Exceeded my expectation, acting-wise
Story: Set during Japanese invasion of some cities in China, around 1930's to 1940s. A Japanese head formed a group with Chinese men to discover and fight against the communists. The story was hard to follow at first as they showed different snippets from different times but they became clearer as the story progresses.Acting: Wow. just wow. I am astonished at Wang Yibo's performance, especially his fighting scenes with the japanese soldiers and Tony Leung. I didn't expect to see him act so so good, as he filmed this first before 'Born to fly' and his acting their was okay. In this movie, i can totally feel his pain, anguish, sadness, and grief, which actually made me think that his character is bipolar. The small changes of his facial expressions was just amazing. This, by far, is the best acting that I have seen from him and it's now making me look forward to his next projects. The rest of the actors, of course, did amazingly well despite the short appearances. However, i felt quite awkward with Zhou Xun's and Tony Leung's hugging & kissing moment.
Music: Nothing special or memorable for me but the action scene sound effects were just perfect.
Rewatch Value: I don't think I will be rewatching this movie but i will definitely re-watch the action scenes, i love them so much.
Overall: 7.5-8 stars. Despite the convincing acting and good cinematography, the plot is quite predictable so it didn't leave a 'wow' impression on me but it was still a good watch.
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Another banger of an adaptation
Going into Assignment Kowloon, I was half expecting to see a campy 70s chop-socky interpretation which capitalised more on the success and fame of Sonny Chiba to earn a quick buck. But as it turns out, this is not only a damn fine representation of its source material but a damn fine movie in its own right. Golgo 13 seemingly had two of the best pieces of castings regarding live-action because Sonny Chiba is as much a dead-ringer as Ken Takakura was just for different reasons. Chiba's Golgo is much less human than Takakura's with a stone-faced expression that never leaves his face but makes exceptional use of his skills as a martial artist and stunt performer in some very grounded fight sequences and impressively daring stunt work. Director Yukio Noda makes excellent use of the film's variety of locations, from Hong Kong to Miami back to Japan, and although the film does stutter at first (most notably with some poor editing) it quickly finds its feet and maintains a very stylish atmosphere that simply oozes coolness throughout.Was this review helpful to you?
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Seems to be another good movie similar to Wolf Warrior 2
I didn't have great expectations at the beginning, and it turned out to be much better than I expected. The overall story is very similar to the 2017 Wolf Warrior 2, and the picture is very stylized compared with the previous war films, and it also reminds me of the color texture of Korean movies. I like it very much when I watch it as a whole. And really love Wu Jing's cut at the end, it's so funny and cute.Under this theme, the film has met expectations, and it is a very good commercial film, watching the overall more pleasant, I don't know if you have seen it? Will u have similar feelings?
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A Horror Movie Made from Other Horror Movies
Ruja is struggling to make ends meet while trying to raise enough money for her daughter's eye surgery. Just when she seems on the verge of a breakdown, she is contacted by a friend of her estranged father, who informs her that he has passed away and left everything to her as his sole heir.Ruja and her daughter travel to Thailand to settle the inheritance. Among her father's belongings, the most valuable assets are two paintings that could fetch a significant amount at auction. However, both paintings require restoration before they can be sold. Ruja has always viewed the paintings as evil and strictly forbids her daughter from looking at them.
After her daughter is rescued from an accident by a man who happens to be an artist, Ruja hires him to restore the paintings. Once the introductions are out of the way, the movie settles into familiar horror territory filled with eerie events, strange visions, and supernatural occurrences.
Unfortunately, that setup takes almost half of the movie. Very little of significance happens during this stretch, and it often feels like the story is stalling rather than progressing. Honestly, if someone skipped ahead to the final quarter of the film, they probably wouldn't miss much.
**Spoilers Below**
Ruja's father was a successful artist who carried on an affair with his muse. The muse and her son lived hidden away in a house deep within the jungle behind Ruja's family home. Ruja's mother was aware of their existence and repeatedly told Ruja to ignore them because they were evil. As a result, Ruja essentially conditioned herself to pretend they didn't exist.
As the story unfolds, we learn that Ruja's father had lost his artistic inspiration. The muse promised that she would do anything as long as he continued to love her. This is where the movie completely lost me. When her spirit eventually returns to haunt the living, her motivations feel contradictory. She explicitly stated she would do anything for him, yet after tragedy strikes, she becomes a vengeful ghost consumed by rage.
I found that difficult to reconcile. If anything, her behavior reminded me of Kayako from *The Grudge*—a spirit whose anger is directed at virtually anyone unlucky enough to cross her path.
What ultimately hurt the movie most was how familiar everything felt. The plot seems assembled from pieces of other horror films. I noticed elements that reminded me of *Shutter*, *The Grudge*, and several other supernatural horror movies. Instead of feeling inspired by those influences, the film often felt like it was recycling them.
Even the performances from the three main cast members couldn't save it. While the actors did what they could with the material, the story never developed a strong enough identity to stand on its own.
Overall, *Cracked* starts with an intriguing premise involving family secrets, inheritance, and cursed artwork, but it quickly devolves into a collection of familiar horror tropes. By the end, I was left feeling that I had seen most of it before—and done better elsewhere.
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Engaging but depressing.
"Dog bite dog" marks my first Hong Kong drama. (spoiler free review)This show is for people who like psychological action movies. Its not crazy suspenseful, especially towards the middle, but I enjoyed the beginning and the end. To be honest, I expected more gore, but it was not as extreme as I expected. Now, I am not saying you should watch this if you have a light stomach. There were some pain-cringe worthy moments.
The title on the other hand is very odd, but after watching the movie, its more understandable. If you don't like sad endings, I don't recommend. At first, I didn't know how to feel after finishing the movie, but I am starting to process it more. The story is well written, but if you stop paying attention for 5 seconds, you'll be so confused, I learned from experience. The acting was great, the only problem was the amount of characters. I am still confused about who half of them were...
At first glance, the movie sounded weird and maybe even boring, but it was far from that. Recommend.
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Worth Considering
I think it's very cool. There are layers, it's like being trapped inside your own head and beating yourself up... trying on different faces, different identities, different modes of artistic expression... but it's not a linear progression. Sometimes we beat ourselves up even while others congratulate us. But in the end, finding the confidence to embrace our self(s) lets us walk free, and continue on.Perhaps I missed the mark, but that's how I felt about it. It's an incisive psychological exploration.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. It's not the type of artsy thing I would usually watch, but anyone who has struggled with self-doubt, self-hate, self-esteem understands the battle of trying to get outside that... I think they might relate? I'm not artist, but I can't imagine having to create and put a very personal side of me out for the whole world to judge.
How do I rate this? It feels unfair, because it seems to fall outside the normal boundaries. It's not super polished or anything, but I think achives what it wants to be.
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it's a whole movie not one scene
i wouldn't say it's good cuz it's actually bad , but if i have to be really honest as someone who has watched alot of bl's including one's with r@pe scenes, it was very bad in a cinematic view, r@pe can and should never be justified and i definitely don't enjoy watching those scene's either, and i definitely do not recommend watching it if you really don't like those typa scene's, but i also hated that people are acting like the r@pe scene is the whole movie(it is not, that scene is max 4 min) which is btw something people tend to do a lot but there is so much more to one story than just that but people look over it because of one bad scene, but at the same time i can't blame them too much cuz this movie was just too bad to really feel the emotions that the actor's where trying to convey, but it still kinda annoys me when people look past things because they feel worthless and only reminisce about specific scenes they can continue to talk aboutoverall this movie is not really recommended because of the weak execution of the story and lack of conveying important emotions to viewers
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Meeting and letting go.
Hwa-sun is a location manager based in Busan. Her ex boyfriend, Do-young, a former film student with aspirations to become a successful director left many years ago for Seoul, where the film industry is bigger. She didn't want to go and he didn't want to stay, and despite the love between them, their relationship came to an end.In present day, they are reunited through Do-young's new project. He's back in Busan for it and believes Hwa-sun is the right person to help him finds the locations he wants. It's obvious they have both kept themselves busy and achieving success in their respective fields. While Do-young choose the fast lane and became an up and coming director, Hwa-sun has slowly build a reputation and renown name among the industry insiders.
As they walk together the streets of this city that once saw their love bloom and wither, they find themselves revisiting their shared history, they also contemplate their choices and where they are at now. What happens when growing up means letting go? Would they have done any different? Can they find closure to this open wound?
Cinema Street it's a beautiful love letter to that one love that helped you grow as a person but also pushed you to want to become a better version of yourself. This rhythm of the script is contemplative but never boring. Han Sun-hwa and Lee Wan deliver good performances, nuance and mature, as two people finding themselves (perhaps for the last time) in front of the one that got away. The cinematography is what you would expect from an indie film set in Busan: beautiful to look at.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film and I hight recommend it to anyone.
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"Such foolish things don't happen" Wanna bet?
Return of Daimajin is the second in a series about the title character, only this time he lives on an island in the midst of a lake shared by two peaceful clans instead of on a mountain. Trouble begins brewing and bubbling when an evil warlord decides to use the two clans' festival for the god to overthrow their castles.Danjo of Mikoshiba enslaves his people and kills those who try to escape. Some refugees make it out through the mountains and find a haven with the kind Chigusa and Nagoshi clans who live on opposite sides of Lake Yagumo. During the festival to celebrate the lake god, Danjo and his men take advantage and overthrow both clans, killing the lords and taking one of the sons hostage. The blasphemous Danjo sends his men to destroy the god's statue on the island with explosives. The other lord's son, Juro, escapes and flees to the island where his love, Lady Sayuri is also hiding, having miraculously survived the explosion and destruction of the statue.
Later, the hostage Katsushige is freed when a local boy helps him. He heads to the island as Juro is escaping Danjo's forces and both are captured because neither one can row a boat fast enough even when they had a head start. The two heirs, people who helped them, and Sayuri are set to be executed. Will Sayuri's tears be enough to sway the lake god? If the god of stone has one soft spot, it's a beautiful woman's tears and he rapidly parted the waters, destroyed his island with the baddies on it and began tearing down the defensive walls in order to wreak havoc on Danjo and his band of evil doers. I particularly liked how Danjo died the same way he had planned for Sayuri.
This movie was entertaining as I've grown fond of the big green faced guy, but I didn't find the story and characters as compelling as the first one. The overlays weren't as seamless as the first and third movies, some scenes rather obviously spliced together. Daimajin was faced with a couple of new obstacles which didn't even slow him down, but it was fun watching the evil doers try. Daimajin looking over with a "Really?" expression on his face was humorous. Because much of the action took place on or near the water Daimajin had some fancy water tricks up his sleeve along with his usual storms, landslides, and earthquakes. Though numerous bad guys died, the body count seemed less than the other two films, at least no children were killed.
Once again, the scoffers and cruel overlord were brought to a rough justice. The people who were respectful and peaceful were rewarded after suffering and trying (and failing) to save themselves. I have enjoyed this series of films blending samurai and Kaiju. The sets, story and acting were better than average for this time period of monster movies. Return of Daimajin was entertaining and one worth trying if you like old kaiju films.
7/24/23
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THAT THIS MOVIE IS HEART WARMING
This movie is so good that it makes me tear up, Don lee's character here is so nice that I wish to have a loving father like that. And the ending is not so bad it's just right. I can watch this everyday, overall this was a nice movie. My gosh I didn't know that this review need at least 500 characters. I'm out of words T o T, I really love Ma Dong Seok or Don Lee his movies are my favorites. Big fan here HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH We love you Don LeeWas this review helpful to you?
A perfect companion to Oppenheimer
The Man Who Stole the Sun treads the finest of lines in trying to balance its subject matter and tone, but Kazuhiko Hasegawa's controversial movie about nuclear terrorism is a darkly comedic and thrilling satire on a subject once considered unsatiriseable annihilating any form of genre borders in the process. Holding particular resonance for Japanese audiences, as while the country does use nuclear power, it has long held against amassing a nuclear arsenal due to the devastating effects that ended World War II. The movie doesn't stop dead for any form of long-winded nationalistic or philosophical speeches and instead insists on a conceivable reality with seemingly no motivation.One of only two movies directed by Kazuhiko Hasegawa, which in turn feels like a crime in itself, Hasegawa rewards the viewer with some utterly sublime direction and excellent framing, with plenty of thrilling action set pieces to command his viewer's attention at all times (the car chase feels like it was ripped right out of a Ringo Lam movie). It balances the unorthodox nature and tone of the movie exceptionally well, juxtaposing the shifts with unnatural ease. Complimented by funky and often ill-fitting music by Takayuki Inoue to glorious success.
The performances are all excellent, with Kenji Sawada playing the everyman gone rogue with an endless amount of animosity slowly succumbing to the effects of radiation poisoning making him more and more unpredictable as the movie goes on. But it's the award-winning performance from the stoic and hardened Bunta Sugawara that really captivates me as he normally does in his roles, single-minded and exceptionally driven.
Overall, The Man Who Stole the Sun, even at two and a half hours long, never feels overly long or bloated. The film absolutely refuses to limit itself, and that's why it's so entertaining and impressive.
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A recently rediscovered gem
Junya Satō's Golgo 13 is a much more human and melancholy adaptation of the source material, it loses the seemingly superhuman aspects of his anime counterpart. Making gorgeous use of a pre-revolution Iran, a decidedly off-the-wall idea even for the time and one that gives it a unique flavour, sees a perfectly cast Ken Takakura in the title role radiate with an ice-cold countenance matched only by his deadly skills and irresistibility to women. Oozing with menace and masculine suave, Golgo 13 trudges across desert landscapes, a man on a mission, decidedly anti-heroic but brilliantly realised encountering kaleidoscopic villains along the way. Excellently shot and choreographed action, striking editing and a classic slice of Toei-style orchestration for its soundtrack give Junya Satō's Golgo 13 a decidedly Spaghetti Western tinge. I can't thank Eureka Entertainment enough for finally giving this movie the attention it so justly deserves.Was this review helpful to you?
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speechless (WATCH WITH HEADPHONES ON AND ALONE PLS)
I don’t even know what to say. I watched it already preparing myself for what was to come but oh lord, it exceeded the limit I thought it would have. See the first 40 minutes I was like why the heck is this guy assaulting him. I still don’t know why but lord these both dudes were going through it. In the end I like how despite all he did to him and he gave him a chance to leave and live his life he still followed him and literal saved his life. I don’t get what the last sex scene was about but I think it ties down with like a “tit for tat” He saved his life and kept him “alive” so now it was the other guys turn to take possession of his “life”. Removing all the fucked up things and the p0rn this is a movie about two fucked up guys who happen to have saved each other from death in a very questionable way.I know for a fact I am never watching this again, but at least now I can say I’ve watched it. To be honest it’s just a WOW to me. I’m really at a loss of words. Lord.
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Similar to The Babadook
If you enjoyed The Babadook you will enjoy this. This is basically the Korean version with some differences. The mother seems to be dealing with severe mental health issues similar to the mother in The Babadook. Hye and Min seem to be going through some hardships due to Min losing his job for plagiarism which they talk about a lot. in the film, but it also seems like Hye might of been dealing with mental health issues well before her husband got into legal trouble at work. I think Hye might be schizophrenic or she was experiencing a severe mental breakdown by the time they moved to their new house. I think their real problem was when they adopted Woo, especially with how the film ended. She was probably already possed or she is probably a demon child. The end leaves you guessing if she was actually responsible for Hye going crazy. She was adopted afterall and Hye started acting differently when Hye and Min adopted her specifically Hye.Was this review helpful to you?
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I don’t even know what to say
I really don’t know what to say about this movie. it’s one of those movies you don’t really expect to come out that way. I really hated his character. He would hurt him over and over again but Imagase kept coming back. it just goes to show that he really was in love with him. 8 years and he worked his way to have him love him one way or another. The ending is kind of heart wrenching to me because he did break up with his girlfriend because he couldn’t deny his feelings for Imagase but, he let him go in the end. I don’t really understand. I like to think of it as Otomo does love Imagase but he had to deny it because of fear. I just know they both still love each other and I like to think of it as if when they both have their stuff figured out (especially Otomo) they’ll find each other again. The ending scene kind of shows, Imagase is having sex with that guy but he breaks down because he’s devastated about it, whilst Otomo is seen cleaning the cigarette platter. I just sense that they both don’t want to let go and will find each other. For example even until the end, Otomo holds on to the platter even if he doesn’t smoke and Imagase doesn’t live with him anymore. In my mind, they will love happily ever after together.I loved the movie.
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