to speak out against the inequality and injustice in their country, which is definitely dangerous in the Philippines, when they could lead the easy life of young celebrities.

The short film is very similar to the BL-series ”Padayon” (or rather the other way round, because this short film was released two years before ”Padayon”) which I reviewed earlier, and which I would recommend to everyone who is not only interested in the BL genre, but also in social and political conditions in the countries where most of the BL-series are set.

Elijah and Rex have proven their talent and skills in many other projects, and they do so here once again. Angeli Bayani and Angelo Hulip are also convincing in their respective roles as Tonio's parents, and Elijah's younger brother JM has a short cameo as Tonio's younger self.

To sum up, writer and director Miguel Louie de Guzman has created an important, realistic, in parts brutal, but still beautiful short film that has deservedly earned lots of prizes. It can be found on Miguel Louie's youtube channel.

Country: Philippines (2019)

Duration: 20 mins.

Director: Miguel Louie de Guzman

Cast: Angeli Bayani, Angelo Hulip, Elijah Canlas, JM Canlas (as young Tonio), and Rex Lantano

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Same enjoyable characters, great messages, but different tone

On one hand, this story aged better than it's prequel. But on the other hand, it didn't have the same innocence that attracted me to the prequel.

Nai still feels rather similar to his prequel version. And the friend group is just as mischievous as ever. Gump feels like a slightly different character - but I feel like this might be simply because of his new actor, as I couldn't pinpoint a reason for the difference. But ultimately, I can't find any fault in any of their performances.

Although the tone of the film is quite different than the prequel. I do think it still manages to tell an important message: that just because there is attraction, it does not mean you have to act on it. I loved how even though Gump did find Sunz attractive, nothing ever came of it - and they even became good friends. Furthermore, I liked that he made Nai work for his forgiveness.

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It's just another version of "The Nutty Professor" with a female lead. The ML happens to know and like the 'natural' (large) version of the FL. And you know the standard trope will be that the man she likes will be bad for her. It's kinda of cute, not to funny. It's a movie you want to watch when vegging out and not required to think or remember anything. I made it to the hour mark before I was ready to call it quits and just had it on for the noise after that. The story needs work on the transitions between scenes; it seems to roughly jump from one scene to the next. This is especially true when the FL reverts back and fat shaming and fat comments are made to cover over the roughness.

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A coming-of-age story that's more adorable than outdated

This is an adorable coming-of-age BL, with a strong focus on friendship and acceptance. It's a great movie for queer youth who are going through similar struggles of just wanting to be who they are and love who they love - or even adults reflecting on that time in their lives. The majority of the comedy is really cute and innocent, without being cringy or facepalm-inducing. It had me smiling widely on more than one occasion.

However, this movie is by no means perfect. Some of the elements did not age well at all. Especially those moments centered around Kathoey individuals in the beginning portion of the movie - where they were heavy-handed with stereotypes attempting to be played off as "comedy." Fortunately, these attempts at comedy did not stick around, and one of the main individuals to which this was applied to was given a chance to become a well-developed character by the end of it. I also think that the characters act rather immature for a group of so-called 12th graders.

I am actually extremely happy that I got reunited with this movie. I remember watching this movie on YouTube one night in rather grainy quality, probably close to when it released actually. I have since watched many a Thai BL and was very happy to see a young Mild.

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A different take on what this movie is about

In my life I’ve encountered a number of people who are suicidal, alcoholics or compulsive destructive. I’ve found trying to be kind or supportive to these people only enables their issues. More often than not a ‘tough love’ approach is necessary. The term ‘love’ might not even apply but in this case I believe it does. As with basic training in the military, when you need to break someone of their behavior you essentially have to put them through a really rough time and then attempt to build them back into someone else. I believe the doctor understands this and is perfectly capable of being as brutal as necessary to bring about the result of making the patient want to live.

This story may be tough to watch as many reviews have stated but I think it will make it easier to get through it if you understand something as brutal as is shown was likely necessary to save a life. Could it have been in a different direction? If so it probably would have been as tough to watch.

What this story has brought to me is an understanding I don’t have the capability to be tough enough in such situations. I better understand I need to walk away from such situations for the good of the other person.

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Never go against the family!

Golden Job was a throwback movie with a big budget. It spared no expense on the cast, filming in spectacular scenery, or blowing up or smashing cars and spraying buckets of blood. It also didn't spend very much time on developing a well thought out script. Of course, most people who watch heist and car chase movies aren't usually looking for a lot of depth. If you are, you're out of luck.

This "made family" would have benefited from watching a Godfather movie. Never go against the family! Ask Fredo what happens when you do (Godfather II, it's an old movie but worth checking out). Instead, this family kept giving the wayward "child" chance after chance to repent. Penitence was not easy when a truckload of gold was involved.

There was almost no female presence in this movie except for a few scenes. This was amped up testosterone with shootouts, explosions, and multiple car chases with shooting and explosions. Woe to the innocent civilians who become collateral damage by being crushed, mangled, shot, or blown up as the bad guys and badder guys chased each other through Montenegro, Japan, and anywhere they were.

The music was appropriately jaunty for a boys' heist/rampage movie. I have no complaints about the production values, they were top notch.

The cast did fine with what they were asked to do. Not a lot of room between shootouts and explosions for character growth for the 50-year-old men reunited from the Young and Dangerous series. I enjoyed Kurata Yasuaki's small role especially when he put the beat down on a few younger thugs.

The lack of female presence, the very weak script, the whiny "Dad always liked you better" villain, the ridiculous collateral damage that went unaddressed, and the presence of Eric Tsang (google what happened with Yu Sin Man) lowered my score for a mindless action movie that I would normally enjoy.

If you are a fan of older Hong Kong movies and are yearning for a throwback trip down memory lane with a famous cast, exciting scenery and sets, and don't mind the things I mentioned, this would probably be an exhilarating drive for you. By the end I felt more like I'd been stuck on the side of the road in the rain with a flat tire waiting for AAA to show up.

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Not what I had expected ...

I was really looking forward to this, although to be honest I started with the Movie first before the actual series, and well I was not that overly impressed with it, the trailer for both of these looked really good but I was not happy impressed with the movie.

If just seemed to have lacked a whole lot of story line and potential, I did not feel any chemistry between the leads and the some how it feels liked it was all of the place, then it did full circle a year later without back ground to what really happened between them?

So I might watch the drama (MIGHT BEEN THE KEY WORD) or just forget about it, if there are literally the same along the lines of nothing !!

Overall: Guess its up to you, but a NO FOR ME!!

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Did Not Enjoy this

This movie was literally 48 mins long and I just feel that there was so much potential but nothing was really executed.

Strong points:

-- The plot is interesting, engaging and well-conceived. It concerns some heavy topics but is not overwhelmingly depressing. (That said, it does feature a couple of incidents of rape, and people who are sensitive to sexual violence should be warned.)


Weak point:

-- The decision to make this a short movie limited the creators too much. A longer treatment could have given the audience a better understanding

I just feel that they should have been longer and more understanding to this movie.

Overall: The weak plot and shortness of this movie was a major let down.

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I despised this movie

I know the title may seem a bit dramatic but I am not exaggerating, I genuinely hated this movie. Don't get me wrong, the actual movie part was good and I would have loved it if not for the story. I hate romanticised cheating with a burning passion, there are very few stories where I don't mind it and I assure you that this was not one of them. I understand being unable to be yourself due to the pressure of society and such but jfc, just break up with her if you want to date another person. And, while I do like him for the most part, Toey was no better than Oat. He engaged in the relationship even though he KNEW he was married and had a kid! Like they knew each other for a few weeks in the first movie and that forms enough love to last four years and make him ok with being a side piece??I don't think so. If he was with him not knowing he was married, that would be much more sympathy inducing. But the ending of this had me so angry I was on the verge of tears. I don't know how I finished this movie, at least the first one had Yumi. Sorry for the lengthy rant but oof, I haven't been this pissed off at a movie ever so I needed to get it all out. As a recap, don't watch unless you are ok with cheating in your romances.

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fifteen years of love all gone by a single word: regret.

WOW! okay so i just finished this about two hours ago and I can't stop thinking abt it. So my love is a remake of on your wedding day (a kor movie) and I haven't seen that YET so just letting yall know :D also this isnt much a review rather and rant because boy oh boy i have thoughts.
These two are literally the definition of 'right person wrong time' ! they were soulmates but they kept walking into each other lives at the wrong time, and for the brief years they were in a relationship were cute however they wouldn't have worked out for many reasons. like he literally did sm for her, spent years after her, got injured, which literally made him sacrifice his career, THATS HUGE?!?!?!AND SHE TRIED DOWNPLAYING IT LIKE GIRL ?? clearly he was down at that moment and anyone in his place would be questioning his life choices even if its for a moment, even her husband, i bet!!!! but she just decided to leave!! and the sad thing is if she was in that position, he would've done the exact opposite. and instead of understanding him and allowing him to grow she decides to leave. like it’s kind of selfish bc he’s literally the way he is bc of her yet she goes and purses her dreams leaving him in the dust to suffer
LIKE IKKK BUT IG IT WAS FOR THE BEST TO LET HIM GROW TOO AND FIND HAPPINESS?? CUZ HE WAS HAPPY WITH HER BUT NOT WITH HIMSELF AND SO I WOULDVE LIKED HIM TO GET LOVE AND ALL THAT
she was really just waiting for him to say the wrong words and leave him:((
but i really do recommend this because the acting is really good and it is a cute story!

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