Reviews

A Great introduction to a grand story

Kingdom is based on of the many manga I've bought and which... I haven't gotten around to read due to lack of time. Seriously there's 70 volumes already published in my country, I have all of them and I haven't read a single one.

By the same token, from what I remember the anime already has 5 seasons... and I haven't watched a single one yet.

Only bought the series because it is apparently popular so I didn't know anything of its story.
Since I've been burned by Japanese live actions I don't know how many times before, I was really wary about this one, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I thought it delivered an entertaining story with lots of action and a hero easy to root for. The fighting scenes were a bit too long for my taste. We get a useless "comic relief" in the character of Ten that I just couldn't care about and it was honestly a bit weird to have subtitles in which the names were spelled in Pinyin when characters are pronouncing them the Japanese way. Sometimes the Japanese and Chinese pronunciations were pretty close, and other time not at all, but I got used to it at some point.

I've seen several projects by Yamazaki Kento, all live actions and didn't think much of them because honestly... well they sucked. But checking my list, I realized all the projects he acted in which I hated were from the beginning of his carreer. I haven't seen a single project of his in the last 5 years that I disliked. He seems to be choosing his projects more carefully now and I'm starting to feel, he's slowly but surely becoming my favorite Japanese actor.

Anyway it had some minor flaws but I was thoroughly entertained and it made me want to finally take the time to read these freaking 70 volumes accumulating dust in my library. Not gonna do it because I don't have the time but you never know....

A solid 9

Leggi di Più

When the only interesting part of someone's life is their execution.

This docudrama is surprisingly hilarious. It's also cleverly meta – in more ways than one.

Bayaning 3rd World follows a couple of filmmakers keen to cast a critical eye on José Rizal as The Phillipines' national hero. But at the same time, they struggle to figure out how to transform their take on Rizal's life into an engaging movie. So Bayaning 3rd World is a story about telling the story.

The humour comes from the filmmakers (who are not the actual filmmakers, btw, they're actors). They playfully navigate and interrogate this huge figure of Filipino nationalism. The storytelling style reflects this playfulness too – the filmmakers sit down with Rizal's family members and "interview" them. None of this is to say they are disrespectfully mocking Rizal. Quite the contrary, it's clear that the makers of Bayaning 3rd World are 100% sincere in their poking and prodding of what has made Rizal into a national hero.

One sticking point is Rizal's "retraction document". Supposedly, just before his death, Rizal converted back to Catholicism and, in doing so, retracted all his previous criticisms of the Church. But Bayaning 3rd World questions this version of events, suggesting that the document might be inauthentic. Why the fuss? Well, as one of the filmmakers points out, in Rizal's era, the Church and the State were one and the same. So for Rizal to renounce his criticism of the State would make him less worthy of national hero status.

To add another layer to this meta docudrama, it's important to note that director Mike de Leon made Bayaning 3rd World in response to the film 'José Rizal'. Directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya, 'José Rizal' had come out two years earlier in 1998 as part of the centenary commemorations of Filipino independence.

To quote Antonio D. Sison's commentary, "In Diaz-Abaya’s film, Rizal is the prodigal son who returns to the colonial Catholic religion of his oppressors and renounces the very works that 'served to restore dignity, self respect, pride, and patriotism among the Filipinos'. De Leon makes an intellectual and entertaining effort at questioning this cut-and-dry story but without actually providing answers himself".

At the end of the day – hero or not – Rizal is still the central character to Bayaning 3rd World. Of course, it could've been otherwise. As one of the filmmakers remarks more than once after "interviewing" one of the women in Rizal's life – "Her life would be a much more interesting movie than Rizal's!"

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Antonio D. Sison's review: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/feature-articles/3rd_world_hero/

Leggi di Più

Not enjoyable, I could not get behind the rationale of the story and the unconvincing acting

It might be a case of "it's me, not you", but I did not enjoy my time watching this movie. The overall moral remains blurry, as well as the reasoning behind the action of the main villain which is a surface level antagonist. The heroine was such a let down, instead of a badass and resolute cop, she felt not in charge and completely manipulated by the bad guy from beginning to end.

The cast really did not satisfy me more than the story. No idea if it is directing related, the fault of the script or simply the actors/actresses performances being average, but the acting certainly did not convince me. None of the characters were very likeable and most of the lines sounded fake and maybe it is because I was not onboarded with the plot.

The ending song was pretty good with its rock vibe but I really disliked all the church choral going on during the movie. I'm assuming it was supposed to instore a mystic aura around the main villain, but I found it super artificial and distracting. Similarly, the visual effects were really over-the-top and rather than being frightening, it gave an unrealistic feeling to the movie.

I would not recommend this to people unless you like the actors/actresses and/or the manga (which I did not read). I found the motivations behind the crimes sometimes really "light" (wanting to murder somebody because of jealousy seems a bit a strong choice) and overall the police felt completely incompetent in their job. The ending was also a let down with an unsatisfactory statu quo.

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some kind of regret

this movie reminds me one thing that became a lesson for a lot of people...the things that we did NOT do.

after high school I took a 3 years foreign language course.
at the second year there were a classmate who asked me for tutoring since she was working and taking the course at the same period, she was somehow eccentric; attractive, cheerful, above average kirei but none had the gut to approach her personally for 恋愛, she was somehow out of our league.

2 years after our graduation I was already an employee in a local company and had a girlfriend.
one day she called me through my home number.
at that time I didn't aware that none of my friends/classmates ever contacted me via home line.
we talked quite long and she gave me birthday wishes I didn't even get from my own girlfriend.

10 years later, we have classmates meet/party.
after that I once phone her and tell her 会いたい

a few months after the meet she got hospitalized after a trip to middle east, me and my classmates visited her at the hospital.
I had the chance to visit her alone afterwork at non visitors hour (the hospital's security personels seems to see me as a patient family member, they didn't even stop or questioned me as they did to other visitors entering the hospital's inpatient pavilion/I had konbini bag on my hand)

she recovered and got home, but in a few months she was rehospitalized and I was only able to convey condolences to her family at her funeral.

Leggi di Più

This was extremely hard to watch for me, and also to write a review, because my mother heard exactly the same diagnosis - and there was one scene in the film that came very close to how my mother died.
Mother-daughter-relationships are also at the centre of this film, not all of them are good or even resolved at all.
So, if you're also sensitive to the topics in this film -- late-stage cancer, death of a parent, mother-daughter-relationships - then you might want to avoid it.

That being said, the actors are excellent! This is one of the reasons I couldn't not finish the film, because the actors, child actress included, portrayed their characters so well that I was already invested in their story and needed to know how it all ends.

Regarding the story, apart from my personal hang-ups: The three main characters, are all female -- and they are who are shown as the ones who shape the family, who take on the challenges life throws at them -- while the men are more passive, even weak.
The thing is, the mother is shown too much as the "self-sacrificing prototype", which really got on my nerves after a while. I wish the mother had been given a bit more time for her own struggles, her own pain, her own grief for having to leave her family. There was only one scene, right after she heard her diagnosis, when she broke down, alone in the hot bath (excellently filmed, btw), and then, once, near the end. All of the rest showed her being dedicated to her growing family -- but a mother is also a person with her own life, and I really wish the writer had given her that. It wouldn't even have taken a lot, maybe just her wiping away a stray tear, looking at an old photo, hugging herself in the kitchen ... just show us that there's more to her than just "devoted mother".

Overall, I can see how many people would love this film, even maybe find solace in it -- and most of the aspects I did not like are more related to myself than to the film -- so if you think you can watch something with the above-mentioned topics, then you should definitely try this one.

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Nauseating

I didn't realise I was watching a movie I tried watching 3-4 years ago ..well I dropped it then and I dropped it now again .. first of all the plot itself is weird and nonsensical like I grew up watching anime and reading manga and trust me there is no way anyone would be made fun of, for having firm and voluptuous bosoms ..entire shonen industry is running on the appreciation of women assets but they showed a girl is bullied in school for that ..gimme a break ... Second the stretch mark issue .. dude 99 percent women (even men) in this world develop stretch mark during various stages of life. Why are you treating this like an epidemic ...

This movie made me conscious about the things I never even cared for ..like stretch marks ..who the hell cares about something even Kardashians and jenners are experiencing???

The story itself is so boring and bogus that other things like cast acting music XYZ didn't even grab my attention.

Strongly not recommended

Leggi di Più

You won't want to do anything else until you finish watching it.

• CINEMATOGRAPHY
This is one of the main points here, The cinematography was so beautiful and fabulous. I liked all the scenes and point of views, and everything.

• MUSIC
The music was on point for eveything, from the drumming for the exorcism to every intense moment, and then scary horrifying sound effects from time to time, it was perfect.

• STORY
The story was so good too. Showing about the history etc. And the movie's about Exorcism, Shamanism, Feng Shui, Buddhism and Christian too if you look at it. I didn't even know it before that a job of Geomancer exists. He tastes the soil and identify about the land. I got so immersed in it. The four characters work together their roles are different but they make a team and work together.
At first there was a family case, in which their grandfather's coffin ⚰️ was opened and he went on to a bloody killing streak of his descendants.
Then another a more bloodthirsty monster case came to light, but this is just my opinion that, in the end that (lord) died too easily, like it didn't fight back (well he was shown undefeatable). The ending was good, but just a doubt he died too easily.

• CASTING
The casting was perfect each actor was perfect. Kim Go Eun's performance was fabulous, her acting was so good and all other actors. I totally loved them.

I recommend this movie, 10/10.
Just that nothing else, Have a great day ahead.

Leggi di Più

essa review veio da alma

Fui assistir o filme cheia de expectativas, principalmente por ser muito fã da Jung So-min, e especialmente em papéis de comédias românticas. Além disso, eu tinha visto várias cenas muito engraçadas em que o casal parecia ter muita química, o que obviamente chamou muito a minha atenção.

Mas assistindo eu senti como se o filme fosse só isso, um "conjunto de várias cenas divertidas", porém sem conexão alguma, que no fim parecem contar nada. O sentimento é que eu tava vendo um vídeo de "compilado das melhores cenas de Love Reset".

O desenvolvimento do casal é inexistente, as coisas simplesmente acontecem. E isso é particularmente frustrante, porque eu acredito que os atores principais tem muito potencial, mas ele foi desperdiçado em um roteiro fraco (pra não dizer ruim).

Não vou negar, que ainda assim, eu dei algumas risadas, porque as cenas são realmente criativas, e o final (cena dos fones de ouvido) só provou o que eu já tinha percebido: é um drama completamente e apenas de comédia. Ele não tem intenção nenhuma de trazer alguma reflexão mais profunda, o que pra mim, também foi um desperdício, porque com esse plot eles tinham a oportunidade de fazer muito mais (ou o mínimo).

No fim, o único ponto positivo é que ficaram várias cenas engraçadas que são perfeitas para fazer uns edits pro tiktok.

Leggi di Più

A fable of human love caught in the current of nature's wrath

An adaptation of the 1913 play of the same name, Demon Pond blends theatrical artifice with cinematic surrealism offering a compelling lesson in the power of superstition and mythology; defined by a pervasive tension between the ancient and the modern, superstition versus scientific reason, an aquatic tale of life and death. We live as long as we have it, but if we lose it, we die, except the film's true subject is love. We can live without it, but is that really living? In Masahiro Shinoda's lush, romantic, bigger-than-life take on Izumi Kyōka's text, the answer is a resounding no. What starts as a folk horror fantasy with a psychological thriller vibe gradually shifts into full-on action-adventure-meets-disaster film mode once all watery hell breaks loose. Shinoda's is extraordinary in its dreamlike decadence, it's the kind of film that could get by strictly on aesthetic terms, such a feast for the eyes and ears, that it almost wouldn't matter if the story didn't make much sense or even had one to begin with. Set to the swirling strains of Isao Tomita's utterly hypnotic synth score and bolstered by some great acting from its cast, Demon Pond is a fascinating experience; one that arguably runs a little long at two hours, but which remains endlessly captivating thanks to its beauty, elegance, and portrayal of a fable of human love caught in the current of nature's wrath.

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