Reviews

Not what I expected

Looking at the synapse and the previous 10 star reviews, I was so excited to watch this movie and continuously looked for months just to find it with English subs. Finally, I found it on IQIYI and ended up paying for a 1 month VIP($7.99) just so I could get the chance to watch it.

Let's start on a positive note. The organization of the movie is like none that I've seen before. If you've watched older Disney tv shows where each episode was neither a continuation of the last episode nor a completely new story, this is kind of how this movie is. It's basically divided into different sections focusing on different events, but at the same time the main points are still there. I don't personally love that, but that's more of a personal preference. Aside from that, the characters were cute and seeing some character development was also nice. It was a good ending, so no complaints there.

The negatives:

Honestly, there really wasn't much of a story. It started off with a bit of a story as we see the lead couple hit it off, but after that, it felt like a blur of events that were somehow squished into a movie with not so great organization. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, but definitely could've been better. Maybe this is meant for a younger age group than me, but I found it very childish. The lead couple seemed so immature and I felt like I was watching a silly teenage movie with very young couples rather than college students. This probably was meant for a different and younger group of people. I'm a grown adult with little interest in school dramas, so I guess that explains it.

Final note:

I expected to see a mature military drama, but instead got the opposite. There was a few minutes of some military in the beginning, but then it was a normal college with absolutely nothing to do with military. Hopefully someone out there will enjoy it depending on personal preference, but unless you find it for free, I don't recommend spending close to $10 on it.

Thanks for reading!

Read More

It’s a cute quiet little thing.

Grumpy/Sunshine foundation.
Basically a 3rd year high school student, Sun, moves in next door to a senior in his school, Earth. Earth is a taciturn musician whose strict parents want him to focus only on studying and getting into university. Sun is a up beat, kind hearted, love muffin.
The very cheerful Sun wages a determined campaign to convince Earth to fall in love with him.
There are a few hiccoughs along the way but Location was mostly just a small cast, low angst, low drama little film. Sweet.
Featured Tropes:
sing me a song
share my earbuds
tend my artful injury
musical montage
crash into me
faen fatale
head tousle
lots of cheek kisses
Self, of course, liked the broken hearted bestie best. But that’s kinda of a thing with me.

Read More

The potential to be great

Night in Paradise… Where do I start? The movie actually started out quite nicely. I absolutely loved the very cold colors. It incited a feeling of nostalgia and longing. I loved how we saw the main character, Tae Goo, interact with people he loves and cares for. The banter between himself and his sister, the interactions with his (unfairly adorable) niece, the way you see him pick up his sister’s medications and get information on how she’s doing.

These are aspects of Tae Goo that build on his humanity despite his line of work. We see him be devastated when his sister and his niece are brutally murdered during the car accident. We see him kill (or so we thought) Director Do and a few of his men in cold blood when he receives a tip from his boss that they were involved in the death of his family. Then, we see him escape to Jeju. Up until that point, things were going really good. Yes there was lots of blood until that point, but it felt justified.

And then we enter the second part where he meets Jae Yun. Let me start off by saying that there isn’t much at all to Jae Yun’s character. She’s absolutely dull and boring. The only interesting thing about her is that she’s going to die soon due to an illness (that isn’t even specified). We barely know anything about her except for the fact that she lost her family due to her uncle’s affiliation with a gang, that she resents him for it, and that she loves mulhoe (she’s also greatly talented with guns).

These aspects about Jae Yun could have set her up to be a solid character, but instead it creates this lack of empathy from the viewer’s point of view because we still don’t know her despite what we know about her. Instead of being shown how she feels, we are told how she feels. For example, when she explains to Tae Goo that she actually resented her uncle and that she wished it had been him who died instead of her parents and little sister. Based on her interactions with him, I would have never guessed. There was absolutely no tension with her uncle when they were together, no hint to allude to the fact that she might not like him much. In reality we barely even saw them interact.

Then, you pair up Jae Yun (a character I couldn’t care less about) with Tae Goo (a character I was starting to warm up to), give them useless dialogues, and try to make me believe that he would actually go back to save her. Without giving me the whys. Even the immensely talented cast of actors couldn’t save the nonsensical storyline for me. When Tae Goo died, I felt absolutely nothing. To be honest, I didn’t care at all. And I cared even less when Jae Yun went to the restaurant and shot everyone before going to the beach and shooting herself in the head.

Overall, my issue with this movie is that we didn’t get to know the characters in depth. There seemed to be so many layers to the characters, yet we were only shown the surface of what they were like. And that’s such a shame! I wanted to get attached to the characters. I wanted to feel devastated when Tae Goo died. I wanted to be marked by this movie. I wasn’t. All I could think of after watching the movie was “What a waste.”

Read More

A big hugs to all parents out there!

I just recently watched it on Youtube because I was only 1 year old when it was released. Even though it is a Star Cinema production, I expected it to be more dramatic than light drama. But it is nice to found out that it has comedy which is like Star Cinema movies today.

Even though it is a light drama, I cried several times while watching it. Even though it is focused on the mother and the oldest daughter, her other two children were still given a heart-touching scene. Each child has a separate scene with their mother that I cried. On a technical aspect, I didn't like the voice-over in the movie. It felt redundant because aside from it is seen in the scene there was a voice-over narrating what happens.

Watching it made me realized how it is difficult to be a parent. Being a parent doesn't end by giving their financial needs, emotional support is also important for the children.

Read More

The Dragon Missile is the Shaw Brothers' version of The Flying Guillotines only a little cooler because it's Lo Lieh wielding two dragon shaped boomerangs. Good guys still get disarmed and lose their heads at the behest of the evil local lord because he's, well, evil, and LL and his dragon missiles are his weapon of choice.

The plot is not very deep. The evil lord needs a rare medicine and sends Lo Lieh and his deadly dragon missiles to get it. The evil second in command wants the glory and rewards so he sends henchmen to "escort" LL. Along the way innocents are killed and family members come seeking revenge. There are crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses all with LL in their cross-hairs. Very few minutes go by without weapons being drawn and red blood or heads flying.

Several of the fight scenes take place outdoors in beautiful settings near the ocean. Some of the stage sets will seem familiar to Shaw viewers. The fights are adequate for this cast, not super fast but entertaining.

The plot was thin, the sound effects could have come straight out of a Warner Bros. cartoon, and as always the Shaw Bros. ending was hilariously abrupt, but it was a fun 80 minutes of fights, chases, and betrayals.

Read More

Is it better than the anime? No, BUT it doesn't have to be to be Good

Before watching this I had seen season 1 of the anime and read the first volume of the manga, and to me, this story is literally one of my favorites. I liked the anime so much that it made me buy/read my very first manga. So the minute I saw that it had a live-action movie, I had to give it a try. After watching it, I can say that it is not as good as the anime, BUT by no means is it bad. I would say that, if you don't want to watch the 6 hrs of the first season of the anime, this is a great way to get the story in 2 hrs.

This movie covers the overall story of season 1 (anime) in the first hr of its runtime and what I can assume is season 2 in the second hr. To achieve this, many of the individual sections had to be dropped. Honestly, I am fine with that. I will say I am surprised at how the writers were able to combine so many of the sections to flow one after another so well, considering how the manga/anime treats each battle individually. This, however, makes the movie feel rushed in some parts and creates the biggest problem I have with this movie: the little use they gave the narrator. He only appears a few times in the movie. I needed more of that "_________ wins" sections he did in the manga/anime. Personally, I feel that is an essential part of Love is War and shouldn't have been taken away.

Another change the movie did that I didn't mind as much was adding Ishigami Yu from the very beginning of the movie. I think that to anyone that isn't familiar with the source, it would seem natural.

The second half of the movie felt a lot better because it was all new to me, having only seen season 1 of the anime. I was really interested in what they were going to do with the rest of the movie once I noticed they were going to go past the story of season 1.

The actors were great in their parts. The two main leads made the characters theirs and did a great job. Their voices were both very different from the animes but that isn't a problem to me. Asakawa Nana was a different situation. I have seen her in many other works and I know she is an amazing actress, which she was in this movie as well, but her voice threw me off. Personally, I would have rather had her use her natural voice.

Edit: I have now seen season 2, and I now know that the second half of the movie is technically an original plot that follows the student body president elections (Season 2 of the anime also focuses on the elections but adapts the storyline of the manga). This does get me curious as to what the sequel to the live-action plot will be? Is it going to be a more original plot? Follow that the anime will adapt for season 3? Only time will tell.

Read More

Not a charming girl at all

•who the hell titled this movie, its absolute nonsense. instead of charming she should be THE SLY FOX, The FL is very sly like a fox. First she accuses the ML as pervert, then she gets on his reserved taxi, uses him to enter the auction and later on uses him for paying debt. She is typical gold digger type of girl, while later on it movie, she is working for ML but the slyness in her remains. As we all know first impression is the best impression and until the end she seemed cunning and greedy.

•ML looked a bit like Zhang Han. please anyone who likes Zhang Han dont get offended, I just said in terms of similar facial structure. He is very average in acting, he needs to take acting lessons.

•this movie script is awful with more addition to dreadful acting. the production quality was not good. there was enormous white light with too much of flashy glittery clothes. both the FL and the FL costumes were of really low quality. they were rich, wh spent millions on wine and then they wear such costumes. the stylist should have done a better job.

•Music was "lifes favorite" by chen yibo which was also in the previous movies of this series, its same so am really not into it.

•I wont recommend watching this movie due to bad acting, and its actually frustrating at times. Its a waste of time, energy, data and electricity.

Read More

"Daytime Shooting Star" is a story filled with youth,life,friendships and the power of first love and unrequited love. Suzume is a country girl with nothing but joy and love inside of herself and she so selflessly gave to others. She won over other people by her goodness,even the evil supporting female character couldn`t stay evil for long since she got so charmed by Suzume`s innocence and goodness. I totally adored her!

I love the directing and the production of this film even if the plot itself wasn`t that original.But the most important thing is that it delivered well and i ended up liking all the characters.Especially a certain golden-hearted Mamura who Suzume befriends.

Read More

Beautiful and Real

Before watching "Life: Love on the line," I had never watched any BL movies or Japanese BL shows, and I'm so glad this was my first one. I really love how this movie showed the progression of a relationship starting from teenagers in high school to adults. They showcased real characters with flaws and real struggles. The storyline was amazing and included everything necessary, and didn't include anything that didn't add to the story. The actors did a spectacular job, and I really felt their chemistry and emotions. Yuuki was my favorite character, and as funny as it may sound, I truly related to him the most. I loved how imaginative he was and his personality. I'm glad I watched the director's cut before the episode series because I enjoyed the added scenes at the end and seeing the acceptance and change of certain characters. I was so happy and satisfied with this movie and most definitely will rewatch it in the future. If you're debating about watching the series or the director's cut, I highly suggest the director's cut!

Read More

A lot of nudity in this movie, but it does not take away from the plot or acting. The main character is very hot, but thankfully this isn't the only thing that makes you invested in him. This movie reminds me of fuccbois, but IMO done better. This is because the character is more fleshed out. We have a backstory of how his life is and how he was in the situation he was in. What I like most is how the sexual scenes don't distract from how dark and depressing the situation the main character is in. Most of the movies I've seen that try to tell this type of story have the sexual scenes create a dark fantasy that makes you want to be in that situation, instead of what actually is a horror situation. This movie does not do that. When the explicit scenes come you are worried for the characters because you understand what's at stake for them. The acting was solid and I look forward to seeing what is next for them.

Read More

uneventful but cute

the story was about 2 people in same yet different struggles, Woo Ram lost his mentor so he lost his hold on his dream, Hyun Ji as a normal graduate was trying to fight against the other candidates to get a job

and in that moment they met, awkwardly yet naturally interacted, he kept going to her workplace and she kept looking forward to his visits and with that love bloomed

I think both did a great job with their characters, they were both soft and careful, as a girl with only a father and as a maknae in a 5 child house hold they both just naturally felt timid

now though if they gave them more depth and time to develop the romance I think Hyun Ji would've shown a cute cheeky side and soon Woo Ram would've lightened up and they'd have had more potential at a sweet romance


now the drawback was the unevenfulness. nothing much happened and soon they were super comfortable with each other and that lost their biggest asset which was the sweetness and the youthfulness of the 2 mains.
the struggles were shallow and the sadness was fleeting but overall for a 1 hour 40min it was a nice breezy watch

Read More

One of the better movies out there

I really liked this movie. I would like to see a drama made from it so the story background could be explained more and the romance part made longer. Lol I am a romantic?.

Storyline - I liked it. Only thing is that I have found with Chinese movies is that they cut a lot and jump a lot to tell the story. The difference from American and Asian movies, as far as I can tell, is that American movies based off a novel is just that - based off a novel that is anywhere from a couple of hundred pages to a couple of thousand. And I may be wrong but I have noticed most Asian dramas are based off a manga that runs for weeks to months to maybe years to tell the story and so most Chinese, Korean, and Asian dramas are long and many episodes so they can cover all the details. So for me the movies always fall short because there is to much story to put into a couple of hours and it gets chopped. I did really like this one however. It covered the basic and you understood what was going on throughout the movie. I just wish it had more background story to really tell why this was happening and so on. But again that would make for a very long movie like Lord of the Rings. But it was a good show.

Acting/Cast - I really liked the FL. I have seen her in many CDramas and have really grown to like her. She did a really good job in this movie. As for the ML this is my first time seeing him and I was not disappointed. He did a great job.

Music - was good. I liked it a lot as I do all CDramas and KDrama music.

Rewatch - It is a definite YES! I did like it. I recommend it.

Read More

Good Thriller Bordering Horror!

For those who wish to take a break from romance and long episode dramas, this movie is a really good production to sink your teeth into and be-fitting for international market consumption. The entire movie takes place in a quiet village town where a policeman suddenly have to deal with strange zombie like changes in some of the villagers. Scary but unperturbed at first dealing with such incidences, but the urgency took up ten notch when the illness starts to affect his own daughter. The pace and thriller picks up from then as he searches for an answer and the cure.

The cast top notch and acceptable story line for those who enjoy watching thriller, with evil looming throughout the show and gory scenes thrown in.

Highly recommended.

Read More