Reviews

Tell me what you dream at night...

Time Renegades was an entertaining if flawed movie. Two men 32 years apart share memories during their dreams after each had a near death experience.

This film had a strong cast which helped gloss over some of the bigger plot holes. I liked the premise of the story even if it was used erratically. A school teacher in 1983 tried to stop a serial killer using knowledge from a detective in 2015. Geon Woo, the detective, researched past murders which didn’t do much for the present but helped Ji Hwan in the past. Only one character attempted to use Geon Woo’s connection in a more direct manner, something I thought Geon Woo would do. There were a couple of serious lapses in logic and continuity for dramatic effect. One moment which I’m sure was meant to be melodramatically devastating actually made me laugh at its obviousness and relatively low stakes.

The film was strongest in the past, largely due to Jo Jung Suk’s performance as the grieving teacher determined to alter the deadly course of events set in motion. Ji Hwan’s love for the children and desire to avenge a death made for great motivation. Geon Woo’s romantic entanglement with So Eun felt less well developed. While there was no physical time traveling, the consciousness of the men traveled as needed. The ending was the type that I like the least in this genre and one that makes the least sense to me.

Despite my reservations, I enjoyed this film as the two men tried to undo the tragedies of the past and the echoes of death and despair in the present. The film maintained a consistent stream of action so that it was never boring. Some of the performances were better than others. The Teflon villain became almost comical as he survived endless attempts to stop or at least slow him down. The movie’s solution was novel and felt like a nod to Back to the Future, if a more deadly nod. Time Renegades may not have been a dream come true, but this dream weaver was engrossing if not thrilling.

28 May 2024

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artsy/realistic vibe

Overall: watched this 20 minute short movie on YouTube https://youtu.be/6wj77bybP_Y?si=IDX9OzVAx1rqmYmh According to MDL it was inspired by the song Rerun, the music video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfaBrj275co&ab_channel=PPKritEntertainment

What I Liked
- hooked me with the beginning conversation
- how the painting was titled open-ended
- the vibe

Room For Improvement
- the timeline of the first 2 scenes after the voice over in the intro wasn't clear until later
- the romance was an undercurrent/spoken but not really shown
- open endings aren't my favorite

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I actually laughed a lot - rare for me

Yeah, the amnesia bit is not believable, but this is a movie, right? The bottom line is the acting was awesome, the leads totally nailed it. Without their spot on acting this really could have gone off the rails. And, most of all, even though I watched this on a plane from Taipei to Osaka, I laughed a lot! And practically nothing makes me laugh these days, so the writers really did their job. I will have to get my wife to watch this (she was watching something else on the plane).

So, as far as the negative reviews, I guess those folks have even less of a sense of humor than I do :-). Just give it a try. I think most people will really enjoy it. Just relax, suspend belief, and prepare for a wild ride.

BTW, some people said it was predictable. But one aspect of this that got me laughing was some of the comedic bits took me completely by surprise. Like, what the heck? LOL!

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Keep Your Expectations At A Nice Respectable Level

Oooh, a horror film with an interesting plot and good actors at its helm? I was excited. Plus, I was curious what a movie headed by Julia and Xian would be like. It’s eh, for me. At best? I’d say it’s ‘fine’.

The movie did well with some of the religious symbolism. The beginning was fine. However, everything goes downhill when they arrive at the primary setting of the movie, Pola, Oriental Mindoro. The plot becomes too confusing and a little too convoluted to be properly understood, much less enjoyed. The plot tries to tell the narrative through Jane's dreams or visions, but I barely managed to piece together anything. That either means two things: 1) I’m a colossal dumbass or 2) the storytelling missed the mark. Was the tension there? Yes. It certainly made me uneasy and/or shocked in some scenes. Was I immersed? Yes, but I think that’s only because I turned the lights off and wore headphones for the entire movie to feel more scared. Moreover, I’m not sure that the side plots were necessary. I think that the movie was dragged out more than it needed to and, at times, it felt slow-moving.

The actors were fine individually. Together? I’m not so sure. I was looking forward to how Xian and Julia would pull off being newlyweds but, really, it was so clear that they’d never acted before. Was the chemistry there? If I squint my eyes and think very hard, then yes. The same goes for the chemistry between Julia and Marco.

The ending shocked me, yes, but with all of the dots I failed to connect, it’s hard to see how the ending was supposed to make sense. Hell, after I finished the movie, I looked up “bahay na pula ending explained” and still didn’t find any answers.

Overall, it’s fine if you want to watch it if you’re curious but you shouldn’t really expect anything great or phenomenal here.

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don't watch with close minded people the first time you watch it.

How can they be gay at such a time. How can they defy the church and society. Why would they defy that. How can people not understand that it's not a disease? How could you not believe such love? Why would they want to be gay at such time? How can people say it's not real? these are the type of questions that ran through my mind during the credits. If by then, you still think their emotions aren't real, they you might just be a dense idiot. Hell might just be a wonderful place if it accepts such love.

The acting was really great, the actors are so talented(except maybe the western extras. no offense).

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Cried Twice Because I Was M in Real Life

Altough I kinda think the storyline is kinda basic, but I have to say that the execution, production, deliver, it so well done. I personally dont really like complicated storyline so it makes this movie better.

I personally not crying because the story, I cry I because I realize this is what i have been throuh with my granma, Its beatiful and sometimes its sad. Watching this definetly just watching my life back and I realize the moment I had is precious and now I think it does, because not many ppl really have a bond with their elder. Even my own granma doesnt close with her own child except me her granson. She has 4 granchild but I'm the only one who close with her.

Scoring, Cinematography, Estabilish Footages They are telling a story.

I dont know what to say, this movie rent-free in my head forever.

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Dream vs Reality

Fascinating Dream in the Grassland was shot so realistically that it was difficult to tell whether it was a short film or documentary. At only 13 minutes long, the film told the story of Gele/Garus and her love of dance and her love for her family.

Gele lives on the Tibetan grasslands with her family. They are the last generation of grazers and herders. There are sheep, yaks, horses, and cattle grazing on the vast grasses. When her father takes a herd to graze further away, Gele must help her mom with the animals left behind. As she works in the fields, Gele dances and dreams of going to the big city to learn more and perform. Gracefully and joyfully, she lifts her arms and moves her feet to the songs in her head. Her dream is compared to the familial needs as her grandfather and brother state her responsibilities to their family in their remote life with their herds.

Gele’s father will make the final decision whether she can leave and if they have the money for her to go. And Gele will have to decide what she truly wants. Whether performing in front of people is her dream or dancing on the grasses with the mountains in the background.

The cinematography was stunning with the grasslands and mountains as the backdrop for the story. The acting came across very naturally as if it was a documentary. For a short film, Fascinating Dream gave an intriguing glimpse into a young woman’s heart and a fading way of life.

27 May 2024

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56 minutes (not a BL)

Overall: I generally give indie productions some leeway but the very ending of this was...a choice... not really sure what message they were trying to convey. Watched on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNtNapJNVeQ

Content Warnings (it's complicated but I'm keeping this spoiler free): intimate partner abuse, held against will, non con touching/sexual assault and something else

What I Liked
- easy to follow plot
- tried to talk about mental health issues
- they uploaded to YouTube and added English subtitles

Room For Improvement
- randomly couldn't swim
- I did not agree with all of the messages around mental health issues, society/the environment is not 100% to blame, biology plays a factor as well
- that ending was not what I was hoping for, it wasn't a funny joke, were they trying to say that pushing/ignoring boundaries/sexual harassment of a coworker was fine???

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I LOVED THIS SM

BRO IM SO OBSESSED WITH THIS ITS SO CUTE AND LIGHTHEARTED I LOVE THE SLIGHT MISCOMMUNICATION THAT EVENTUALLY GETS SOLVED AND ITS SO CUTESY AND THE PLOT IS SO INTERESTING ???LIKE IT DEADASS GOT ME GIGGLING AND SMILING SO HARD ITS SOOOO SOOO GOOD AND IF U DONT WANT TO U DONT HAVE TO WATCH THE FORST MOVIE THEY DONT RLLY CORRELATE BESIDES THE BEGINNING BUT IT WAS GENUINELY RLLY GOOD I HAD SM FUN WATCHING IT AND I WILL DEFINITELY BE REWATCHING IT , ITS SO GOOD AND IT HAS A MIX OF EVERYTHING LIKE ITS SAD AND HAPPY AND CUTE I COULD NOT BE MORE SATISFIED WITH A MOVIE THAN THIS

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Not sure how to feel

I watched this movie after watching Love Syndrome III. I liked that better than this movie, but i'm not sure why exactly, as neither of these is really good. I'm not sure if it's fair to compare them, but i'm going to do that anyway. The acting in this movie is ok, better than in the series apart from the NC-scenes, which were honestly quite cringe in this movie. I felt NO chemistry from the main couple (GearNight) and only mildly from FourGus. DayItt was worst of all, and how they cabn go from where we left off here to being as in love as they are in the series is anyones guess. Day says he likes Itt (but whyyyyy?) but his actions and bodylanguage don't support his words. Itt is scared (and rightly so!) but seems to stay with Day of his own free will (but whyyyyy?) . the movie has an open ending, and seems to leave room for a follow-up (LSII?) but i'm not sure I want it. Maybe we should just leave these characters in the book (that I did not read, nor intend to) where they can do no more harm, instead of trying to make the terrible things these guys do to eachother screen-friendly.

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NOT THE SAME WITH Yesterday Once More

Intrique to watch this because thinking Yesterday Once More (Chinese Movie) is the adaptation of this movie, so I just want to compare these 2. But silly me for not reading the summary. Because if you're reading the summary you'll know these 2 movie nowhere near the same. Don't know why MDL link this 2 together.

But anyhow....

This movie very much like the title: My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday. Story about Minamiyama Takatoshi (MT) who meet Fukuju Emi (FE) on the train & fall in love with her. Build up the courage, he decides to talk to her. No long after that they decided to date & the story rolling with one big secret FE hiding under the blanket.

What will you do if you're FE? If me, maybe I'll try to avoid meet up with MT in my young year (20ish). It's beautiful & meaningful but also one painful memory that I've had to go through.

One really interesting concept of story but really hard to swallow. I have to re-watch it a few time to understand & let it settled in my mind. But it still beautiful in the end. And the vibe is really calm & give positive vibe all over....

Overall If you want to watch something new or fresh, you can try this movie. In the end this is not a movie that I've regret watching.

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disappointing

I was looking forward to this. I had been constantly searching for when it was releasing. I really enjoyed the book and series. Love Syndrome is about Itt and Day. there wasn’t enough of them. I was hoping to see Neil and Nick’s story come to life, but Nick wasn’t even in it. If there is a second part, I would still watch it though. the actors did a fantastic job I just think the script needed some work. probably would have been better a series. it could have gone into more detail with the story line. so happy to see Neil being played by the same actor. this was the third recast for Day and Itt but they did a great job. overall it was a Huge letdown!!

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All surface level and no depth of emotions

Ok, I'm not sure what to say about this movie except for the fact it shouldn't have been made in a movie format. Do do justice to THIS type of story you need a longer format. The very fact that the end of this was just a brief cut-off of the story midway through is a testament to that. They didn't stop at the end of a story arch just ended it on a cliffhanger and called it good.
There isn't any resolution or even a redemption arch here. The closest would be that Gear and Night had sex again but there wasn't any talk of a relationship. It might be implied but it just felt incomplete there as well. Because of the compressed format, I wasn't able to understand Night's shift of emotions from hurt that Gear fucked him over to wanting to give him a second chance. There is also a whole mountain of story that was never touched about Day's plan for Gear and what Day and Night's argument was really about.

With Itt and Day, there is nothing in the way of any kind of emotion. There was a brief implied moment when Itt stormed out of the bedroom complaining he had been woken up. Obviously, some time has passed and there has been some kind of movement in their twisted relationship since he isn't in chain and his initial wounds have healed. Yet we don't know how much time and EVERYTHING has been off-screen.

I really wanted this movie to give me the twisted emotions behind this story. To show me how these two couples went from a damaged toxic start to what we see in Love Syndrome III. THAT is an interesting story. But this movie even, if it ends up with a second part, isn't that. This movie focused on the shock value of the rape and dub/non-consent aspects without building the proper foundation to support any type of relationship between the two couples, even a toxic twisted love.

To me, this feels half-baked at best using the rape and abduction as shock value pull without doing the heavy lifting of the emotions behind it. This movie is all surface level and for this type of subject matter, it makes it disappointing at best and a bad movie at worst.

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...

Ce film est absolument magnifique. Émouvant, vrai, touchant, il ne manque jamais de me faire monter les larmes aux yeux. Autant par son histoire, que par le talent des acteurs, il m’est tout simplement impossible de rester de marbre, et je sais que je suis bien loin d’être la seule ! Je sais que la version drama est sortie depuis, mais ce film est si magnifique, que je n’ose imaginer voir une autre version. Je le recommande vivement, mais soyez assuré de ne pas oublier les mouchoirs !

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Avis Complet sur mon Blog :
https://lamagiedeshistoires.wordpress.com/2024/05/27/mai-2024-en-rafale-dramas-films/

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