Reviews

Disjointed

The pacing and execution seem off in the first few episodes of this series. While energetic and likable, the FL is something of a scam artist. She looks like a 14-year-old and those around her call her “child.” It’s hard to take her seriously, at this point, because she gasps, shrieks, and overacts whenever anything unexpected happens. Other characters posture, simper, and exaggerate as well.

The CGI is jerky, disjointed, and hard to follow, and the nine-tailed fox is especially crude. He looks like someone threw red paint on him. I should note that he changes sizes and appearance throughout the drama, even becoming human at one point.

The ML is surly and unfriendly and keeps trying to kill the FL (he’s actually after the nine-tailed fox), while she keeps giving him a pass. For all these reasons, I don’t have a lot of hope for this series. But I’ve learned not to judge based on first impressions–so we’ll see.

Episodes 5 thru 8. There are still problems with the plot, the execution and the characterization in these episodes. Overweight characters are either evil or function as comic relief.

The background is often way too blurry, sometimes I can’t tell a tree from a bush. The “exams” don’t make a whole lot of sense. What’s being tested–other than martial arts?

One of the “exams” consists of a life-sized game of Go, but the rules aren’t explained. Everyone just suddenly finds him- or herself on a huge game board. The female lead is imbued with a “fragrance” that drives the ML crazy. He doesn’t seem to know whether he wants to kill her, marry her, or bite her neck.

This series certainly isn’t boring, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense either. Shanhua was hanging by a thread in Episode 1, on the edge of death. And now it’s days, if not weeks, later. Apparently he’s still hanging.

In Episode 8, the romance is front and center. Once again, the ML puts his life on the line to save the FL. Is this the sixth time? Or the seventh?

***********************
Episodes 9 through 16. The background is less blurry, and the story has improved somewhat. I wish I could say the same for the ML. This dude is still a pit of negativity with no hobbies, no interests, and no friends. Every once in awhile, his irises turn amber which is a sign to the viewers that he’s experiencing demonic (lascivious) impulses. Otherwise we’d have to depend on his acting to clue us in--which would be a real shame because he doesn’t do nuance well.

He’s pretty cute, though, so he gets away with it.

Speaking of getting away with it, our FL has a few issues of her own. When it’s time for the various sects to select their future disciples, on what basis do they decide her fate? Is it her grade point average? Her level of cultivation? The guys who do the choosing apparently take two things into consideration. First, they all think she’s pretty cute. But the number one reason is–she can cook! Of course she can--especially radishes.

Later

Ninety percent of this series seems to be devoted to two issues: 1) the fact that so many characters, both major and minor, are in love with someone who doesn’t love them back–and we all know what a tragedy that can be, and 2) the ongoing conflict between humans and demons, the latter often appearing as hairy monsters with bad wigs in makeshift Halloween costumes. The handsome and impressive actor, Chen Zheyuan, appears in Episodes 21 and 22–playing the role of an evil baddy. Little things like that keep me going.

Still later

I’m dropping this series. It’s just too tedious and repetitious–even though both the ML and FL have changed for the better in significant ways. The ML now seems to be something of a team player. Previously, the ML and the SML got along like two wasps in a jam jar, but now the ML is actually working alongside the SML to defeat the enemy.

The so-called “masters” have shown poor judgment and lack of discernment at every turn. Too much squabbling and carrying on about nonsense from everyone.

Movie makers, if you don’t mind, I’d like to make a suggestion. Next time you decide to hire two directors to work together on a romance, make sure that one of them is a female. I understand that 80 percent of your viewers are women, but at times the female perspective was poorly represented in this drama.

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There is a difference between a story that is unpredictable and a story that is inevitable. Double Helix belongs to the second category. Long before the final episode, you can sense that every decision the characters make will eventually demand a price. The suspense doesn't come from wondering if something will go wrong, but how these characters will arrive at the consequences they have been unknowingly building toward since the very beginning.

What makes the narrative so compelling is its remarkable commitment to emotional continuity. The drama never treats conflict as something that begins and ends within a single episode. Every choice leaves an imprint. Every betrayal changes the emotional landscape. Every reconciliation carries the weight of everything that came before it. By refusing to erase the past, Double Helix creates relationships that feel lived-in rather than manufactured.

I also appreciated how carefully the story constructs its moral ambiguity. It never frames Lu Feng or Cheng Yichen as symbols of good or evil. Instead, they become studies in how fear, love, guilt, and pride can exist simultaneously within the same person. The drama isn't interested in deciding who deserves sympathy. It is interested in exploring how two people, despite genuinely loving each other, repeatedly fail because they have never learned how to confront their own emotional wounds.

Perhaps my favourite aspect of the writing is that every conflict feels character-driven. Nothing significant happens simply because the plot requires another twist. Every turning point grows naturally from personalities, histories, and choices that have been established long before. Even when the characters frustrate me, I never questioned why they acted the way they did. I questioned whether they were ever emotionally capable of making a different choice in the first place.

My only criticism is that the series occasionally becomes too invested in illustrating emotional pain. There are moments where the narrative revisits familiar emotional territory instead of allowing the characters to process what has already happened. The themes remain powerful, but the pacing loses some momentum because introspection occasionally gives way to another cycle of conflict.

I also think the final movement of the story could have lingered longer on emotional reconstruction. The drama spends so much time examining how relationships fracture under the weight of trauma and expectation that I wanted an equally patient exploration of what rebuilding trust actually demands. The ending works, but it feels slightly more concise than the emotional journey that precedes it.

Even with those reservations, Double Helix never lost its hold on me because it consistently respected its audience. It trusted us to recognize contradictions, to empathize without excusing, and to accept that love alone cannot solve problems created by years of fear and emotional isolation. That kind of confidence is rare.

For me, Double Helix isn't memorable because it tells a heartbreaking love story. It's memorable because it understands that every relationship is shaped not only by love, but also by memory, family, pride, regret, and the versions of ourselves we struggle to leave behind. That emotional and psychological richness is what makes this such an absorbing watch. With slightly tighter pacing and a more expansive emotional resolution, it would have been a masterpiece.

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Through the stomach to the heart - dinner table romance.

This drama truly embraces slow burn natural romance, and I’m not mad about it. Truly to be told - I truly enjoy how I cannot really point to a specific moment the leads fell in love with each other, I just remember small moments that built into a grand feeling.

It’s kind of an uneventful show, but I would not say it’s a flaw. Personally I enjoyed the mundane moments far more than when they actually tried to push forward the plot and the story. Highlight of the show? Dinner scenes. Li Yi Fei and Qian Fei hanging out in the kitchen area was what I enjoyed the most - building connections while performing daily tasks and slowly adjusting to each other. The whole dynamic, vibe, bickering, but also appreciation was all I needed, and honestly all I cared about. I love how they grew as individuals while slowly developing the feelings.

They just felt like real people. The flaws were not these awful big issues, just small things that depending on the situation could get really frustrating. Their positive traits and skills were also these unreadable, borderline supernatural skills. They were really good at their job - nothing more nothing less. Throughout the show they just kept learning from each other and improving as people and this is just the type of romance I love.

At the beginning of the drama I was convinced Li Yi Fei did not really know how to love the other person. He knew how to take care of someone, be nice, attentive even, but not necessarily love. On the other hand Qian Fei seemed to know how to love others, but not herself. It’s all nice and good to prioritize people around you, but at some point you need to focus on yourself. And that’s how their romance went - one learned how to love others, while the other learned how to love herself.

As any romance drama, this one also had to have additional supporting couples. I had some hopes for Jing Jing and Lu Ze. I always appreciate when the drama shows different couples in different stages of relationship - we get to see diverse types of conflicts depending on where the couple are and what their future plans are. Sadly, I feel like they unnecessarily inserted Qian Fei into their problems. And after that they were completely sidelined. The drama focused on Dang Yu and Jun Cheng and my focus completely drifted away. I am sorry, but I am just not into a love story that starts with stalking and acting dumb and cute will not erase the fact it was in fact stalking. They as a couple were frustrating ,the family drama around them was even more annoying.

The biggest positive surprise? Liao Shi Yu. Not even lying, I think she might be my favorite character. I love how professional, but also humane she was. While trying to put her feelings aside to run the business, she still had her slipups, but at the end of the day she knew what she did wrong. She valued other people’s skills over her own feelings towards them.

When talking about the characters I have to mention AI ex. I am so sorry, but the AI face swap was just too distracting. This man never looked in the eyes of the person he talked to - not once. The character itself was awful, but the face swap thing was so creepy that’s all I could focus on while watching his scenes.

For the minor flaws - I wished the drama actually focused more on friendships. I feel like every couple lived their own life and their plots did not overlap that much emotionally. Everyone was doing their own things to some extent. Sure, the girls met to chat about their relationship issues, but there was not much true overlap of what was going on in their lives.

Production wise leave any and all expectations behind. It’s obviously not a high budget production. Don’t know if I just got used to it, or it truly did improve in the second half, but the editing and mediocre aesthetics are not that distracting. The production just seems like bare minimum. Some soundtrack did not fit the occasion at all, some slo-mo moments made no sense, some transitions between scenes felt unnatural, but overall none of that was criminally bad.

The performances were great. Again, hard to judge AI ex - his whole existence was just frustration and confusion for the viewers. Were any of the performances groundbreaking? Career change? Breathtaking? Not really. But the chemistry was great and that’s kind of all one needs from a business slice of life rom-com.

Overall, mundane watch. Not necessarily mediocre, but it’s just.. lukewarm? And that’s fine. An addicting dry cookie? Needed palate cleanser? This is this type of a show.

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There is a quote that says, "Every villain is the hero of their own story." What fascinated me about Double Helix is that it takes this idea one step further. It doesn't simply give every character a justification. It gives every character a perspective. By doing so, it transforms what could have been a straightforward romance into a story where every conflict feels emotionally authentic because everyone believes they're acting out of love, duty, or survival.

The brilliance of the narrative lies in how it constantly shifts your perspective. Early on, it's easy to judge certain decisions or assign blame. But as more of each character's emotional history is revealed, those judgments become increasingly difficult to maintain. The story never changes what happened. Instead, it changes how you understand why it happened. That's a subtle but incredibly effective form of storytelling.

I was particularly impressed by the drama's confidence in letting consequences accumulate. Nothing is forgotten. A single decision echoes through multiple episodes, altering relationships, changing motivations, and creating entirely new conflicts. Rather than relying on external twists to generate tension, Double Helix allows the consequences of earlier choices to become the story itself. That gives the narrative a sense of cohesion that many melodramas struggle to achieve.

Another strength is how naturally the emotional progression unfolds. Even when the characters make choices that I desperately wanted them to avoid, those choices never felt like plot devices. They felt like the inevitable result of years of emotional conditioning, unresolved resentment, fear, and love expressed through unhealthy patterns. The writing respects psychological continuity, and that made every emotional setback believable.

That said, I don't think the series is flawless. There are moments where the narrative dwells on emotional suffering longer than necessary. Once the audience understands the cycle the characters are trapped in, revisiting the same emotional dynamics begins to yield diminishing returns. The drama is at its most powerful when it uncovers new emotional truths, not when it repeats familiar ones.

I also found myself wanting more from the supporting cast. Many of them embody the very societal pressures and family expectations that shape the protagonists, yet several are left just short of becoming fully realized individuals. A little more exploration of their motivations would have strengthened the story's broader examination of generational expectations and emotional inheritance.

Despite these shortcomings, I found Double Helix consistently rewarding because it trusted the audience to engage with complexity rather than certainty. It never asked me to defend its characters. It asked me to understand them. More importantly, it reminded me that understanding someone doesn't mean overlooking the damage they've caused. Those two ideas coexist throughout the series, and that's what gives it such emotional depth.

For me, Double Helix isn't memorable because it's tragic. It's memorable because it understands that the most compelling stories aren't built on dramatic events alone. They're built on people whose choices feel so psychologically honest that, even when everything falls apart, you can't imagine the story unfolding any other way. That's the hallmark of great writing, and despite a few pacing issues, it's why this remains an easy 9/10.

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Super Romantic!!!

First time watching a JimmySea BL, and icl these two have realllly good chemistry; and I loved that this couple had so much banter about them all the time! I have really become a fan of Jimmy, beyond just his looks, but also how emotive he can be -- especially in portraying a fun lover.

As for the plot, honestly speaking, it was pretty predictable -- there was no twist at all, but this BL makes it very clear that romance is the first priority, so even though the love scenes and conversations seemed draggy, at times borderline cringeworthy, it was still a delectable watch.

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Ketika diuji oleh 2 pilihan; Sekte sesat "Utopia" atau dunia luar yang "Jahat"

Jujur, gw nonton ini cuman buat Ki Hyun Woo (gweh abis nonton Jun & Jun). Awalnya skeptis bakalan bagus atau ngga yaa, eh ternyata ceritanya menarik coy!

Gimana kalo pacar kalian yg kelen sayangi tu, turns out adalah member sekte sesat??! bukan cuma member, tapi sekaligus Cucu pendiri sekte! *kaget*. Apakah kalian bakal tetep setia dengan dia dalam artian, cinta buta.. atau.. milih jadi waras dan dibekali dengan common sense mencoba cara untuk kabur?. Itulah POV kalo kelen jadi Heejin. Pacarnya yang perfect itu, tubuh gagah berotot vibes sugar daddyhh aw aw yg kuat diranjang, beuhh sempurna kan? eh eh ternyata orang licik yang njebak orang luar masuk ke sekte dia, Heejin lah orang yang dijebak itu. Berapa kali coba dia alesan "tunggu sampe kita keluar dulu bebb nanti kujelasin", 기다려-gidaryeo taekk lah mau sampe kapan digantung oleh jawaban "기다려"(tunggu ya bebb)? tai asu lah. Udah bener insting Heejin buat kabur, dibantu detektif hot nan perebut hati bernama isak tu (jujur gw kira endingnya Heejin pacaran ma isak, ahh ngasi harapan palsu ni directornya).

ENDINGNYA NGE-GANTUNGGG fakkklah peliii pelii. harusnya sambung S2 ga sih? tapi gaada info apa apa tuh di MDL. aiyah memang harusnya jgn berharap ma vertical series lho *nada ah tong upin ipin*. Kan katanya Yohan dah ditangkep ya, kira-kira sapa lah tu yang ngetok pintunya Heejin ya? gw kira kan si isak, gw kira dia ekting aja gitu pura pura jd member sekte gitu tapi pas Heejin buka pintu, kenapa dia se-shock itu? ada apakah gerangan? apakah kejadian dia diculik diawal series bakal terulang?. Duhh kenapa harus digantung siiihh syebel.

Oiya sekte-sekte yang ngasih janji-janji manis bak hidup didunia "Utopia" tuh ternyata banyak di korea sana, gw yakin ni series juga hmm.. "sindiran"? apakah series ini secara tidak langsung merupakan sindiran akan banyaknya sekte sesat dikoriyah? soalnya aku inget tuh ada Sekte yang dibentuk tahun 1950-an yang menjanjikan pengikutnya hidup tanpa kelaparan eh tapi sumbang duit dulu (ya iyalah siapa yg ngga gila duit ya kan? sekte-sekte kan pasti intinya butuh funding yang besar, demi kesejahteraan... pendirinya.. hmm ironis). Dan parahnya lagi para member sekte di-brainwash kalo dunia luar itu jahat dan liar.. padahal.. hm.. i have no right to judge ya tapi kalo sekte sekte sesat kan ujung-ujungnya cuma buat memakmurkan pendiri nya doang, yaa apa bedanya sama dunia luar yang dicam "jahat"?. Terkadang sesuatu yang jahat itu ada pada hal yang terdekat dari dirimu. Ini yang dirasakan sama karakter Kang Mina di series ini. Dia (kayaknya) dari kecil udah tumbuh di padepokan sekte itu, dia ampe bilang ke Heejin kalo dunia luar itu dunia fana yang jahat. Begitu dia dibawa kabur sama detektif isak, beuhh langsung ga tahan dia sama nikmat duniawi (dia langsung belanja banyak barang ampe tangan kiri-kanan nya full tas belanja wkwkkwkwkw).

Ya intinya ini series ada ngasih pelajaran moral juga sih, Yohan tu kayaknya kan hm.. lonely yah.. dia begitu Heejin kabur darinya, dia langsung ngerasa jadi orang paling "lonely", paling terpojok, paling tak punya siapa-siapa. Eh bambang! siapa yang suruh lu ngebunuh ayah ama ibu mu sendiri? buat apa bunuh ayahmu kalo ujung2 nya you just ended up being the same thing as him u fool fuckkk xD. Karakter ter red flag tapi tiap gw ngeliat dia tuh gw kayak lonte jir gw berasa awhhh daddyyhhh tusuk aku dongg (maafkan keliaran gweh ges).

uda ah sekian, intinya ini Clifhanger makanya rate dari gw jelekk.

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What I admire most about Double Helix is that it never feels the need to explain away its characters or ask the audience to forgive them. Instead, it presents their choices with brutal honesty and leaves us to wrestle with the consequences ourselves. In an era where many dramas are eager to tell us who deserves our sympathy, Double Helix trusts us enough to arrive at our own conclusions.

The story is compelling because it understands that the most devastating conflicts rarely begin with hatred. They begin with love expressed in unhealthy ways, with fears that go unspoken, and with people who genuinely believe they are protecting the ones they care about. That is why the emotional tension feels so authentic. No one wakes up intending to destroy the people they love, yet through pride, fear, silence, and desperation, that's exactly what happens.

I found the narrative remarkably disciplined in the way it builds its emotional stakes. It never relies on convenient coincidences or exaggerated villains to keep the story moving. Instead, every major turning point grows naturally from the personalities and emotional limitations of its characters. Looking back, I realized that almost every heartbreaking moment had been quietly foreshadowed through earlier conversations, choices, or unresolved wounds. The tragedy doesn't feel written. It feels inevitable.

Another aspect I appreciated was the drama's refusal to isolate trauma from accountability. It explains why people become controlling, emotionally withdrawn, or self-destructive, but it never suggests those behaviours are acceptable simply because they come from pain. That balance is incredibly difficult to achieve, and Double Helix handles it with far more maturity than many dramas that attempt similar themes.

My main criticism is that the series occasionally overestimates how much emotional repetition is necessary. Once the audience understands the psychological patterns driving the characters, revisiting similar conflicts can begin to feel more exhausting than illuminating. The emotional foundation is already strong enough that the story doesn't always need to reinforce it through another cycle of suffering.

I also think the resolution could have benefited from one or two additional episodes devoted purely to emotional recovery. The drama is meticulous in depicting how trust deteriorates, how resentment accumulates, and how trauma changes the way people love. Naturally, I expected the same level of patience in exploring how those wounds begin to heal. While the ending worked for me, it left me wanting a deeper examination of rebuilding rather than simply reaching reconciliation.

Even with those flaws, I found myself completely absorbed from beginning to end. Not because I needed to know what happened next, but because I needed to understand these people. Every episode challenged my assumptions, complicated my judgments, and reminded me that human behaviour is rarely as straightforward as we'd like it to be.

That's why Double Helix resonated with me. It's a story that refuses easy villains, easy forgiveness, or easy resolutions. Instead, it offers something much more valuable: a thoughtful exploration of how love, trauma, and personal responsibility become intertwined in ways that are often painful, contradictory, and profoundly human. It falls just short of perfection due to its pacing, but its emotional intelligence and narrative ambition make it one of the most memorable BLs I've watched

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What stayed with me after finishing Double Helix wasn't a particular scene or plot twist. It was the overwhelming feeling that every tragedy in this story could have been prevented, yet somehow never could have been. That's the paradox at the heart of the drama, and it's what makes it so compelling.

The writing understands that people don't make life-changing decisions in isolation. Every choice Lu Feng and Cheng Yichen make is informed by years of emotional conditioning, family pressure, fear of abandonment, guilt, and unresolved trauma. By the time the story reaches its most devastating moments, nothing feels random or forced. You're not shocked because the plot surprises you. You're heartbroken because you realize there was almost no other way these characters could have arrived there.

One of the drama's greatest strengths is its patience. It doesn't rush to explain its characters or ask the audience for immediate sympathy. Instead, it slowly builds an emotional framework where even the most frustrating decisions become understandable. I found myself repeatedly changing my perspective, not because the story was rewriting its characters, but because it kept revealing pieces of them that had always been there. That's a sign of confident storytelling.

I also appreciated how the narrative refuses to separate love from responsibility. Love is never portrayed as an excuse for harmful behaviour, nor is it presented as something powerful enough to erase years of emotional damage. Again and again, the series reminds us that intentions and consequences are two very different things. Someone can love deeply and still cause irreversible pain. That moral honesty gives the story far more weight than a traditional romance.

If I have a criticism, it's that the drama occasionally lingers too long in its own heartbreak. There are moments where another emotional confrontation adds less than a quiet conversation or a moment of self-reflection would have. The characters are already complex enough that they don't always need another crisis to prove it. Sometimes the strongest scenes are the ones where nothing dramatic happens at all.

I also think the final episodes deserved more room to breathe. The story spends so much time showing how trust is broken, identities are reshaped, and relationships collapse under the weight of accumulated pain. I wanted the process of healing to feel just as gradual. The ending satisfied me emotionally, but I couldn't help wishing the recovery had been explored with the same level of detail as the suffering.

Even so, these are relatively small criticisms compared to what the drama accomplishes. Double Helix isn't memorable because it's tragic. It's memorable because every emotional turning point feels earned. Every mistake has consequences. Every consequence changes the people involved. And by the end, you don't simply understand what happened. You understand why it happened, why it hurt so much, and why none of the characters could remain the same afterward.

That, to me, is what great storytelling looks like. It doesn't manipulate your emotions. It earns them. Despite a few pacing issues, Double Helix is one of the most emotionally coherent and psychologically engaging BLs I've watched

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Some stories ask you to empathize with their protagonists. Double Helix asks you to empathize with people who continually disappoint you. That, to me, is its greatest achievement.

This is a story that refuses to offer emotional shortcuts. Every time I thought I had a character figured out, the narrative revealed another layer that forced me to reconsider my judgment. Not because it was trying to justify harmful behaviour, but because it understood that human beings are rarely driven by a single emotion. Love, fear, guilt, resentment, obligation, and loneliness often exist simultaneously, and Double Helix captures that contradiction with remarkable confidence.

What makes the story so compelling is its refusal to separate the past from the present. Every conversation carries the weight of previous choices. Every silence says as much as the dialogue itself. Rather than treating trauma as something characters eventually "get over," the drama portrays it as something that quietly influences every decision they make. As a result, the conflicts never feel random. They feel inevitable, even when they're painful to watch.

I particularly appreciated that the series never relied on simplistic emotional manipulation. Instead of creating villains to move the plot forward, it allows the protagonists' unresolved fears and emotional limitations to become the conflict. The greatest obstacle isn't whether Lu Feng and Cheng Yichen love each other. It's whether they know how to love without repeating the patterns that have defined their lives for so long. That distinction elevates the story far beyond a conventional romance.

Where the drama loses a little momentum is in its middle stretch. By that point, the emotional foundations of the characters are already well established, yet the narrative occasionally revisits similar confrontations instead of allowing those emotions to evolve. The repetition doesn't weaken the themes, but it does make certain episodes feel slower than they needed to be.

I also felt the resolution could have been given more breathing room. The story is meticulous when depicting emotional damage, yet comparatively restrained when depicting emotional repair. After investing so much time in showing how trust is broken, I wanted to spend longer watching that trust being rebuilt. The ending is satisfying, but I couldn't help feeling that the healing deserved the same patience as the heartbreak.

Even with those criticisms, Double Helix never stopped being engaging because it was never driven by plot alone. It was driven by character. Every decision, every setback, and every reconciliation emerged naturally from who these people were, rather than from what the story needed them to do. That kind of psychological consistency is rare, and it's what kept me invested from the first episode to the last.

For me, Double Helix succeeds because it recognizes that the most compelling stories aren't about perfect people making the right choices. They're about deeply imperfect people trying, failing, hurting each other, and slowly learning to confront the parts of themselves they've spent years avoiding. It isn't a flawless drama, but its emotional intelligence, layered storytelling, and refusal to offer easy answers make it one of the most memorable BLs I've watched.

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Another fireworks with Wang Chu Ran, worse than previous ones.

The first kiss is drunk. Her trauma from her ex and her refusal to expose her feelings again is implied but never developed. His fear of commitment and his path past it is also implied but never developed.
The second lead, who lives with his parents, gets a better character arc than either main lead.
The subplot of a child being almost magically cured of autism frustrated me most. I generally don’t mind propaganda when the story earns it, but this one didn’t.
Also FL had such a stressful work my blood pressure was up, I watch dramas to rest from my office life, and this drama was not relaxing at all, it’s all about stress of office life

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Combining genuinely chilling gothic horror with pulpy monster-of-the-week entertainment, Operation: Mystery genuinely might be one of the coolest Non-Ultra shows Tsuburaya ever did, long before The X-Files made paranormal investigation a television staple. What other show can claim to feature flesh-eating moths, vampires, murderous dolls and even phantom samurai and still find cause to search for rational explanations, even if those explanations reveal horrors more disturbing than the supernatural itself? It doesn't settle into a formula and keeps you on your toes throughout, punching well above its limitations with an artistic ambition that remains impressive even today, capturing the mood of late-1960s Japan beautifully. The combination of urban locations, laboratory settings and traditional folklore creates a fascinating contrast between modern science and ancient superstition, with several episodes having an almost surreal quality that continues to influence Japanese horror decades later. Unlike many tokusatsu productions of its era, it isn't aimed at children; its stories often explore fear, obsession, greed and humanity's fascination with the unknown. The unexpectedly sophisticated nature and mature tone are more than welcome, as many of its stories are still horrifically creepy, excelling at psychological horror rather than cheap jump scares, building tension through mystery and imagination with the cast's solid, understated performances and great chemistry helping to ground stories that often venture into the bizarre. Although it remains overshadowed by Tsuburaya's more famous Silver Giants, Operation: Mystery deserves every ounce of time you could give it, proving that some of the studio's most imaginative work never needed towering heroes or giant monsters to leave a lasting impression.

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Now we're playing with power, Nintendo Power!

Finding out that The Avenging Fist was originally supposed to be an adaptation of Tekken filled me with an indescribable joy. Naturally, it should have been a winner; I mean, it's Wong Jing doing an unofficial video game adaptation. Unfortunately, Future Cops, this is not. A convoluted homage to sci-fi classics, or at least one that tries to look like it, utilising extensive CGI and a production design motif that can only really be known as a neon metropolis, there's certainly a video game look to this glossy spectacle. The over-the-top design is quite welcome; the all-powerful gauntlet is a literal Power Glove after all, as it puts us in the right mood for the action fluff to follow and while the action is Corey Yuen's department, his trademark fluid choreography is muted beneath camera tricks and VFX plug-ins. What's left is serviceable enough fighting, but it's certainly not the main attraction here. This really is pure spectacle if nothing else, a well-produced mishmash of comic book platitudes and overused plot devices. Looks are seemingly more important than anything else to director Andrew Lau. Fantastic visuals are one thing, but being flooded with them at the expense of everything else leaves little room for excitement or empathy, especially when you proudly boast about the appearances of Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, only to then criminally underuse them. Biao at least gets to shine as a villain, albeit a frustratingly mute one at that, while Sammo is dripped out in some truly incredible costumes, the very shiny metal hat is a feast for the eyes, I want one. It's a shame that most of the new guard can't compare; they might look pretty, Gigi Leung and Kristy Yang especially, but largely lack the presence and Peking Opera chops of their older counterparts. Far more fascinating in its failures than it ever is in its successes, The Avenging Fist is certifiably insane, building itself on some classic Hong Kong action tropes but never seems to find a footing on any of its one thousand elements, crashing and burning in such a spectacular fashion that it's almost praiseworthy in its disastrous ways.

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I knew I would like this

I am a bit of a fan of psychological horror and liminal spaces…so i felt like this would be something I’d enjoy. it got to the point rather quickly, which I really liked a lot…I heard that it was based on a game and wondered how they would do it being a 90 minute film but that didn’t seem to be an issue. By the time he noticed he was in a loop, i knew I’d start loving it…once he ran into the walking man and he was just smiling, i was hooked. some people were saying it’s an anti abortion film but I didn’t get that at all. that seems straw grasping to me and looking for something that doesn’t really exist.🤷‍♀️

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