Reviews

Feel the thrill of every spike.

Sports movies always resonate with audiences, especially with the theme of striving to be the best and the story of the underdog. This movie does exactly that without any major flaws.

Instead of making this movie entirely about the volleyball legend Lang Ping, it gives more space that highlights the players during the training and the sports events that the team competes in. The shots and the editing are so impactful, making your attention glued to the screen from the moment it started until the end. The intensity increases steadily.

What amazes me the most about this movie is that the players are playing themselves. Even the young Lang Ping is played by her daughter, who’s also a volleyball player. Without a professional acting background, each player carried out their own story successfully. You can see and feel the honest emotion and reaction in every hardship they have gone through during training and every match they are playing. What’s even more amazing is the fact that players from the USA, Thailand, Japan, and Brazil teams appear in this movie rather than having actors portray them. This is a good approach in sports movies because when a professional athlete plays, the technique and style are more accurate and convincing than an actor who embodies someone’s character. I'm just stating the obvious.

The matches are well executed, as if the movie were a historical re-enactment itself. I can feel the adrenaline rush, as if I’m watching a real match instead of a movie. It makes this movie one of the best sports movies I have ever seen. This is a perfect-10 sports movie.

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I once wandered aimlessly, on the dark night road.....

It is exactly what the synopsis says, but more. Go in blind.

Expect gory action, good cinematography and acting. But also surprising amount of psychological depth and many things left for interpretation.

How do people react to possibility of their own demise? Some cry, some laugh, some are calm, some chose death willingly, some fight to survive to the end.....people don't want to die, and faced with inevitable, they try to give their existence and demise some meaning. Knowing the reason why, or passing away thinking they did something good, trying to find inner peace.....Trying to secure salvation in the afterlife, or making sure they will leave a legacy in the mortal world.

In the end it's just various flavors of cope, because the end result is the same. But the movie doesn't judge which cope is better, it doesn't tell us the audience that "oh this death was pathetic" or "oh this death was awesome". The narrative is non-judgmental, perhaps it expects us the audience to do the judgement?

Also, on a less philosophical note, the mc prayed to Guan Yu, which for me as a european fan of three kingdoms is hilarious. I heard about cult of guan yu in china, but this is the first time I have actually seen it. Do you think if he prayed to Cao Cao or Lu Bu instead things would have ended up differently?

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A light-hearted, cute simple little love story about two marathon runners in college

While this is not my favourite BL of all time, it is one of the go-to BLs whenever I need a short pick-me-up.
The series and the drama are identical, there are just a few scenes swapped around where the episodes end / start, probably for narrative reasons.

What I liked:
* They chose a story line that is adequate for the length of the series. Anything more complicated, and it might have become frustrating (again).
* The series is focused on the two main leads, which are supported by only a few other characters, which also fits the drama's length. I loved all of them, the coach was like an exasperated but loving uncle, the friend insightful, the two loan sharks hilariously cute.
* They did almost everything to keep the story light-hearted, from the sometimes cheesy dialogue to the upbeat music.
* The story, though straightforward, shows quite a bit of character development for BOTH main characters.

What I did not like:
* To keep it consistently light-hearted, I would have liked if the scene with the loan sharks' boss could have been less violent -- I'm sure there was another way to put pressure on SangHa than to beat him up.

Overall, a sweet and short drama.

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Immersive

The movie relies on the element of the dark and suprise as its main source of horror and it works.

The POV is shown from a vlog camera and it really makes you immersed and feel the horror through the screen but imo it also made me heavily dizzy at times, and quite frankly frustrated.

The story is scary, with eerie surroundings that go on throughout, and occasional gore, but I wasn’t on the edge for the entire movie, mostly on some tense parts.

70% of the film is spent in the dark which isn’t very fun but the movie is okay. The constant switch of time makes the story hard to follow and could have been done more efficiently tho I do understand why it switches back and forth.

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Day drinking with The Tiger Killer

The Delightful Forest is one of the Shaw Brothers films that has been restored and it looked good. Shaw Brothers put forth the money for nice sets and costumes. Ti Lung was young and athletic, always a plus. So why waste Ti, watching him drink and eat more than fight? Apparently, the movie did follow the book, The Water Margin, regarding this part of the Tiger Killer’s life, so maybe that’s what the legendary strong man spent his time doing. I'll leave it to the readers to decide.

Legendary Wu Sung who killed a tiger with his bare hands comes to town with blood in his eye after discovering his sister-in-law and her lover murdered his brother. In quick order he kills the murderers and turns himself in. On the way to prison he fights The Witch who owns an inn and then becomes sworn brothers with her shirtless husband. At the prison, the chief warden’s son has plans for him. Golden Eye wants Wu to defeat Jiang Zhong who has taken over The Delightful Forest, a village of inns, brothels, and casinos that had been paying Golden Eye tribute. What Wu will find out is that Jiang has powerful friends who also want control of the Delightful Forest.

“When people are drunk, the world and time don’t exist”
Ti Lung seemed to be having a lot of fun playing the cocky, heavy drinking, and heavy hitting Hero Wu. I’ve never seen him so light-hearted in a film. Wu drank on the way to prison, he drank in prison, and he stopped at the 12 places on the way to fight Jiang to drink 3 large bowls of wine at each. He drank heavily at the bad guy’s lair. This wasn’t even drunken kung fu fist, apparently the booze powered him up even when he wasn’t fighting. However, like Sampson, he stupidly told the bad guy the secret to beating him.

There were few significant fights and most were over quickly. The rest of the time Wu spent eating and drinking. It took 52 minutes before Wu had drunk enough to meet Jiang in a quick battle in the town center. One of my favorite fight choreographers, Lau Kar Leung was one of four on this film. There didn’t seem to be enough fights to warrant that amount, but Tang Chia, Lau Kar Wing, and Chan Chuen all contributed. Some of the most impressive fights were the ones with Ti Lung wearing a cangue. Even if it was made out of Styrofoam or a lightweight material, the awkwardness of it seemed like it could have been highly problematic to work around and not get injured engaging with various stuntmen. Right before one of these fights they showed Shaw Tower, the pagoda Cheng Pei Pei had to climb in Lady Hermit (1971). The pagoda made cameos in many SB films and I’m always on the lookout for it. The final rampage was impressive but lasted all of 9 minutes and there were some serious editing issues with it. This was a Chang Cheh film which meant there were buckets of blood in those final minutes.

If you want to see the live action version of this part of Wu Sung’s life you might really enjoy this. I felt like the only sober person at the party. Wu Sung’s drinking just wasn’t very interesting to me. When they finally let Ti Lung loose, the fights were good and he was quite charismatic. The Delightful Forest falls in the slightly below average category for me from this time period and genre, more like the Drunken Forest.

27 March 2024

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"When you think you're safe is precisely when you're most vulnerable"

Seven Samurai is not just a movie about fighting samurai, this film calls out the injustices prevailed on the common people by the warring ruling classes and class delineations. Kurosawa’s 3 ½ hour film would appear to be too long, and truthfully on previous viewings, I felt that way. But this time having learned to be comfortable with his world and character building, I settled in and watched as he wove a complex story out of a simple one. Kurosawa is a master at teaching and rewarding patience.

“You all make great scarecrows. Problem is, the enemy isn’t a bunch of sparrows and crows.”
A small village of peasants whose crops are routinely plundered by the local bandits make a desperate all-in decision. Rather than risk starving and losing their women to the thieves they determine to find samurai hungry enough to protect them for food but not so strong as to be a more dangerous alternative than the bandits. Kambei is recruited first after he rescues a small child from a thief. From there Kambei puts together a team of six willing samurai. A seventh “samurai” refuses to be dismissed and follows them anyway. Kikuchiyo will prove vitally important as a link to the farmers. Kambei develops a plan to protect the village from 40 bandits on horses and armed with muskets with only seven warriors and untrained villagers with bamboo spears. Though the odds are not in their favor this new team of uneasy allies does not back down.

“In life, one finds friends in the strangest places”
The story occurred in one of Kurosawa’s favorite settings, the Sengoku period during the 16th century. While the classes were separated, there was still miniscule room for movement. At the same time, there was a belief that poverty and suffering was the fate for peasants and many of the samurai interviewed refused to help them. There was no reward, no chance for glory or increased rank, no lord to serve. Only those who enjoyed battle or were hungry or had sympathy for the peasants were willing to join.

“Who turned the farmers into such monsters?”
Civil wars had been devastating for the peasants who always have the smallest of safety nets in any time period. For these farmers, the samurai were not much different than the bandits. In a key scene, brilliantly played by Mifune Toshiro, Kikuchiyo upbraided the six when they were horrified to discover armor the farmers had stolen or killed fleeing samurai for. He quickly put things in perspective. Samurai murdered, pillaged, raped, and burned just as the bandits did only under the guise of “honorable” warfare, the end was the same for the farmers. Inviting samurai into their village could be the same result as bringing a tiger to the front door to chase wolves out the back. Someone always coveted the valuable rice and barley the farmers grew. Powerless farmers were left with little to barter with except their women and their lives keeping them in a perpetual state of fear.

“By protecting others, you save yourself”
Samurai Heihachi designed a flag displaying the growing cooperation between the disparate groups. Kambei and Kikuchiyo along with the other samurai and lead peasants forged a transformation of societal boundaries. The two sides slowly learned to trust each other building something new and important. But would it last?

“There’s nothing heroic about selfishly grabbing for glory”
Kurosawa regular Shimura Takashi played Kambei Shimada, the leader of the samurai. This is by far my favorite role of his despite loving Ikiru. Shimura was calm, wise, wily, and also had a sense of humor. He owned every scene he was in and it was quite believable that he instilled confidence and commanded respect from both samurai and villager. His performance was brilliant as the leader who eschewed the need for glory and demanded complete selflessness. Another Kurosawa regular, Mifune Toshiro, and one of my favorite actors, played the slightly and sometimes not so slightly, unhinged Kikuchiyo. It was a role similar to the one he played in Rashomon. Overflowing with kinetic energy and emotion, he never stepped out of character, never reverted to the ultra-cool samurai he was capable of playing. Kimuro Isao as the youngest samurai, Katsushiro, displayed the awe of the men around him and the fear of first battle and first love. The other samurai were capably played and carefully developed as individual characters instead of bland backdrops. Even several peasants were highlighted.

“I defended my post”
Using his three-camera technique for the first time, Kurosawa blended the action to convey the tension of death and battle. His customary blowing dust skittered across the scenes as moods changed. While there was emotional music, his most successful background sounds for me were the beating drums of war approaching even as songbirds sang and flowers bloomed. As the rain fell during the final battle, it was hard to distinguish samurai from peasant. Side by side they fought viciously and heroically regardless of the consequences, regardless of rank, regardless of whether they or their alliance survived. Seven Samurai fought not only bandits but distrust and social injustice with only one side in the triangle of power capable of winning. If you can let Kurosawa slowly envelope you in this world he created with good and evil and every shade of gray in between you’ll be rewarded with a captivating film superbly made.

27 March 2024

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"Explore the ruthless cycle of betrayal and karma's vengeance on the noble."

This is awesome in it's cinematography of night shots and whole movie is taken in red and black themed shots. Which will keep you hook up to the story till the end. For me, the plot is ok because i am a big fan of thrillers so i can except this kind of twists. If you are new and does not watch the thriller genre, you can give it a try! Everything is great in the movie like acting, as i said cinematography, Ost's everything is epic. Which will make you immerse in the ML's world, ML's guy acted so nicely because he is the hero as well as the villain too so to pull of both the characters is amazing. As i said in the headline, Karma is a Bitch, why i said that you will understand that by watching the movie. I believe that the most dangerous thing in whole world is "Betrayal". This movie also gives the reality of the society, which i personally loved it. The movie starts off nice, as the story progress it became predictable as a viewer , i feel this a drawback in the whole movie. The actors they have casted perfectly suited for that role, I have to give big round of applause to our hero and director selected the hero for this movie is the one of the perfect choice i have to say it.

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فیلمی با خط داستانی عالی اما پرداخت ضعیف

بعد از دیدن تریلر و مخصوصا موزیک‌ویدیویی که از این فیلم منتشر شد، به شدت منتظر ریلیزش بودم. با انتظارات بالا و دید مثبت شروعش کردم... ومتاسفانه با ناامیدی به اتمام رسوندمش.
تیم تولید امکانات زیادی در اختیار داشت که میتونست به بهترین نحو ازشون استفاده کنه و یه اثر به یادموندنی بسازه:
بازیگر هایی که شناخته شده و محبوبن
خط اولیه‌ی قوی داستان
المان‌ها و اشاره‌های فرهنگی
طراحی لباس عالی
دکور و صحنه‌سازی باکیفیت و‌...
اما متاسفانه همشون قربانی فیلمنامه‌ی به شدت ضعیف و تدوین پیچیده و بی‌نظم شدن.

<اسپویل>
قرار بود خِم و وان که به اشتباه به قتل متهم شده بودن، برای پاک کردن نام خودشون به مان‌سوانگ بیان و اونجا اسناد خرابکاری یه عده که گمان میرفت در حال آماده‌سازی برای شورش بر علیه تاج و تخت بودند رو پیدا کنن.
بعد از اومدن به مان‌سوانگ هم فهمیدن با چاترا منافع مشترک دارن و تصمیم گرفتن همکاری کنن.

انقدر باگ فیلمنامه زیاد بود که واقعا نمیدونم چجوری فیلم رو تموم کردم و واقعا باید ازش چه نتیجه‌ای بگیرم؟
شخصیت‌پردازی‌ها به شدت ضعیف بود. وان دچار یه تروما بود که به شدت روی رفتارش تاثیر داشت اما هیچ جوره این تروما رو برای بیننده توضیح دقیق ندادن.
چرا خِم به این راحتی به چاترا اعتماد کرد؟
چرا صاحب مان‌سوانگ یجا در حال همکاری با فروشندگان اسلحه بود و چند روز بعد مقابلشون؟
هونگ فقط برای گیر انداختن یه مهره‌ی ساده مثل پسرعموش مرگش رو جعل کرد؟ و بعد از اونهمه تلاش برای افشای هویت فروشنده و خریداران اسلحه جلوی شاه راما، تقریبا هیچ اتفاقی نیفتاد به جز اینکه وان بی دلیل و احمقانه کشته شد.
صحنه‌های احساسی انقدر بدون مقدمه و در موقعیت‌های نامناسب قرار داشت که هیچ تاثیری نمیذاشت.
و در نهایت قرار بود به داستان یک رقصنده و نوازنده پرداخته بشه که کل تبلیغاتی که در این زمینه شده بود محدود شد به یکی دو سکانس که واقعا حیف بود.

برای یک‌ بار دیدن خوبه.
ولی به هیچ عنوان هیچ انتظاری ازش نداشته باشید.

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Good premise but confusing

This was barely coherent.

My order of how much I liked the acts goes 3 > 2 >1 of appearance, but everything really did not have to be in reverse chronology in the first place. It was confusing and the film basically asked me to care about all these unlikeable characters before it showed me why I should.

Act I. There was no reason for the genre to be dystopian sci-fi. It was a pretty interesting set-up in the first act but started to feel forced, not thorough, confusing...and by the time we got to the other acts it was forgotten anyways. The film showed nothing about how society became that way and why it mattered.

I actually enjoyed the dark and grittiness of the film (especially in the later acts) and the setting in the first act should've just stuck with being in a world with lots of corruption and wealth inequality (like Gotham). That would've been a lot more believable.

The acting in the first part was also the worst in my opinion. I already mentioned not really liking the characters, but I also found the performances all just very blah.

Act II.Lee Hong Chi was the only good part here. The acting was great but there was really no good story to work with. The cliche of the Unforgettable Girl You Meet One Sad Night And Then Lose Contact With Forever is cliche and boring.

Act III. This one was actually my favorite because it actually did have a story and decent character writing — until it all devolves just like the other parts.

Generally, all the parts had something going for it until it tries to do something violent for the shock factor. It makes every sub-story end on an unsatisfying note and it sucks because I think the cinematography is pretty good.

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Kind-of boring

Every once in a while I come across a "classic" that I just can't bring myself to like. "In the Realm of the Senses" comes to mind since it's also a classic Japanese film. However, while that one made me very uncomfortable, "Woman in the Dunes" just kinda bored me. I can appreciate the story, the acting, the message, etc. But, at the end of the day, it put me to sleep literally.

"Woman in the Dunes" follows Niki Junpei (played by Okada Eiji), a substitute teacher and bug enthusiast, who comes to a remote village surrounded by sand. The villagers trap Junpei with a recently widowed woman (Kishida Kyoko). Every night, the woman shovels sand and the villagers take it away. Junpei tries in vain to escape the sand pit throughout the movie. An obvious allegory to Sisyphus.

Like I said, I can appreciate this plot. I felt that it did its job as it made me feel anxious and claustrophobic. But still, I fell asleep and I practically couldn't wait for it to end. To conclude, I didn't like it but I see it's artistic merit.

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