Reviews

Concrete Utopia is a great movie

Quote: Concerning the totals disaster surrounding them, “Honestly, there is no difference between a murderer and a Pastor.” From Concrete Utopia.

Whenever there is a total disaster with little possibility of relief forth coming, the first thing to go is humanity. Looking out for only self rises to a heightened level in many people. When resources are at a minimum, and vital resources like food, clothing and shelter are limited, the “have nots” get most fierce.

Concrete Utopia looks at such a situation, created by a disaster which leveled most all of the country, and how people react to this situation. Disaster uncovers an unbalance of power, with people seizing authority. Decisions are made as to who to help and why. Distribution of resources is usually uneven. In Concrete Utopia, people try to make order out of disorder. Society breaks down, as the unworthy try to seize control. This movie did a great job depicting the stress and duress of living in a total disaster situation. Right or wrong, the hard decisions they chose to make called for hypocritical resolutions. When some of your resources are outside of your controlled area, this also should govern the decisions you make. There are a lot of lessons to learn from this movie. You will have lots of head talk after viewing it.

This disaster takes place in a country which does not promote gun ownership. The outcome would have been so totally different in any of the 24 states in the U S which allows concealed carry of guns. I am not saying that this would be a good thing, to own a gun. Frankly, the mess created would have just been bigger.

Leia Mais

"The wind breezes through without a trace"

House of Flying Daggers was a movie where style over substance wasn’t a failing. Zhang Yi Mou pulled out his magical color palette and bathed the screen with gorgeous deep hues. Beautiful people wore luxurious costumes as they danced, fought, and loved in the kaleidoscope background. This director knows how to hit all my film watching pleasure spots through sight and sound.

The plot is fairly simple. With a failing and corrupt government, the underground House of Daggers grew into being. Stealing from the rich and helping the poor while fighting against the crooked officials they’ve earned a target on their backs. Jin and Liu are tasked with bringing down the Daggers’ leader. They suspect the new blind dancer at the Peony Pavilion is the daughter of the recently deceased leader and seek to use her to guide them to the alliance through subterfuge. Jin goes undercover as someone taken with her beauty and breaks her out of jail. The only problem is, “who’s zoomin’ who?”

The thin storyline worked largely due to the commitment of Zhang Zi Yi and Kaneshiro Takeshi in playing adversaries pretending to have fallen for each other, especially when their true feelings begin to trip them up. Their relationship evolves from brutal possession to erotic whispering caresses. Treachery and zealous devotion played out both personally and professionally for a number of people. The twists and turns may not have been earthshattering but they were entertaining. They also showed how little value was put on the lives of the pawns in the game between two powerful forces.

Tony Ching choreographed numerous wire-fu fights with swords and speeding daggers. The battle in the bamboo forest was stunning. Soldiers crawling up and down the verdant trees while also using them as weapons was enthralling. For the most part people were shown full body length in order to observe the intensity of the fights. When the bamboo shatters or impales it was both beautiful and shocking. The singing daggers could bend in flight and bank off of objects to land their targets. While not a fight, Zhang Zi Yi’s dance with the drums was breathtaking and quite memorable. Zhang Jianmin’s dance choreography flowed with power equal to any fight in the film. The percussion ballet was as magnificent as the bamboo one.

Umebayashi Shigeru’s score could be wistful one moment and heart pounding the next. Romantic, playful, traditional and modern, the music enhanced every scene. Zhang’s use of color never ceases to amaze me. Whether in the feminine Peony Pavilion with pink dresses and butterflies or the autumnal trees and falling leaves of the forest, he never neglects the important visual aspects of his films. As mentioned before, the emerald bamboo battle was one of the most iconic scenes from his films.

Mei and Jin’s life and death decisions were made in the sheer elegance and poetry of Zhang’s visual style accompanied by a haunting score. The plot involving both personal and national passions played out in the forests, fields of flowers, and snow. It’s hard to say which was more captivating, I tend to lose my sense of perspective when immersed in Zhang Yi Mou’s world.

3 February 2024

Leia Mais

04/02/2024 (Feb)

It is a good story overall, but quite sad.

Somewhere in China a violent older husband, his young mute wife and two daughters suddenly turn up at an isolated village on a mountain to live - only 6 months later he accidentally dies in a dynamite explosion set to kill badgers.

As the story unfolds we get to understand how he actually ended up being married to her and what happens after his death as the real truth unravels bit by bit.

Some really don't have a chance or fair shot at life - it is made worse when that choice is taken away from them because of being so vulnerable, too young or taken advantage of by people that have no conscience.

Would highly recommend!

Leia Mais

Poetry at its darkest

This is one of those grey movies that tackle a very serious issue or maybe even several serious issues by looking at them from bystanders point of view. With very low entertainment value but high artistic, depth and I guess emotional value. An in-depth window to the value of the less affluent female population of the world.

This is a mans world, a world obsessed with the third leg... A world where that third leg can be used to completely opress someone else ln the name of boys will be boys or in the name of a mans got needs...

Like poetry every word is a symbol in this movie every shot seems to symbolise something, nothing in this was left to chance from the color of the flowers to the direction of the wind.. Though there are a lot of flowers and somewhat colorfull patterns they all seem to be shown though a filter of grey... and the only light that seems to be in sight is the fading memory of our female lead...

Leia Mais

THE ACTING WAS ON THE POINT

If you havent watched other cube movies like me , trust me you are probabl gonna be satisfied with this one...

I really loved the way every single actor made exceptionally good jobs while portraying the characters.

i havent seen any cube movie before and honestly this one was intense for me. I really loved the calm thrill , i really loved how this movie showed how people react when they face situations like this. some goes mad , some tries to find quik solutions , some of them are unexpected heros and some of them sees this inescapable thing as a chance to hate this world even more and just let the craziness inside them wake...

SPOILER ALERT

MASAKI OKADA WAS INSANE FOR THAT ACTING. as I saw him as the silly loser guy a lot in a lot of works , I found him so cute at the start yet sensed something when he accidentally hurt the grumpy old man- DAMN I NEEDED TO STOP THE FILM FOR A MOMENT TO PROCESS HIS SCARED ATTITUDE TURNING INTO AN EVIL SMILE PLS. his scene with masaki suda was also intense. both actors were just doing such a great job right there. I was speechless and the movie made me lose sleep because it felt so intense.

and masaki suda's charachter had a great story , the bond between him and the little boy was so special to me , it broke my heart a lot during the whole thing and also warmed it :(

I really saw this movie as a physcilogical work on people's behaviour in such a desperate situation. it was interesting and realistic for me.

like I said before , every single person delivered their roles so well that I thought what made this movie so intense for me was the acting skills of the actors.

my only dissapointment is that , the reasoning for masaki okada's character going all crazy and evil somehow didnt feel enough even tho it made sense. but his anger , his way of killing was so intense for that little explanation giving to us.

however , i think it still made sense and I was really impressed by masaki okada one more time. he was so succesful for that evil turn , even tho him going evil wasnt suprising for me the way he delivered that role made it so intense and caused me to lose my sleep

shortly , I really loved this movie. for me its deeper than most of the comment section thought. If you havent watched the cube movies other than this , i have no doubt that you are gonna enjoy it. just give it a try

Leia Mais

The real star of the movie is definitely Yeo Jingoo’s

, Ditto was an interesting watch. I’m not sure if I would watch it again or not but either way, it definitely held my attention until the end because I wanted to see how things would turn out. The first part of the movie is stronger, as it’s more focused on them as characters and the university atmosphere, as well as setting this friendship between Yong and Mu Nee, who are from two different times. It was fun seeing them use the radio, whining to each other, pouring their hearts out as well as following their university struggles (mostly love ones). I expected Mu Nee to be a bigger character than she actually is as she doesn’t show up nearly as much as I thought she would (we know barely anything about her lifestyle for example) but I can say that I enjoyed Cho Yihyun’s acting here so much more than in All of Us Are Dead – she was such a cutie.

The real star of the movie is definitely Yeo Jingoo’s Yong as he’s carrying the plot the entire movie. He’s chaotic, nice but crazy chaotic, and I’m not even sure if I liked his character or not. He had me torn, especially when the plot twist kicked in and he started acting like a maniac. Okay, I’m being dramatic but so was he. Some of his actions were definitely way too dramatic for the situation in question, especially regarding his relationship, because we have no clue why he even liked this girl so much in the first place to the point he was going insane thinking about not being with her. King, even in 1999 you needed some therapy. On another hand, we get Yeo Jingoo once again crying in the rain and he’s the master of that – he invented having a mental breakdown in the pouring rain.

It’s hard to talk about Ditto without spoiling the main plot twist which pretty much follows the entire second part of the movie but I will say that Ditto was more and less what I expected. More, in the sense that I enjoyed the friendship aspect of it as well as the main two characters themselves, and less in the sense that it was definitely bordering on the too-dramatic line by the end of the movie which can be a hit-or-miss. However, I think the film rounded up nicely and gave a satisfying ending to everyone, both from the past and the present. My final rating was 9/10 but if you like these actors like I do, give it a go – it’s a nice movie. A bit sad but nice. And there’s a pet turtle!

Leia Mais

Simple and cute love story with an unexpected twist

It started off as him saying he hates her. At first i thought it was weird for him to say that without any context maybe because it was just the start.

After that, it was easy for me to understand the story. Its nit your typical cutesy fluff love story but it was angst with a hint of cuteness. I like how it can be relatable at some point. The overall message that this movie was trying to tell was clear.

No matter how hard it is, you have a decision over your own life. It was really cute how she changed his world and he changed hers. I really enjoyed it and thats why i gave it a high rating. Maybe to some, this is too much or a slow burn or not your kind of movie to enjoy but this is an excellent movie.

Leia Mais

A most enjoyable spoof of the genre

The previous review is so negative that I almost didn't watch it, but Deetsy must have still taken it far too seriously, despite cautioning you to take it "very, very unseriously". So bad, it's very very good!

I think the movie was intended as a spoof (the vampire and the mummy? Dead giveaways!). Obviously low budget, but bad CGI doesn't do any harm when the intention is to point out the ridiculousness inherent in the wuxia genre (which I love, but the way, but it can become very stick-in-the-mud at times).

Once you see it that way - it is hilarious, the slapstick hiding subtle humour and double entendres delivered in such a deadpan way that you have to be on your toes to catch everything. I think the actors must have struggled to avoid corpsing in every scene.

Prince Seahorse pokes fun at the magic and martial arts of far more serious movies and subtly undermines gender stereotypes. The interaction between the ML and Mo Ya is full of innuendo and the ML having instant sex changes inverts the romance theme completely. The movie also riffs on modern tropes such as the television game show presenter giving the hyped-up run-down of the masters at the academy (the three male masters are all deliberately ridiculous) and old-fashioned electronic music when the master "heals" Mo Ya . Powers and spells are instantly transferred at the wave of a hand - hello?

I might watch it again just to check what I missed in the first round.

Leia Mais

Fluff and Cute with an Unexpected Twist

Okay first of all, i enjoyed watching this. It was, to me refreshing to watch. I haven’t been watching JDrama/Movie so it was really something for me.

Putting the manga aside, i will only comment based on the movie itself. It was with a good start, the movie really shows what happened and how the ml and fl get to know each other. To me, the flow of this movie was just right. It was not bad but not so good i would say.

It was not bad, in a sense i am able to understand the whole story and able to enjoy it. For the people who have not read the manga or have no idea about it, i believe you will still be able to enjoy this movie. Overall, i enjoyed it and it was a good watch.

Leia Mais

Love is love ?

South Korea began transitioning to a democratic regime only in the 1980s, and my hypothesis is that the process itself took many years and likely still continues. In the 2000s, they really started to flourish and seemingly express a kind of Western defiance, which, in my opinion, infiltrated at least the film industry in a recognizable way. This movie, in my view, displays those markers, as if you're traveling back in time to the Hollywood of the 1980s in the United States.

The desire to convey a defiant idea that "love is love," unrelated to age or sexual identity, was successfully emotional and managed to deliver the message in its unsophisticated way. It was also very direct, typical of those years when there was a certain innocence and naivety, and everything was spoon-fed.
That is, the character whose soul was transmigrated spoke the same sentences and heard the same music at a level of 100 percent, not just hints here and there. Moreover, there was a lot of caution not to show any intimacy between the two characters(Second round), due to the period it was filmed.

In my opinion, it still holds up even though 23 years have passed, but on the other hand, it's very easy to judge this movie now because we are in a different era where things could have been a bit more blunt.
That is, if they had shown us a romantic scene between the two characters in the second reincarnation, it could have been bold for an even earlier time while still maintaining the same flame to this day.

Many of the things said by the male protagonist's classmates could not pass today's censorship filter, what is known as political correctness. After all, it's permissible to say these things only in class, but heaven forbid depicting them in a fantasy movie scene. Blunt remarks that men would make about women, which are still made today albeit censored, manage to induce a sort of internal cringe because this censorship has become part of our consciousness.
The same goes for other aspects in the movie, such as age differences. In the 2000s, this wasn't relevant and wasn't censored in South Korea. From the modern viewer's perspective, people who watch this and criticize the movie may not be aware that the era was different, and such things were accepted as part of the culture.

Leia Mais

"When you have it you don't want it, when you don't have it you want it"

Hello Ghost is a remake of the 2010 Korean movie by the same name. It is a comedic movie with the dark thread of gut-wrenching loneliness running through it for one man.

Ah Wei has been alone his whole life. On his 21st attempted suicide he briefly stops breathing. His life is saved by a pretty EMT on the way to the hospital. When he awakens, he can see four ghosts who refuse to leave him alone. A shaman tells him he must grant their wishes before they will leave, not an easy task for these ghosts. There’s the older woman, crying woman, smoking man, and mischievous little boy. The four lead him on a merry chase getting him into all sorts of trouble. He also keeps running into Yu Xiao Yin, the EMT.

Unlike so many ghost stories, there was no threatening entity, no mystery to resolve. The ghosts appeared to want to have a good time. The only external threat was to Xiao Yin’s brother who was deeply in debt to loan sharks which also made her life miserable.

The comedic moments often bordered on cringe-worthiness although there were some genuinely funny scenes. The slapstick didn’t feel as over the top with this version. Aside from trying to make you laugh Hello Ghost also tried to touch your heart, deeply enough to hear it beat. This story would have benefited from more backstory for Ah Wei, and why he never created a family or friends for himself. Why would a hospital kick a suicidal patient out without any mental health counseling, especially after he admitted to hearing voices? Why was Xiao Yin so attracted to Ah Wei who had attempted suicide multiple times and talked to people who weren’t there? As with the Korean version, the ending saves this movie and gives it meaning. Even knowing how it ended, I still teared up.

As good as parts of this movie were, like with the original, it left me disappointed that the rest of the film wasn’t as moving as the final ten minutes. Hello Ghost is a movie that with more character development and either less or better slapstick might have been as deep as it wanted to be. Overcoming hopelessness is not an easy fix. Despite its shortcomings, if you’re prepared to be patient, Hello Ghost is a movie worth trying.

2 February 2024

Leia Mais

Beautiful gowns

While maintaining its beauty and poignancy throughout its 150-minute run, I'd be a liar if I said that the lengthiness of this coming-of-age film wasn't felt after the 2nd hour. There's also an issue with the movie biting off more than it can chew. There are a few storylines with no storyline feeling like it takes precedence over the other.

The romance between the two male leads feels like it should be the main focus of the plot but for me, it felt like a subplot to the storyline with Tong's family. And without spoiling much, I'll just say that that entire storyline felt implausible and out of place in this move.

And then there's the ending... and don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining about the ending because it wasn't the ideal happy ending. I'm complaining because it ended on a bittersweet note just for the sake of doing so. It set itself up perfectly for the happy, ideal ending and then, for no reason, it took a left turn. It was a transparent attempt at being "realistic" but failed due to its very own plot and character development.

Leia Mais

Weak Movie, Too Much Action

Hmm, how can I say this? It was decent at most.

Yet another film with a post-apocalyptic premise, where the main threat is human instead of a natural disaster or wild animals. Wow, I did not expect that. Can we get something unique?

The introduction of the film is too fast; they might as well not show the earthquake scene. It was too brief, and the introduction of the seductive character isn't good enough. Secondly, how? How did the organization find those teens? How did the female sergeant find Nam San? Why did she need him? She specifically asked him and emphasized his name like she knew him but didn't bother to explain.

The plot is weak, with nothing interesting. The female sargeant (Ahn Ji Hye) and Suna (Roh Jeong Eui) acting is soooo bad. Especially Ahn Ji Hye, her acting is soulless. The action is brutal but at the second half of the movie, it became dragging, with to much action.

As much as I love Ma Dong Suk, I did not enjoy this movie. Not recommended at all.

Leia Mais