Reviews

A different film, it would fit on the boards that mean the world, a film about two characters and a constant conversation, a chamber piece where, after a bland beginning, when the viewer does not know what to expect, it develops into a cleverly written story full of surprises and tension, and both actors , both Elijas and Romnick proved that they can be trusted, they played it convincingly. Interesting...

Film jiný, hodil by se na prkna, co znamenají svět, film o dvou postavách a neustálé konverzaci, komorní kousek, kdy po nevýrazném začátku, kdy divák neví, co má očekávat, se rozvine v chytře napsaný přiběh plný překvapení a napětí a oba herci, Elijas i Romnick dokázali, že se jim dá věřit, zahráli to přesvědčivě. Zajímavé ...

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This was unexpectedly a great watch

So I'm a massive horror genre fanatic and i accidentally stumbled upon an edit of this show on Instagram and im so so so GLAD i did because this movie was MARVELOUS.

From the eery setting to the fast paced storyline, compelling characters, incredibly well executed lore of religion & demons, adequately placed jumpscares, everything was SPOT ON.

There were times when I was hooked to every second, biting my nails, anxious about what happens next and honestly it did not disappoint. A very VERY good watch for horror genre lovers, it almost fits in with the Turkish ones (the greatest horror treasure).

I also like the fact that the paranormal is kept mysterious. They reveal just enough to show us how snarky, cocky and despicable that thing is yet its motives or its point of origin is never discovered. That, in itself, is a great quality to take the horror aspect to the next level because there's nothing scarier than ambiguity & uncertain mystery.

There's an appropriate amount of gore but not so much that it becomes impalatable. I really like that.

Overall, I highly, HIGHLY recommend watching it if you're up for some spook bcs this one has got that in it. Definitely an add-in to my halloween rewatch list.

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Date jitters!

I wish it were longer. Here with eng subs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uT_r4dZP_s

I have never watched Dilraba in anything (I am not a c drama fan! lol) but I was looking for a short movie for the alphabet challenge and this one came out on top. And boy, aren't I glad i found this!

The story is simple: we see a girl getting ready for a date. She is annoyed when her hair clip breaks, so orders one on line and is again annoyed, when the delivery guy is late. She takes out her frustration on him but is immediately sorry when she finds out that he is deaf. Just like her!

This is a cute short film: and the actress is perfectly portraying a person, nervous and anxious before a date. I wish we could have seen more of the delivery guy: he had such a lovely smile and the sparks flew when their eyes touched. I was secretly hoping he would be her blind date. But unfortunately for me, the date was not blind, she met someone she's known for a long time.

It is a cute short watch. Silent but with a great big number of text messages which are translated in english!

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Happy ending ?

this movie is acting really good but I didn’t expect it to be like this. 😭😭It’s actually very into detail and i actually felt bad for the boy ML cause of his ex dumping him like that 😭😭 wanted to be treated like that is kinda weird but you do you I guess.. it was good but at the same time it was very corny and cringy bru 😭😭. I LOST IT WHEN HE STARTED BARKING. 😭😭I’d still recommend people to watch its tho cause it’s not bad at all🙃🙃 but the barking REALLY? 😭 if you want to watch a movie and have different emotions this is the one.. I felt cringed, laugher, sadness, and happiness 😜go watch it!!!😜😘

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Way of Life

This is one of my favorite Korean movies, and the English name "Nostalgia" fits it perfectly. The movie touched me on many levels. From a cinematic point of view, it is filled with many shots that show the beauty of ordinary life. The characters are real people, not great looking stars, and it feels like I'm watching my neighbors. The acting is deliberately a bit comical to bring us closer to the different personalities of the characters. At the center of the plot is music, which gives meaning and magic to life's experiences. Several songs can be heard in the film, each with its own message and beauty, from traditional songs to folk ballads. Because of the music and the personalities of the characters, I can watch this movie again and again and enjoy it.

More than anything, the film shows an authentic life that many people run away from today, and therefore evokes nostalgia for the lost simplicity of life and community. We all want to be modern, successful, independent, everything should be perfect. But it doesn't have to be perfect, three chords on the guitar are enough for life to have meaning again.

And finally, my favorite verse from the movie: 인생은 함께 가는 사랑길, 혼자서 가기엔 외로워...

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life changing

eu percebi que eu estou tão inserido em uma bolha lgbtq+ friendly que as vezes a homofobia parece algo tão distante. e derrepente, eu paro para pensar e vejo no quão eu preciso tomar cuidado. é muito cruel o sentimento de estar sempre se sentindo aflito com a possibilidade de descobrir quem a gente é, nós abrimos mão de tanta coisa e sacrificamos nossa própria felicidade em nome de uma "segurança". até que a gente encontra a felicidade e as coisas parecem que vão começar a dá certo. você se permite sonhar, até que algo te lembra que as pessoas não te querem por perto, não importa o quanto você se esforçe e no quão generoso você é com essas pessoas. no final do dia, você é ainda o galho que nasceu fora de ordem e precisa ser podado. é um sentimento de exaustão constante, mas tá tudo bem, você sempre pode recomeçar em outro lugar :).



eu estou muito surpreso com o filme, foi uma montanha russa de sentimentos que terminou em um lugar muito triste. toda a questão técnica do filme é impecável. eu sinto que vou carregar ele comigo a partir daqui e mesmo lembrando de uma história triste irei lembrar que houve felicidade no meio do caminho.

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Great blend of Horror to Heavy Drama, but too short

Man! They had me in the first half. I came in thinking I was gonna be watching horror, It's going to be great, but I ended up getting sad at the end.

I didn't know this was the Chinese version of the upcoming Korean version as well and also, I didn't know it had a manhwa source to it. I wanted to read the original source at first, but I chickened out because I didn't wanna be that person who's like "No!!! It's not faithful to the original source TTTT". So, I watched this first to avoid being biased towards the manhwa.

The story for the first half was like sloooow burn light horror and mystery. I'm thinking... man, my TikTok brain rot attention span is slowly kicking in, when are they gonna start showing something scary? Because everything that has been shown so far has been vanilla af. I feel the eeriness, the color grading is very dark, the sound design is on point, and everything aside from FL is sus, I thought that, but she was sus as well, and then plot twist! things started happening and I'm like woah?!?!

In the Second half of the story, the genre started shifting, and honestly? They did a pretty good job transitioning the story and who to focus on. Like what is this that I'm feeling right now? And then I understood "Ahh, that's why they took their time to build up everything in the first half". There was like twist after twist, and they tried their best to tie everything, though not perfect, but good enough to make sense.

The characters, I must say, since it was a movie runtime, there wasn't enough for me to care, but they've shown enough story-wise for me to get invested and stick till the end. For FL, it's been a while since I've watched Zhang Ruo Nan. She became even prettier (ughhh!!!), like flowers around me every time she showed up on the screen. I was basically in love with this girl. Her acting? even great, she did a good job. ML, mostly about him was shown in the last minutes of the movie, but imo he's aight. The LGBT couple is what really tickled my heart because the moment Sun Qian's character showed up, I felt the feels man and they had a good chemistry. It's my first time seeing Sun Qian take on an LGBT role/pairing and honestly, you could take those two, have them do a GL drama and it'll probably work. The mother and daughter were also very sad, like goddamn. I went from hating the mother to understanding why she was presented the way she is and the child actress was so good, she didn't have to go that hard on her acting delivery. The old man was aight. His side plot was like another extra variety.

Overall, a good movie, would recommend you check it out. The upcoming Korean version is a series, so it'll probably fix what this movie couldn't show in the 98-minute runtime it had.

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The fear of commitment and the secrecy of a clandestine homosexual relationship

'Daybreak' (Tagalog: Bukang-liwayway) is a Filipino independent film of romantic genre and LGBT theme, directed by Adolfo Borinaga Alix, Jr., director of films such as '4 Days', 'Imoral', 'The Affair' and ' Porno', and series like 'Unlocked', among others.
Released in 2008, the cast has only two actors: Coco Martin as JP, a handsome young man in his twenties, with a girlfriend, a boatman and tourist guide in Taal, Batangas, and Paolo Rivero as William, a married doctor, father of a family. , in a supposedly happy heterosexual marriage, who play a couple of men who have had a secret romantic bond for a year. After some time apart, they meet at a family vacation home in Tagaytay, Cavite, to maintain an intense sexual and loving relationship for one night before one of them goes abroad.
Almost two decades after its premiere, and after producing important works of the genre, the film shows fissures in its staging, like a preamble that is too long for a medium-length film, not so solid performances and filling the short time with shots of palm trees and clouds that show a poor resource due to the lack of ideas.
However, it is worth highlighting the use of lighting, especially interior lighting, where chiaroscuro underlines the state of mind of two men confronting their realities.
Personally, I liked the way the lights and cameras were directed towards the bodies of the two protagonists. By highlighting its sensuality, the viewer comes to fully understand that he is witnessing two people who love each other and are suffering from the imminent breakup.
And if on the one hand it may seem somewhat out of tune that it tries to claim a visible, touristy place beyond that, and not marginal, underground, so to speak, for gay relationships, adopting precisely the same forms as an independent romantic melodrama between heterosexuals On the other hand, it can be useful in helping to bring this reality closer to a conservative society, such as the Philippines, which considers homosexual relationships taboo, and which perhaps would otherwise be much more inclined to not accept the image of two men sharing bed, affections, kisses and confidences.
Supported by a script written by Charliebebs Gohetia, the film explores homosexuality and failed relationships, through a relationship with an expiration date.
This is not a work solely aimed at the gay public, as it addresses something as universal as love. But, it also speaks of the emotional undercurrents around the secrecy of an illegal homosexual relationship in the eyes of the family and the heteronormative and patriarchal society. Homosexuality and its representation are not a taboo to overcome, but the film ends up subtly revealing its vindictive nature by pointing the finger at the assumed homophobia in our behavioral protocols.
Always based on the margins of the independent Filipino homosexual film movement, the director, in his third film, shows interest in also investigating with images a frequent theme in homosexual relationships: he is married but in love with the other. The other wants it just for himself.
Both will live their last night as lovers, since William plans to leave for Australia. William wants to let it all go, but he doesn't know how to break the news to JP, who is already emotionally attached to him, even though they didn't actually have an agreement that they are actually a couple.
Various scenes and dialogues lead to the climax when JP is reluctant to accept the breakup. In the midst of conversations about their past, including evoking their happy and unforgettable moments, the evening passes, while they examine the photographs as the only witness of what they have experienced.
With a beautiful night as a backdrop, when their desire for each other dominates their minds and the conversations revolve around truisms and commonplaces, passion explodes and the two men make love as pleasant as ever. At dawn, William remains firm in his decision, leaving for Manila where he will take a plane to Australia, thus ending his relationship with JP.
In a single narrative time, with the intention of voyeurism, the film allows viewers to discover what happens when two men spend the night contemplating whether to break up or continue their relationship.
The essence of 'Daybreak' is not so much in the description of a romance with an expiration date but in the subtlety with which the director makes it emerge from the ellipses. The way it avoids or shows the sex scenes is exemplary. Intimacy begins to boil in the heat of confessions, memories, the risk of being surprised, the clandestine date in a secluded place of two people who face their loneliness, even though they are accompanied in the life that they have allowed others to know, hiding his true desires and passions from everyone.
Compared to the usual clichés of romantic cinema, be it drama or comedy, 'Daybreak' holds some appreciable surprises. Adolfo Borinaga Alix, Jr sculpts without artifice the ephemeral relationship of a love relationship between two young men. There are several sequences between the actors where a credible and deep intimacy is built, which serves to prepare the viewer for the ending announced from the first scenes and leave us, in the process, with a bitter taste in our mouths.
The narrative ellipsis that integrates the film and the ending with the characters, one driving his car on the road, and the other feeling alone, helpless in the middle of the house, still remembering the last night of love lived with the person he loves, puts The end of many homosexual relationships is evident: the fear of one of the two involved of commitment and a society that still discriminates against homosexuals.

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"What comes after?"

That Day on the Beach opens with two women connecting after thirteen years. This film is not about their friendship for the most part, it primarily focuses on Jia Li’s choices and desire for her elusive happiness. The story is decidedly not linear, more circular, as director Edward Yang examined dysfunctional families, work places, and marriages.

Tan Wei Ching, a celebrated pianist, made her first trip home to Taiwan after 13 years. She received a message from an old classmate and at the last minute decided to meet her for coffee. The classmate, Jia Li, is the sister of the boy she loved long ago. When Jia Sen was forced to marry someone else, Wei Ching cut ties with Jia Li and took a scholarship to study abroad. After the loss of her friend, Jia Li began dating Cheng De Wei. She discovered her father made a marriage pact for her, too. Watching the silent, sullen dinners with Jia Sen and his new wife convinced her she did not want that fate. She packed up and left that night. She and De Wei married soon after. De Wei’s old friend was shoring up his position at the company he worked for by hiring old friends and recruited De Wei. Soon the young couple bore the strain of the long days and nights De Wei was required to work and party.

I began this film thinking it was about two friends reconnecting. Around the 20-minute mark of this 165 minute film, Tan Wei Ching was all but forgotten. She’s the friend that got roped into someone’s life story when she asked, “Are you married?” That Day on the Beach also tries to lure the viewer in with police searching a beach during the movie’s introduction, making it seem this element would be ultimately pertinent to the story. Everything was window dressing and red herrings until the story of the excruciatingly slow and painful dissolution of Jia Li’s marriage began. With all of the flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks, I’m not entirely sure how long the agony went on for her, somewhere around 7 years. Honestly, it seemed longer. During this time, it was a constant back and forth of two people unable to communicate or come up with a better plan who kept thinking if they both said, “You don’t understand me,” enough, it would make a difference.

Jia Li was looking for love and happiness, thinking that marriage would bring it. It was not what she expected. De Wei was working at a job that required him to drink and socialize which he hated. Jia Li was naïve and De Wei was cowardly and both were completely disillusioned with their marriage. Li’s brother was miserable. Her mother had come to terms with her own flawed husband. Tan Wei Ching still missed the boy she’d loved. Everyone was unhappy and unfulfilled except for possibly the two most cynical characters. A predatory businesswoman and De Wei’s playboy boss seemed to be doing fine using the people around them for financial gain and pleasure. “The world I grew up in taught me that it’s a world without love. Perhaps you will find a moment or two of passion, but that’s not much.” The big mystery, regardless of outcome, was the result of a man willing to chew off his own arm to escape, but not the courage to confront the problem.

That Day on the Beach was a creative approach at displaying the costs of complex relationships, traditions, and toxic work environments. I was grateful that Jia Sen gave Li a piece of advice that helped her finally, after 13 years and 160 minutes, have some substantial character growth. If you are a fan of Edward Yang and long family dramas that tend to be caught up in a cycle of pain and dysfunction, this is one to try.

9 April 2024

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