Dreams Rekindled: A Story of Loss and New Beginnings

I watched a beautiful movie on Netflix, a co-production between Taiwan and Japan, starring Greg Hsu and Kaya Kiyohara. I would give the movie a solid 9/10.

Let's start with the cinematography and camerawork. The film features stunning shots of Taiwan and Japan's scenery, with elegant camera angles that provide a breathtaking experience. It takes you through the bustling streets of Tainan and the snowy mountains of Japan. One of the most unforgettable scenes is when Jimmy meets a kindred spirit on a subway. They exit a long tunnel and find themselves in a snow-filled wonderland, leaving Jimmy in awe and imprinting the moment deeply in his mind. It’s the kind of experience that transcends simply taking a photo with a camera.

The characters are exceptional as well. We see Jimmy’s growth from a tardy but energetic youth with a bright future to a jaded game developer at a crossroads. Kiyohara's enigmatic charm shines as she dances around a karaoke bar, injecting life into the people around her.

The story is exceptionally well-paced and told, juxtaposing a vibrant and cute slice-of-life adventure in Taiwan with the tragic, melodramatic ending typical of J-dramas. When the reveal happens, you can’t help but feel a strong sense of loss and contemplation about what could have been. As the memories start unraveling from Kiyohara's perspective, I personally couldn’t help but bawl my eyes out.

In conclusion, I feel this movie is a masterpiece—a truly excellent love story that marries the best of both Taiwanese and Japanese cinema.

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Ultimately the plot is a pile of rubbish.

I really wanted to like this limited series on Netflix, I really do. It promised a korean thriller and started off looking really good, both production quality and the cinematography. But episode 4 onwards the plot is so damn nonsensical I knew I wouldn't be looking anything higher than a 2/10 for this particular series.

First of all, the present MC makes the most bloody nonsensical and stupid decisions ever, and continues making them for 80% of the series.

Second of all, the plot develops in a way that is so unrealistic I'm almost sure the writers are trying to tilt the viewers on purpose.

The only 2 reason to watch this pile of whatever it is? The cinematography is really quite good, the vacation home is absolutely gorgeous. The 2nd reason? Go Min Si is absolutely STUNNING in here, and if I were to put aside the ridiclous storyline that is happening in the background? She really can act as a psycho.

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Best wuxia drama = Game of thrones political intrigue + jin-yong level of world-building

I'll be honest here. I don't usually write reviews for any dramas, and I comb through cdramas, kdramas, hk dramas and Jdramas like sonic the hedgehog. This is from at least twenty years of drama binging.

This drama is GOLDEN. I was searching top 10 wuxia drama of 2023 and I came across this as number 4 or 5. I was skeptical at first reading the synopsis "oh a dark-brooding assassin drama, but hey, the list so far is pretty good".

Boy was I blown away. Episode 1 - 4 was "Okay... this is interesting." Then is just became better and better to the point where from episode 20 - 24 I was crying non-stop. You really bond with each and every character.

While it's abit of a slowburn at the beginning, I urge everyone to give it a chance and slowly watch every conspiracy and story unfold.

The world building is extremely consistent and rivals the world-building of classics like jinyong's novels, if not better.

Now for the ending, if you don't want to know how the drama ends or even the vibes to the ending ends, you can stop reading here.

The first 40 minutes of the ending is masterful, everything came to a very good conclusion, even the bittersweet endings from certain arcs are, while painful to watch, is satisfying in terms of a conclusion. But the last 5 minutes want you to scream and throw something at the TV screen.

Okay, I'm done. 10/10, easily top 5 cdrama in my 20 years + 100 cdramas of experience.

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A masterpiece in love philosophy.

As an avid fan of Chinese movies and a long-time fan of the Ex-File series (Hey, 体面 is one of me go-to songs when I'm at a karaoke). I really, thoroughly loved this movie.

The plot is a direct sequel to ex-files 3 in which our titular meng yun is now single, with baggage from his previous break-up with lin jia. Our ever humorous Yu Fei and Ding Dian are still up to their ever so entertaining couple shenanigans, including the thoroughly enjoyable couple fights - favourite of which are where a tray of shot glasses are lined up and whoever does something wrong in the relationship has to take a shot. Those scenes are amplified and even better in the sequel.

As a romance comedy, I can tell you the comedy and writing is extremely entertaining, enjoyable and funny. But more so the romance aspect, it tackles many aspects of love, marriage and relationships on an extremely deep level that you wouldn't expect from a typical romcom movie. Things like talking about how someone single is likely to find their soul mate because they won't settle for something less just not to be alone. Things like how when you realize eating, drinking, movies and shopping can be done alone and be used to it, you don't really need a companion to do so. Things like how the "freedom" someone single enjoys can actually be the same shackles that bind him into a prison of not being able to step out of his comfort zone.

This is a movie that can be outrageously hilarious, wildly fun, deeply entertaining at the same time pulling your heart strings and making you think deeply about life, relationships and what really does love mean.

A movie that has literally something for everyone, every demographic. A masterpiece for sure.

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Quite a disappointing conclusion to what could be the next generation of Prison on Fire movies

An immediate continuation from Breakout Brother's 2 plot point with the incarceration of the warden for his corruption in helping ron ng escape prison.

If you thought Ron Ng was a 1 dimensional villian in Breakout Brother 2, Kenny Wong is like a 0.5 dimensional villian. I get the feeling he grew quite sick of the franchise as his character scenes consist of expressionlessly smoking a cigarettes in different poses, at different parts of the prison.

The story makes no sense at all since Kenny Wong was able to execute one of the most stupid strategy ever (of killing Scar, played by Justin Cheung from OCTB fame) just to create a distraction to get out of prison.

There's a lot of inconsistency as Scar became the unreasonable ruthless villian in the first movie, to suddenly having zero power in the second movie and then becoming a background teddy bear character in season 3. Just when the movie throws you a redemption arc about a past lover, he dies to warden's plot of murdering him in the shower after drugging him in the cafeteria.

It also makes zero sense that Big Roller and his entire gang was held hopelessly as victims in the kitchen, and only by having Kin-Tin showhim with ZERO additional equipment and only throwing marbles at big roller that they were suddenly able to reverse the situation against the gun men.

All in all, movie 1 was quite a run for its money and had the potential to spin-off the next generation of prison on fire movies, but it was wasted by bringing in super one dimensional-antagonist in the subsequent sequels. But at least story 2's storyline made sense, story 3 felt very rushed.

Oh and Moses Chan as the new warden literally brought nothing to the table.

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Classic Hong Kong Prison Drama carried by veteran actors

Watched this movie after completing the breakout brothers trilogy. If you like classic HK Films, especially the prison ones (e.g. chow yun fatt's prison on fire) this would be a modern take on it.

The premise and story, while nothing mind-blowing, sets the tone for veteran actors ricky chan and ray liu to bring out their "da lou" big brother roles.

Stuck inbetween them is Justin Cheung, rising to fame from "OCTB" as a joker-esque villian who subsequently showed his range of acting in the breakout brothers film as a uncouth big boss antagonist in prison.

It's a nice just juxtapose for Justin Cheung as this time round he's the protagonist, and in a much meeker role with a cunning and strategist mindset versus his role in Breakout Brothers, which again shows his range of acting too.

All in all a very fun ride as you are constantly on a look out on the dynamics between the two gangs and the unpredictability and ruthlessness of ricky chan as the film's primary antagonist.

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