Reviews

How much is a life worth?

How much is a life worth? Not much, I'm afraid. This film is about a streetwise, headstrong high schooler who gets her passions and aspirations beaten out of her by the cruel machinations of this capitalist society. Everyone in this film is graded by how much they are "worth" - from the call centre staff being measured by their commissions/sales amounts, to the schools being graded on how many students have successfully found employment. There is no leeway for error; falling down the ranks means being fired or having a school shut down. Every worker - be it an intern, police officer or teacher is essentially reduced to a number on an excel sheet, dispensable and replaceable. "If you can't take it, just quit! No one is forcing you to stay" is a phrase thrown flippantly around by the management of the company that had the greatest hand in causing So Hee's demise. If only life were that simple, to be able to escape this rat race at any point you desire. Does anybody actually desire to be a cog in a machine, slaving away for profits that you would never even receive? Alas, when quitting means disappointing a "respected" teacher, being threatened with expulsion and worsening an already bad family financial situation, it seems that death is the only answer.

Personal opinions of our current society aside, this film has done a great job in highlighting the injustices of a capitalistic society that reduces the worth of a human being down to a single number. The acting is amazing, though the cinematography is straight to the point, in an almost documentary like style which is quite befitting to the theme of this film. It is a bleak slow burn with no resolution, and Bae Donna's character's mission to find the truth is akin to the fight between David and Goliath. But in the end, that's what life is right? When the rich get richer and the poor continue to suffer and have their voices silenced, injustices are covered up and victims have nowhere to go. Since this film is based on a real life incident, I can only hope the "real" So Hee has found peace at last.

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I hope we all can be brave and accept ourselves :)

This movie was very well-produced! The pace fits how the story unravels itself. Starting with the main problem, as a watcher, this movie would hook you up from the very first sight. Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng deserve a standing ovation for their excellent acting bringing out the characters alive. I really love the raw emotion and interaction of our main characters when they were trying to get to know each other. The chemistry of these two is what I love the most about this movie besides its meaning. I agree if anyone says this deserves a drama instead of just a movie, but I also think this short limit of time is already perfect for wrapping the entire story.

Personally, (spoiler) I don't like Zhang Yuxing's love story mainly because I don't think it's appropriate for an adult to date a high schooler. On the other hand, I feel really close to Chen Chen's curiosity about love, even like how she kept encouraging Zhang Yuxing to finish his unrequited love. The movie was ending with a bittersweet resolution for both characters, but that was exactly what makes this movie meaningful. There are some parts that owe us, watchers, some explanation before the movie ended obviously, but it doesn't lessen the quality of this movie. If you need a coming-of-age movie that actually has meaning, you should try this one!

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A beautiful story about love and friendship

I want to start off by saying I havent watched the original yet but I may update this review after I do.
Update: ive now watched the original and to me i do think this remake did it justice. Tbh I enjoyed this more than the original because I think the writing and pacing was better. They added more elements that fleshed out the characters where i could understand their decisions more.


Now if youre worried about a love triangle, dont be. The male lead is just a secondary character with a secondary storyline. The main event is the friendship between mi so and ha eun. You see their journey as friends from childhood to adulthood. Its by no means an easy journey as they drift apart often but in the end they always find their way back to each other. This isnt exactly a sapphic movie either but its a beautiful love story about a female friendship.

I really wanted to watch this movie cause of kim dami and jeon so nee and they did not disappoint. They portrayed their roles perfectly and they had great chemistry. I also liked the directing as it felt really raw and brought out the actresses strengths. It had an independent film feel to it.

I will also say to bring tissues as this film may make you cry.

I really enjoyed this movie as a coming of age story about a female friendship and would recommend for the story and acting.

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bL nuansa vintage tahun 1980an

Film YNEH (Your Name Engraved Herein) adalah sebuah bL asal Taiwan yang menceritakan seorang siswa pada tahun 1987 bernama Chang Jiahan yang menyukai seorang laki-laki bernama Wang Pote (biasa dipanggil Birdy / burung kecil). Cerita dari film ini menurutku menarik karena mengangkat tentang "denial" yang tergambar di karakter Birdy, sedangkan Chang Jiahan menggambarkan seorang laki-laki yang sudah menyadari bahwa dirinya seorang gay. Hal lain yang menarik di film ini adalah karakter birdy yang tampak seperti seorang laki-laki straight namun menampilkan chemistry-chemistry kepada Chang Jiahan. Ada beberapa scene yang menurutku tidak nyaman untuk ditonton adalah ketika Chang Jiahan sedang bersama bapak-bapak yang memberikannya bakpao' scene ini mungkin menjadi red timeline menurutku, sedangkan alur terbaik adalah saat Chang Jiahan dan Wang Pote berada di alur timeline masih satu sekolah. Cerita ini mempunyai gap time karena memang konsep dan alur ceritanya memang seperti itu, awalnya saya tidak begitu menyadari mengenai Gap Time karena selintas ; sebagai sebuah movie, akan sulit untuk menyamakan karakter antara masa kecil dan masa dewasa bagi seorang aktor apalagi versi dewasa keduanya pastinya akan menggunakan aktor yang berbeda, dan menurutku Chang Jiahan dewasa related dengan masa kecilnya, namun untuk Wang Pote saya agak kecewa karena menurutku sang aktor kurang bisa menampilkan karakter dari Wang Pote yang sebenarnya. Film ini menekankan pada pencarian identitas diri dan kisah cinta yang sulit dimengerti, ada banyak makna yang terkandung di film ini.

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A new perspective to look at small details of life we fail to notice!

I would say "my annoying brother" is a really simple yet heart touching movie. Coming to the present when relationships between family members are
mostly quite strained. It just opens up and shows us the beauty of love. True love. Not between two different individuals but of two individuals who share the same blood.

The cinematography is not the best but this is a really old movie so quite acceptable I'd say. More than the plot , what brings a lot of attention to the movie is the realistic acting. The effort and emotion put into it makes the movie worth watching and moreover incredibly enjoyable

A great movie for all ages. Something you can always watch with your family and little kids. A mix of fun and sadness. The perfect balance I'd say.
I did shed a few tears watching the movie but this movie would always remain in my heart. It just stole a special place. I hope ya ll enjoy watching!!

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Rage

I think the title of this movie should be "Rage" or "Berserk". Because that's all you get in its 2 hr and 10 minute run time. Pure unadulterated rage and its traumatizing effects. And cursing. Lots and lots of cursing. As a matter of fact, I think this movie has to hold the world record for the amount of cursing ever committed to celluloid. Literally every other phrase contains the following words: B***, F***, C***, and bastard. The main character will utter these words every single time he speaks. These 4 words are the extent of his vocabulary. The other characters do their very best to keep up with the main character's cursing. Its like they're in an alternate reality where those are the only four words humans know how to speak.

I know I've gone on quite a bit about the amount of cursing but if you see this movie you will realize I am not kidding.

The movie is well acted but I won't be watching this again. Its too bleak and depressing.

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The perfect rom-com / please make a template and copy guidelines

Amazon Prime has the worst choices of movies and dramas in the USA.
And Asian choices - forget it.
The collection looks like the Asian film market threw them leftover bones to chew on.

So I clicked on this movie hopelessly, holding the remote with the anticipation of skimming through in 15 minutes.

But - hush my heart be quiet - this movie turned out to be a cult classic!!!
Funny as hell, every situation is classically timed.
The scenes are very detailed, well thought of with an eye on minutiae.

The story - aaaaahhh - please use this as a reference for all future romcoms!
Just perfect!!

And the actors - the SML is so funny, he deserves an award.
The FL - she's just perfect. Nothing more, nothing less.
And the ML - aah - fell in love with him.
He carries the movie nimbly, no over the top emotions,
Romantic, swoon worthy, funny, raucous.........??

I dug up every other drama he was in to watch and wasn't disappointed.

Good work, the full team of this movie!
Classic romcom!

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A pretty good watch, I'll surely recommend it to crime-thrill lovers.

This is an absolute watch for crime-thrill lovers. Yim se wan was exceptional and I really loved how every actor was to the point with their acting, nothing was too much or too less...it is un-doubtly an upgrade of the Japanese version.
The part with everybody being alive might seem a bit unrealistic but factually if you see it takes around 1/2 hour or more to die if someone has drowned in water, the brain stops working in the initial 3-5 minutes, but other organs and metabolic reactions take quite some time to stop...and gun shot in the abdominal area is not something that can instantly kill anyone. So, it's actually totally plausible that they survived.

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A decent alternative to typical western disaster movie.

A nice prequel with a rather slow act on the drama side but it definitely works after the universe build up. Not your typical western disaster movie where the heroes usually focused on a white group with one or two expendable minorities here and there, rather you get a grand set but you are most looking at the iminent disaster from the chinese point of view.
Effects is on marvel's level but i pretty much think marvel already stuck on first avenger movie level for how many years now?
Music (not song) is grand and I don't know chinese movie actually spend that much time on music.

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Cute musical bits and cheesy fun

This was nowhere near as bad as the reviews said this was gonna be. I thought the musical parts were enchanting and super cute. The CGI bits were ehh but nothing too crusty. Mitsuki's voice is quite beautiful. I'm impressed at her contributing so much vocals to the film. Her acting was ok. The critics were right about Kento Yamazaki. He is just eye candy here. Acting is non-existent but he looks so good in a suit so I'm ok with it. Came for him but I might look into the FL's music and other works as her voice impressed me a lot. I knew exactly the kind of movie I was signing up for and wasn't disappointed. It's good for a film to know what it wants to be. The only thing I didn't like was Narumi's boss. His voice was really annoying.

Watch if you want 2 hours of fluffy musical escapism :)

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Beautiful story of group of people that becomes a family

This is my first Kore-eda film and it was beautiful.

I actually did not expect the story to move really well considering this is what most considered an art film but I enjoyed watching it.

The story of giving up your baby or abortion, that's what has been tackled here as well. Controversial as we have all different beliefs. I think the director has managed to execute the story that will make you think of different povs regarding the topic.

The cast have good chemistry and a joy to watch. The way they have eventually become a make-shift family and wanted the best for Woosung. They all have their own agenda but at the end, there's goodness in everyone.

This movie has lots of gray areas and I think that's the intention of the director. People do things and it's easy to judge but a person is not only bad or only good.

Some of the concerns I have are the sub-plots which I think are not really explored properly but these are negligible and did not take away from the story the director wanted to tell.

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"I love a challenge!"

Magnificent Warriors was a fun and fast adventure starring Michelle Yeoh. Set after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Michelle, Richard Ng, and Derek Yee had to come to the aid of a small walled village when the enemy decided to use the area and the people to build a poison gas factory. Little did the Japanese army know what they were up against when Michelle landed her biplane outside the city.

Michelle's Ming was a pilot who traded in all sorts of goods including weapons. The granddaughter of famed fighter Grandfather Fok played by kung fu movie regular, Ku Feng, she enjoyed using her whip, fists, and kicks to clobber men who tried to take advantage of her. Ming was commissioned by rebel forces to find Agent 001, a rather bland Derek Yee, and also to bring the Kaal village leader, Youda played by music director and composer Lowell Lo, to safety and discover the Japanese plans. Ming's mission was diverted when a nameless traveling conman played by Richard Ng was mistaken for 001. The matter was cleared up soon enough and before long they had Youda and his lover, Chin Chin played by Lau Chin Dai, with them. Ming needed gasoline to fuel her plane which took them into the heart of the Japanese camp which led to the fights and battles that would follow.

This was my second viewing of the movie. Unlike most of these experiences, I actually enjoyed it more the second time I watched it. Mood makes a difference, I guess. While the story was told haphazardly at times, what the film did do well was show off Michelle Yeoh's screen presence and athletic skills. Her fights and enthusiastic attitude lifted the movie when she was onscreen. Some of Richard Ng's early comic scenes dragged on too long, but as the film progressed so did his character's development which made him more appealing and sympathetic. Derek Yee was there, completely overshadowed by almost every other character onscreen. Chin Chin could be annoying, but the character's loyalty kept her from being loathsome. Lowell Lo's Youda, also there for comic relief, was able to have a couple of scenes showing the depth of his love for his people. The pacing could be uneven and answers appeared out of nowhere. All of the characters were archetypes, quite thinly drawn, leaving it up to the viewer to fill in the gaps. The writers tried to remedy this and actually just reinforced their stereotypes when they used a scene where the dynamic group was about to be executed to reveal the three main characters' backstories in an awkward exposition dump right before the miracle that saved them.

The fight scenes were all quite fast and innovative. Michelle was daring in her ability to do her own stunts and as always made the complex moves look effortless. Her early fight with some shady characters over lack of payment was stunning as she used her whip and then quite gleefully a gatling gun. Later, when the Japanese attacked, the Kaal villagers fought with spears and old school ways against the modern weapons of their invaders. The balance of humor and pathos could tip too far with humor when villagers were being killed during the battle. The only scene that didn't work well for me was early in the film when Ming and her biplane were involved in an aerial battle with a Zero. It went on too long and wasn't that interesting. The film utilized several actors and stuntmen I enjoy watching. I was happy to see "Toad Venom" Lo Meng as a silent guard. Fung Hak On, who helped choreograph the fights, showed his fighting skills as a Japanese agent. And Hwang Jang Lee finally had the opportunity near the end of the film to show off his superkick abilities. While the humor could be forced, the final skirmish was a local one that had high stakes for the people involved which weighted the fights with meaning.

Though the villagers and characters suffered consequences for going up against the Imperial army, Magnificent Warriors took a light tone with no spewing blood and severed bodies. The main characters never felt like they were in any real danger as they quipped and smiled through the mayhem. This was Michelle Yeoh's movie and she gave it her all. Magnificent Warriors may not have been magnificent, but it was pretty good.


3/24/23

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