Reviews

I understand this more after reading about it

This hour long film is a combination of documentary and fiction centered around actual events like the Fukushima tsunami, with Soto Zen Buddhist monks in three of the roles. There were moments I didn't understand, like why monks were walking through muddy land driving sticks into the ground. Reading reviews and interviews helped me make sense of it in retrospect. I don't feel qualified to give it a rating and would prefer not to make such a judgement from one viewing. I gave it a rewatch value of 10 as I think I would gain much from seeing it again, perhaps a few times. But I found its screening on the JFF+ Independent Cinema festival too late to do so.

It's an intentionally unpristine view of monks and their struggles. It reflects on questions like whether allergies might come from the damage we've done to the world? What should our mission be in the present? What's needed at this time? An elderly and well respected nun gives her answers to the last two. For her, it is sharing the wisdom of the Buddha. How these practices are relevant to well-being and mental health in particular is shown through the monks' lives and advice on a suicide help line.

These are the articles I found most helpful:
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13055417
https://www.sousei.gr.jp/tenzo/en/
https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/tenzo-katsuya-tomita-buddhist-monk-hybrid

Leia Mais

O:G 6 - Ending on a lower note

By the sixth entry in this series, they had definitely exhausted the formula. That's not to say that this is a bad film, but it is on the lower end of fun when compared to the others, and feels more by the numbers overall. The story is a bit forgettable, as are the characters involved, and we've seen this 5x over already. But... on its own merits, and not being compared to the others, it's still incredibly watchable, with some cool set pieces to detract from the poor choreographed fight sequences (something the others could have used more of).

A few things would have improved this final instalment for me. One would be giving us an actual ending, rather than the same one we've had every movie. And I know that this is something that was more rare back then, but BWH&H did it just a short time later with its fifth film and it was perfect. Another thing would have been to have this one set years and years after the others, as it seems to take place shortly after the fifth instead. And finally, maybe some callbacks to the previous films.

I've really enjoyed this series on the whole, but can understand why it ended with this one. Audiences were tired of the same old, and it really didn't have anything new to say. I wish they'd done another final chapter many years later, as it would have been cool to see where Goro ended up in his older age. It is what it is, however, and that's just fine.

Leia Mais

A fine Korean short where most viewers will guess exactly what will come in the next scene, I can recommend it to all GT users. You will be pleased with the light Asian treatment, including "affines", only in one scene will you be betrayed by the English subtitles, but in the one that absolutely everyone will guess.

On March 24, 2022, I played the short again with sk subtitles and I definitely have to increase the value of the picture. Such a little gem, actually a PEARL, not a pure romance for a below-average 3.8 - but for me it's straight up a ten, wonderful including the fact that the ending is "finally" as it is. Beautifully played.

Leia Mais

Boring and incoherent story with bland acting

I watched the movie and expected that I would enjoy a beautiful dramatic masterpiece...but I was really shocked by the story...as for the acting, I really liked the cast and their feelings...as for the events, I felt very bored in the first hour of the movie, and some of the events were illogical, especially the topic that It is related to Algeria, even if it is not a true story, but as long as you are talking about another country, you must study the politics, heritage, and life of that country. The story was incoherent, unfortunately. I was disappointed and felt that I wasted my time watching it. Maybe I enjoyed it. The last minutes of the movie because it gave the meaning of family.. Unfortunately, the acting is great, but the writing of the movie is very bad and the events are not connected well.. If you want to watch a movie just to waste time, watch this movie, but if you have limited time, stay away from it because you will feel... Bored..

Leia Mais

Gentle story of friendship and love

This wasn't anything fancy, just a simple and gentle story of friendship and love between a living person and a ghost. They told it very well. It has humour and genuinely touching, beautiful moments. The two leads were perfect for their roles.

It was filmed in Onomichi and the last half hour or so conveys a strong sense of place in its own quiet, gentle way.

I was fortunate enough to catch this via the JFF+ Independent Cinema 2023 festival. This ends 31st October so it will likely be over before any finds my comments. It's worth looking for elsewhere and I hope to be able to spend time with it again.

Leia Mais

Not happy ending.

Ok so he is dead in the end. Weird twist;
the movie would have been just fine had he been alive and went back to see her. Keeping one promise is paramount!

Fine I get it. You wanted to throw a curve ball ? in there so you decided you wanted to negatively interrupt the viewer emotions with a crazy ending.

Atleast show or say how he died.
I didnt invest 2hours of my life just to be left bewildered.
Crazy!! am not happy at all, I wish I didn't watch it moving forward I will be checking Asian movies and dramas for happy ending, before watching.

I don't know what's the crazy obsession to have unhappy ending.

For crying out loud! Put the dramatic emotional roller coastsr in the middle and give us the happy ending.

trust me if the heartache is in the middle, we will still feel the pain, especially if it was well written and portrayed well by the actors.

Going back to movie removing my rating from a 8 to a 7.
got me thinking i missed something, like how did he died!!!!!

Leia Mais

Great watch, definitely recommend!

I LOVED this movie. The plot in itself was interesting but I never really enjoy Asian movies, atleast the ones I've watched thus far, because they never really do it for me. This one though-OMG, was just-chef's kiss. And the main leads relationship was so cute, as a die hard fan of romance no skinship in a drama is usually a deal breaker for me but here it wasn't needed. Their relationship/connection/chemistry was so pure that just watching them together was enough. I wanted to rate this a 10/10 but I ended up giving it a 9.5 because I really wish they showed us more of Miyo's power. I would have also liked to see how her family was after all that happened and not just the word of mouth they gave us, and also the main villain, what happened to that guy? This would have been perfect as a series because there's so much to unpack. Or can they just make a part 2 of this movie? Sigh. I'm just gonna go read the Manga, because how do I move on from this? Watch it, if you're into fantasy, and you won't regret it.

Leia Mais

It's no glory. The film contains typical features of film production in non-Islamic Asian countries - naivety, playback, the implausibility of some scenes, comedy that will make an Asian viewer laugh and a European one rather cry. But take everything I wrote with an exaggeration. Otherwise, I like Thai art, but not all of it.

And now the pros. Once the film is Thai, I feel freer because I know that where it is necessary to portray the story, there may (or may not) be intimate actors, unlike the current Chinese-censored production. Decent quality copy with easy to read English subtitles and looks good on the boys, especially Daniel.

Leia Mais

Eleven years after A Werewolf Boy premiered, I have finally gotten around to watching it. The story felt like a fusion of Harlequin romance and fairytale with a warning. While often predictable it was also enjoyable and addicting.

Kim Sun Yi along with her mother and sister move into a house in a remote rural area. Their landlord is the “slimeball”, Ji Tae. Not long after settling in Sun Yi discovers a feral young man hiding next to a shed. He wolfs down the food her mother gives him. Unlike so many rigid Korean mothers in dramas, open-hearted Ok Hui takes the stranger into their home. With 60,000 orphans from the war, it wasn’t a leap of imagination to think he had been abandoned and left to fend for himself. She gives him the name Cheol Su. Sun Yi takes it upon herself to train Cheol Su like a puppy with good results. “Wait” comes to mean many things as the story progresses. As Cheol becomes more civilized she begins to teach him to read and write. Ji Tae comes to resent Cheol Su’s protective nature whenever he attempts to put the moves on Sun Yi which leads to dire consequences and a bizarre wartime experimentation revelation.

I enjoyed Park Bo Young and Soon Joong Ki’s performances. It was refreshing to watch them when they acted freer and more natural than their more crystallized on brand performances in recent years. Jang Young Nam has great depth as an actress and it showed in this film, too. Yoo Yeon Seok was given the tough job of playing Ji Tae, a character with zero nuance and an animal far more dangerous than a wolf.

A Werewolf Boy was a chaste romantic coming of age tale set in a beautiful bucolic setting. Promises were kept and broken, something unavoidable on the road to adulthood. It veered in and out of fantasy, showing once again that the worst monsters are actually human beings.

10/27/23

Leia Mais

Maybe I was looking for even more depth in this original, almost unique Chinese short than it has. Or am i wrong?

I watched again because the music was a powerful storyteller, perhaps greater than the dancing skills of the individual protagonists. Asian concept ... if they had masks, I wouldn't recognize them as being from China. Different, different from tons of other shorts. I'm raising the rating. Damn, that music got me...

Maybe I was looking for even more depth in this original, almost unique Chinese short than it has. Or am i wrong?

I watched again because the music was a powerful storyteller, perhaps greater than the dancing skills of the individual protagonists. Asian concept ... if they had masks, I wouldn't recognize them as being from China. Different, different from tons of other shorts. I'm raising the rating. Damn, that music got me...

Leia Mais

A homage to all those unhappily in love! (Wherever. Whenever.)

I´d say this is a homage to all those unhappily in love! (Wherever. Whenever.)
Calm, like the water on windless days. Bare in words, instead told with images, well-placed scene settings and metaphors.
The protagonists are not so good with words, rather insecure and awkward when it comes to sharing their feelings. (But actually, nowhere in the movie is there any role model, whatsoever, from whom they could have learned better - how to deal with feelings openly, sincerely and appropriately.)

The original title was "Lost Love" or "Missed Love". But the international title “Lost in Love” is also appropriate, as the protagonists don´t seem to know how to navigate their feelings of love. This brings us back to the calm – becalm, with no wind to fill the sails. In fact, there is no tension between the protagonists - it is the drama of bad or missing timing in love. It is no coincidence that bus terminals become a structuring leitmotif.

The story of "Lost in Love" is not spectacular. On the contrary, it is the essence of a non-story. A story about a story that just doesn't want to happen. Nevertheless, it goes deep - because it relies on the effect of the blank, on the space between, on what works in the background and constantly gnaws at the heart. And this, actually, is an all too familiar, well known, painful experience for many people. It doesn’t have to be explicit. It is even more precise that way.
The KMovie has nothing to do with a typical RomCom. Nevertheless, "Lost in Love" is poetic in its own way - with an affectionate look at the unfortunate lovers on this earth: their hopes; their fear of self-confidently standing up for their feelings and thus maybe provoking the dreaded, outspoken “No!” or “Go!”; their inability to let go.

Water is the leitmotif in several ways. There is the rowing school and the fish farm representing dynamism and movement. And then there is the rain and the tears, shed or non-shed. But “Lost in Love” is also expressly colorful. With an eye for the banal details in everyday life. Authentic. Without makeup. The smell and the humid air of the monsoon summer are almost penetrating through to the audience. The landscape was handpicked, the radiant nature representing the beauty of life - even despite being unhappily in love.

The KMovie has its own idea of pacing. It develops its idiosyncratic charisma. It is the story about the non-love story, quietly told in a meandering way, as feelings are nothing one can be persuaded of... they can only be experienced... and, at best, shared... Or maybe empathized/sympathized with.

Immersive in its own way. Not for every mood. But if the timing (yes, again…) is right - for me it was a rainy autumn day - then (in my opinion) it's definitely worth seeing.
Others might say its dull and boring. Being from 2006, it is rather ´old´, too.
Well, check it out for yourself.





P.S.:
For the private lives of the ML and FL, though, it obviously worked out quite well.
They are married since 2009...

Leia Mais

Fake it till you make it

Only copying the review I had that summed up my thoughts on both seasons cause I'm lazy

It was cute but that's it, there was not much of the story and I thought it'll be easy for the director since it's a 2D story about fake dating turning into real dating between two highschoolers but there was still a lot of holes in the story and so many things left unanswered!! I guess it can be called a journey to sexuality but I think they didn't even have any problems with genders when it comes to dating, it even seems to me that both of them who is popular and dated a bunch of girls are not treating it as if it's new and different-kind of dating when it comes to them dating which are two guys, it leaves me guessing that they might be bi.

I can see why they went with slow-paced story to make it somehow realistic and seem not forced which ended up with them looking like they are forcing to make it realistic which kinda ruins it for me and made me fast forward a lot. The casts were great but the only one that did well without looking awkward or forced with some of their actions is the person who played shino. Individually criticizing, seiryo's actor did not do well on portraying his character, he was shy and introverted but sometimes he went too quiet and the timing he goes back to talking is sometimes not right and in an awkward timing. The way he acted anxious/scared on the kissing scene on shino's room felt exaggerated.. shino's actor did really well, I have no complains. He was not awkward and it really looks normal and easy to understand his character from the way he portrayed and acted.

The story holes is that even though the two dated a bunch of girls, they don't know how to date.. and had to figure it out for themselves along the way. I guess that's being a man who's popular in japan for you, cause I saw a lot of those in jp movies/series. Another one is seiryo's and the girl who has the same name as shino's relationship, it was vaguely shown but it was pretty obvious that seiryo cherishes and likes the girl but how their relationship bloomed was not entirely explained, they both cling onto one another for comfort which was really weird when you think that the girl obviously was still into his brother which made me think why they were in a relationship, the girl sexually harassed seiryo which he didn't liked at first but went a long with it after(?) cause they even dated (showed scenes of them being in restaurants in a couple manner in season 1) so even if seiryo knew about her relationship with his brother, he still went with it so I was like huh.. that's problematic, might make me hate seiryo cause that's being an accomplice to cheating.

Anyways, enough about that it's actually quite enjoyable. Once they finished a day it makes you curious on the day next cause what happens then is always different and while getting closer to a week, you can see them trying to get even more closer and not wanting it to end :') made me feel lots of butterflies and I liked them together a lot IT WAS SO CUTE AND IT COULDVE BEEN MORE if things were explained and if it were a little bit more harder for them to get together in the end cause it went too easily.

Leia Mais

Fake it till you make it

It was cute but that's it, there was not much of the story and I thought it'll be easy for the director since it's a 2D story about fake dating turning into real dating between two highschoolers but there was still a lot of holes in the story and so many things left unanswered!! I guess it can be called a journey to sexuality but I think they didn't even have any problems with genders when it comes to dating, it even seems to me that both of them who is popular and dated a bunch of girls are not treating it as if it's new and different-kind of dating when it comes to them dating which are two guys, it leaves me guessing that they might be bi.

I can see why they went with slow-paced story to make it somehow realistic and seem not forced which ended up with them looking like they are forcing to make it realistic which kinda ruins it for me and made me fast forward a lot. The casts were great but the only one that did well without looking awkward or forced with some of their actions is the person who played shino. Individually criticizing, seiryo's actor did not do well on portraying his character, he was shy and introverted but sometimes he went too quiet and the timing he goes back to talking is sometimes not right and in an awkward timing. The way he acted anxious/scared on the kissing scene on shino's room felt exaggerated.. shino's actor did really well, I have no complains. He was not awkward and it really looks normal and easy to understand his character from the way he portrayed and acted.

The story holes is that even though the two dated a bunch of girls, they don't know how to date.. and had to figure it out for themselves along the way. I guess that's being a man who's popular in japan for you, cause I saw a lot of those in jp movies/series. Another one is seiryo's and the girl who has the same name as shino's relationship, it was vaguely shown but it was pretty obvious that seiryo cherishes and likes the girl but how their relationship bloomed was not entirely explained, they both cling onto one another for comfort which was really weird when you think that the girl obviously was still into his brother which made me think why they were in a relationship, the girl sexually harassed seiryo which he didn't liked at first but went a long with it after(?) cause they even dated (showed scenes of them being in restaurants in a couple manner in season 1) so even if seiryo knew about her relationship with his brother, he still went with it so I was like huh.. that's problematic, might make me hate seiryo cause that's being an accomplice to cheating.

Anyways, enough about that it's actually quite enjoyable. Once they finished a day it makes you curious on the day next cause what happens then is always different and while getting closer to a week, you can see them trying to get even more closer and not wanting it to end :') made me feel lots of butterflies and I liked them together a lot IT WAS SO CUTE AND IT COULDVE BEEN MORE if things were explained and if it were a little bit more harder for them to get together in the end cause it went too easily.

Leia Mais

This film is different in that the story itself deals with the "production" of erotic gay films, auditions, and has more of a narrative value than being a drama. There is only a glimmer of what could be called a plot, or a romance, the young men will do anything to stay afloat and not have to return to their province. In the theme of the film about the production of a gay erotic film, I see the only major positive of this piece.

Apart from the fact that a bunch of censors end up rejecting this film within a film, we can as always squirm with half-naked and naked men on stage, who look more like caterpillars in a death throes. I rate from the point of view of older pinoy movies.

Leia Mais

According to reality, the film probably has the greatest "value" in the story itself and what, in this case, a young person is capable of. After the actors, I was impressed by his visage, the symposer David (Sandino Martin) and the other two items - the sound was only yes - no, that means average and the weakest link in this movie was the processing, which often happens with older pinoy movies ...
I evaluated by looking at the overall condition of older Filipino films.
According to reality, the film probably has the greatest "value" in the story itself and what, in this case, a young person is capable of. After the actors, I was impressed by his visage, the symposer David (Sandino Martin) and the other two items - the sound was only yes - no, that means average and the weakest link in this movie was the processing, which often happens with older pinoy movies ...
I evaluated by looking at the overall condition of older Filipino films

Leia Mais