Reviews

I'm sorry if someone feels offended because they actually liked this one. The basic idea was indeed a good one, but the whole execution/writing/concept was nonsensical.

The sceneries looked quite fake here and there and the lighting felt wrong. CGI was well done sometimes, and bad other times.

For a postapocalyptic environment they displayed not enough desperation of the people.

Without getting into too much detail, the backstory was too short (there was just too less explanation of everything), the introduction of the characters was almost nonexistent, which made it quite hard to get their motivations - just a bunch of stereotypes colliding - and the action scenes were all over the place. There were too many action scenes and even though the fighting itself looked good, the shaky cameras and blood/body parts flying everywhere turned it into a bad rollercoaster. A lot of "deaths" were totally exaggerated.

If they made the movie a bit longer, put more effort into the backstory and its characters and created a more logical rescue mission, this could have been an enjoyable movie.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but don't waste your time on this, guys.

Leia Mais

What the author had in mind?

First thing first: trigger warning for real animal cruelty. Damn 2000's was a different time for this movie to be able to exist. It's mostly fish, but they are not that nice towards dog, bird and frog either...

This movie is kind of hypnotising - you cannot stop watching not matter how gross and weird it gets. You question everything and yet you don't hit that pause button. I think the depth of that movie is hidden deep down in the mind of the author. Is this deep symbolism, or is it a shallow pretentious symbolism? I don't know.

The movie has little to no dialogue and yet it was directed in a way I did understand easily what was going on and what the characters were thinking and feeling (it was all fucked up, but I could grasp it). It's a story of two broken people becoming more broken and more fucked up.

The acting was great, not gonna lie. Seo Jung as Hee Jin was simply disturbing.

Overall... that was quite an experience and I don't think I know even one person I would recommend this movie to.

Leia Mais

It was very nice and then it gets spoiled by meh

This movie is very beautiful.
The scenery and cinematography are great and the type of filter or film they used gives nostalgic vibes.
I think acting is very good, especially by the ML, he was great and I really liked the dynamics between the characters and the banter.
The introspective journey paired with the scenes, the train rides and the beautiful landscapes give you all the feels and I found myself grinning for a big part of the movie because of the little endearing moments here and there like the one with that young traveler in the snow.

Everything was great for me until towards the end when they dropped the EXTREMELY over used troupe that it's also actually very predictable from the start.
That was such a shame and it really spoiled it for me.
There are just so many things that could have been done with the plot, the most plain one being just simply that time passed, that there was a long distance between them. I really wanted a trip for the sake of introspection, self-discovery and peace but we sadly got this once again, and at least I guess he knew and it was not a bomb like they do in other movies/series. I really wish this plot device was left in the 00s where it belongs. I'm so over it at this point.

The plot in general is not new even leaving out that cliché at the end and the execution is not exactly great either. While the flashbacks are carried out in an ok manner the last part showing her side in that way for cliché/shock value was both confusing at times, repetitive and just wallowing in the drama for the sake of it.
Moreover, they knew each other for like a month I think it was, so it's too extreme that he's still hang up on that 18 years later to the level of affecting his career in that way. Also equally unrealistic in my opinion that he only had one 3 months relationship in all that time, what level of workaholic are we talking about?

It's really as described by the tag, bittersweet, although for me because of the lost potential and not what happens in the plot.

Leia Mais

"Do you have a warranty?"

If you are in the mood for something super quirky that looks like it was made on a shoestring budget, search no further, Haruko’s Paranormal Laboratory is here to serve your quirky needs. It felt like writer/director Lisa Takeba brainstormed as many strange things as she could and then strung them all together in a surreal story.

Haruko is an odd little duck who has always desperately wanted to have a paranormal adventure. She’s been begging for a UFO to visit her for years especially after her brother was taken up in one. She complains about every show on her 1953 television set. Unseen to her a counter flips over a number for every complaint and curse word she utters. When it hits 10,000 her television turns into a man with a tv on his head and a super dong for other activities. They quickly become sex buddies. After a while he tires of being a house boyfriend doing all the domestic activities and goes out to find a job. Fortunately for him, he speaks 12 languages and lands a couple of teaching jobs on TV and the radio. Haruko works with a sex crazed woman turned “artistic” arsonist. Her next-door neighbor makes sex art out of veggies. The most dedicated TV licenser on the planet makes sure she pays her fees whether the television works like a normal one or becomes a man. There’s an “artistic” masked coin bandit and a Friday the 13th Jason cosplayer who follows her around. She also finds out some kinky news about her father and mother.

I’m sure there was some deeper message and social commentary on feeling socially alienated, the boredom of working a meaningless job, being unable to make your real passion make money (tea stain art?), and only being able to find true love with a television set, but it was a little hard to strain out with all the bizarre paranormal and abnormal people wandering around. If you ever wondered what an R rated Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse made in Japan might be like, this would come close. Where else could you see a drugged-up television set have a dance-off with a camera?

22 August 2024

Leia Mais

This movie could have been so much more... Spoilers!

My gripe with this movie is that it had the perfect setting to turn into a romantic or social message. But in the end, it ended up being neither. The main character does grow in some sense, but not entirely.

One example: The ML went through harassment himself while dressed as a woman, but he never directly addressed why he was wrong, just saying, "I am sorry," even when he got a stage to say it out loud. He apologized to several women, but it didn't feel like he understood why his previous behavior was problematic. His realization seemed surface-level. In addition, it is really hard for me to believe that he grew up with a sister and was raised by a mom and ended up doing what he did.

But the comedy was good and you can never go wrong with this guy! His acting was A+!!!

Leia Mais

Movie Review

This movie uses a lot of camera work and close up to give a sense of eerie. Close by the victims as if we are the perpetrators yet we have no clue if we are. Honestly I didn’t really understand the idea of the movie.

19 levels of hell yet the main character only went through 6 levels because of the GM’s (game master’s) bias. Honestly I did enjoy the realism of the illusion: Gao Yuen. How the main character can just interact with him and we also had no clue he was an illusion. It felt so real to her that there were no sense that it was all fake. Even the room was the same.

The movie uses silence to create an eerie atmosphere as well as whistles and sounds that we tend to associate with fear and horror. Whistling, echos, abupt noises; many of these sounds are used and the character’s own breath caused me to feel like the characters were right in front of me.

Personally the acting was a little bad because I could see the actress trying to give that sadness act but honestly she just looks like she is in a romance movie, crying over a misunderstanding. Her lips remain juicy plump and she cries so gracefully. I did enjoy the movie despite that since it wasn’t really much to take notice of. Maybe because this is a 13 year old movie, I feel like the script isn’t polished and there is many weird things that I don’t think were counted for; The character development or the fully polished background story of how Dr. Yan got the idea to make a hypnotizing hell game. But enjoy it for its camera work sometimes. The closeup and Gao Yuen actor was really handsome. That’s about it :P

Leia Mais

Doesn't live up to the expectation I got from the trailer.

I had so much expectation for this film, but it did not meet much of it.

Cinematography was the only thing I liked about this film, particularly the way some of the scenes were shot and how it showed the gaze of the characters, revealing each character's emotion and motive well.

Other than that, the plot was subpar, it set out to tackle the topic of marriage inequality only to be sidetracked by a jumble of badly written vomit of drama on top of drama another sob story of who is more pitiful. Exploring human desires rather shallowly, such as greed and lust.

Jingha and Thongkham relationship was rather unbelievable and just came out of nowhere.

The only thing that went as expected was Jeff's face card.

Leia Mais