Reviews

Disconcerting movie: boring at first but heart-warming and emotional in its second half!

This movie was a bit disconcerting to me: I was not sure what the narration was trying to accomplish with its numerous storylines and characters. Its first half was pretty boring and generic in my eyes and the second half positively surprised me. Indeed, I was able to finally immerse myself in the plot and to be concerned by the characters' lots. There was a couple of scenes that were tears-inducing but it was not over-the top: they were well-played and made total sense in the context of the story.

The ensemble cast did a suitable job overall but it is clearly the pets that are the stars of the film. I was super impressed by the emotions they were able to transmit and all the tricks they were playing. It must not have been easy (both for the human actors and the production team) to manage all the scenes with the various animals. I really hope that the various pets were not hurt and were well-taken care of during the filming.

While the production was classic and colourful, the OST was not memorable at all: I do not remember even one song.

I would recommend this to people loving stories showcasing pets and in search of some heart-warming feelings. This does not revolution the genre and is a bit strangely paced in its set up but it will make you go through some emotions for sure.

Leia Mais

Good not great

It's a good movie to pass the time and you certainly won't be bored watching it but the ending leaves more to be desired. It doesn't quite feel complete. There were certain aspects that I thought would be explored but weren't. It only explores the relationship between a mother, Kill Bok Soon and her daughter.

The action sequences were enjoyable but it's not the best female action sequences I've seen. It's good. There's plenty of action in fact. Just nothing mindblowing.

The movie has some comedy and lots of blood.

One thing to note is there is a sex scene. Nothing is shown.

There were a few characters and appearances that I really enjoyed.
Esom as Cha Min Hee, the company CEO's annoying sister. I last saw her in Taxi Driver and loved the contrast in the characters. I was quite amused.
Lee Jae Wook as the young CEO. It's a short role but put a bright smile on my face. This is the first other project I'm seeing of his after Alchemy Of Souls.

EXTRA SCENE
Just after the credits first start, there is a small extra scene so don't forget to catch that.

Leia Mais

The Struggles of a Single Mother Done Right

This was just such a pretty drama, a lovely depiction of the struggles of the typical single mother trying to survive in the workplace type of movie..

The story is not really new, but it does have a few nice touches twists and turns involving backstabbing colleges who literally will stop at nothing to get a head.

The core of this drama is the mother-daughter relationship where the two seem to care a whole lot for each-other but also struggle with honesty as both mother and daughter have a whole lot of secrets and insecurities in their relationship. Pretty much like most teens who are trying to find themselves as well as their sexuality. Finding a way to come out to ones parent is not always easy. Especially if that parent keeps pulled back to work at the most inconvenient times creating a whole lot of misunderstandings. As one could expect in a movie about this type of relationship. It does also make way for some pretty decent lines questioning the whole idea of coming out, done really smoothly and did not feel forced at all.

There are also some back and front stabbing teens as well, as well as some guy who really should learn a whole lot about consent.

There is also some slight romance, lust and even a show of true friendship hidden somewhere in there between all the stabbing, shooting and other ways to kill/die. As this is pretty much all covered in a lot of gorgeously filmed slow mo blood-splatter, shining shreds of glass and legs kicking in beautiful surroundings and to the sound of perfectly mismatched music. Just the way I like it.

Did we get to see anything new?

No not really, but it was well made, pretty and definitely one of the better mother-daughter movies out there. Also if you do watch it make sure not to miss the epilog it was like a perfect little stab in the heart.

Leia Mais

It needed some emotion!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
This movie felt to me like they edited out the scenes that would have made the movie make sense, any scene that included any time of emotional development between the characters.

Yamashita Tomohisa as teacher Sakurai Haruka - he kept all the crazy girls at bay, and falls in love with a girl that has no emotions whatsoever? They've never had a conversation with one another, but he loves her? He's gorgeous, that's all I got from him.

Komatsu Nana as Kururugi Yuni - she was the most immature, mature young lady ever. She hates him but she loves him? She's never shown any emotion at all, yet she's going to confess in front of the whole class? Did she love him because he talked to her about English? What's the attraction!?!? This character was the epitome of robotic. They might have been portraying her to be on the spectrum, but if so, this movie would have been so much better if they had addressed it. I think it might have been to show that only he saw her "inner emotions" because she clenched her fists. She's beautiful, that's all I got from her.

Don't even get me started about how, even though they have never been on a date, he wants to marry her.

I did like how the evil troublemaker was one of the teachers and not one of the kids, though why there always has to be an evil troublemaker, I have no idea.

I would have enjoyed it, I think, if we were given any insight into why they loved each other.

Leia Mais

Ambiguously queer Phantom says be queer, do crime, join the revolution.

Song at Midnight takes Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera and seamlessly adapts it into a movie about political unrest, the desire for revolution, and the need to fight for freedom.

This Phantom (like the original) is a victim of war and corrupt politics, in hiding from those who mean him harm, and continuously craving love he cannot hold onto, but Song Danping is depicted as a more tragic and innocent victim than the possessive and murderous Erik.

Where Erik decides to mold Christine into his eternal bride, Danping spies a young man (Sun Xiao Ou) struggling to perform and decides he has just the remedy for that - in exchange for a little comfort...for his ex-girlfriend. No strings attached, as it would turn out. Accepting no for an answer is the most chill thing I have ever seen a Phantom do and I will admit that this one has a very soft place in my heart for that reason alone. Also, it's hard not to notice that these two men have such intimate chemistry that their relationship can be contemplated further than what appears on the surface.

Rather than being raised as a murderer for hire, Danping left home to become a revolutionary fighter during the Second Chinese Revolution and later took up a new identity as a successful actor, all the while living in fear that his connections to the revolution would be discovered. Unfortunately, he is eventually caught and punished not for his connections but because he fell in love with a woman who was above his station. This poor man survived a whole revolution only to be tortured and burned with acid for the crime of falling in love.

This movie is often referred to as the first Chinese horror film and I can see why. The typical horror movie elements are definitely present here.

~ The eerie atmosphere of the rundown theater and the slow, suspenseful walk down the hallway leading up to it.

~ Women screaming in horror.

~ The overacted moment when Danping's bandages get removed and he sees his scarred face for the first time.

~ The equally overacted "woman succumbs to madness" trope.

~ The (accidentally? erotic) torture scene.

~ The tragic/forbidden love story through lines.

~ The attempted assault and subsequent murder.

~ The angry, terrified villagers wielding torches and pitchforks as they chase the "monster" through the night with intent to kill.

Parts of this movie are dark and hard to make out in its current state and the editing is noticeably choppy in places, but I have to say I can't recall ever seeing a horror movie open with a shadowy figure singing a long-winded and poetic serenade to a stone-faced lady who looks possessed before now, so I was immediately intrigued.

The opening is very slow-paced and focuses more on building the atmosphere than introducing the audience to its plot. The aforementioned artsy serenade, featuring a lot of beautiful nature shots, takes up the majority of the first 13 minutes. So, when the Angel Theatre Troupe finally shows up, the story unexpectedly continues to drag for a short time while the performers wait out in the rain, knocking on doors until they find a place to stay. Most likely in an attempt to build suspense, they eventually take a drawn out walk down the eerie theater hallway to reveal the rundown mess inside. Thankfully, the plot picks up from there and it becomes easier to follow.

The music is beautiful and Song Danping's makeup puts certain other sunburned Phantoms to shame, especially during the initial reveal where his skin almost looks like it's melting off his face.

Leia Mais

A strange little tail

After watching this I'm gathering that it was supposed to be the first episode of a low budget web series that didn't get off the ground. The English subtitles pretty bad and are sometimes missing(watched on IQ). The story is silly but could be cute. Cats are actually aliens whose home planet is destroyed somehow. They come to earth and are broken into 2 separate camps; cats who want to live as cats and human companions (some of which can transform into humans) and cats who want to get rid of humans and run earth themselves. The actors try, but there really isn't much of a script to go by, even taking into account the bad subtitling. There is some cute and for the most part well done animated parts. The sound is AWFUL. I assumed they didn't have lapel mics OR a boom mic because when the camera is farther away you can barely hear them, but the little BTS at the end definitely shows a boom. The "fight" scenes gave me second hand embarrassment. At least Jun Chen is cute?

Leia Mais

If I'm being nitpicky, Bob seemed like a real fuckboy. If I'm being really nitpicky, I did not like Lana calling the other girls "whores". Granted, maybe "whores" doesn't have as a bad of a connotation as in the U.S.?, but I still think that Lana is unjustified in calling other women that word.

Nevertheless, I thought Dob as Bob was overall pretty good. I just didn't understand how he could pee in the toilet while looking in the mirror.

The other criticism I have is that the story was a little fast-paced and confusing at times. I didn't catch on to what people/AIs were saying, so I had to rewind at times.

Overall, if you are into AI-themed movies/dramas, this one is ok, but I would probably recommend others over this one.

Leia Mais

The Lie Is That There's A Story

The challenge of creating short movies such as this is having a cohesive story and being able to tell that story in such a short period of time. This short failed in that. It has potential, but it either needs to be a few minutes longer or there needs to be more dialogue. As it is, it just feels very disjointed.

If you weren't aware that the character of Benz had feelings for his roommate and friend Riw going into the movie, the automatic assumption from the beginning is that both boys like Meen and are fighting over her. However, after that initial scene, it becomes clear that Benz actually has feelings for Riw. This is where things start getting disjointed. After leaving for the day and arriving in the wee hours of the morning to find Riw drunk, Benz very nearly kisses him before stopping himself. The following scene appears to be the next day, with Riw apologizing and asking why Benz is mad at him. They have a moment with Riw calling Benz cute and then insisting on feeding him some kind of snack. Meen shows up and looks upset seeing the two of them together. This then jumps to Riw and Meen apparently having a one on one study session and Benz looking on jealously. Riw walks Meen outside and Benz takes the opportunity to hit her with his car.

Again, the potential is there, but besides the disjointed story, the characters feel shallow. I know its hard to create meaningful characters in such a short time frame, but that's part of the challenge. Riw obviously likes Meen and Meen seems to like him too, but what are his feelings towards Benz? Just a roommate? Just friends? There seems like there might be more there, but its hard to tell. And Benz's reaction feels way over the top. There's no buildup to his apparently just snapping. Again, the first scene makes it seem like both he and Riw like Meen. His jealousy needed to be built up and explored a little more to make it believable he would do something so extreme.

In terms of acting, Singto is definitely the star which isn't hard since there are only three actors, but he does stand out. Kanin is pretty bland all around, not a whole lot of expression. This is his first and only acting role though, so I'm willing to cut him some slack. Ink plays a minor role, but despite her lack of screen time, she still managed to be engaging when she was on screen. And as I said, Singto was the stand out he was the most interesting to watch. Part of that is just him, he has an uncanny ability to command the screen with very little effort, but he also seemed to be the one putting in the most work. His acting was more nuanced and while not perfect, this was his first role it seems, he still made an impression, especially that smirk at the end.

The production was obviously low budget. Honestly, the most annoying aspect of it was the camera work. The in and out of focus in the middle of a scene was very distracting. The music, what little there was, was generically boring, but also not overly distracting, so a bonus there, I suppose.

I will say that it's not a waste of time solely because the short is a mere 7 minutes long. I don't regret watching it, but its certainly not what I was expecting or hoping for. As long as you don't have high expectations, it might be moderately entertaining. If nothing else, it's fun to see a young Singto before he got big with SOTUS.

Leia Mais

Good movie

It is a pretty good movie, had a good story, and had great acting. I was worried I was going to get bored with it, but surprisingly I was hooked right from the start. I definitely suggest this movie, it's worth the watch. I'm happy with the story, and how it progressed. Im not super into action, but this wasn't overwhelming and or underwhelming, to me it was the perfect amount of action. So that's a relief to me, and makes me happy with how the movie was. So if youre expecting an overwhelming pack of action, this isn't it, but wanting a sense of action. This is for you.

Leia Mais

Its beautiful, watch for yourselves, I don't like spoiling people........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ this makes you sad and happy so prepare yourselves for a rollercoaster plus some diamonds in the rough are seen in this. My favorite was the grandma ofc.

Leia Mais

Interesting premise of the plot but underdelivered

When I saw the trailer, the plot really sounds interesting but the execution of the movie overall is kind of meh. There are lots of cringey moments specially that I understand all 3 languages used in this movie. Some of the scenes felt off because of the script. Some scenes excites me but most of them felt forced. There's not enough build up to justify the story properly. Although, I must admit it's a light-hearted movie really. Just a fun watch.

I don't feel any chemistry among the casts. I don't understand the actor-manager relationship in this movie. Like are they close like friends or are they just being professional among each other. It was really vague. The connection of the female and male lead wasn't established properly as well so everything feels forced just to fit the storyline.

The OSTs used was okay, not memorable though. This movie if I may say is decent enough to be watched but if you'll really get into the tiny details, a lot of things in this movie doesn't make sense or feels off somehow. I still enjoyed watching it despite the shortcomings. Do I recommend it? Yes, I still recommend it if you just want a light-hearted watch. But if you're like a movie critique and only wants to watch high quality movie, just skip this one then.

Leia Mais