Reviews

Mediocre and Stale storyline that doesn't do justice to the cast

When it was announced that Han So Hee and Jong Seo were cast in a movie together and for it being an action thriller involving a high stake heist, I had my expectations high as both the actresses are really good when it comes to doing raw action but after watching the movie today I can surely say this was a big letdown.

The entire cast surely did justice to their flat characters but it was the storyline and the action that missed the mark from a big margin. There was nothing in the story that kept me on the edge of my seat or any moment that made my jaw drop. The story faltered both in action and thriller genre.
They promoted it as a high staked heist action thriller when in reality the movie was exact opposite of it.

It sucks that despite all the hype around the title and heist plus two strong female leads, all they gave us is an empty shell of a movie. No wonder it tanked at the box office.

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On the road again!

Children of the Beehive was a post WWII film about orphans, both children and adults with no home and no family. Director Shimizu didn’t shy away from the hardships the Japanese faced, especially the most vulnerable, yet he also bathed those hardships in kindness and generosity.

Several orphans hang out at the train station finding ways to make money, fleecing people for a one-legged man they call the Old Man. They run into a repatriated Soldier who opts to not get on the train. He shares some food with them and they also meet a Young Woman. When the police arrive to arrest vagrants, the boys and the Old Man scatter. The Soldier and boys meet up on the road with the boys deciding to tag along with him. He insists they find jobs that don’t involve the black market or stealing. Along the way, they pick up more boys as they stop and do jobs for food or money. The Soldier is guiding them to the orphanage/reform school he attended, “Introspection Tower,” so that they will have a safe home and schooling. He seeks to teach them kindness, generosity, respect, and hard work as they travel together. A found family slowly develops strengthening them, which helps them when death and other adversities strike.

This film was a loose sequel to Shimizu’s Introspection Tower. I didn’t care much for the original, which smacked too much of wartime propaganda for me. This time it was the US censors that had a hand in this film, which was also problematic. Much as in the first film, the boys worked at dangerous adult jobs. What I really liked about this film was the found family element, showing that in a world on the brink and slowly rebuilding, it really was safer to stick together rather than go it alone. Especially when you’re only 10-years-old. While they may have dealt with hard labor and having no parents, the boys still showed they were kids, finding ways to play and even approaching a little league team.

Beehive acknowledged the dark side of post war Japan-poverty, hunger, lack of shelter, prostitution, homeless orphans, and exploitation. Shimizu softened the edges of those harsh realities as the boys had enough food and were generous with their food. They never truly suffered from being exposed to the elements in tattered clothing. Work also appeared to be plentiful as The Soldier refused to take illegal jobs, despite the precariousness of his own situation and the boys’. The rousting of vagrants and need for “papers” was often mentioned but never enforced. No one questioned a man with 8 boys hanging around him. The Young Woman came into play off and on and was the only true feminine presence. No orphan girls were ever seen, once again showing how filmdom’s demographic skews heavily male.

Children of the Beehive was populated with inexperienced actors which lent the film a natural feel. The film itself was quite aesthetic accompanied by a pleasing score. A scene near the end was one of the strongest and heartbreaking scenes in any film. It would be difficult to find a film with a more poignant moment, reinforcing the love and loyalty these children felt for each other. Everyone was capable of redemption and being brought into the family. Kindness overrode cruelty and selfishness was transformed into generosity. The children were tremendously resilient. Given the bleak setting (there was even a side trip to Hiroshima) the film culminated in hope and acceptance. Though it might not have been terribly realistic, I quite enjoyed this positive road trip emphasizing the need children, and adults for that matter, have for safety, a home, and love.

9 February 2026

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a must watch if you want to cry.

to be honest, in the first part i really thought the fl was gonna die in the end (cuz i knew someone would die obvi). However things turned out that the ml had heart problems and he died and it broke me so baddddd bc i really love that actor from head over heels. He sacrificed his own health when he chased the bus, he knew he shouldn't get tired but he still did and he did everything to make her every day happy 😭 and him dying after the fireworks scene was so bad i literally couldnt stop myself from cryinggggggg.. from that moment -> to the end and after the end i cried so yeah if you just want to cry watch this, other than that its nothing special. it has really good cinematography btw.

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I usually don't write reviews but I'll have to for this movie. It doesn't have the attention it deserves. I was in tears after finishing the movie and went to TikTok to look for edits but there were no edits(I'll have to edit this movie myself cause the editors are asleep... literally) the acting was amazing and the story was awesome. I've seen someone say that the escape scene was stupid but I feel the person didn't get the context of the scene. The scene pretty much just shows how when faced with calamaties will choose to save themselves without caring about other people's lives. It shows basic human nature. This movie is definitely worth watching. I'm going to go make tons of edits and Pinterest pins so that this movie gets the attention it deserves. I enjoyed this movie a lot and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves

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tragic but beautiful

I watched this on a whim when I was just looking for something to play in the background but omg this was such a beautiful piece of art. I loved how most of it was just silent or very quiet and let the watcher sit in the grief and memories the main character was experiencing. I also espec loved the contrast of the scenes where it was much brighter and colorful whenever the other woman was there and how bleak and dull it went without her. it was very sad and heartbreaking but told in a beautiful way. I also enjoyed how the story wasn’t about what’s being portrayed in the movie but more what isn’t, like the relationship between the two women, the circumstances of how and why it happened the way it did. I wish more movies used this sort of storytelling because it oftentimes makes it so much more tragic (at least for me).
I’d definitely recommend it if you like sad, short, beautiful movies that won’t say much but still speak volumes.

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Experimental cinema masterpiece and my new favourite ♡

Um-
What the actual fuck was that??
I sincerely need a moment to process this shit. I knew Takashi ito was on some high level drugs but this was genuinely on another level. Like there's no normal human who can make this. Yes ito is an alien. I just can't prove it YET!
My head fucking hearts.
Shouldn't have watched this on fucking benzos and sleep deprived cause that might have made the experience double x for me ngl. Genuinely never coming back to this. I am already insane. I don't need more of that. But I understand that guy though. I think I understood him too much. What does that say about me? Omg-


GUYS ITO MADE A FILM ABOUT ME. SHOULD I BE HAPPY OR CRY FOR HELP

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Wasn’t My Cup of Tea

This movie just didn’t work for me. The action felt too light and oddly teenage-coded, and the story was so predictable that I always knew exactly where it was going. The comedy had a few decent moments, but overall it landed as pretty mediocre.
It’s not a bad movie by any means, it’s just painfully familiar. The characters aren’t particularly complex, original, or creative, and it feels like a mash-up of things we’ve all seen many times before.
That said, it does have a couple of genuinely funny scenes. If you’re bored, want something easy, and don’t feel like committing emotionally or mentally, this could work as background entertainment.

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Child Trafficking

looks like a dark crime movie at first, but the deeper you get, the more it hits emotionally. The story is tense and gripping, yet it slowly reveals a warm side about family, empathy, and second chances. The acting feels raw and natural, making the emotions land without feeling forced. The fake-family dynamic becomes the strongest part, reminding us that family isn’t always about blood, but about who stays when things fall apart.

The movie also carries meaningful lessons. It shows that a painful past doesn’t have to define someone’s future, and that people can change when given trust and space. On top of that, it subtly criticizes how cruel systems can trap ordinary people. Overall, this isn’t just a crime film—it’s a human story about redemption, choices, and hope growing in the darkest places

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Okay but… Seo In Guk and Lee Soo Hyuk in the same movie?! That alone feels illegal. 😭🔥
I was already in heaven before the movie even started. The visuals, the charisma, the tension — everything just worked.

On top of that, the movie was actually really good, which made the experience even better. Pure fan service for my soul and eyes. 😌✨

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🌸✨🌈 Hiii~ Welcome to my kawaii corner~ ♡(≧▽≦)ﾉ✨🌸

You can find more of my reviews on Instagram~ 🌟💖

Check my homepage for my account~ (｡♥‿♥｡) 🌷

Some reviews are under 500 words, so I can’t post them here~ (≧ω≦)ﾉ💫

Thank you sooo much~ ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆ 💕🌸

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An Arthouse Slice Of College Life About Grief And Kokuhaku

I'm going to begin this review where I usually end a review by telling you who I think will enjoy this film and who will not. Because, more so than usual, this film is hard to rate even on the three dimensions that MDL provides (I never care about the rewatch value).

If you are a film studies major or consider yourself a cinephile, then this film is a must-watch. Similarly, if you are a fan of or are following any of the three main actors Ito Aoi, Kawai Yuumi and Hagiwara Riku, the film is also a must-watch. However, if you're not in any of those groups, it's almost certainly not worth your time.

The film tells the story of Toru (Hagiwara Riku) who has returned to college after a break for personal reasons. We never learn that much about him. He has one friend, Yamane, and works a post-closing shift at a family-run bathhouse where he has a nice convivial relationship to the owners. He has little to no interest in his classes and ignores their existence to the extent he can. (He walks into a couple of ongoing lectures and starts full-voiced conversations with his schoolmates in a way I never experienced in giving a couple hundred lectures at a Cal State University. I know Japan has a reputation for college life outside of the major research institutions being very not focused on academics, but I'm not sure how realistic those scenes are given how polite and aware of other's spaces the rest of Japanese society is.)

The two major themes of the film are grief and love confessions (kokuhaku), and that's a very odd and difficult combination to pull off, and which I presume come from the novel that the film is based on. Nevertheless, that combination is a young actor's wet dream for all three of the principals, and the writer/director, Ohku Akiko, gives the cast amazing opportunities to show what they can do with a long monologue for each of them, and each staged and shot in very interesting ways. Saki's monologue is probably the best, but while it could have been shot in a couple of one-takes of Ito, Ohku cuts in reaction shots, and so we can't be certain. Nevertheless, the film also flashes back to it a few times. Hana's monologue is given in an extreme close-up one-take, and, you know, it's Kawai: of course she nails it.

A secondary theme of the film is supposed to be serendipity which we know because The Three Princes Of Serendip is mentioned a few times. But while there are several unplanned discoveries in the course of the story, by no means are all of them fortunate in any sense. In fact, the story largely tilts its umbrella towards the rains of melodrama while maintaining some distant rays of possible romance.

And so we reach the best and worst thing about the film: Ohku's craft. The blocking, the framing, the camera placement, and the camera movements are frequently amazing throughout the film. But she pushes the techniques to the point that it's sometime hard (at least for me) to understand what she is trying to say by using them. She changes the aspect ratio at one point for a bit, and I have no idea why. She does a sudden zoom in to an extreme close up on Kawai's face in her monologue, but the zoom is done a bit into the monologue for reasons? I have seen other pieces of Okhu's work (please, please seek out her series for NHK, Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta also starring Kawai- any good drama otaku will know where to find it with English subtitles), and so I know that she's a master of the art of film and that these choices are intentional, but this particular work is hard to follow in some moments. And sometimes the techniques can call attention to themselves in ways that pull you out of the film.

As a writer, Ohku also chooses to leave some story points ambiguous in ways that will almost certainly be unsatisfying for some viewers. Was that time lapse of Toru sitting on a pole for a day, his being stood up? I'm not certain. Are the cuts to things Hana is saying to her co-workers about Toru reality or his fantasy? I don't really know for sure. And how does Hana react at the end of the film? It's left to our imagination.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the craft and performances in this film. It's a relatively small story with some very moving moments carried by some fantastic young actors.

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Not a comfort watch, and that’s the point

This is a psychological thriller that a lot of people clearly misunderstood.

Deep Trap starts as a slow burn, but that pacing is deliberate. The film is about vulnerability and manipulation, not jump scares or spectacle. Once the situation turns, it becomes increasingly claustrophobic and cruel, and the tension comes from how believable the escalation feels.

The couple doesn’t go to the island “for some reason,” despite how some reviews describe it. They’re there because of unresolved trauma after a miscarriage. The husband is psychologically unable to perform with his wife anymore, even though he can still sleep with other women, which only deepens the damage. The retreat is a misguided attempt to fix something already broken. The wife has no real understanding of what she’s walking into, emotionally or otherwise, and that lack of agency is intentional. It’s the foundation the entire horror is built on.

And no, the escalation isn’t “random.” The film is inspired by real crime cases involving manipulation and entrapment, which is why the psychological progression matters more than flashy set pieces. The discomfort comes from how plausible the situation is, not from shock-for-shock’s-sake.

Reducing this setup to “ED problems and a hooker” isn’t critique, it’s what happens when someone misses the premise entirely and then blames the movie for not explaining itself in kindergarten-level dialogue.

One thing is absolutely clear to me after watching this: Ma Dong Seok is scary no matter what role he’s playing.

He plays a psychological killer way too well here, and honestly, I really enjoy him in that role. He’s just as effective as a “good bad guy” or a cop, and most of what he does feels like magic. The only time I didn’t care for him was his professor role in Ashfall, but everything else pulls you in without him even trying.

In Deep Trap, the moment the couple arrives and he first appears on screen, you already know they’re not going to have a good time. He doesn’t need to do anything obvious. His presence alone tells you something is very wrong.

The sexual assault scene is unsettling, not because it’s graphic, but because of how calmly he carries on afterward, as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. The expectation that she’ll simply fall in line and become another Minhee is what makes the character terrifying. His performance isn’t loud or theatrical. It’s invasive, controlled, and quietly predatory.

Yes, there are predictable moments. Of course the car won’t start. Of course they try to steal the truck. Of course someone has to go back into the serial killer’s den to get the key. That’s genre mechanics, not bad writing. Complaining about those moments while missing the psychological setup is like criticizing a true-crime story because events don’t unfold conveniently.

What actually works is that you genuinely don’t know how it’s going to end. Is the husband going to die? Is the wife going to survive but become another Minhee? Are they both going to die? The film never settles into anything comfortable.

A lot of negative reactions seem to come from viewers expecting either a conventional horror movie or something morally reassuring. This film offers neither. The violence and sexual tension aren’t random. They’re tools used to strip the characters of control, which is the entire point. If that feels like “things just happening without reason,” the issue isn’t the film.

And somehow, by the end, the couple’s marriage is stronger than ever, which honestly made me laugh. Trauma-bonded, sure, but it fits the bleak logic of the story.

If you need everything explained out loud, or you’re uncomfortable with films that leave a bad taste on purpose, this probably won’t work for you. But if you actually engage with psychological thrillers instead of flattening them into lazy summaries, this is far better than its rating suggests.

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Wang YiBo, The Greatest Street Dancers In All The World, He Is: THE ONE AND ONLY!! The Best To Me!!!

WANG YIBO 王一博 From No Name/Hidden Blade Being The 1st Movie Being Released In The USA That I Saw Two Times... To Born To Fly Being The 2nd Movie Released In The USA That I Saw 3 Times... To One And Only Being The 3rd Movie Released In The USA, That I Watched 4 Times!!! ALL 3 MOVIES RELEASED ALL IN THE SAME YEAR IN 2023... ALL UNIQUE, CREATIVE, AND MADE TO PERFECTION ALL IN THERE OWN RESPECTIVE WAYS.
I Truly Have To Say I Felt So Honored, And So Lucky That I Was Able To See All 3 Of YiBo's Movie Out In The USA... There Was Only About 3 Movie Theaters That Showed It, But Still I Feel So Lucky To Have Watched All 3 On The Big Screen!!! P.S. One Theater Was In City Of Industry, California Which Is Where We Watched All The Showings Except For 1 One And Only Showing. The Other 2 Were In Alhambra, California. 😁😝

ONE AND ONLY: YiBo's Character Chen Shuo Wants To Become A Professional Street Dancer... He Loves It, And Is Amazed, And Wowed By It. But It Does Not Come Easy And With A Lot Of Struggles, Pains, And Comes At A Very Hard Price. Luckily Chen Shuo Has The Patience, And The Will To Forgive... He Does Verious Things Like Takes Care Of His Sick Uncle, Helps Run His Mom Restaurant, Goes To Buy Food, And Vegetables For His Mom's Restaurant, And Kind Of Works As A Circus Act Or As He Called It Cos Play On The Side Going Around In Circles.

Chen Shuo Is A Crazy Daring Young Man That Seems To Practice Dance Anywhere Even On An Empty Train, Where... Let Me Just Say This, While Being In A Train Traveling At Such High Speed, And Spinning Around Doing Certain Kind Of Spinning Trick IS VERY DANGEROUS!!! 🤦‍♀️ (Sometimes I Wonder If It's YiBo Coming Up With The Crazy Stuff He Does Or Is It The Producers. ***FEBRUARY 7TH, 2026 AT 4:20 P.M. GOING TO FINNISH THIS REVIEW FOR ONE, AND ONLY!!!*** Knowing YiBo, If The Producer Said Do This Or Do That He Would... YiBo Let's Have You In A Empty Moving Train, And Have You Spin Around On You Head Really Fast With A Dance Helmet. Wang YiBo's Answer, O.K. 👌The Tricks, And Stunts That Were Done Were Amazing. Especially By YiBo. The Dance Ruties Are So Awesome, And So Great. Everyone, And Every Stunt, Tricks They Do Is Beyond Grand, And So Amazing.

If You Ever Seen The Reality T.V. Show Street Dance Of China Seasons 3-6 In Which Wang YiBo Is Always Captain Of Team Boom, There Is A Hand Full Of The Dancer From The T.V. Show That Are In This Movie, Which Is Really Good, And Nice Seeing Them In It. It Shocked Me At 1st, Because I Had Just Started Watching Street Dance Of China, And Watch This Movie I Recognized Gorge, And Was Going Crazy, Because I Could Not Figure Out Where I Knew Him From, Then I Started Recognizing More, And More Dancers. It Made Me Really Happy Knowing That Some Of The Street Dance Of China Dancers Are In This Movie, And They Had Something Else To Do.

Threw Chen Shuo's Tough Times, And Hard Times, He Is Sought After By An Old Dance Coach Of His, And Tries Everything To Convince The Coach To Take Him As A Street Dancer. At 1st The Coach Would Not Accept Him. The Coach Wouldn't Even Train Him At 1st, Until One Day, The Coach See Chen Shuo Practicing, And Training Hard Everyday, He Then Gives In, And Teaches Him Some Street Dance Moves. The Coach Even Decides To Give Chen Shuo A Chance, Because His Main Street Dancer, Aragance, Bad Attitude, And Little Determination To Get Better To Win.

Chen Shuo Then Starts Training Harder, And Harder To Become A Better Street Dancer Everyday, Also Doing Stuff On The Side To Promote The Street Dance Group. Even Getting Picked, And A Little Beat Up On By One Of His Group Members Which Was Gorge From Street Dance Of China. ALL A Misunderstanding, That's All I Gotta Say... Over Reacting When Coach Asked Chen Shuo To Do The Promoting.
When Things Were Looking Good For Chen Shuo, And Chen Shuo Starts Settling In With His New Street Dance Group, Even Taking Pictures For A Banner, Then Coach Drops Him, Because Of His Original Street Dancer.
Chen Shuo Was So Devastated, And So Heart Broken.
In The End Coach Still Need Chen Shuo, Because His Main Street Dancer Went With Another Coach, But He Had Already Broke Chen Shuo's Heart, And He Didn't Trust The Coach. The Coach Asked Him To Believe In Him One More Time... (At This Point I Remember Thinking To Myself This Coach Better Not Drop Him Again, Because If He Does, It Will Destroy Chen Shuo.)

The Best Part Was The Ending... YiBo As Chen Shuo Did The Most Impossible Trick Ever, And It Was ! An Exclamation Mark, With Him Spinning Up Side Down In The Air. He Was The Only Street Dance To Ever Perform That Trick Or Stunt In The Movie. Even The Coaches Old Main Street Dancer Challenges Chen Shuo To Come Out. Chen Shuo Did, And He Wasn't Scared, And He Faught Back Very Well.

Anyways No Matter If YiBo Is In Street Dance Of China Or Acting As The Character In This Movie One And Only, Or Dance As Himself He Is, And Truly Is One Of The Greatest Dancers In The World Ever. If You Don't Believe Me Look Up Wang YiBo's Fast Dance On YouTube, This Dance Is The Craziest, And Fastest Dance I Have Ever Seen Anyone Has Danced, And YiBo Never Misses A Beat, Even Catching His Microphone, And Throwing It In The Air, And Still Catching It Without Mssing Up, Or Skipping A Beat. (February 25th, 2026 At 3:14 A.M. I Just Thought I'd Add This... I Can't Remember If It's Xiao Bao Or AC They Both Look Almost Alike Student, And Teacher In This Dance With YiBo, But There Style Of Dancing Is Called "Wacking" And It's Really Hard, And So Fast, Cause It Mostly Moving Your Arms. Zhou Shen Sings The Song Slowly At 1st, And Then The Song Get Really Crazy Fast!!! How Ever Long They Have 15, 20 Minutes YiBo To Learn The Moves From Xiao Bao Or AC So Easily, Because He Nailed It. Xiao Bao Or AC Is Not A Bad Dancer Themselves. 😝🤫🤪 I Mean He Kept Up With YiBo!!! J/K Xiao Bao Or AC Was Good Themselves Too... But YiBo Was The Best, And Greatest!!! 3:28 A.M.)
***WANG YIBO IS TRUELY THE "ONE AND ONLY"!!!***
Wang YiBo Is, And Always Will Be The Best Dancer Ever.

Wrote Half Of This Review On September 24th, 2024 From 3:58 A.M. To 4:48 A.M.
This Was The Last Sentence I Wrote: (Sometimes I Wonder If It's YiBo Coming Up With The Crazy Stuff He Does Or Is It The Producers.
Finnished Writing The Next Half Of This Review On February 7th, 2026 From 4:20 P.M. To 8:38 P.M.

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