Girl from Nowhere (2018)

Cerita dalam perspektif korban (Reverse)

Kenapa aku menamai "reverse" sebagai headline review kali ini? Ya, alasannya adalah karena Girl From No Where ini berkisah tentang pengalaman nyata para gadis-gadis teraniaya yang digambarkan secara terbalik. Maksudku, sekarang orang yang teraniaya ini menjadi pelaku utama, tujuannya adalah menggambarkan pembalasan dendam dalam dunia fiksi series ini. Nano, adalah tokoh utama dalam series ini ; menurutku "Kitty" (Nano) sang aktor utama sangat baik dalam memerankan peran wanita misterius penuh rasa psikopat, licik dan cerdik ini. Di sini, kita akan disuguhi bermacam-macam cerita unik dan menarik yang menurutku sangat menggambarkan dunia nyata yang "palsu" penuh "sandiwara" dan "kelicikan". Namun, berakhir dengan Nano yang membuktikan bahwa dunia palsu ini adalah hal yang tidak perlu ada. Bagaimana kisah Nano di setiap episodenya? Silahkan tonton sendiri.

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Great Horror Anthology Series

At first, I was confused as to what Nanno was. Initially, I saw Nanno as someone who exposed dark secrets, which is what happened in Episode 1 (which was a great episode to start a series). However, at some points, it felt like Nanno was just provoking people to do bad things. Netflix described her as someone who exposed people's dark secrets, which seemed a little inaccurate to me. However, on Reddit, someone described her as someone sent from hell to test people's worst nature and I think that's a better description of Nanno. She exploits humans' desires and sees how far we would take them in order to achieve those goals. I actually liked that we follow Nanno and she jumps from one school to another because it would have been odd for her to stay the same school and no one notices that she's the one exposing all the secrets. The acting at some parts was lackluster, but I think the actor for Nanno does a good job. I thought her laugh was a little "cartoony" but now, I see that to be an integral part of her character. The cinematography varies from each episode since there are different directors for each one, but I liked the style overall. I think this is a great watch and I like how it can be unpredictable because with Nanno, we never know what she's thinking so we're surprised when she does what she does.

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Ideas on how to watch GFN

This review is more about how to watch and appreciate the messaging of GFN. This series is very provocative and brutally blunt. Very power format. I might add educational for me to see issues expressly from the view point of school aged youth. The obvious - Kitty Chicha is brilliant casting. Her physical stature adds value to Nanno's presence. Her prep for the part is unique. Each episode introduces a wealth of excellent actress/actors. The high quality of production, directing, and sound track are evident in every episode. Episodes 6-7 are must watch tv. Morakat Liu's talent explodes into her character. Watch this interview with Kitty, gives definition to Nanno. I do not see a spoiler in this, its not about events in episodes, just general background of the series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiO2qHctu-o. I am an old westie (from the western hemisphere) living in Florida, USA. I had to ditch my expectations and sensitivities for drama tv. Don't look for the pleasant ending. The theme for story lines is dark, and the endings are going to leave you feeling uncomfortable. GFN episodes are not shy, will slap down your comfort zones, get straight into your face with messaging. It feels like the visual representation of social issues that many of us only get exposed to on the net. GNW is timely, with today's (Oct 2021) criticism of social media and effects it has on youth widely being discussed. The inspirations for episodes are horrific events in Thai news, presented in GFN by foreboding scenes, often disgusting and shocking. A couple of episodes made me want to shoot the tv. Reading some of the distractors of the series, episode one or two are a show stopper. It sure knocked me down. If you watched the interview and start the series with episode 3, you'll develop a better understanding of Nanno. Then come back and watch ep 1 & 2. Order does not matter, cept 6-7. With 90% of content centered in school setting, much of the expected culture norms are not present. Fantasy and fiction are a staple, executed to perfection. After getting over my emotional response to ep 1 & 2, I binged. Its engaging and addictive. Highly recommend watching to experience the waaaaaay out of the box approach to story telling.

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The first episode is like Hormones s2e3, but this "Girl from Nowhere" goes step further. She purposedly comes to new school to mess up with the local villain. Mess up with him good. She doesn't have to be concerned for the consequences for herself, as she always changes school. She can do anything. And she doesn't care if she hurts innocent people in the process... Even cause worse than the villain's doing. She just laughs hysterically.

The second episode takes things even more steps further... It was not cheerful to watch what were "regular kids" capable of (there were even five of them), the more so as it looked quite realistic (the apologizing, too). What was NOT realistic was what the "Girl from Nowhere" was capable to withstand. But were she not, she could hardly make her point, LOL. The girl playing Nanno looks the part but her laugh is too forced. Had she really have a strong laugh, she would really be able give the villains good scare in this one.

Since episode 3, Nanno starts to iniciate the bad doings. She nags and bugs the selected person with ideas of what they should do. Then she makes sure they get exposed.

In the episode 4 titled 'What can money buy?', I kinda pitied Nanno's target for the first time (boy who pretended to be rich in front of his friends) and wished that Nanno would lay off a little... But he really had stupid friends. In the end, everyone acted kinda unbelievable in compare to other stories. Then Nanno roared in something that was probably supposed to be laugh, but seriously, someone give that girl acting lesson. I was relieved the parents lived and I didn't condemn that they took the money (Nanno rather should have given them the whole million something amount), whom I didn't understand was the son. I would prefer to be friendless.

Watching episode 5 reminded me how I'm grateful I'm old enough I was able to grow up WITHOUT social media. Else, I didn't care about the story of this one...

Epi 6 & 7: Power is given to the weak. AND stupid.
(Despite that, these are the two strongest episodes.)

Epi 8: First time Nanno is friends with someone. But she can't stay with her friend, still 4 more stories to come.

9: Annoying episode with group of annoying people in hiding, who kept clamoring instead of just being quiet (in their hiding). All they needed to do was stay put. Yeah, but then we wouldn't be blessed with yet another "shocking twist" episode and yawping of Nanno (I wanted HER to die just to shut up, seriously).

10: A chilling episode, though NOT for the "shocking" conclusion and ending. In fact the first half an hour, I found it an interesting a theme (for the first time) about a person bottleing their stress. Having unhappy personal life is one thing, being unescapeably, constantly reminded of it (even while working) is another. There is a school full of annoying kids, of course (they didn't even need to add Nanno with her silly smirk in this one) contributing to it, too. It might be truth that today's "social" kids don't even understand the CONCEPT of privacy. The teacher in question is also repeatedly told she should relax. How CAN a person relax if in today's world it seems there doesn't exist a single person who is just minding their own bussiness? ... But instead, we do not occupy ourselves with these questions, because of course we need to watch the main character emerging as yet another psycho. Pitty...

Okay, last three episodes are also behind me... I'm not staying for season 2, but good luck with improving the laughter of Chicha Amatayakul:)

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Comecei esse drama na curiosidade, para falar a verdade. Não imaginei que seria tão realista e cheio de críticas até ver o primeiro episódio, e adorar completamente a Nanno. Em certos episódios ela pode ter sido um pouco "além da conta", mas não deixa de ser algo a se pensar. As coisas que acontecem nas escolas e as pessoas não ligam até atingi-las, o quão longe podem ir para proteger a própria pele, e também desmitificar a ideia de que existem pessoas fracas/boazinhas. Como ficou explícito, o poder na mão das pessoas as revela. É um drama que mostra a verdade nua e crua sobre a mente humana, e me fez questionar até a mim mesma.
Com o passar dos episódios, aprende-se a gostar da Nanno, mesmo que as atitudes dela nem sempre sejam as melhores.

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A couple episode were great , others I questioned the intent

If I were to recommend this drama to someone, I would only recommend they watch certain episodes similar to how black mirror operates - some are good and some of bad and do not need to be watched as this is in episodic format. The first episode is great - crime is committed and its realistic in both the crime and the punishment. 2nd one was similar to the first but the punishment was phycological instead. These episodes were relatively straight forward as Nanno didn't push anyone to do a crime. In many of the episodes Nanno seems to be pushing people to be bad people. I feel like this is fine as it represents temptation and its up to the person to realize they can't control everything in their life. However, sometimes the concepts were just too out there that they no longer became relatable. Additionally, there was an episode where Nanno helps a troubled boy meet his father - I would have liked to see more of this episode where they seem like a bad person but in actuality is just a teen with troubles. All in all, I would only recommend the episodes where a lesson is actually taught and not the ones where it felt chaotic. For instance, the beauty episode one could have been a good look into how society views women based on their looks but they blew the whole thing out of proportion by not letting it be relatable - which it should have been.

Also, I felt like a lot of the worst episodes involved women especially revolving around jealousy. For instance, tell me why in the last episode the guy that appears to be cheating ( or just the girl likes him and they weren't actually dating ) is not punished by the group of girls and guys but Nanno is? I just felt like there wasn't any lessons to some of the episodes. I am a fan of Satoshi Kon's work and I feel like it would have worked better if they were better able to emulate his work routed in surrealism but where as his shows what certain emotions/events can do to a person (like paranoia agent and fear and perfect blue and how someone views themselves after sa) this was hit or miss.

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Captivating...but too much girl-on-girl hate

So I didn't realize, before going into this, that there was a supernatural element to it. It definitely added a lot to the show's intrigue and made Nanno a very (satisfyingly) overpowered character, though I found I had to suspend disbelief several times. The anthology aspect of the drama also added a lot to that, knowing that she would win and everything would start over in the next episode.

The downside of an anthology, however, is that there are always stronger and weaker episodes — and in this case I think the show front-loaded its stronger ones. My favorites were The Ugly Truth, and Social Love, with maybe Lost & Found as an honorable mention. The weaker ones were the three at the end before the finale: Trap, Thank You Teacher, and Rank.

I'm also a little mixed on the themes. While I enjoyed the variety in the stories and they do cover several different topics, from class/wealth disparities, to social media, to beauty standards, there's one running theme that's very frustrating to see, and that's girl-on-girl hate. 90% of the episodes have girls attempt murder to set up SA situations with either Nanno or other girls over a boy's affections, and it's a little frustrating that so many plots resorted to this instead of finding new character motivations and exploring other aspects of dark human nature — of which there is much to explore.

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...

the production was good, I can't complain .
I also say that the performance was incredible, it would be a sin if I complained.

I love the actors, I loved the characters.

Of course, not everything is perfect, I can't lie, but what a drama that doesn't have a single flaw.

So in conclusion, I recommend...

I say it's worth watching, maybe it's bad for some, but for me it was good.

This is just my opinion, you better watch it and have your own opinion.

I don't know what to say, because I think everyone has their own opinion.

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Leave Your Brain at the Door

Girl from Nowhere is an anthology series that follows Nanno, a mysterious girl who literally appears from no where. Each episode generally shows Nanno at a new school with a brand new cast of characters, and each school Nanno gets into insane scenarios that rocks the school's foundation.

The ideas inside of Girl from Nowhere are a mixed bag. Some are groundbreaking and unique, and I wished they had been fleshed out further. Others are shallow and make no sense, or the potential is there but the writing doesn't quite do it justice.

Girl from Nowhere is popcorn nonsense at it's best. The lead actor who plays Nanno is fantastic, and no matter what insane things you see her doing on screen, you can't help but root for her or shake your head with a lovable, "Oh, Nanno." The other actors on the other hand can be hit or miss. Sometimes the side characters really hold their own and show off their acting chops, and other times its just a flop and you wondered who let them onto set.

Personally, I enjoyed the hell out of it, but that's because I didn't think about it too hard. When you really try to nitpick and criticize everything this show does, that will kill ALL enjoyment. This show does not require more than 2 brain cells, so all I can say is sit back, turn your brainpower down to low and just enjoy the ride.

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A well-constructed concept that fell short to direction and the anthology setting

The GOOD:
I was planning to watch Girl From Nowhere for ages- the premise seems wonderful. The physical reincarnation for karma steps into the world to avenge wrong-doings and show wrong-doings lead to nowhere but to you ultimately falling into the pit you have dug out for others. Brilliant.
Kitty Chica's acting is tremendous, I hope she continues to grow. She plays Nanno's character brilliantly, so well, in fact, that everyone else's work seems to fall short of her. She is a powerhouse and every move she makes on-screen had me absolutely riveted.

The BAD:
Sadly, not even Kitty Chica's acting could have me ignore the certain absurdities with the storyline. The format goes this way; in every new episode, Nanno is in a new setting, and new characters get their share of karma. Anthology series are hard to master, especially those with a new story or setting every new episode and as I knew, that is where Girl From Nowhere fell short. The first off-putting thing even from the first episode was how karma seems to fall onto all the people associated with the wrong-doing. It made me slightly ill seeing the professor, who rightfully deserved his fate, have his daughter die. What was the daughter's fault? Or the mother's fault? I do not like the concept of women having to pay for the crimes and misdemeanours of the men in their lives. A daughter does not deserve to pay for the crimes of her father; this carries on that sense of women being the ones having to inevitably suffer in this cycle of things. I hope karma is not as blind as shown here.
Also, at times, the evil has no build-up. It makes no sense.
There is no 'snap', there is nothing to show as to why a person would follow through with such heinous actions and that does not justify the true premise of the story. Human beings are not inherently 'evil', it is very easy to put them in a box like this. I wish we could see the build-up and art of story-telling behind the actions of these individuals but it was just abrupt, bloody and not entertaining. Bland execution, to put it that way.

CONCLUSION (?):
I am not keen on the nihilistic view that Girl From Nowhere presents (other than a few bright spots). I think it could have been much better done. All I can recommend is that you watch a few good episodes, or binge through it as I did. It's good for a one-time watch. Total rating: 3.5/10. And 10 stars for Kitty Chica's acting.

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Not What I Expected

I watched the first 3 episodes and the beginning of episode 4 before I dropped this series. On a positive note, the acting was great. Kitty Chicha Amatayakul did a great job with her character. Unfortunately, it fell short on what the series claimed it was about. The series had an interesting story concept but failed on the execution. The first 2 episodes were ok, but I began to see the flaws by episode 3. I realized by the 4th episode that I did not like the series and could not finish it. I usually can stick with a series if it is somewhat entertaining. However, not this one. This was my first Non-BL series that I dropped.

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