Reviews

ready to cry

As Malaysians, we believe that if something starts off too joyful, it might lead to sadness later on. I was a mess, with tears streaming down my face and my shirt soaked.

The emotional journey this film takes you on is incredible, blending moments of happiness with deep, heartfelt sorrow. It’s the kind of movie that stays with you long after the credits roll. The storytelling is powerful, and the characters are so well-crafted that you can’t help but feel everything they go through.

THIS MOVIE IS A MUST-WATCH—MISSING IT WOULD BE A CRIME! Whether you’re ready for the emotional ride or not, this is one film you won’t want to skip.

Leggi di Più

Good acting in a rather mediocre screenplay

I should mention that I have watched the drama before watching the movie. Even though it's been a while, it definitely helped me understand the plot. And this is where the major fault of the movie comes in, in my opinion. While trying to include many of the major plotlines and best-known scenes, the connections between these scenes feel really rushed and under-explained. Basically, the makers have tried to condense a 58-episode drama into a 1.5h movie. I think, if I didn't know the rough plotline, I wouldn't have been able to follow what's happening. If they had made the movie longer, it would really have helped.

In contrast to what I read in some of the comments the acting by Chen Duling, Li Chengbin and Mao Zijun is good, though. Considering the material they had to work with it's really impressive actually. In fact, I prefered Chen Duling's Xiao Gu to Zhao Liying's (even though she's doing a great job), because her Xiao Gu was not as over-the-top girly innocent (you know what I mean) as Chinese dramas will sometimes have it. I also liked that they left one scene in that was censored in the 2015 version, even though it feels like the script doesn't really explain what's going on.

CGI isn't great and the entire plot feels rushed and some scenes disconnected, but the cast really saved the show. So, in my opinon, it's still a movie worth watching but it won't change your life. I'm gonna look for more dramas with the lead actors, though.

Leggi di Più

A bit chaotic (Spoiler alert!)

I am a foreigner who lives in Thailand for some time and I went to the movie theater to watch this movie. Thai media have been talking about it for a while and I was curious to see what Naruebet Kuno (the same director of I Told Sunset About You - ITSAY) was going to do here.
I can say I have mixed feelings about the overall result. Kuno is still very good in cinematography. The photography in this movie is so pretty and eye catching as in ITSAY, but we have here the same problem we had in ITSAY also: it is a bit overdramatic in some points. Don't get me wrong, I really like ITSAY, but I have the feeling that episode 4, for example, was a bit too much in terms of emotions. The same thing happens in Paradise of Thorns. The first 2/3 parts of the movie are more balanced, but the last 1/3 looks like somehow a stereotyped Latin American Soap Opera.
It is important to say that the story doesn't talk much about the inequality brought by the lack of recognition of gay rights by the State. This is not an LGBTQIA+ agenda movie (which is not necessarily bad). This topic is just a starting point for the main issue: The fight between the characters for possession of the lands where the Durians are planted. Basically, all the characters are pretty f*cked up and they see the Durians as their gold ticket. The cast is pretty convincing, specially the four main actors and actresses: Jeff Satur, Engfa Waraha, Harit Buayoi and Seeda Puapimon.
Thongkham (Jeff Satur) and Mo (Engfa Waraha) are the main rivals, as they dispute the preference of Saeng, the new owner of the land after her son's death. Saeng is a greedy and arrogant old woman who likes to see Thongkham and Mo humiliate themselves to please her, while Jingna (Harit) is the handsome Mo's brother who comes to work in the farm and falls in love with Thongkham. Jingna and Thongkham's relationship is sweet and charming, but not that well developed. This is probably one of the problems in the movie, although it didn't bother me that much. Some people also might think that the "greedy topic" is not so developed also. I would agree. What is this movie about? Love? Greedy? Selfishness? Rivalry? A love triangle? Maybe a bit of all of this? Well, when you try to put so many things together, maybe you might fail to develop so many topics at the same time. This might have happened here.
The rivalry between Mo and Thongkham grows to the point where they commit atrocities. Mo kills Saeng and makes the old woman sign a declaration before she dies, transferring the land to her name. Mo tries to expel Thongkham from her new possession, but he reacts and tries to r4pe her. The scene is full of screams and violence. Like a real Mexican soap opera! When the two are about to resolve their problems, Mo's new husband appears and tries to kill Thongkham, who is saved by his boyfriend, Jingna. In the middle of this confusing fight scene, Jingna ends up being killed too. With that, Thongkham loses the second love of his life. Tragic as a Greek tragedy!

My biggest disappointment with the film was not that it ended with the death of a beloved character (Jingna was perhaps the only character with any integrity in this whole story), but the fact that it was a very cliché ending. Before the husband showed up and tried to kill Thongkham, the first thing I thought was: "I hope they don't end the film with the husband showing up and killing someone." Well, that's exactly what happened. I thought it was an uncreative ending. More of the same.
Paradoxically, I still enjoyed watching the film. I should have hated it, but I didn't. The thing is: this movie makes you get the feeling that you're watching something with flaws here and there, but when you put it all together, the end result still pleases you in a strange way. At least that's what I'm feeling now, two days after seeing the film. My advice is that you watch it and draw your own conclusions.

Leggi di Più

"If you leave something behind, you gain something, too"

Writer/Director Celine Song brought out the Kdrama tropes in her directorial film debut Past Lives. She took such tropes as childhood connection (destiny!), lovestruck second male lead, and the much-maligned love triangle and used them in fresh ways. The film I was expecting and the film that played out before me were quite different.

Na Young and Hae Sung are best buddies at the age of twelve. Then her family emigrates to Canada separating the two children. Twelve years later Na Young, now called Nora, looks up old friends on a lark, including Hae Sung. The two reconnect via computer and begin conversing. Hae Sung wants her to come to Korea for a visit and she wants him to come to New York City where she lives. Feeling at an impasse in her life she goes on a break from Hae Sung. Twelve years later, now at the age of 36, Hae Sung comes to NYC to visit the married Na Young.

I dreaded Nora’s husband, Arthur, being portrayed as the rich, abusive or disinterested white guy standing in the way of the sacred childhood connection. I laughed when Arthur said their situation would make a great story, “I would be the evil white American husband standing in the way of destiny. I’m the guy you leave when your ex-lover comes to take you away.” In reality, Arthur was a loving, generous husband, who was learning Korean to better connect with his wife. He didn’t throw a jealous hissy fit when Hae Sung came to town. He respected Nora enough to let her do what she needed to.

Hae Sung arrived in town, obviously still in love with Na Young. Or was he only in love with the idealized version of her? He hadn’t spent any time with her since she was a child. He still lived with his parents and considered himself too ordinary. Despite working, he hadn’t made enough money to marry and had recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend. It didn’t help that handsome Yoo Teo looked his age (42) and not 36 which further made me wonder about his hesitancy with life choices.

The star of the film was Na Young/Nora. She had always had dreams and goals and was highly competitive. She was a playwright and working out her own destiny. The choices she’d made weren’t easy but she knew where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do. That didn’t mean she was cold and calculating. She’d loved Hae Sung as a child and maybe even as an adult. But she also loved her husband and was funny and affectionate with him. Nora made the choices that were right for her, no excuses, and actually seemed satisfied with her decisions. After making the painful decision to go on the break with Hae Sung she never showed any regret. That didn’t mean she didn’t miss him or Seoul, and maybe more importantly, who she was in Seoul. As an immigrant, she had two selves, and both were authentic and important. Hae Sung helped her remember the little girl from Seoul she’d left behind.

Greta Lee gave a lovely nuanced performance as Na Young/Nora. Without tears and histrionics, she delicately showed her character working through where she wanted to be, who she wanted to be with, and more importantly---who she wanted to be. Joe Magara made Arthur a sympathetic three-dimensional character subtly playing out a variety of emotions. Yoo Teo brought a vulnerability to Hae Sung as a man who had to take one last chance to see his childhood love.

This film was far less a love triangle and more one of Nora’s self-discovery and reconnecting with her past and ethnic identity. Many people have that “what could have been” someone in their life. But often that person is in the perfected past of memory and not the imperfect reality of the present. Past Lives gave us mature, honest adults coming to the realization of what doors needed to be closed, opened, and left slightly ajar.

25 August 2024



*********************spoiler******************

















Dude, 24 years? That is why you ended up the second lead. Luck and love favor the bold!

Leggi di Più

Sad alert. Pass on this if you are not into tear jerkers.

6/10 is my rating. This is a 2022 coming of age romance movie with a run time of 119 minutes.

First I provide a Unique synopsis then review

Synopsis

At 17, Na Bo-ra’s (Kim Yoo-jung) world centers around her best friend, Yeon-du (Roh Yoon-seo). They have been friends since childhood and Bo-ra is particularly protective as her friend has a chronic heart condition. On the eve of going to the US for life changing heart surgery, Yeon-du vows to skip out as she just met a boy, who she believes to be Baek Hyun-jin (Park Jung-woo) whose kind act caused her to develop a crush on him. To get her friend to go, Bo-ra promises that she will find out everything about Baek Hyun-jin and send the information, video and pictures to Yeon-du. True to her word, Bo-ra starts to follow Hyun-jin and records facts about him to send to her friend. This also brings her into close contact with Hyun-jin’s friend, Poong Woon-ho (Byeon Woo-seok). In a bizarre twist both boys develop feelings for Bo-ra who seems to be everywhere they are which causes them to notice her. To be a good friend, Bo-ra immediately rejects Hyun-jin but does not see a reason to contain her feelings for Woon-ho. But when Yeon-du returns they discover they had the names switched and the boy Yeon-du liked was Woon-ho. Can Bo-ra give up the boy she came to love for her friend?

Review

If you want to know how this ends, scroll to the spoilers. I liked 3/4 of this movie. A lot. Liked the characters, thought the love story was believable amd thought it was well paced. But the last of the movie ruined it for me. I will not watch it again and do not personally recommend it.

Spoilers

If the story had stopped when she finally admitted her feelings for him at the train station I would have liked it. If he returned from New Zealamd and they had a heartfelt reunion I would have loved it. But I do not like sad endings and this had an extremely sad ending.

I seriously dislike sad movies. Every once in awhile I get suckered into one. This was a heart warming love story where the lead couple goes through all this stuff then finally get to be together. I know I know I just described practically every romance. But it is a solid formula that I like. But in this one, he has to go abroad and tells her he is coming back for her. That is a common trope, the separation trope. I do not like the separation trope but can deal with it if they get back together. So she waits, and waits and you think they are just drawing it out for dramatic effect but nope. Turns out he died. That is why he doesn’t come back. And I am like what in the Nicholas Sparks just happened here? But wait, there is more. She pops in this video and it is all about when he first saw her and fell in love with her which is way earlier than she thought. And then what in the “P.S. I Love you” in a “Notebook” hell, he has this videography of all their time together and ends with I love you and I am coming back. No in the “Nights in Rodanthe” you are not. You freaking “Bridge to Tarabithia” died, we know that. But it continues just “Lovely Bones” long enough to give us very false hope that it was not true. And my heart sank like the Titanic. And it made me a little sad but mostly mad.

I did not find much to like about the ending. For some reason they decided that Kim Yoo-jung would play the teenage Bo-ra and Han Hyo-joo would play the adult Bo-ra. Normally I would’ve hated that. It’s not that hard with hair and make up to make a 20 something year old look a little older so they could have kept the same actress. But given that the male lead character dies, it was actually easier for it not to be the same actress as it sort of felt like a different character and didn’t make me as sad. But I don’t think that is why they did it. They seemed to enjoy evoking tears. Still it worked out for me, it seeming like a new character, because it did not feel like the Bo-ra I had grown attached to was suffering.

What was the deal amd what was the point of him dropping the note to her in the rain? I thought maybe she, or maybe her best friend would find it and it would reveal that he liked Bo-ra before Yeon-du liked him. But they never found it. So I guess the point was just for the viewer which was pointless.

#TwentiethCenturyGirl #KimYooJung. #HanHyoJoo #ByeonWooSeok. #ParkJungWoo #RohYoonSeo

Leggi di Più

UFO - Underneath Firmaments of Others

After watching this strange movie I was inspired to look for a meaning of UFO's. Yes this movie has an UFO - Unidentified Flying Object but it uses that background to show something about our reality as humans so i would suggest that UFO also reveals what is Underneath Firmaments of Others. We see the emotions, thoughts, statements, experiences of many people but at the end it is impossible to identify what other people hold underneath their appearances.

I can see how some people would dislike this movie if they are not ready to watch something different. This is a dynamic art film. Many people, many scenes, many words, many details, yet the viewer is lost inside trying to connect the elements of the story. But how can someone connect all humans stories?

This movie shows how people would live with the presence of UFO. For me as Christian this presence of the big flying object in the sky is like the presence of God. He is there above, watching everything, yet staying silently and lets us wonder and explore life.

To conclude, this movie was really interesting and made an impact on my philosophy of life. The music and songs added a lot of soul to the story.

Leggi di Più

Live up to your Name

Wow. This is quality cinema. The story was in moments confusing for me so maybe i should watch it again, but it got me to think a lot. That is because the movie shows many layers of society and reality. You think that you understand what is going on but you are not aware of the play that is conditioning the main characters, and maybe even those who control him are unknowingly controlled and influenced by someone else.

The synopsis says that the main character Lee Man-jae sold his name to survive so this is not a spoiler. And throughout the move his name will have a central role of the story as he tries to get a hold of all the things that happened to him. What value does our name has? This movie shows that without your name you might be alive but you are actually dead.

In one moment the movie gives us a message that goes something like this: "Even if you haven't sinned, you have a sin because it is sin if you didn't do anything." I am not sure how this connects with the story of the movie so if someone can help I would appreciate it. Nevertheless, this is a strong and true statement that it is better to do something and fail (sin) than to not do anything.

Leggi di Più

Real Story

I am sued to watch the actor Ra Min-ran in comedic roles. Here her talent shines through as a hard working single mother who got scammed for her life savings. So instead of making us laugh she makes us sympathize with her struggle for her children, job, money, in fact for her life. Her acting is so sincere that I forgot that this is only a movie. I felt sorry for her situation as if she was my neighbor. Also the other actors are very good. And there are also characters who bring a little bit of humor and cheerfulness so that the movie wouldn’t be too depressing.

I like this kind of movies where the story captures you from the start and continues to guide the emotions. I think that the director masterfully connected real life event on which this movie is based of, with the dramatic themes and cinematic details. In short, i was engaged 100% in the movie from start to finish and i can recommend it to everyone. It also speaks about the ever growing problem of scammers.

Interesting fact, completely by chance I watched this movie exactly on the date the case was solved, August 21st.

Leggi di Più

I really wanted to like this more than I did

This short movie started off actually really really well. Filmed as a found footage reconstruction documentary, the first half has a very authentic presentation with numerous interviews and behind the scenes footage of producing a new song for the fictitious singer and idol, Emi Kato played by Emi Sato (and idol of the time herself). These things do sort of help you get immersed and feel like this is really happening.

I really liked the production values and everyone came across very natural and like real people. Sometimes even stumbling over their words which may even have been intentional and only added to the idea of it being a bad take that hadn't been edited yet. Upon further reading it seems quite a few known faces of the time are in the documentary playing themselves in interviews which is a nice touch.

All of this worked really well to set up a potentially creepy horror movie. Unfortunately it really just goes nowhere and the climax pay off is very boring and rushed in the end. The plot is poorly explained and it's a shame because there were the bones of an interesting plotline that could have been developed much more. I think there was just no enough characterization built yet to really care much about the cast. One particular "revelation" at the end also just feels so out the left field and makes little sense or adds much.

It's worth watching because its short and the first 30 minutes are actually really cool and successfully capture the music industry in 1988. The music and the atmosphere of the movie is really enjoyable. As a horror movie it's not as easy to recommend. While I commend its originality and trying to go for this really authentic presentation, I think with 30 minutes more the run time and a better developed mystery story could have made this so much better.

Side note - the final 4-5 minutes post credits of a famous movie critic (playing themself) rambling on about Hollywood are totally insane and nothing really much to do with the film. However, I've no idea why they bothered to waste precious run time on that when they could have had more of the actual films plot. Bizarre. The final minute also features Naoto Takenaka in a gag real and doing something very strange but again unrelated to the movie. A gag I guess...but waste of film. Interestingly they have used this image on both the front and back of the movie box. Maybe as a draw as his role is very small and basically only his voice?

Leggi di Più

A fairly decent sequel to the Tomie series

I really liked the previous theatrical Tomie movie. It actually was much better than I was expecting, so I really went into this not knowing what to expect. While I don't think its anywhere near as good as the original, it is still a solid movie in it's own right. It managed to keep some of that slower burning tension that the original head as the character of Tomie is being introduced.

Hosho Mai does a good job playing Tomie. She feels a bit different this time around and much colder and more sultry but in this movie it works. The film does a good job of maintaining a serious tone without resorting to body horror visual gags that I think the later series is known for and without saying much about the story it was a compelling mystery that had a satisfying ending.

Leggi di Più

Frightening chase, Wi Ha Joon amazing performance shook me

I truly enjoyed this action movie. It has a really simple but efficient concept, focusing on a frightening cat-and-mouse chase between a serial-killer and a deaf woman. With very few characters and plot points, the film manages to keep the viewer on its toes during the dark pursuit.

The scenario relies a lot on people making not so smart decisions as well as a lot of police incompetence which might make your blood boils...There are a lot of successful jump scares and action sequences are really well-done. As one of the character is deaf, the surrounding noises and sounds carry a particular importance on the story. It amps the viewer's anxiety as the filmmaking manage to make the watcher understand how it is to be in the shoes of the victim.

The casting was really good, especially Wi Ha Joon who delivers a shockingly horrifying performance. I only saw him in two other roles playing overall good characters so the shift here truly astonished me. Jin Ki Joo acting as his main counterpart was also very solid in her role.

I would recommend this to people looking for a thriller that will brought you all the feels in a very short time. It is very dark and efficient in providing thrills with some good jump scares and action sequences. It might require some suspension of disbelief given the reaction of some characters that might seem completely stupid. But, honestly that did not bother me because I found the story gripping enough to not care about the script flaws. I just went on a scary ride and enjoyed it for what it was.

Leggi di Più