Reviews

"It will be a tasty fight!"

This is the third film I’ve watched by screenwriter Migita Masakazu and as the old saying goes, “The third time is the charm!” I wasn’t overly impressed with Monster Seafood Wars or Death Kappa. The Calamari Wrestler, however, was a strange and joyful movie about a professional wrestler who had suffered from a terminal illness and miraculously transformed into a giant squid. Could Kanichi regain his title and get his girl back? Let’s get kraken on this review!

Professional wrestler, Taguchi, had always been in Iwata Kanichi's shadow until the day Iwata disappeared after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Three years later Taguchi is the top wrestler and has Iwata’s girl. After winning the championship, a man-sized squid climbs in the ring and snatches the championship belt. It was on like Donkey Kong and the Calamari Wrestler quickly defeated his two-legged foe. Embarrassed at being beaten by a seafood wrestler, Taguchi wanted a re-match and the Calamari wrestler was all for it. The promoters weren’t as thrilled when Calamari refused to throw the next fight.

The first thing that became apparent was that in the land of Gojira and other assorted kaiju, everyone was unperturbed by a dude who had turned into a cephalopod and who didn’t have to stay in water. I squid you not. Calamari shopped at the markets with no one running for their lives. In fact, when the fight was called off, the people rallied around him and pressured the promoters to schedule him a fight with Taguchi. Kanichi’s old girlfriend, Miyako, decided she was still in love with him regardless of his tentacles or maybe because of them. A whole sub-genre of manga came to life (without any gratuitous scenes).

There was an effort at social commentary in this squidiculous film. The promoter believed Calamari represented the chaos of the world and when Taguchi defeated him, it would alleviate public anxiety. Gradually, the public convinced him that by letting Calamari into the ring it showed that a world without prejudice could exist. The people just wanted to see exciting fights regardless of how many legs the opponents had. And soon there were other seafood wrestlers joining Kanichi in the ring.

This felt like a Rocky movie if Rocky was a squid and instead of boxing it was pro-wrestling. Coinsquidentally, Calamari had a Rocky moment right after his fight. There was even a training montage! All of the characters showed their devotion and love for pro wrestling. The film also highlighted the less savory side of the sport, I mean show, with the promoters working every which way to make a buck off the wrestlers and the fan’s desire to see blood in the ring. The special effects were almost nil. You could sea the human legs below the tentacles and squid costume which was actually part of the film’s charm.

Calamari Wrestler wasn’t inkredible but it was entertaining with gentle humor, as gentle as a reverse suplex or powerbomb. The wrestling scenes were hilarious and the final fight had a reveal I didn’t see coming. Normal issues such as love, greed, and national pride played out behind the tentacles and ink. If you enjoy absurd movies and don’t need a pesky thing like logic, this might be one to try.

1 October 2024

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Good always triumphs!!

Two yin-yang masters need to deal with a dark conspiracy in the royal court after a serpent awakens.The solid plot combined with beautiful special effects, the acting of the two protagonists and intertwined mysteries make it a must watch production.
Qing Ming,played by Mark Chao,is thoughtful,,calculative, attentive,stands for justice,and goes to any lengths to protect the world.
Together with Bo Ya, played by Deng Lun,they form and invincible team and bring peace to the world .
The step by step unfolding of the dark conspiracy,the special effects towards the end,the friendship between Qing Ming and Bo Ya make it a must watch Chinese movie.
All the actors gave their best and Mark Chao and Deng Lun really stole the show.
At the end,good always wins over evil.
I am really surprised and also impressed with this movie.Definitely it's a good and must watch.

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Well…

While i recommend watching this over reading the manga any day im still not sure if even recommend watching lol. The manga is very repetitive and annoying and the ending pays off a lot less than the movie— but it is still much more entertaining than this, the characters are much better and there is more consequences to actions id say! but ill cut the comparing now and just say it is very typical and simple, there are a handful of cute moments too! but it is boring and falls flat on itself, really only worth watching if you have nothing else lol. Also i still think after reading and watching she should’ve ended up with…well youll see if u watch!

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WTF was that?

I have a new synonym for "Complete Waste of Time" ==> Funouhan aka Impossibility Defense or as I'd rather call it "Impossible Crime" which is the literal translation of the title and makes much more sense. It's been years I haven't watched something so terrible or random or... I don't even know what to say... Just that I'm flabbergasted that I've sat through this whole ordeal with the hope that this would lead somewhere...

Anywhere.

I'm PISSED because I usually only manage to have a bit less than 2 hours to watch anything per day (basically when I'm eating) and today's treat has been wasted on this dumpster fire.

Watched it on Viki where the Ratings is incredibly low for the platform (8.4) but I naively thought that since most viewers on Viki are women... they tend to lean more towards romance and crime/thrillers usually have less audience which might explain the ratings.

Haha. My Bad. I should have checked the comment section.

I think the best comment I read for this movie is from:

@KuroSteve "I guess most of the actors were young and needed the money ... –_–"

Will I ever bother to watch the prequel ( not available on Viki for now): NO
Will I ever bother to read the manga: NOPE

Terrible as a stand-alone and even worse as something supposed to make you interested in the original manga.

To you, poor naive soul who has gotten lost on MDL and want to find a good Japanese thriller... This is NOT the one. Do yourself a service and find something else.

If you're still curious, well, at least I've done my duty. You've been warned.

If I could rate this show below 0, that would be a minus 10.

PS: Yeah I know the suggested rating is higher... but no way in hell am I giving this more than 1.

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Hopping Vampires!

I thought that I’d been led astray in my research of hopping vampire movies when I began Era of Vampires aka Vampire Hunters. The first creature of the night was a super powered blood sucking vampire that did not so much as hop, jump, or skip. Later on, my patience was rewarded when a whole herd of hoppers appeared. This was a low budget Hark Tsui produced film of which I expected more yet still found enough to keep my attention.

Be very, very quiet for Wind, Rain, Lightning, Thunder and their sifu Mao Shan are hunting a vampire. This mostly dead ex-general was juiced up and took exception to the vampire hunters. Many of the red shirt hunters were killed and Mao Shan was feared dead as well. Three months later the weather crew followed their vampire compass to the Jiang residence on the day of a wedding. The Jiangs were experts in making and using wax which led to some uber creepy goings on in a house where things didn’t just go bump in the night but also hopped and slithered. A secret stache of gold, a greedy brother-in-law, the Vampire King, the hunters, and the macabre household would all eventually collide in one gory mess.

This film had a very low budget look to it. The sets were simple but made to appear frightening with blue lighting and copious amounts of smoke masquerading as fog. The Vampire King was gruesome and buggy, no sexy fang banger here. Two of the humans did have time for some romance while running away from and fighting vampires. Even though there was some gore, the special effects were extremely low tech which took away much of the fear factor.

I didn’t recognize the Phoenix from Eternal Love TMOP at first. A young Ken Chang played Thunder and had the most screen time. Old martial arts movie star Chen Kuan Tai showed up as a Taoist corpse wrangler and set the hoppers loose at one point to distract the hunters while thieves sought out the golden treasure. He was even able to show his kung fu stuff in a short fight with one of the baddies. There were several wire-fu fights in dim lighting that weren’t as creative as I would have liked but were okay for this film.

Era of Vampires was more reminiscent of early kung fu films than films from the same timeframe. It had some intriguing moments and for this bargain basement niche mixed genre of martial arts and vampires it held its own.

30 September 2024

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One of the best watch of the year: dark, gripping in the best way

I love a lot this truly thrilling dark movie. It was torturous and violent, gripping and fascinating in the best way. The pyschological aspects coupled with impressive action scenes really got to me. I was on my toes during the full duration of the movie. It does not feel outdated at all (minus maybe the special effect and again it was still quite good to express what needed to be expressed).

The cast is amazing. I love Yeo Jin Goo (since he was acting as a kid in Iljimae) and I have seen quite a bit of his work. He was probably about 15 years old maximum when he filmed this movie and his performance was astounishing. There are many very well-known faces in this movie, actors that I really enjoy and who also delivers strong performances. It felt like a real feast to see actors that I knew from other works: Yeo Jin Goo but also amazing Jo Jin Woong, incredible Kim Sung Kyun, great Yoo Yeon Seok, as well as to discover very talented (and new to me) people: Kim Yoon Seok, Park Hae Joon,...and more.

I truly recommend this to people that are looking for a dark action movie that will take you on a thrilling journey with its main character. The psychological elements behind the characters actions and bonds between them are disturbingly captivating and pretty memorable. It is very violent and dark, so if you have any triggers, of course proceed with caution.

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Not scary and made me cry :<

Nice zombies, but the plot was lacking and the ML and a few others were REALLY irritating top watch the ENTIRE length of the movie. Expected more zombies, and as others have pointed out tehy could go from not being able to open doors to holding onto the train and creating a rope pile to climb.

Of course a good lead we were enjoying dies off (the pregnant womans husband) and the movie especially near the end keeps getting more sad so I was just crying. The ML cant even say decent things to his daughter at the end.

This was not horror, and barely scary I am suprised its hyped as one of the greatest zombie movies. Its not terrible, i wouldnt call it bad. It was a rough start to our horror movie nights we're hosting though in our discord, so watch with tissues in hand.

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Kinda boring

*“Strobe Edge” is a high school love story. I watched this movie in 2024, though it was originally released in 2015. By the time I watched it, I had already seen many similar stories, so compared to those, this one felt a bit bland. It lacked excitement or unique twists. The movie moves at a fast pace, likely because the direction skips over trivial details and doesn’t dive deep into character development or emotional nuances.

The plot revolves around a girl with unrequited love. She’s in love with a boy who already has someone else in his heart. Despite knowing this, she confesses her feelings to him, telling him that she understands he loves someone else but just wanted to express her emotions. She even says it’s okay if they remain just friends. As the story progresses, the boy becomes confused about his feelings, wavering between his current love and the girl’s confession. Without giving away any spoilers, you'll have to watch the movie to see what happens next.

Personally , I found it boring

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A Taxi Driver is yet another great example how well the industry can create and showcase the turmoil of what was
the 1980s in South Korea. Being brought up by parents from a dictatorship regime, it was almost like I was reliving all of their hardships and experiences through the movie, which just highlights how really half of the world was going through the exactly same thing at the same historical period. The movie nicely bridges the 'Anti-American' sentiment with actual human trust, especially with Song Kang Ho's curious and bubbly character helping out a complete outsider and once again showing to the world how hospitable and family-like Koreans are. As noted, the plot was very dramatic and carrying a powerful message, also doing a great job in translating the strong spirit of the protesters of the time. Truly a great watch if you're curious about Korean history, or just want a great movie night at home.

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Completely forgot that I watched this on a long haul flight, but here I go. And I have to agree with other users that this feels a lot closer to a Hollywood production as compared to South Korea. A movie about connection, what it means to be soulmate and if such a concept exists if one person is unwilling to accept this. More of a hard-hitting watch, the vibe that I was getting from it made me feel ashamed and embarrassed for the lead female character. Many other themes relate to identity, what it's like being a 1st generation Korean-American immigrant, which is close to me as my husband is also Korean-American. I believe viewers can find something relatable to draw from this movie nevertheless. But did this leave me in awe - I can't say so. It felt like an average mature movie to me, something I've seen in Korea before.

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