Reviews

the story is disappointing

to be honest the movie is great for doing edits and for draw / reference it was amazing only in the casting and the shooting they put time in effort and that's it .... Okay, the relationship between the boss and the sister is wired enough specifically to the Sean when she feels sexual towards him and kisses him directly like excuse me .... and the relationship between the main character and the guy who's have a sike father it starts cute but then get killed that fast okay it may be a good plot but not necessarily many points it wasn't to be add and they could develop the story even better but after all this is my review

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Hyped by the Novel, Disappointed by the Film

I just watched this in Japanese Theaters (Opening Night!!!), we have to wait a little longer until it comes out on DVD.

I'm not gonna lie, it felt like the producers were riding on the hype of the drama, that they forgot how to make a compelling story. The Drama was great, the Novel was amazing, but this movie. . . had too much kiss scenes and way too many plot lines and plot holes that it felt rushed and empty. The feelings of happiness, jealousy, and envy that we had of Hira and Kiyoi's love were replaced with just feelings of "What did I just watch?"

Having read the novel and listened to the drama CD, it felt like the producers were trying to backtrack on the changes they made in the drama, so they can just continue with the plot of the novel. However, after backtracking, there was no time to fill the audience in on the important character and their thoughts, so the producers just hoped that the audience had read the novel and threw in the scenes that we wanted to see and prayed we didn't notice the characters were just empty shells of the characters they were in the novel. Finally they hoped that all the beautiful cinematography and kiss scenes would make the audience forget that the plot wasn't very good.

If I were to sum it up into one sentence it would be: Too Many Ideas, Too Many Unnecessary Kiss Scenes, Wasted Potential!

Just listen to the Drama CD. It takes the novel and actually gives us what we want to see from Hira and Kiyoi. It's so much better than the movie.

I'm not saying the movie was bad, as someone who's read and listened to a better version of this plot, I'm not very satisfied with this film.


•❅✧❅✦ Story •❅✧❅✦

Taking place after Season 2, Hira is notified by his cousin, Naho-chan, that she is divorcing her husband and that Hira needs to move out of the house because she is moving back in. Devastated, Hira informs Kiyoi they need to move. The couple begins house hunting together. Meanwhile both Kiyoi and Hira are progressing in their careers. Hira is about to graduate college and is slowly getting better at his photography job. Kiyoi is getting more popular thanks to his work with his co-star Anna.

At work, Hira sees his photographer boss take beautiful pictures of Anna. He gets jealous that we won't be able to take beautiful pictures of Kiyoi and turns down an opportunity to help his boss take Kiyoi's pictures. Kiyoi is devastated to find out that Hira turned down an opportunity to help shoot his pictures, but is also devastated to find out that Hira said he doesn't have anything he wants to shoot.

One day Anna is caught by the paparazzi with her idol boyfriend. It becomes a huge scandal and they are forced to break up and Anna's work is halted resulting in all of Kiyoi's jobs being halted as well. When Kiyoi visits Anna to try and cheer her up, he is caught leaving her place by the paparazzi and is also thrown into the scandal. Anna's fans begin to attack Kiyoi on twitter and even his fans start gossiping about him. One of Anna's deranged fans, Shitara, takes things too far and kidnaps Kiyoi.

So just reading the synopsis there is a lot to unpack. All of that plus more was in the novel and portrayed well in the drama CDs. However, the film failed spectacularly. There was only 2 hours to fit all of that into the movie and not a lot of time was spent building up the characters. Major characters like Anna and Shitara did not have any character development that no one cared if Anna got into a scandal. Shitara's character was also highly neglected, so when he plays the victim card and goes on a rant about how Hira should understand how he feels as a fan after kidnapping Kiyoi, it just gets lost and feels really out of place. The whole kidnapping arch with Shitara feels very rushed and left field that it needs its own movie or another hour.


Personally, I felt that the director spent too much time on the kiss scenes and couple scenes that he neglects the whole plot. There were way too many kiss scenes. A lot of the kiss scenes that should have been in Season 1 (Novel 1) were brought into this movie. Kiyoi looking in the mirror as they make out is a reference to events in Novel 1, but was unneeded in this film as he's already pretty comfortable with himself being with Hira and calling Hira his boyfriend. Also that whole mesh veil that Kiyoi and Hira keep kissing under is visually appealing, maybe symbolic, but has no place in this film. It just looks like a random cloth that I would take off when making out with my man. That mesh looked good in Season 1 and felt natural because it fell onto them after Kiyoi kicked the boxes. In his film, nothing falls on them, so that mesh looks so out of place. Lastly, the whole montage where Kiyoi and Hira are running through their high school as adults and we see flashes of them back in high school was very beautiful, but unnecessary. I would have liked a lot of the time spent on the kiss scenes to be spent on building up the characters.


•❅✧❅✦ What Should Have Happened (Novel vs Film) •❅✧❅✦

The film itself isn't bad, but because they followed the plot of the novel without giving lots of characters any backstories, the film felt a little empty.

The film still follows the plot of the novel, but mostly from Hira's point of view. If felt like Kiyoi wasn't important in this film. A lot of the film focused on Hira and Anna's issues that they forgot to deal with Kiyoi's issues.

Kiyoi's issues are supposed to be that he's not getting his own acting jobs. All of his jobs are gained with Anna's help and he feels like he's riding on her coattails and he doesn't like it. He wants to make a name for himself without Anna. Anna actually tells him that Kiyoi's not a great actor because he puts on a strong front and his not vulnerable enough to be a victim, so he can't get sensitive roles. During the kidnapping arch with Shitara, Kiyoi is supposed to feel like Hira doesn't love him. Kiyoi heard from Kira's photography boss that Hira no longer has anything he wants to shoot. Heartbroken, Kiyoi feels like he's in love with Hira on his own and that Hira has moved on. He doesn't know what to do since Hira is his everything. After being kidnapped, Anna and Hira are supposed to come and save him. Kira is supposed to go insane with worry and cry inconsolably leading to Anna changing her mind about Kiyoi as a person and as an actor. The film however, did not include any of that. They axed all of that to look at it from Hira's point of view. Because of this, the scene where Kiyoi cries inconsolably is cut very short and feels a little strange. A really big missed opportunity.

Similarly Shitara's connection with Hira isn't included, so he is a big "Who are you?" in the film. Hira is supposed to feel a connection with Shitara and how he loves Anna. However, Shitara is supposed to be an extreme version of Hira's stalker tendences. Hira is made out to be the "better fan" because he loves Kiyoi as a person, regardless of who Kiyoi is dating, even if it's not him. It's a weird thing to explain, but it makes sense in Hira's weird worldly view.

Also, Anna and her boyfriend also play a bigger role in the novel, but are relegated to just being around to push the story forward. They aren't too important, but because Anna and Hira become friends Anna's storyline is more interesting. She isn't just some random character that randomly had issues that we don't care about unlike this film.

•❅✧❅✦ Overall •❅✧❅✦

Having read the novel and listened to the drama CD, maybe I had too high expectations for what I saw in theaters. I know the actors of Hira and Kiyoi can play out the drama perfectly but because of the lackluster script, I just can't help but feel disappointed. Scenes that I was looking forward to seeing weren't there. Everything felt rushed and like no one put any heart and soul into the story. The actor's were great as always, but I'm sad I couldn't see them shine at their fullest. I really wanted to see Yagi Yusei crying and being Kiyoi from the novel, that when it was glossed over I wanted to cry. If Yagi Yusei were given the opportunity to be Kiyoi from the novel, he probably would get more acting jobs after this film.

Either way, it was a nice film, but maybe I had too high expectations.

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Motherhood and Assassin Clash in This Great Romp!

I find it interesting that so many viewers are complaining about the ending, and why it feels incomplete. I guess you have to have been around for 45+ years, watching movies and shows to understand that an ending that feels incomplete is because there’s another part on the way. Another episode or another movie. It really isn’t that hard to figure out.

Kill Bok Soon is a very good film about a Gil Bok Soon, one of the best assassins of the MK guild. They call them companies, but I think a guild is more accurate. She’s deadly and she brings light humor to her personality. She smirks and lightly banters with her victims in a way that tells them, “This is business. It’s not personal.” What makes this story compelling is that she also has a teenage daughter. And it becomes obvious, very quickly, that her daughter has no idea what she does for a living, and she aims to keep it that way. And there is, of course, some compelling reasons why Bok Soon shields her daughter from her life.

Bok Soon is nearing the end of her contract, and the guild wants her to renew with them. She’s seriously considering retiring. However, can a rogue assassin who is as good as Bok Soon be allowed to simply retire?

Cha Min Kyu is the top assassin of the MK guild. And make no mistake, his skills outrival even Bok Soon’s as we see him take down 30+ Russians in a massacre. His sister, Cha Min Hee is the director of the MK guild, and she views Bok Soon as more of a liability than an asset since her announcement. It’s also obvious that she doesn’t care much for Bok Soon, which makes you also wonder if she knows the secret between Bok Soon and Cha Min Kyu.

Bodies pile up rapidly as it becomes apparent that it’s a fatal mistake to underestimate or even to target Bok Soon. She’s also not stupid. She knows what’s going to happen before it does, even running through probable scenarios in her mind—which play out on the screen in expert fashion. She will also use any item as a weapon. There’s no such thing as fighting fair in a fight, and Bok Soon is a master of this realization. It’s kill or be killed. There’s no room for apologies.

Jason Bourne is still one of my all-time favorite assassins because he’s just as smart as he is deadly. He’s like a grandmaster chess player who is always several moves ahead of his opponents, as well as being able to adapt to his situation with mere seconds of contemplation. Bok Soon is similar in this regard.

That cast is all top-notch, especially Jeon Do Yeon, who is very believable as the assassin Bok Soon. She’s also masterful at giving us a mom who is trying very hard to understand her teenage daughter, and why being a parent is even harder than being an assassin.

As I stated from the beginning, they certainly left the door open for another film, and I would be very surprised if another one isn’t made. Especially given how Bok Soon’s daughter reacts after finding out the truth about her mother. We were left to wonder how she would react to her mother upon finding out who she really is and what she really does. And what is intriguing is that we some elements of a young Bok Soon in her own daughter.

This was a fun film to watch. It’s well-written and well-performed. The fight scenes were all exceedingly well choreographed. Thank God these actors and actresses do their own stunt work, as it makes the scenes all the more believable and intriguing. Looking forward to the next one!

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i watched this on a total whim. i saw the fl and jaewook's scenes going all around my insta so i gave in and watched it. it wasnt bad but it wasnt awesome too
bok soon is an assassin. she is known and feared in the industry for being the best of the best. she has a daughter too and it looks like she isnt on as good terms with her daughter as she is with her work. the movie showcases how bok soon's contract with her current company would be expired so she is thinking on whether or not to renew it while on the other hand trying to handle her rebellious teen daughter.
the acting was amazing and the plot was decent too. but was ot awesome? not much. it just shows bok soon and her daughter starting to bond and their vision of the future becoming clear for each other.
i enjoyed the action scenes sm i have almost all of them recorded lmao. however some deaths were really uncalled for like i get it u killed them for the plot to thicken but was it really necessary but then again this IS an assassin movie so who am i to speak.
all in all good for a quick watch but dont have high expectations other than the action scenes

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Nice little RomCom That Kept Me Wondering

I came for Bae In Hyuk, and got to see just a little bit to little of Bae In Hyuk yet still got to see a really nice short film. It was just so cute, interesting and well left me wanting more, a lot more while still managing to show me a decent story with all the parts one would need, just squished in to short period of time.

I do however have a lot of questions in my mind that could definitely make way for a whole drama. However I guess I will just have to try to answer those in my mind. There is also a lot that seemingly makes 0 sense in the beginning but is oddly enough explained well towards the end which is really kind of refreshing.

All in al this is defiantly a shot film I would like to recommend to all romcom lovers out there who do not mind having to fill in the blanks on their own and could use just a little bit of more fluff in their lives.

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Good start ... Disappointing from mid

The movie started off quite well and I was really excited to see how the leads will fall for each other but sadly even when they fall and confess, the story got dragged for no good reason.

The unnecessary misunderstanding on part of mun yeong was too childish to even accept.. i mean if a person tells you that he likes you, instead of confronting, you assume things and drift apart.. where's the logic in this??

Just to increase the movie time, the story was dragged which was very disappointing from my pov.

His friend was also not utilised properly in the story... He had lot of room for character development but was just wasted at his "Denial - acceptance- clingy" behaviour.

All in all if you are busy or have lot of lined up series in your watchlist, you can really skip this and keep it in watch later to be seen when you run out of options!

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The temptation of a burning romance made alive through suspense.

What a strange movie it was.
It's one of those slow burners where you wonder what's there to it , at every moment .
The pristine romance, the feeling of yearning for someone yet falling short every time.

The illegality of a relationship shared.
The chemistry of both MC and FMC is one you'll rarely see.
A sadist story.
It's a really long movie, it takes it time and somehow to the end , you'll yourself see falling for the charm of FMC .
Those long stares, endless pauses, dual translation.
Her job was to make the role shine through a mysterious aura , and she just made sure we feel tempted towards her through out, an award-winning performance that's for sure.

The movie is just storytelling, nothing more to it.
It's one of those where to sit back and enjoy the form of storytelling.
The sense of suspense it maintains through out each scene is what tempts you to watch it cautiously.
The magic is in the direction and interaction of the characters, not the screenplay which rarely happens.

I enjoyed it. You'll too .
Just be in the mood .

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Story of how Liyan (father) & Taebong (Son) longed for their father's love, trust & acknowledgement.

This is a quest of a mischievous and intelligent boy in finding his biological father while going through a lot of things a kid seemed incapable to do just to meet, see and feel his father's presence and affection.

This story is amazing! Although it showed some unpleasant actions such as hacking, lying and doing things without a parents concent. It also shows how capable a young and desperate kid can be. That they can go to lengths just to achieve their long desired dream.

I know it's my fault for watching and getting spoiled by almost half of the movie through Youtube clips but hell! I'm already in the verge of tears 5 minutes after it started. Just to witness a supposed worry-free kid inquiring and investigating about his own father hurt me so much. He was deprived of a complete family and have been yearning for one for years, to the point where he started to do his own research to get information about it and hopefully meet him.

"Mom, I wanna go home". - Go Taebong

This specific scene at the bridge part of the movie shattered my heart into millions of pieces. To see him begging and hoping to be with both of his parents is very painful to see. + My heart hurts whenever Liyan denies all of his touches and affection. It must've been extremely heartbreaking for a cheerful kid to be rejected and shoved away like that; When all he wanted is a fatherly love and a complete family to grant his highly anticipated wish.

It only shows how important a complete family support is to every children. They'll always seek for it no matter how much love they're receiving because of curiousity, longing and incompleteness.

Liyan's initial reaction is also understandable because who else in this world wouldn't feel buffled and indifferent towards someone you just met and is claiming to be your child? I know that he seemed really harsh and inconsiderate but I'm just grateful that he gradually loosened and warmed up towards Taebong and Miyeon.

I also appreciate how they took their time to show us Liyan's willingness to do his duty to Taebong and hopefully he can start "Making Family" with the 3 of them.

The highlight of the film is the parcel sent at the end to Liyan which contained the compiled and perfectly edited video clips taken by taebong during his whole quest in finding his father. That was the most heartwarming moment of all.

Lastly, The plagiarism issue doesn't seemed to make sense at first but it turned out to be one of the most important devices set up to mend Liyan and his father's relationship. The scene where Zhou Muxeng watch Liyan's artwork and finally stood up for him in the press conference truly touches my heart. Parental love is truly unconditional. No matter how old and accomplished someone is, we all need and yearn for it.

Story - 10, This is one of the most heartwarming movie I've watched this year and the most heartbreaking as well. I cried so much watching it but I never regret every single milisecond spent on it. It was like a treasure I luckily found after all these years. I'm overly elated and satisfied with this story.

Acting - 9.5, I was flabbergasted on how Moon Mason greatly executed his character by pouring so much genuine emotion in playing this tough role. I was speechless and is completely astonished of him the entire show. Aarif Rahman is spectacular as well and I never find any flaws in his acting. He's just great in terms of facial control and overall body movements. The main reason I gave such rating is mainly because of Kim Haneul... I don't know if it's with the dubbing, but... her acting just doesn't feel natural to me. She has this unsettled and awkward expression when executing her scenes which I find lacking.

Music - 10, I love the opening and ending music of the movie as well as the casual and soothing background sound/tune they used in every scene. I just appreciate how they never overdone anything. Specially the sad/sorrowful scenes. I badly wanna deduct a .5 for the horrible dubbing to Mason & Haneul but I feel like it's kinda reasonable since they're koreans trying to speak chinese. So I'll let it pass.

Rewatch Value - 10, I would watch and recommend it to everyone a million times just to take a firm stand on how precious and beautiful this film is.

Overall - 10, I feel like giving it a lesser point is a big slander and insult. This is clearly one of those story that serves and hits all the right vulnerable spots. A story that tells us how important a whole family support and presence is to everyone; no matter how old or young they may be. This show deserves more love and support.

IF you find my review helpful please let me know

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Underrated

Highly underrated. For some reason only one review was posted which kind of made me not watch the movie but I'm glad I did watch it because it was fun. We rarely have those fun movies with some sort of a message. If it's a funny and lighthearted movie then mostly it's just that.
This one motivated me enough to save our nature and stuff bcs after finishing this movie I went straight to water my plants hehe.
Ofcourse there was space for a lot of improvement but I'm not a critic I'm just a viewer who was interested in something with the comedy tag and this one kind of attracted me.
Dumb kind of comedy with a plot line which didn't make me think too much along with a typical rich people torturing the poor or powerless ones for their gain type of story is not too much off an attraction but it did attract me.
Even after being such an illogical story, the movie did attract me. In those 2hr 22 min even though I did not laugh like a stupid person but it did make me happy. There were fun moments and there were dumb moments too.

For someone thinking about whether to watch or not, I'd recommend go for it. It's not a waste of time as such. The cast is good. Story is clear and doesn't revolves around too many things. Simple plot with simple things. Nothing too much of fantasy or unrealism.
Rewatch: I might do it. It was worth my time.

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Nice movie to pass time, great cast/songs, but no unique plot/characters.

Well, I didn't know what to expect when watching this movie, but since both Satoh Takeru and Kubota Masataka which are among my top 10 Japanese actors are in it (And both looked hot as fuck with those hairstyles), I couldn't help but watch it instantly. Unsurprisingly the movie was actually good, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Although I don't understand why the girl had to be a high schooler...when is that fetish gonna end in Japan seriously!

If ML was a fellow teen then I wouldn't nag, but it's almost always a minor girl and adult dude, it could be a college girl and an older dude instead. There is also that CEO or whatever he is supposed to be guy (Whom mari cheated on Aki with), who is also a total creep. He discovered Mari back when she was a student, then he sleeps with her later. What is this?! I personally would never view someone I knew since they were a minor that way even after they become an adult Lmao

The girl had the typical looks/personality we see in Japanese romance plots. She has the usual short hair that is preferably brown or light colored (Her hairstyle is ugly, but somehow the actress made it work on her so it looked decent, but on most people it will look hideous), cute and childish facial features (Which isn't a problem at all to clarify, I'm not bashing her looks, she is adorable and I know that's also the Japanese beauty standard, besides she is playing the role of a teen as well so it fits), high pitched voice, is "innocent", loud, dense, dull, has bland fashion style, and is utterly clumsy. Also she acts and talks in a kinda anime like way. But for some reason all the guys will get obsessed with her all of a sudden and fight over her cause she is "precious and special" and has the magical ability to heal mental issues of ML/make him change.

The whole "I will protect you from everything" out of the blue made me cringe. Like girl you just met him and you act as if he is your soulmate whom you dated for at least 5 years. Her singing voice was beautiful though, I enjoyed hearing her sing, not sure if that was the actress herself singing or not. They also had to add the misunderstanding thing between FL, ML, and Mari (Of course she had to be a crazy and selfish ex) so that FL will get depressed, avoid ML, then Shinya will get closer to her to piss of ML. Plus the scandal as another hurdle. They sure love doing that.

Anyway apart from the creepiness related to the age difference between the main leads, them falling for each other a bit too quick for my liking, and other clichés, they had good chemistry (Not great but good enough), and the romance between them was overall sweet I guess. Honestly I was mostly interested in the music aspects and the whole issues between Aki with his musical struggles and doubts, that shit producer, and the Crude Play band members than the romance.

The characters overall felt one dimensional, like ML the whole him being depressed over Mari or whatever was boring, I couldn't care less about it. I think since it's a movie and not a drama, the characters didn't get a proper chance to develop and just remained the same till the end. The ending (After the credit) was predictable and cliché too.

The songs they played in the movie were all great, will make sure to download them all later if I find them. The movie had a melancholy vibe to it that I liked. The stage name Mush was cute.

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How i made mistake by judging by its cover(trailer)

we all learned in our childhood "don't judge a book by it's cover" .
but i made a huge mistake by judging this movie by it's trailer. after watching the trailer ,i thought this will be another comedy movie .But i was wrong, this movie will make you laugh, make you cry , and you can't control it. but above all other things,,,, this movie will teach you huge life lessons. besides career you also need your own family beside you for you to be happy for real. you should not leave the person you love for your career.
also you will learn about friendship, how to treat your friend/+s .
you must fix it (relation+family+friends) in one timeline , life will not give you second chance like movie .. appreciate your loved ones.. <3

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I was so excited for this movie. I love horror and ghosts. Just felt right up my alley!
Nothing... And I mean nothing could have prepared me for the shit show this was.
The characters were completely terrible. There isn't a character worth liking in the slightest. So I felt zero connection to any of them.
It never actually explained why she had her fear, what happened to her mother, why she was the way she was really. Just nothing to the storyline at all (imo).
Not to mention the spoken volume was soooo low, no matter how high I turned it up, I could barely hear them and of course when they had their weird ass screaming fits, I nearly broke my speakers and I thought my ears were bleeding.

And what the fuck was that ending? I feel like I was supposed to be on drugs to understand anything but even then I doubt I would.

The disappointment is REAL! I feel ripped off and that's 2 hours of my life I'm never getting back.

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Just skip this lol

As much as you may think this movie will deliver especially with such an amazing cast it just.. doesn’t. So much unnecessary things thrown in whilst we also barely get a story. This movie was empty and somehow managed to also have such a snail like pace. Shown a bunch of characters only to have them thrown out in a fight scene. Even with boksoon’s family we don’t know a thing … even though this movie literally surrounds her. We don’t know who her child’s father is even though cha guy keeps mentioning him, we don’t know anything about the kid, whether she saw that vid or not, we don’t know why her father was praying for her or what kinda guy he was, we know nothing about her mom either. Ofc we don’t have to be told everything but if you’re going to mention it you cant allow us to settle with bits and pieces. It also goes without saying but we could’ve done without the incest plotline.. overall just an amazing cast let down by horrible writing.

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Not So Ultimate, but Oppa! /The Bachelor Goes Fan-Meet!

This is another one of these stories that you watch for its highly predictability cuteness and fluff... for the reliving memories of dramas past... As the K-drama references are many and indeed lovely.

As we get to see the ultimate nice girl who is so nice, naive and slightly stupid that you will yet again wonder how she made it alive all the way to be eligible to travel Korea on her own. We also get to see ultimately good looking male leas one with some type of brain who will have you wondering why he likes his girl to be so naive, the other handsome but lacking in brain power making you realise you are better off not meeting your idol. We also get to see a stereotypical mean girl as well as some adorable girl power sisterhood...

Some parts of the production felt forced but I was entertained, and I am sure those of you who like this type of story will be too. If you are looking for some substance and quality you probably figured out by now that this is not the right place to find it If you are completely new to K-dramas you may still enjoy it but not nearly as much as if you catch the references made in the movie.

To be honest this 8 star rating is solely based on entertainment value and not quality.

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