Reviews

"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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The Bastard that I loved

The Bastard that I loved, u otras cosas que no me esperaba para nada. O sea , está subtrama gay no me la esperaba para nada y encima con Song Kang y Kyo Hwan, necesito saber más.

La película es bastante meh y hay muchas cosas en el guión que no tienen sentido. ¿Cómo es que pisas una mina y no te mueres ? Aparte de la infinidad de veces que puede matarlo y no lo hace . No tiene sentido alguno. Aparte esa frontera que no está para nada protegida, ya te digo yo que en la realidad no pasa eso ni de coña. Y como entran los soldados surcoreanos a recoger al desertor como pedro por su casa y encima arguyendo derecho internacional como si a Norcorea le importase.

Me fastidia porque tiene un pedazo de elenco de actores como Lee Je Hoo, Kyo Hwan , Esom , Hyun Woo entre otros y siento que la historia flaquea mucho. Y eso que no he comparado con un Kdrama que explotó y supo sacar juego a toda la temática, D.P.

Mira que no me gusta encasillar a los actores prefiero que me sorprendan y verles actuar en distintos roles para ver si de verdad saben actuar, pero no te lo voy a negar a veces una chica necesito ver a Lee Je Hoo pegar tortas a diestro y siniestro para sentir que el mundo está bien.

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10/10

I don’t know why this does not have a 10/10 rating … the rating do no justice to the movie … totally a must watch. Not only for bl fans but for movie watchers in general .. if birdy and ji han do not make your heart hurt ..you’re heartless 🩷


Everything I say from here is bullshit coz I needed 300 words to publish review
The pacing of the relationship was a little different than your typical BL, and the acting was on point. There are a few different reasons why I wouldn't consider this a BL, the most prominent being the absence of clear seme/uke (masculine/feminine) roles. The two lead characters are well-crafted, and the emotional complexity of their relationship far transcends most BL story lines. I would even consider going back to the theater just for one particular scene; which, although technically a sex scene, accomplishes everything without showing anything. I've been thinking about the passion and emotion of that scene all day.
I feel like this film includes all the great elements of a BL series, but removes the saccharine and adds a plaintive historical setting. The music includes a classic Taiwanese pop song as well as a new song, which includes the film's title. The inclusion of both neatly represents the time jump of the story. This film is a must-watch, and I hope it gets the international attention that it deserves. Both BL and cinema fans alike will enjoy it.

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A MASTERPIECE

A masterpiece indeed, To be honest I'm kinda wanted more interaction about their ending, I felt being left behind by those scene, though their smile is an example of assurance that they ended up being together until to the continuation of their love story in "UNINTENTIONAL LOVE STORY", and also now I understand why they keep bickering each other, and the tatto Ho tae's has leave a remarkable back story, The Screenwriter has no idea that he created that we can call a “Masterpice", a bonus spoiler about the kissing scene they ate it, I felt that kiss was genuine, butterfly in my stomach in short.

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A Different Perspective

This is exactly that, a different perspective but with the same ingredients. They meet in college. Weather the rumors as they move in together. Classed as a romance, this is definitely a drama with a very serious take on the prejudices of being different. In contrast with the later released 'in your feelings' series, this is the thinking version. With equal screen time, both sides of the relationship is revealed between a gay man and a fearless woman who refuses to cower to her male counterparts.

In both their relationships, at one time or another, they both deal with the consequences of not using a condom. In the pursuit of love and happiness, they both act unwisely. Their fierce bond tested from the fallout, they separate. One beaten by her jealous abusive lover, the other waking up too late to recognize what he had. They can only call each other. No one knows them as intimately as they know the other. Life has it's way, maturity comes and permanent choices are made.

This deserves the same level of awareness as the later released version. The acting is superb. On a smaller budget, the story is engaging, entertaining and very intense. His admission of losing an important love and the ensuing breakdown is felt. Had this been released much earlier, my belief is that this adaptation would have garnered more praise for the different perspective.

Good watch.

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