Reviews

Beautiful message, plot, and characters

The story is very good!! I love how it criticizes Japan's dangerous overwork culture and the characters are both very likeable, especially Yamamoto! He's my new favorite character ( Fukushi Sota did a fantastic job at portraying him). Idk why some people claim this movie's a BL though?? Would be great if a romance was actually shown between the two characters (for those of us into romance) but I believe it is only hinted/up to interpretation. Also the plot twist is very good as well! Overall, this film has beautiful cinematography to go along with the beautiful story and characters. I recommend!

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cinematic masterpiece trough and trough

This is just a cinematic masterpiece, I'm
just so amazed, everything was beyond
expectations.
The cinematography was just
top, the most beautiful views and filming
style (sorry, not much of an expert, don't
know the proper terms to describe it
rightfully), which is no wonder considering all the experts they brought in, they just knew what they were doing.
I loved how it made me feel so close to him, that I didn’t even perceive him as some unreachable celebrity but thought and felt with him. I really like the way he views the world, it brought me into a new positive perspective. I might actually bring some of it into use, to embrace the world and unknown more and enjoy the beauty of the moment and not be scared because it’s okay, everyone feels lost and out of place at times.
A lot of music nowadays doesn’t have much particular meaning behind it, but this, is different. He is telling stories, he is creating music from scratch thinking about every smallest detail. That’s a true musician, a true artist right there.
This is not a documentary... it's
like one of those artistic indie movie that
make you completely rethink live and
change your perspective on everything.
It's not just a movie for RM’s or BTS’s fans, but for all cinema enjoyers who like themselves a beautiful, artistic and philosophical movie.
After it finished everyone just sat there, dazed and amazed.

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Felt like a second chance

It has been a few days since I watched Wonderland, and I can’t help but write a review. Hopefully, this will help me process my feelings about it. I don’t have any strong negative emotions toward it, but there’s something unresolved about it that leaves you feeling like you're in a daze. I often find myself reflecting on the different storylines.

I wasn’t expecting to watch this movie, but the preview featuring Suzy and Bo Gum was so captivating that I had to give it a try.
The movie starts by giving us a glimpse into the lives of several characters: a mother following her dreams but is willing to do anything for her daughter, a couple in a long-distance relationship, and two program creators, one of whom seems to have feelings for the other. We eventually learn that some of these characters are only able to communicate through a phone. It is later explained that, for this to be possible, the individual is either in a coma or has passed away, leading to the conclusion that the person they communicate with on the phone is generated by AI.

I initially watched the film because of Bo Gum, but I stayed for Bai Li’s story. Reflecting on it, the film feels like a second chance at life for those who have lost loved ones. Everyone grieves differently, and for some, Wonderland offers comfort.

However, some viewers may find the lack of backstory frustrating. If you prefer clear explanations, this might not be the movie for you. Personally, I didn’t mind this aspect, as I filled in the gaps with my own theories based on the scenes shown. For example, I believe Hae Ri’s parents have passed away, and she was likely an early user of the system, as suggested by a comment from Hyeon Su.

One aspect I really appreciated was the portrayal of Bai Li’s mother’s grieving process. Despite knowing the full truth, her struggle felt real. Bai Li's character felt so genuine that she even caused a glitch in the system, which added an emotional layer to the story. I think Wonderland would have worked well as a miniseries—there's so much more that could have been explored, though I am still happy with the movie.

The only downside for me was the aftermath of Suzy and Bo Gum’s storyline after he wakes up. I struggled to understand Suzy’s character and what she was trying to portray. Her acting felt disconnected, and it left me confused about her emotions. For this reason, I’m knocking off a few stars from my rating.

I’d recommend Wonderland if you’re looking for something new and are interested in AI. As I mentioned earlier, it reminds me of the idea of giving life a second chance. For those who are alive, we keep the memories of our loved ones alive by thinking about them and wondering what they would be doing. For some, Wonderland might offer that kind of comfort. In this world, individuals are living their dreams and are in a happier place. We all have our own stories, and sometimes, through loss, we learn to rely on others. We come to appreciate the small things our loved ones do for us or even the things they might hide from us.

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Souls trapped in the human realm, unable to move on

As much as I hate to admit it, it was the movie adaption of John Green's The Fault in our Stars that taught me, "Funerals... are not for the dead. They are for the living."

From watching the trailer, I thought this film would be presented in clashes of dichotomies: death vs life, tradition vs modernity, religion vs industry. And while all these themes do surface in the film, they don't do so as mutually exclusive dichotomies. Instead, the richness of The Last Dance comes from the intersections and overlap of these themes.

The story structure itself is neat. There are three parts and the narrative comes fulls circle, starting and ending with the Taoist funeral ritual of Breaking Hell's Gate. The cinematography of the ritual scenes alone could carry the film if needed. But the bulk of the film is what provides the emotional impact of these scenes.

The strength of this film is its messiness. And the messiness is found at the intersections. Tradition and modernity don't so much clash with one another as grasp out to one another, trying to find purchase, albeit sometimes in awkward or painful ways. This doesn't only play out in the funeral home between the male leads. The friction and fondness also happens within the family home as the characters try to figure out how religion features in their own identities and how it impacts their relationships with one another. There is also just enough wry humour – mostly from Dayo Wong's character – to provide breathing space (pun intended).

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of death in this film. Despite the music being a tad heavy-handed at times, these are emotionally deep touch points. Each death progresses the narrative and also reveals some new aspect to the intersecting themes of the film.

To bring this review back to full circle, The Last Dance itself is for the living. Perhaps this is why we don't ever get to see any of the deceased characters on screen alive. The film is *about* the living because it is *for* the living. After all, no one gets to see their own funeral.

NB: "Souls trapped in the human realm / Unable to move on" are the translated lyrics of Terence Lam's song 普渡眾生 which plays during the credits.

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Watch this for my Alphabet challenge. But hufh.... What a ride...

Story about crime organizations that involves in gambling, bet, and overall just cheat people in all possible ways by using women and interesting advertising.

This movie choose the uprising problems in the world these days, where many people really being trap in these evil web.

They bring out the sensitivity of the problem & the victim. They emphasize that the victims not only the one that being swindle over they money, but also the face in the screen, like the women whose job as the dealer.

It’s really a hard world & people so easy being trap inside it, with all the promises they given at the beginning.

The minus this movie had for me is simply they make the person who's in charge, the true perpetrator not so crazy and the way they get captured is a little too easy. I hope we can get to see more from the police side, the investigation & the action they need to do to disassemble all of it

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"Don't worry, nothing is going to happen"

Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Mui returned for this sequel to The Heroic Trio from the same year. While The Heroic Trio was campy and fun, Executioners was dark with an erratic script and zero fun.

Wonder Woman aka Tung (Anita Mui) is now married with a daughter. Her husband, Commissioner Lau, is rarely home as he is dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear strike that has left the people without clean water for several years. An entrepreneur named Mr. Kim (Anthony Wong) has figured out how to clean the radiation out of the water and sells small shipments at premium prices. Invisible Girl* aka Sandy Ching (Michelle Yeoh) turned over a new leaf after the first movie and is helping transport medical supplies. Thief Catcher Chat (Maggie Cheung) is still doing whatever she can to make a buck. Religious leader Chung Hon and a military colonel are both in cahoots with Mr. Kim. The president is vulnerable as well as the government in general with Kim and the Colonel both gunning to take over the country. Somehow the Heroic Trio must find a way to save themselves and the people from the evil men’s machinations.

The budget must have been miniscule for this film. In order to make the cheap sets appear post-apocalyptic they turned down the lights and turned up the fog machine. The strength of the first film was the relationship between the three women. Here, they were rarely together. The main exception being a gratuitous bubble bath scene at the beginning of the film as they played a game of grab and tickle. If there was a Sapphic subplot it might have made more sense but here it seemed to be designed to titillate 15-year-old boys. There weren’t many action scenes and most weren’t memorable. The plot seemed to be focused on the women fighting in skirts or short shorts and having as many people killed as possible. If they had ever planned a third film those characters eliminated should have counted themselves lucky.

It is no secret that I love the beautiful and talented Michelle Yeoh and will watch anything she is in. I also adore Maggie Cheung. The three women combined could not save this movie, actually if they’d had scenes together it might have helped. Anthony Wong as the villain was hampered by having to wear heavily scarred facial prosthetics and a mask on top of that. Kaneshiro Takeshi’s religious leader seemed to be a prominent role until he lost his head early on. Lau Ching Wan’s character had possibilities but ended up all wet. One of the characters that dragged this movie down considerably for me was the daughter. She was always getting lost or making a scene or diving into danger. It didn’t help that the dubbed voice was equally annoying as the character.

Executioners had a wealth of talent and wasted all of it on a dreary, convoluted story. When the three women were together fighting it was exciting. The trouble was the director forgot that key piece and squandered his cast and my time.

5 December 2024
Trigger warning: Rats and drinking of rat’s blood
* In the first film, Michelle Yeoh’s character wore an invisible cloak, but not in this film.

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A beautiful inner experience.

For me, it's not a movie called Balloon Landing, but it will always be Bay of the Vanishing Whales, and when I watched it for the first time, only the second half of the film made everything clear, and then when I watch the project for the second time, I perceive everything from a different angle. The Japanese film Dangerous Drugs of Sex, where there are explicit sex scenes, is completely different, like this fantasy film with only one random kiss, where everything is on the level of the inner character and the viewer, but still both films have something in common ... first they save each other, so that in the end the second one saves the first one. For some viewers, and they write about it on world servers, it's not BL just because they don't fuck and there are no bed scenes, for me and many others it's a deep and inner film about two wounded beings and hidden homosexuality (I don't see it only as a bromance), because love has many forms and it's practically on the same wavelength as the Taiwanese project The On1y One, where there's also no physical contact. Excellent acting, beautiful scenery of southern Taiwan and modern Hong Kong, a handkerchief at the end and I will return to the film... and an amazing fresh spark in the form of actor Fandy Fan and a great performance by Hong Konger Terrance Lau. A beautiful inner experience.

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Loved this and is one i have seen more then once!

I truly enjoyed this and felt it was a total stand out for the time as most bl's can be focused more on the spicy time then any kind of story. Feels more adult and plot heavy then most bl's with an interesting mystery leaving you wondering at the end of each episode and had me hooked from start to finish.
Summery:
Dr. Tihn works in the emergency room and has seemed to have lost that spark for helping people but when he loses a patient he finds himself thrown back in time reliving it over and over as he tries to find out why he meets the patient named Tol. He thinks is all he has to do is save the boy but no matter what he does it does not seem to work and with each try he unravels more of the overall mystery. He then realizes he needs to go back further as he finds he has fallen in love with Tol and eventually wins the guy over but dies in order to save him and this time it is Tol who is forced to go back in time and win over the dr. but the version who had never been through any of it but eventually wins him over after finding his journal from his previous time travels and the mystery finally unravels. I love the ending so i hope you watch it yourself!!

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HK cinema is back baby!

I'm so happy to see a modern Hong Kong film that remembers it's a Hong Kong film and not a pretender to the throne, an action-packed homage to the nitty-gritty choreography-crazed neon-daze of '80s Hong Kong cinema, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is a long overdue and very welcome dose of ass-kicking goodness, hopefully signalling the start of a new wave. Packed with wall-to-wall bone-crunching, wall-shattering mayhem, dizzying feats of acrobatics and martial arts madness, the film might be a bit long but it's extraordinarily stylish, seamlessly edited and viscerally exciting. It's all directed to masterful effect by Soi Cheang, his nimble camera swimming through the walled city with a hyperkinetic frenzy that balances the excellent action that brings you closer to the edge of your seat with every punch and every kick and the misery enacted by neo-liberalism and cold vicissitudes of fate. A bittersweet dystopian canvas, but also the purest action machine built on the choreographed denial of physics. The cast is all excellent with veteran stars Louis Koo and Sammo Hung giving as good as they get, however, it's Philip Ng who makes the biggest mark as a cackling villain with supernatural abilities, even if his ascension to villain doesn't feel entirely warranted. The musical score by Kenji Kawai is utterly joyous and so typical of his masterful touch, I especially loved the use of Walking in the Air as part of the underscoring. If anything, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In proves that Hong Kong cinema is far from dead, and not every film the country produces has to be subjected to a Mainland committee's scrutiny. It's easily one of the best action films of the year and I'm annoyed it took me this long to watch it.

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Lively and entertaining

I liked the 2nd movie better. Has more emotional moments and shows more closeness between Aki and Haru. The storyline are mostly similar to the 1st one.
The liveliness and humor is so enjoyable in the movie. The progression towards the end was good.
Aki's sudden realization after hearing Rikka's announcement was something expected, its sad that he had to hide it, but understandstable. The turmoil both goes through when they realize they have to live apart makes one sit on the edge. The hesitation, turmoil in the scene where Aki finally mentions he likes Haru gives mixed feelings.

Aki's photos in the gallery shows how much Haru cares of him and holds him in a special place in the heart. Haru's realization when Aki says he likes him was cute. Not to mention the final confession, thank god for including that. The story shows a deep caring loving relationship between the two.

Oh! not to mention, both of them makes the food looks soooo delicious 😋

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A powerfully moving, heartfelt, and bittersweet portrait of love, life, and the cycle of poverty

I immediately love the color that permeates the film which are often seen on the clothing of all the characters, especially the debt collector Bo wonderfully played by Bright Vachirawit who disappears into his character that puts on brightly colored shirts to collect the interest due from his debtors. I really like that this story isn't just cut off at 90 minutes, the 2 hour runtime is put to good use really exploring the character dynamics of Bo and his various relationships. Bo and Im played by Yaya have fantastic chemistry as the relationship that's the heart of the film.

Bo is such a fascinating character, he didn't finish high school and he is capable of violence, but he's also creative and can think outside of the box to get his job done in unorthodox ways. He intimidates by his signature move of striking himself bloody on the head and later either finds jobs or gets more business for the people who owes money to pay their dues. He leaves their lives better than he found it. With Im , he tracks her down to her banker job where she gets suspended probably for making a scene that scared all the customers, so he comes up with a interest forgiveness system where he'll use his own money to pay off her interest depending on the scale of activities on dates that he's also using his own money to pay for. All the charm and charisma that Bright brings to Bo is what keeps all of this on the cute funny side that slowly melts Im's understandable initial iciness towards Bo as she sees him take care of her comatose father in addition to the one who was the one who found and got him to the hospital in the first place as well as going viral online for creatively helping his debtors get income to pay him. Im's life is also really relatable as even an university education still can't get her a job that gives her any financial stability. Her father was too consumed with debt to have been able to help her either and devastatingly is only able to free her from his own debt in death as she's able to get a refund on a cremation fund he had been paying for. She looks dreamily at the Hilton hotel as an idealized place that people like her will never step foot into in her lifetime. She opens herself up to happiness and planning a future together with Bo which is when things go wrong as he tries to take a shortcut to help her with one last job that of course goes awry and his boss screws him over which screws Im over with her life savings completely gone, leaving her being scammed to scammed others by her crush at the bank who also seems to keep her as a side piece, while Bo discovers his worsening health condition that he has no money to treat in prison. It's so heartbreaking that all of his head trauma both self inflicted and fights with rival gangs took a real physical toll on him, shortening his life as he helped others with theirs intentionally or not. It's truly chills in the scene where Bo faces down his old boss who coldly responds to his sincerely asking her to return Im's money, so he does the only thing that people like her understand which is to put both their lives on the line. Debtors always pay their debt. Just as the injury had built up in his body, so had the karma with the people he had help and they visit him once more to help with setting up Im's shop. He spends a happy time with the love of his life, his family, and his friends. The postmortem letter he leaves Im to cheer her on from the after life is really powerful, moving, and relatable. Treasure yourself, and if you don't know where to go or what to do, just stay still and breath, just get through the day.

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"In the royal household, they regard their children as enemies"

This was a hard film for me to write a review for. The Throne told the events leading up to the explosive event in 1762 when King Young Jo took his troublesome son’s punishment into his own hands. Or at least part of the events, giving reasons or making excuses for Crown Prince Sado’s reprehensible behavior depending on how you looked at it.

Crown Prince Sado is called before his father after a possible aborted attempt to kill the king, something largely frowned upon. The king is in a jam because he can’t execute the prince for being a traitor because of the problematic law that states the whole family of a traitor would be judged, implicating the king and royal grandson as well. If the prince kills himself, his retainers and supporters are afraid they will be executed. Eventually, the king settles on locking the prince in a rice box with no food or water. The story then flips back and forth in time to explain how the two came to this moment of deadly impasse.

King Young Jo prided himself on his studies and discipline to Confucian ideals and decorum. Sado enjoyed art and hated studying. As the young prince grew up, the king became more disenchanted with the crown prince and more critical. When he made Sado a regent, Sado attempted to change taxation and create laws to benefit the people instead of the nobles. Rival factions were not amused and the king stepped in fearing a loss of power and prestige for himself. Regardless of what decisions Sado made, the king ridiculed him. And apparently because his daddy was mean to him, Sado snapped and became a murdering deviant.

In real life, Sado murdered a eunuch and carried the head around in his private quarters. He beat and raped the women in his circle and murdered many servants. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The serial rapist/murderer behavior or a distant critical father? In the film the Queen Dowager, his wife, and other women seemed to care for him and dote on him so he wasn’t without attention and positive affirmation. It felt like the film was attempting to drum up sympathy for Sado, but I dare say all of the people he murdered and raped would not feel much compassion regardless of the reason for his brutal and inhuman behavior. Glossing over his vicious actions seemed to weigh the scales without all the facts.

The costumes, wigs, and sets were all beautiful and luxurious. The Throne excelled in the poignant performances by most of the actors including Song Kang Ho, Yoo Ah In, and Kim Hae Sook. Song showed how the king was strictly disciplined in his own life, having no leniency for Sado’s more lax behavior. He also portrayed the king as distraught by the actions he felt had to be done for the country and to spare his grandson. Yoo brought out the complexities of this screen prince who wasn’t in a hurry to be king and had his own ideas for the crown. The dissent into madness was believable. Kim played the pivotal role of the Dowager Queen who saw more good in her grandson than her son did.

If I hadn’t read about Sado’s unbearably cruel behavior, I would have rated this film higher. Somehow leaving out the details seemed disingenuous when assigning blame for his actions to the king’s critical conduct toward his son. If you can block all that out and enjoy the film for the quality acting and cinematography, it is a stunning film to watch.

4 December 2024

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