Reviews

Fun Heist Movie

The movie is about a grave robber trying to attempt a big heist in the middle of Seoul.

I liked the first part where they were showing how good the lead was in pulling off heists (which felt like the setup of the story) but the second part dragged when we find out what the real intention was. There were also too many characters to follow. There were also more action in the first part. The comedy also fell flat sometimes. I didn't like Hyesun's character, all she did was raise her eyebrows or do her smirk. I love Jae Hoon, he always looks like a fun guy. I like the twist at the end where they showed how they successfully pulled off the heist.

Rating: 8/10

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A cleverly crafted romance that works despite itself.

The Beauty Inside tackles the old adage of “beauty is in the inside” with a compelling and refreshing take well worth its course .

Caution : if you poke at it too much , it will definitely fall apart but for what it’s worth which is : a soft focus on a topic infused with romance ; it nails it .

The Beauty Inside doesn’t aim to be its predecessor as a social commentary and it’s quite clear from the get go that this movie just wants to explore what romance could be for someone who changes their body everyday . You will not get profound quotes on acceptance and image . Far from it . However, one gets a portrait of loneliness from the male lead and a tour de force from the female lead .

And that leads me to the standout here : Han Hyo Joo was terrific in this ! Her character portrait and her portrayal which is refreshingly far away from the infantile rom com woman was astounding ! She helped with the gravitas , nuance and emotional resonance of this movie that this was a total tour de force of talent !

This movie is also very well crafted . The hues and tones were just right and the motif of furniture was cleverly built in with the whole theme . The cameos of top Korean stars makes the movie super cool too.

OVERALL- A cleverly crafted romance that works despite itself. I say “despite itself “ because it really could have knocked it out with a more punchy social commentary and shorter run time . Those were just cons working against the movie. However , if the story compels you , go for it .

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Depressing and messy

I am honestly trying to grasp what I actually watched, I do not really know what I was expecting and am not really sure what I got as the story seems a bit oddly cut and left a whole lot of blanks for the viewers to fill in on their own and they go back and fourth in time have and have a lot of quiet thought. Honestly rather they are deep in conversation or completely silent... though the issues are relatable I find it hard to connect to the story, the acting is inconsistent, sometimes it is mind-blowing other times I am not sure if it is the dialog, the sound or the action but it feels forced in a way and comes of very unnatural.

The whole movie loses depression and darkness as it should considering it's subject, there're some good and interesting lines about who to blame in the event of a sueside others about dealing with an inevitable death near by... Unfortunately these were cut short and could have been done better, but they do get points for actually showing this and attempting to approach this not so very happy subject.

All in all an ok watch, not very entertaining and kind of lacking but it has something in it that still makes it worth a watch, I just can not really put my finger on what it is, maybe you will? O r I may just have to watch it again to understand it. However it was not very entertaining so I probably won't (actually I did re-watch a few scenes just to check if I missed something, I didn't)

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Nostalgic!

I remember reading the novel when I was in junior high school and I'm really into it. One of the most memorable novels I've read. The story was just perfect, with no other complicated background and ending.

Song Joongki really did a great job to portray a wild werewolf boy that has a warm heart and sincerity. It's more than a romance story.
Park Boyoung, her acting always had a way to make me cry a river. Her 'Sun Yi' was just perfect.

When I read the novel at night, I remember going to school with swollen eyes in the morning.

One of the things that I won't regret in my life was deciding to borrow this novel from my school library and decided to watch the movie.

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Multinational direction mixed bag

When a movie seeks for a multinational direction, it doesn't always produces effective results, and this movie has not escaped the fate of being sluggish in it. South Koreans hunting for North Koreans and at the end having a war with Japanese all done inside of China, this mixed bag couldn't get any weirder. However the main problem with this movie is how things are always getting done miraculously and in favor of them without much explanations. It all feels like the writers tried too hard to impress the audience out of their wild imaginations of how an international threat would be, which makes it very hard to believe how it could all happen that way.

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Watched for Park Jinyoung but stayed for Sol Kyung-gu

First of all, it’s a great movie and it has what most people like to watch in a action movie. Some small comedy relief parts and a lot of great sequences of action. The storyline makes sense and there’s no holes in it for my point of view since I didn’t have any questions about what was delivered in general. The acting was great and the CGI too, even though that one scene of the rats made me question a little if it was that good (lol).

I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if you don’t like those spy sequences movies that hollywood produces all the time because this is exactly what it is with the plus that it’s korean not american. Since i’m into those i actually enjoyed watching this. And it’s also the type of movie I would recommend my parents to watch since they’re so into action movies and this is a good one.

I should add that you shouldn’t really expect much more than the plot about spies for this story since they don’t really get into any other stuff than this, even if there are some dialogues about decency and justice.

I was surprised by how much i liked Kyung-gu’s character. Both actor and character are very charismatic to me in their own way, as someone who was looking forward for this because of jinyoung that was a pleasant surprise!

and btw park jinyoung and park haesoo both are hot so yeah

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Badly done but had potential (ending made it worth it)

The movie is short 30 minutes and had to watch on a dodgy site. I love dark BL's, but this was just done wrong, comedic, strange and bad acting/script for the protagonist. The end was the only redeeming quality.

*SPOILERS*

Half the movie was about ML protagonist struggling, losing his job and then later planning to rob from the second male lead (wealthy), but it was done in almost a comedic way, which was strange.

Even stranger after the comedic stalking, a weird/disturbing sexual assault takes place. The grapes made me laugh and then I was like WTF. The end was pretty epic though, I really like the calculating ML troupe. The storyline reminds me of the manga 'killing stalking' but way less dark

Ending made it worth it, but would't re-watch this ever

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Pleasantly surprised!

I don’t really like action/ spy films like this but I actually really enjoyed this film! I thought the story was interesting and I liked how all the characters interacted with each other. It is also such a visually pleasing film, every shot looked so nice, especially the lighting. The acting was all great just as I expected.

Honestly this film could work as a stand-alone-film but if my suspicions are correct and they’ve planned/ are planning sequels then I’d definitely give them a watch and I’m interested to see how they would turn out.

Pleasantly surprised!

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cheesy teen romance

I haven’t seen the 2014 L-DK, so my review is based on this movie only. It was a typical Japanese teen movie where two high schoolers Aoi Nishimori and Shusei Kugayama live together, since they are underage they do not reveal it to anyone at school. The problem strikes when they fall in love and ML's cousin appears.
The plot is really fast-paced, the story presented a background really quick with some flashbacks and runs onto the teens lives hiding their secrets. it is like a teen fantasy where the most popular and handsome guy falls for the average-looking girl. Living together with your crush and doing everything except sex (because you have just gained knowledge about it), is what a common girls dream of. But at the same time stopping others from pursuing their dream is quite selfish. You can separate from your parents and live but you cant stay distanced from your beloved, It was teenage first love hormones. That was way too childish.

I have always been curious that, Japanese teens stay alone without any guardian supervision is that really their culture. The girl didn’t have a dream and just focuses on taking care of her partner, that point actually irked me. Everyone should go for a good higher education, and if one doesn’t trust their partner then it's really a matter of concern. she must have seen her mother doing house chores and her parents living happily together. IMO if they didn't live together love wouldn't have happened. more than the love they were each other habits and the girl wanted to cling to her habit.

The acting of the main cast Sugino Yosuke, Kamishiraishi Mone, and Yokohama Ryuse was mediocre. The visuals though were nice.
The music was good. The song 'Happy End' shows the happiness of Aoi and the song 'Every time' shows me the emotions of Reon
I wouldn't rewatch this because it is too cheesy. And I had more than enough of these typical Japanese teen movies.

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Cast in action is worth it!

The cast is the main reason, I've been waiting for this movie for a long time and couldn't wait to watch it the moment it came out. Well, I was kinda disappointed but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Story:

Tbh, the story is a mess. They've touched on a wide and complex topic, added in too much only to deliver a portion of it. The first half was a complete mess and I had a difficult time making sense of the story while it straightened out in the second half.
Ji Kang In operates a black team in China and our main lead, Han Ji Hoon is sent there to make a report on him. Well, imagine an office guy stepping into the world of spies and war. He has no choice but to become a part of the team and gets dragged on their missions while making sense of what's going on.
What I didn't like about the story is, that it's too predictable. This pretty much killed all the thrill one can feel in such movies. A couple of twists could've been nice despite the story being too simple.

Acting:

With Park Hae Soo, Lee El, Song Jae Rim and Jinyoung (these are the only familiar faces in this movie for me =D ) in an action movie, how can the acting not be great? They're best suited for such films, especially JaeRim!

Rewatch value:

Nah, not going to watch because the story is all over the place and the action scenes are the only ones worth watching which are too short as well. Yeah...

Conclusion:

If you're up for good action films, do watch it. But be prepared for the story to make a mush of your brain in the first half of the movie!

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Too Short For Good Depth

LIKES:
The cast was good and Takeru Sato as always played his role to perfection. He's good at playing a brooding character. Also I liked his chemistry with the FL, which helped with the emotional scenes. I like the production and cinematography. The scene after the credits finished, felt tacked on, but was needed to not have the viewers revolt. LOL. The songs were okay enough that I didn't have to mute them. I didn't notice any special effects.

DISLIKES:
Distortion on the songs, as if bad editing. It was very noticeable when the girl was singing and very bad during the song that played while the credits of the movie rolled. Not enough development of the storyline during the movie, this should’ve been a series of episodes. That also caused a lack of character depth and made everything seem rushed. Because of the lack of screen time for ML and FL, the heartbreaking moments fell flat, as there was no real connection to show the viewer the depth of their relationship. Maybe that’s why they added an extra moment after the end of the credits, but it felt slapped on like an after-thought. Could've just been bad editing. The writing seemed mashed together, because some of the dialog was lacking. The South Korean version of this movie of the same name, was done in 16 episodes that were 60 minutes each. That show gave enough time for character development, depth and growth, plus a better timed plot and completed storyline. This Japanese version as a movie had so much potential and failed. Not even Takeru Satoh could save this and he's mostly the reason I gave it even a 5/10 rating.

OVERALL:
It's an easy watch and we get to see Takeru Satoh kiss, lol. For someone who never read the manga or seen the 2017 S. Korean version, it could be enjoyable. I wont rewatch it, and am on the fence about recommending it too.

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A warm heart story!

This is a nice story about people who had a bad time, endure it and overcome it with their own solutions.

Though the male lead is a nice person and the female lead is so lovely, there is no romance in this film, it is kind of a friendship.
The scene when the female lead talk to the male lead are all so full of joy.

The smile when the female lead met her mother was so bright that it broke your heart when her accident occurred next.
The way the male lead struggled to support his sickness wife was very real, people are so tiny in this life.

The only miracle in this film was that the male lead could see and talk to the female lead.
There is no other miracle, in the end, I really wished miracle could happen and bring back the female lead to life. but there was not. It is so sad but they had no other choice...

Both Chun Woo Hee and Kim Nam Gil are excellent in portraying their characters.
My Rewatch Value is low because the ending is so sad (˃̥̥ω˂̥̥̥)

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Good Fight Scenes, Needed More Time

LIKES:
Production was good and so was the cinematography. Sometimes time travel movies/shows get bogged down with details that don't translate to film well. This movie didn't have that problem. The writer(s) kept enough dialog to keep it interesting. The fight scenes were well done; blood/damage FXs, choreography, sounds, music, etc. The story needed more time, to develop the mystery of the man behind the conflicts, who we see a few times. This would've been better as a series with episodes, but for what they accomplished it was satisfying with the conclusion. As in any fighting type movie/show Yamada Yuki kills it. I liked his portrayal of Draken and he looks so good with a partially shaved head! I also liked Ryo's Mikey and Takumi's Takemichi. The music was good and added to the film, but no particular song stood out.

DISLIKES:
The Director in this had some faults, like how long he has some characters have a reaction in certain situations. In particular the director failed with how Takemichi handled some situations and same with Hina. I was literally yelling at the screen for them to shut up and get moving. I never read the manga, so my review is solely based on the movie itself. The actors don't look like they are teenagers. If you compare Tong: Memories cast against the cast of Tokyo Revengers, the Tong cast look more like teenagers than these guys. Also the beginning of the movie almost made me not watch it, but as I'm a fan of Yamada Yuki, I stuck with it. The beginning was dumb, but I'm glad I kept watching. I didn't feel any connection between Takemichi and Hina, their romance part of the movie failed. They had no chemistry, but she was needed as the explanation as to why Takemichi was so driven to change outcomes. The ending was barely satisfactory, but left too many unanswered questions.

OVERALL: A good watch with fun fight scenes/violence. I hope they make a sequel to expand on the storyline. I would recommend watching it and I will rewatch it just for Yuki's character.

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Another version of 50 first date but reverse version, where the one got amnesia is the man.

Sometimes I wonder, if I myself got this illness what will I do...? Will I got frustrated like Lu Yao (LY) or I'll be chill and life my live normally like Lucy Whitmore in 50 first date. And if that happen to me will I find the love just like those 2...?

Love is really magical, it can make you remember little thing about the one you love, like LY always remember Xing Yue (XY) deep down his memories.

The only problem I have with this movie is why they have to continue the last 30 min of this movie. Why don't they stop when LY & XY together. Yeah that last 30 minute is the one make this movie more memorable, so I don't know is that bad or good thing about this movie. But overall I really happy I found this movie...

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This was a strange little movie. A 19-year-old art student falls in love with a man twice his age. And the man, an art photographer, falls for him, too. But then the man is transferred to another city. What now? And... that's the movie.

What was interesting to me? That the student's, Yoichi's, loved ones didn't care about the fact that he fell for a man or that the man could be his father, they were simply glad that Yoichi finally felt something for anyone. Yoichi was namely very, very closed off because of what happened to his family years back so seeing him finally come out of his shell? That was enough for those who took care of him to be grateful so they all supported his feelings. That was a nice change from the usual hateful reaction of various family members in other dramas.

Also! This movie features Shiono Akihisa AKA Toujo from Zettai BL! He plays another gay character here because his Fujimoto also falls for Yoichi.

Overall, not a bad movie. Very quiet and atmospheric sice it mostly takes places in or around Yoichi's house with cicadas chirping in the background...

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