Sebastian Joseph
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This show is the perfect example of not sh*tting where you eat ie. to not date people aka the roommates you live with. Anyway, just got done watching the entire 10 episodes and here's are my thoughts. First of all, the opening song is great and Morikawa Aoi looks kawaii af in this. Now with that out of the way, I can ramble on about the show. What started out to be an interesting premise only turned out to be shallow love triangle. I mean, Moriakawa's character Terada is the epitome of your typical reserved and shy Japanese girl who's a pushover. Then you have Nakao Masaki's character Hongyo who's her childhood friend and is dense af to the point that he has literally no character development throughtout the course of these 10 episodes. All we know about Hongyo is that he's dense and emotionless for some reason and had sex with Terada in high school. Then we have the second male lead in Yuki Kousei's character Hase who wants to make Terada his wife because he sees something different in Terada from the girls he dated. The reason for why he wanted to be with Terada was left unexplored. Not to mention his mommy issues. Then we have Nakamura Risa's somewhat retarded-like character Akari who's weird to say the least. First she acts as if she liked Hongyo, then when Terada asked her whether she liked Hongyo, she acts as if she just discovered the very act of hugging or kissing someone out of affection. Someone get this chick to a sex ed class!Anyway, Hongyo and Terada run into each other after she ends up living in a sharehouse thanks to her friend and due to some reason, Hongyo can only get hard when he's rubbing against Terada. The plot seemed intriguing at first but then they added Hase as a second love interest for Terada even though you as a viewer know that Terada is gonna somehow predictably end up with Hongyo in the end. (They're both even on the cover of the drama for God's sake lol) Throughout the entirity of the show, we had minimal character developments for both Terada and Hase as they narrate about their childhood and tell a bit about themselves. Hongyo being the first male lead has literally no character development since we know nothing about him other than being a dense and emotionless writer who can't get hard and who had sex with Terada in high school.
Throught the show, Hase persues Terada to marry him despite being okay with Terada and Hongyo sleeping together and even having sex. Hell, he was okay with her having Hongyo's baby when Terada thought she was pregnant. That dude has some weird psychology and the reason for him liking Terada is unclear and unexplored. The best reason he gave on the show when asked why he liked her was because her hand felt warm as she was taking care of him while he was puking. Like I said, that dude has a messed up psychology.
Then there's the second female lead Akari who has the least amount of character development since unlike Hongyo, who slept with Terada in high school, we don't really get to know much about her other than the fact that she's crazy for Hongyo and thats it! She thinks she likes Hongyo (people on the show like each other for the most bizarre reasons on this show btw) and was just okay when Terada reveals that she liked her and that her and Hongyo have been sleeping together all this time. I honestly don't know what her whole admiration with Hongyo was all about since that was left unexplored as well. Her character was just there for the sake of it contributing nothing much to the plot.
Then last but not least, we have Terada who starts liking Hongyo after having a sleeping arrangement with him and eventually having sex with him. The one thing I just didn't understand was why she liked him in the first place and what about him does she even like? Even on the show, when Hongyo asks her what she likes about him, we never got an answer to that boggling question coz here's a dense dude (Hongyo) who's emotionless to the core having a sleeping arrangement with you and thats it. They don't have the sort of chemistry you'd expect in a romcom. Neither do they have anything in common. Its like Teraada's character was written to like Hongyo just for the sake of it. On top of being a shy and fragile pushover, she deceives Akari by not telling about her about sleeping with Hongyo when she knew that Akari liked Hongyo. And then, she sleeps and has sex with Hongyo anyway despite being proposed to by Hase. And she lies to Hase in the 9th episode about her not kissing Hongyo during their sleepover time when infact she did. In that way, I found Terada's charaacter to be all sorts of messed up and I doubt a metamorphical expensive price tag is gonna solve her problems.
I kinda felt sorry for Hase when we learnt that this was gonna be a love triangle since I already knew that the second male lead was gonna get rejected . But I knew he manipulated Hongyo when they don't show what him and Hase talked about in the 9th episode due to which Hongyo was cold to Terada which caused them to break up. And on top of that, the characters lack development and progression. Not to mention how they never talk it out with each other about what they have in mind. I guess that this is a good example of how reserved the Japanese can be in general. Either way, Terada sure does get around, having dated both male roommates of hers. I can honestly say that this show despite its shallow predictablitity and lack of character development teaches us to never sh*t where you eat ie. never date the people aka the roommates you live with coz things can become awkward as hell if things don't work out. Also, Terada is the kind of girl that would stay in a shitty relationship just because of a nostalgic high school connection. If I were the writer of this show, I'd make Terada leave the house and find a better relationship than an dense dude or a manipulative dude with mommy issues. That would be a better ending than the predictable ending we got in the end.
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The cinematography was visually stunning. I just wish that there was more blood and violence in the show since this show could use them. Wish they pushed beyond the boundaries of PG-13. Which reminds me that there was that one fight scene where a group of thugs with knives attack Joseph Chang's character but despite having weapons, they kick. I was like WTF! Also, some thugs looked like they were trying to stab the air since they miss by a huge mile when they attack him with a knife. That whole scene was really ridiculous with each thug basically waiting for their turn one by one to get punched by our protagonist. Also, sometimes the show is edited in a way which makes you feel confused. Also, the finale episode left me feel unsatisfied. Like the villain couldn't shut up about his master plan and couldn't stop saying his villain monologue. I was expecting the protagonist to punch his lights out or hurt him in some manner considering how frustrating it was to sit through the villain's monologue but all we're left with is the protagonist crying dramatically on the villain's shoulders. Not to mention that that one scene where the villain makes one of the protagonist's buddies watch his unconscious girl get gangbanged by a bunch of people was something straight outta porn. LolI was even more confused by the end when he wakes up from a dream which begs the question of whether all of it was really a dream? Since his friends seem alive and well by the end of it. Nonetheless, it was a good show worth a watch despite its flaws.
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De Heks: Deel 1. De Ondermijning
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Predictable "genetically engineered kids" plot with a douchey and OP protagonist
The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion has the same old redundnatly predictable plot of "genetically engineered kids" which are used in superhero fiction. Logan's X-23 comes to mind when you think about the plot of this film however, unlike X-23, Ja-yoon turns into this unlikeable and arrogant villain by the end of the film which makes you feel unsatisfied by the end of the film at its conclusion. What I don't get is why they had to call this film "The Witch" because it has nothing to do with witches in the first place. "The Witch" is just a nickname they give Ja-yoon in the film. Not to mention how the title makes it sound like a horror film. The action has a lot of cuts which pretty much lets you know as a viewer that these actors aren't trained in doing convincing action scenes. Not to mention how Ja-yoon shoots with one hand without even taking proper aim or looking while aiming. Its like she's shooting on autoaim like they do in videogames. Lol And how can we forget the cliche villain monologue that the female scientist makes. I still don't know why she injected her with that serum that lets her accelerate her powers for one month. That has to be one of the stupidest thing I've seen a villain do in fiction. XDI know these type of "genetically engineered kid with special powers" stories aren't exactly realistic but these guys aren't leaving one ounce of realism in this film. There's a reason why Logan was better (hell, its screenplay got oscar nominated) than this because not only are the characters better written and grounded on realism along with their "mutant abilities" but you feel a sense of danger for the Logan and X-23 as they are fighting off the villains in that film. Here, Ja-yoon is so overpowered to the point that you don't even care about the fight scenes because you know she's gonna predictably win by the end of the fights which she was dominating. Anyway, I would have liked this film better had there been any sense of unpredictability or danger with our main character Ja-yoon. Not to mention how much of a dick she turns out to be by the end of the film that you feel unsatisfied that she's still alive by the end of the film. Huge thumbs down from me.
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Then I deicded to skim through the other episodes as well. And they all have the same theme. Some unhappy woman stumbles into this kid and this kid somehow ends up having sex with them. There's no nudity in this FYI, just pretend sex with minimal skin. If I had to sum up this drama in a few words it would be Japanese porn without the porn part. Its like a slow drama which somehow leads to sex with this one kid. Turn off your brain and throw logic out of the window. Glad I didn't waste my time with this so if you wanna watch what I just described, then be my guest. Otherwise skip it and save yourself the time of actually watching this illogical sex snoozefest.
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This movie was very similar to Train to Busan but unlike Train to Busan which was superior to this movie, this movie had one big plot device in the little girl. I mean, the entire plot revolves around the little girl ie. when she gets lost, having to save her, etc and at one point, it starts getting redundant. There's also a K-drama-like romance between the main leads which annoys you as a viewer coz here's a guy who does so much for the female lead but she shows no appreciation or gratitude throughout the entirety of the movie. The female lead was literally a cold bitch to the main lead who was saving her ass and her daughter's time after time and it made me wish her death in the movie due to how utterly annoyed I was at her personality. She was so selfish to the point that she basically put the life of the kid who survives the infection and has anti-bodies to cure the disease all to save her daughter. Not to mention how she literally tells this kid to stay alive as he's about to die after being stabbed just so that she can use his anti-bodies. When the female lead got shot in the end during the climax of the movie, I was happy but then I realized that she was shot in the shoulder and its only a flesh wound and not fatal. Which reminds me of how predictable the movie is during the end. Its not gonna make you cry or anything unlike Train to Busan did. What I love about Train to Busan is that it explores the struggle of a father and daughter through a zombie apocalypse on that train and it doesn't use the daughter as a constant plot device like this movie does to the point that it becomes annoying. If your're having second thoughts about watching this, watch Train to Busan instead of this K-dramaish movie about a flu infestation and a very annoying female lead. Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Hajimete Koi wo Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi
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Why is Japan so obsessed with student-teacher relationships? I get it that they view everything differently compared to the rest of the world like age in relationships, etc. but the amount of cliched and generic student-teacher Kdramas is almost endless and this one is no different. I don't even know why they bothered making a reverse harem outta this when the other two love interests are nothing more than side characters and the main love interest AKA the student gets the most of the screen time. Hell, the very plot is Junko teaching this kid so why bother making it a reverse harem at all when its obvious that the student's gonna get the girl aka teacher. Not to mention the dramatic cliches there are in this show like the girl falling down the stairs and the guy catching her. If you want your typical cliche student-teacher Jdrama, then this for you but if that sorta thing is not your cup of tea, then might I recommend you to not watch this. I was actually shipping her cousin with Junko who was in love with her for 20 years and was kinda pathetic about it to the point that you felt sorry for him despite his success in life. But as cliche as ever, the childhood friend never gets the girl in both anime and Jdramas apparently. The other two love interests other than the student were actually part of her childhood which make them another victim of the childhood friend rejection trope. Either way, I dropped it after episode 3 when I realized how plain and obvious it was that the student was gonna end up with the teacher due to the other two love interests barely getting any screen time at all. I mean, if you're gonna have a reverse harem, at least put some character development in the love interests instead of just pushing the main couple. Isn't the point of a harem to keep the viewer guessing who the protagonist is gonna end up with? Well, this show totally fails in that aspect! Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Mistress is a gripping mystery thriller which as the title suggests, revolves around the theme of infidelity or affairs or cheating, call it what you want. The show is written in a way to make you guess the mystery, the who killed whos and so on. Its quite the roller coaster ride of a show and normally, I'm not into shows which have infidelity as a theme. I think my favorite characters would be Se Yeon and Han Sang Hoon. I was shipping them the moment they met. I liked Se Yeong's character since she was the only girl out of the four who didn't have an immoral or adulterous sort of relationship. Although, we find out later that she was the mistress to the Chinese wife without the former even knowing about it. Now, on to Han Sang Hoon. I was rooting for our man Han Sang Hoon despite the show implicating that he is a killer and I was glad to find out that he was innocent and was very happy with the ending where he was alive. As I was watching everyone moving on with their lives after the murder incident, I was literally screaming at my screen "But what about Han Sang Hoon?" and jumped out of sheer joy when they revealed that he was alive. Kudos to the writers for the way that it was presented. Now, as far as writing goes, the show is written well but there's a lot of plot armor in favor of the four girls. Off the top of my head, one plot armor would be the Chines wife killing and taking the blame for killing Kim Young Dae so that the girls can be proven innocent. Another situation would be when Se Yeon was dropped off in front of the police station by the Chinese wife with the cops surrounding her about to catch her, Han Jeong Won was just right there at the right time to rescue her from the cops. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you feel no sense of danger for the lives of the four girls. Speaking of danger, I'm sure many were viewers like myself were worried about Han Sang Hoon''s life as he was tortured and held captive over the course of the last couple of episodes. It kinda pissed me off how they didn't go look for him any sooner but I suppose that since they weren't sure about Hoon Sang Hoon's motives, I can let that slide. I was frustrated when the two girls try to see if Hoon Sang Hoon was in the abandoned condominium. I literally screamed "INCOMPETENT!" as they were unsuccessful in finding him. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that throughout the later part of the show, I was very worried for Han Sang Hoon's life as opposed to the four girls despite them being manhandled by Kim Young Dae in the final scene of that abandoned condominium.
Speaking of the four girls, I disliked Han Jeong Won a lot simply because she had a one night stand with her fellow teacher just because of a falling out with her husband when her husband didn't even cheat on her that night. We do later find out that he did cheat on her but with a different woman (can't remember her name) but that was long ago. Either way, that doesn't justify her cheating on him with that fellow teacher of hers who turned out to be psychotic yandere until the moment Han Jeong Won's husband slapped the hell out him as it was revealed in the dash cam video. I was laughing out loud when Han Jeong Won was throwing tantrums accusing her husband of infidelity when she basically had sex with her teacher and got pregnant along with it when she didn't even know about her husband's infidelity. Talk about hypocrisy! Watching her psychologically suffer and be miserable was the only satisfaction I could attain from the show. I mean, seriously, if you're not happy with your husband, just get a divorce and then get impregnated by your fellow teacher and do whatever you want but she did all that one night stuff and when her husband asked to start over, she just went on and agreed to start over as if nothing's wrong. She was the creator of her own self-destruction. Sure, it ends with her being a single mother but the journey of her being a single mother was very entertaining due to how much I disliked the character.
On to the Doctor aka Kim Eun Soo who had a very interesting murder mystery arc. Her arc was very entertaining same as Se Yeon. I think these two girls' arcs are my favorite due to how relevant they are to the overarching plot as compared to the other two which kinda felt like side stories or sub-plot. Kim Eun Soo and her teacher's son investigate as to who killed the teacher she had an affair with. The only negative in this arc would be the writers teasing Kim Eun Soo and her teacher's son as a ship. I'm glad they weren't a couple by the end because that would be sort of disturbing. If that did happen, she could actually use the phrase "but thats not how your dad used to do it!" Haha!
Moving on, I found Do Hwa Young's arc to be nothing more than a filler. Her whole arc with the glasses wearing married guy was just could be skipped and didn't contribute much to the main plot as much as Se Yeon and Kim Eun Soo's arcs did. Also, the glasses guy rejects Do Hwa Young's offer to sleep with him saying that she hasn't changed only for him to sleep with her out of the blue the next night. Like what the actual fuck?!
Overall, the show was intense, thrilling and very binge-worthy. Not to mention the mystery surrounding the story. It keeps you guessing and wanting for more. The investigation didn't really make sense at some points in the story but despite its flaws, its a solid show. Great acting, beautiful cinematography and an amazing score!
However, I wish they didn't have to ruin the moment of closure during the final minutes of the show with that phone call and the person behind it. I doubt we'll get a season 2 due to its low ratings. Here's hoping there's a season 2. Cheers! =)
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