Some films only Japan can make
I've just rewatched this and I came to up my score and even write a review.I'm a Kdrama fan for all sorts of reasons - the production, the accessibility, the slightly more acceptable misogyny, the lack of reliance on sex. Yet there are some amazing dramas out there that only Japan can do! You find them slipped in between the slightly brutal, sexist, infantilised main stream fare but shining with a gritty, oh so strange yet oh so normal light.
This is one of those, not because of the subject matter but because of the way it is handled. Without the glam slick entertainment of Kdramas or the censorship and lightness of Cdrama or the terribly preachy brutality of a US drama this manages to put across it's message with a heartrendingly understated realism.
The story is well told, the casting and acting is superb, the music supports but never overpowers the emotion.
Kakihara Rinka deserves the honours but Ikuta Toma deserves your attention.
I thoroughly recommend it.
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Kind Of Felt Like Thai Dairy Industry Propaganda, But Cute
This movie is actually four overlapping stories. They all take place in and around a dairy farm in Chiang Mai. I know some Thai, but was really scratching my head through most of this movie because of the Isaan dialect. Thankfully pretty much all Thai movies in theaters have English subtitles and Thai subtitles for the Thais who don't understand Isaan.The movie was pretty cute. The way it all tied together at the end kind of made me wonder if the movie was being funded by dairy industry lobbyists or something. The movie is basically four stories, milk --> cheese --> delivery of cheese --> cheesecake, and then has this corny ending monologue about all the love that goes into the process of producing the final cheesecake. It was a fun time and had a very indie vibe to it. It's also super gay.
First story: Two girls play music to make cows happy so they'll produce more milk (friendship... or maybe more?).
Second story: A hostel owner also runs cheese making classes and uses the milk from the cows in the first story to make cheese with a stressed out Bangkok office worker (suspiciously non-hetero).
Third story: A delivery girl getting into drama with a high school ex looking to hitch a ride to the train station while delivering the cheese from the second story (pretty gay, but sad).
Fourth story: A small cake shop owner starts teaching her annoying neighbour how to bake (very, very gay).
If you're in Thailand, I would definitely recommend seeing it. It's a very cute, feel-good movie and very few other people seem to be watching it, so there's a good chance you can get the theater all to yourself. I paid for deluxe, but sat in VIP hehehe.
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Bupphesanniwat, The Action Movie
I really loved this movie. The tone was very different. It definitely felt less like a slow-paced drama and more like a fast-paced action movie. I watched this movie in theaters and there were many moments where I straight up felt like I was watching a Marvel movie or something because of the action scenes and slow-mo and loud surround sound. Still lots of sweet romantic moments, but every moment also felt very necessary to the plot.I really loved the historical setting of this movie. It takes place after the Ayutayyah era, during the Rattanakosin era. The changes in costume and setting really reflect this well and give Kesorn's (Rattanakosin era Ket's) character an interesting vibe. The whole thing has a very "times are changing" vibe with the introduction of ships and steam engines and Western-style clothing and English spreading throughout Thailand.
Kesorn's character, despite not having any memories of her previous lives, still has a very inquisitive, ahead of her time personality. At the beginning she is introduced as a student working alongside an English-speaking priest to study old artifacts and whatnot, so she's really not that different from her past/future life except for speaking English rather than French and fitting in more with the customs of her time period. Det, now Phop, on the other hand acts pretty different because the circumstances between him and Ket in this life are so different from the whole Ayuttayah crazy ghost sister reincarnation thing.
Overall, the movie makes an emphasis on the fact that while they are soulmates, they are not the people they were in their past lives and so their feelings for each other and how they fall in love is not the same either which I thought was really well done. There are also some nice nods to the original series and some awesome new characters that were really likeable and stood on their own as worth rooting for quite well. I really wish they had included the main opening song from the original series at some point though. There were scenes where they played a little bit of the melody underneath other songs, but I really would have loved a moment where they full blasted it. Maybe during like a past life flashback or something.
Not sure when the movie will be available outside of Thailand, but when you can I recommend watching. I'm a huge Bupphesanniwat fan living in Thailand, so I even bought a movie poster to put up in my room haha.
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Cute adult romance
MDL - please take off the 500 word minimum review. There are times I don't want to blabber about a movie and most times I don't want to read other people's thesis on a drama.Very annoying that the review has to be 500 words. Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh. Hope this adds up to 500 words.
MDL - please take off the 500 word minimum review. There are times I don't want to blabber about a movie and most times I don't want to read other people's thesis on a drama.
Very annoying that the review has to be 500 words. Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh. Hope this adds up to 500 words.
Rom com is the only genre I watch, so this one is cute.
Rushed in the end. Subtitles were messed up so it kind of killed the nuances of emotions.
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This is a Masterpiece.
I promise. You won't regret watching this and even if you do, it's because you weren't able to watch this sooner.I like everything about this.. this is in leagues with "" You are the apple of my eye" which is also one of my greatest CMovies ever watched!
Such a lucky find among the dozens of work out there. This has all the quality that a great movie can be especially the music/vocal top it off with their great acting and also the synchronicity of the couple. It's such a shame that i am limited in my capability to express a much richer words and emotion.. That just shows how this movie tug my heart...
If there can ever be a chance i want to someday meet them and all the other artists that is on my bucketlist..
Cheers to this movie and it's everything!
(P.S. This is a raw review.)
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Great premise, terrible execution.
There is only so much screaming, yelling, and over-the-top clumsiness that can be delivered before the main characters of film become a grating and annoying presence on the screen.I love the premise of this movie. The idea that two young assassins are thrown into a situation where they have to appear to live a normal life, get jobs, be roommates etc. However, the movie gives us very little of this outside of a few drawn out and pointless eating sequences where the two leads bicker with each other about inane and meaningless things. The two characters are just annoying and it's difficult to cheer for them when they have no depth and the story is nearly non-existent. NOTHING HAPPENS.
On top of all of this every female character in the movie, save Mahiro(played by Izawa Saori), is presented as a bumbling, shrieking, clumsy, ditz who can't put one foot in front of the other without acting a fool. Outside of one or two moments of genuine comedy from Motomiya Yasukaze, the film falls flat in every comedic scene with it's unfunniness and painfully drawn out sequences of nothing happening.
It's a real shame. Give it a miss.
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Had good potential, but tried a little too hard
After seeing the wonderfully raved reviews, I let myself into the school romance arc again to give this a shot. Right away, I felt Our Times (Taiwanese movie) vibes, with the vintage school life and then the flash forward to present day with a different main lead cast.The scenes between the main couple were not developed enough for me to feel anything towards their story. This is a typical love at first sight romance, which makes it even harder for us to feel. And although they looked cute together, the main guy had no personality. And the other guy? Felt like a completely random dude who was thrown in to have a cute trio effect. I also had trouble distinguishing the two men at one point.
Worst of all, some things didn't make sense to me. It was weird the friend called the main girl silly to mistaken the name of the guy she likes for his friend. So did the friend know his name was switched too or what? Cause it sure didn't seem like it. The friend and the conflict was more interesting than the entire romance plot. I would rather watch a movie about their interesting dynamic than this, in my opinion, because a main girl lying about her personality to her best friend the whole time doesn't sound very healthy.
And that ending! It was super out of the blue. I felt like the movie wanted to throw a angsty dramatic factor in for kicks, as if the train scene (1999 version of airport scene) wasn't enough. Not every movie needs to end in tragedy for it to be good, especially when it doesn't add anything to do so!
I think I get the direction the director was going towards, with the nostalgia for the 20th century, the youth, the common friendship problem, and the melo thought of what could have been in the next century. But, it was just done in a rather mediocre way that leads an empty confused place in viewers' hearts after watching.
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That was interesting!!!
I got curious and checked out this movie because I always find sporty car looks chic and cool lol. I always like to imagine how awesome it would be to drive one, and how fast I can go :).Well I checked this movie out, and it was nice to see the drifting scenes and how they make drifting looks so effortless. The roads in the mountains look pretty cool to drive cars on too lol.
Anyways, our MC Takumi lives with his father, Bunta and he also works at the gas station. He once delivered tofu for his father on the popular mountain roads, and that is where he gradually learns how to drift and drive fast on that mountain. Then he once crossed paths with Takeshi, who is one of the street racer team leaders. Takeshi took an interest in Takumi and seek him out. Once Takumi makes aware of who he is, he starts to set out to race with Takeshi and Ryousuke (who is another street racer leader-aka Edison's Chen character); and then Takumi races with this "professional" guy and he won.
Takumi also has a childhood girl that he likes, and they soon began dating. Then, Takumi friend's saw that his gf went to a love motel and is a cheap person. Well, Takumi just left his gf without hearing her side of the story. That was shitty because she must have her reasons why!!!??? I think the plot did her character dirty by not giving a reason why she ditched him.
Well, Takumi broke up and then he join Ryousuke's team. The End.
Love the drifting shots; if you're into drifting, and the cars are pretty cool too....Watch this movie :).
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This is unfortunately, one of the worse martial arts movies I have ever seen. I wanted a female revenge story with excellent martial arts choreography and I got this terrible film. I feel bad for Chia Ling because while she's good here and her martial arts are undeniable, this movie was subpar at best. The fight choreo was bad and the storyline/characters where all over the place. I couldn't really make heads or tails of who was who and what person's revenge story we were actually following. The ending was poorly executed.. Normally, when the hero fights the big boss that sequence is usually the best in terms of fight choreo but when FL and the villian fight it was just bad and they way he met his end was laughable. The only plus in this film was the costumes.
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Fantastic piano playing and unexpected plot twist
“Secret” is written and directed by Jay Chou. So, it’s not surprising that the music and the songs of this movie are top notch. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie. After reading the synopsis, I thought it’s another teen melodrama about first love and the disappearance is probably due to an illness or parental disapproval. But I am so wrong. I did not see the plot twist coming and I am glad I was wrong.The acting is not bad and I wasn’t really expecting much from Jay Chou. After all, he’s known for being a singer and songwriter. Female lead, Kwai Lun Mei is fantastic and is the star of the movie. She plays the mysterious and interesting Xiao Yu well, as well as the more melodramatic scenes in the latter half of the movie.
The best part of this movie is the piano playing. If you are a music lover or a piano lover, this is a must-watch. There’s no fake playing and each song feels real. The piano duel is fantastically exciting. Lovers playing music together has such a romantic feel to it. It shows their innocent love and expression of love all through music.
Is this a realistic movie? Not really, especially in the last few minutes of the drama when danger is in his face, yet our main lead continues to play his music. But it makes for a great story and a great ending to this lovely movie.
Completed: 11/26/2022
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A timeless classic love story even when watching this in 2022
"The Classic" really is a classic. It doesn't matter if I am watching this in 2022 or in 2003. The love story might be simple and uncomplicated, but I think that's also the beauty of it. I enjoy the two parallel timelines when telling the mother's story and the daughter's story. I would say the focus is in the older generation's romance. It's much more romantic, beautiful and impactful. Who Joo Hee ends up with in the end is not surprising. But watching how the story unfolds from beginning to the end is a beautiful thing.My only criticism of this movie and the reason I am not giving this movie a 9.0 is the modern day romance. It pales in comparison to the older timeline. I would have loved to see Ji Hye and Sang Min's story develop a little better and with more screen time. I don't need to see more of the annoying Soo Kyeong, but I need more interaction between Ji Hye and Sang Min. I think it's a waste of Jo In Sung's talents and his character. Because I am not as invested in this couple, it makes the ending scenes not as impactful as they should be.
It's really interesting to watch this in 2022 and see how innocent-looking and adorable these big stars were. Their talents shone even when they were so young. The acting is great all-around and the OST is beautiful as well.
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This movie broke me into a million pieces...
This movie broke me into a million pieces. If you want to watch it, be prepared.The posters for this movie are bright. I think this may symbolize the fact that initially people outside of Gwangju didn't know what was really going on there due to the city being cut off from the outside world and deliberate misinformation. The film started calmly, slowly moving into the serious subject of the Gwangju Uprising. And then we saw the horror of the inhabitants of the city.
I think the events were portrayed very well in the film. The cast and the crew did a great job. This is a title that definitely makes the viewer feel a lot. I cried a lot.
These events really happened and the original footages from Gwangju taken by the reporter (Jürgen Hinzpeter) can be found on the internet.
[real life spoiler]
Kim Sa-Bok (real-life taxi driver) and Jürgen Hinzpeter (real-life reporter) after these events, they never met each other. Both died before they could find each other.
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The storyline was pretty simple
Love triangle, best friends liking the same guy.
Their scenes are funny and adorable. It was a sweet teen romance until the ending. I mean why they decide to end it that way?
The acting was great. The cinematography is really beautiful. The music fits the mood.
But because of the ending i probably would not rewatch it ㅠㅠ
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Strong theme. Mid-drama. Still recommended.
There is nothing special about this movie but still it's strong enough to deliver its theme. Majority of the actors here are surprisingly good considering all of them are non professionals except to Ms. Meryll Soriano. And kudos to her, she delivers an extraordinary performance being the mother of John Denver. I like the scoring, acting, and also the story. It highly pinpoints the true dangers of internet and toxicity of social media especially spreading fake news. I like the movie the way it only focuses about the issue of John Denver's trending video and on what actions should the authority to do about it. You can feel the events happening in the movie. The emotions, the anger and desperation. I just don't like the fact that this story has no resolution about the problem. It was stuck there, desperately accusing John Denver about the stolen iPad and him telling people he did not do the stealing. Overall, the movie is still good and recommended. By the way the ending is very sad.Was this review helpful to you?
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Not my cup of tea....
The plot was so confusing. It started out good and then the rap just make it worst.I gather the story is about a teacher and he got violently r****. Then his rapist came to confront him, and then he told the MC to rap???? At the end, the MC died :(. The rapist never got charged and he cowardly ran away. Poor MC suffered and died at the end. Horrible script and plot. This plot is dark and no happy ending. The MC got divorced and then he might be into guys???
!!!!Do not recommend.!!!!!! Please do not waste your wasting time watching this, this bl sucks so much.
Edit: There were many details that went unnoticed, or ignore? I didn't get the movie and was so confusing. Definitely have to analyze and watch this to get what this movie is about. Below is a comment spoiler to make better sense of this movie :).
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