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So, it was not a comedy?
Halfway through the movie I truly had to go check the genres, because I could swear it’s a cheaply made comedy that was supposed to jab at some social issues and horror tropes. To my surprise, the comedy genre was nowhere to be seen.Kuta did one thing well, and one thing only - they truly presented the characters as realistic and annoying social media influencers. They were surprisingly realistically written. Sadly the performances were mediocre at best, awful at worst. I mean, one side character literally laughed at the joke he was supposed to deliver for the viewers…
The directing was quite chaotic. The mix of found footage and normal filming is always annoying. You show me all the vlogs to give that feeling for realism, but then the other half of the movie is shot in a normal fashion? Either commit to the found footage or not.
The worst thing about this movie was how bored I was watching. The writing, directing, filming, editing… nothing truly holds viewers attention.
Overall, saying it was mediocre would be a compliment.
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On paper the script probably sounded like a fun quirky comedy with a twist. Yet, it was not really that fun, the pee and puke jokes were juvenile and the twist was obvious from the start.
Random complaint, but the color grading was truly not my style. Everything was orange/yellow, the color saturation too high, but at the same time the whole movie felt dim and dark. It just felt heavy for the eye.
On the bright side, the acting was truly solid and I loved the job makeup artist and practical effects team did on the ghost.
Overall, I guess it’s just not a movie for me. I can see it being a fun watch as long as it’s viewed by the target audience.
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Dark heartwarming comedy drama - mix I never thought could work.
Korea back at it again - making completely unrelatable scenarios feel relatable. The emotions were raw, the characters complex and the story both warm and heartbreaking.It was unexpectedly funny. Yes, I know it was tagged with the comedy genre, but honestly speaking, many drama comedies have more bitter sweet takes on what’s supposed to be funny. Here, I actually smiled and laughed quite a few times. The story was dark and yet they managed to create some funny moments even from quite gore and violence driven situations.
The best part of the movie was for sure the (in my eyes) one sided connection between Tae In and Cho Hee. The way Yoo Ah In presented the character of Kim Tae In was both beautiful and painful. A character that seemed to give up on everything, just following whatever others told and not presenting even a slight of active behavior. The gradual and minimal and yet impactful change we see after he had to take care of Cho Hee was amazing to watch.
That said, I think it’s a movie you have to read the synopsis for. I honestly don’t think it would be obvious and easy to understand Cho Hee’s character if it was not for what I read about the plot. She is the center of the plot and one of the main characters, so the vague understanding of who she is that we get from the movie itself, could have been improved.
Acting wise - perfection. Yoo Ah In did not say one word during the whole movie, and yet I perfectly understood what he wanted to convey during his scenes. Moon Seung Ah did a phenomenal job with her portrayal of Cho Hee - a character so complex I am amazed a child was able to deliver a believable performance.
On the production side, I don’t think any compliments can truly express how beautiful the movie was. The wide shots gave such a warm and, strangely slice of life feeling, that grounded the movie in reality, even with the not so mundane plot.
Overall, a great movie with great performances and amazing visuals. One that I could easily recommend to anyone.
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This movie is painfully 3D.
It’s so over the top, I honestly think I would get sick if I watched it in 3D in a cinema. Honestly, the makers had no chill. They thought “What elements can we make in 3D?” and went with the answer “all”. Because of that it feels as if the whole movie was done on a green screen…It just felt cheap? It feels closer to 2004 than 2014 production. Technically speaking, with good storytelling and production this could be a horror movie with a social message… Sadly the delivery of… everything was off.
It just borrowed plot lines, stories and twists from other horror movies without adding anything new and refreshing.
Overall, rather skippable. It's one of the movies that ends I the viewer has little thoughts about it.
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“People forget kindness easily, but they remember cruelty.”
The movie is basically 1 hour and 20 minutes of exposition that leads to the last 25 minutes of showdown that feel heartbreaking, but somehow cathartic. It’s really slow paced, until it’s not, but the wait is worth it.Would I call it a horror movie? No. Sure, it does have horror elements, but it’s far more psychological thriller, or even dark psychological drama. Most of the movie has this borderline silly vibe, with underlying tension caused by the Head of the village - it’s hard to predict his nature. There are quite a few comedic elements, which for me make the dark ending that much darker.
It’s a story of a normal, rather good man Woo Ryong, and how external circumstances affected him. It’s hard to talk about the plot without giving away any spoilers. Most of the movie is just him and his son slowly integrating into a village, until someone sees it as a threat.
What I really enjoyed was how many small moments, lines and actions in the first half came back closer to the end - tying everything together.
The acting was great. Ryu Seung Ryong aced both the light and darker side of Woo Ryong. I honestly wish we had seen more of the unhinged one.
Production wise, the rats could have been better. There were moments when they looked beyond fake. That said, the rest of the movie was simply beautiful.
Overall, worth pushing through, even if you feel like nothing is really happening. For some, the sudden change of tone can seem abrupt, but for me it was slowly, but meticulously crafted with many details and hints of what’s to come.
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Could have been amazing, if kept on a smaller scale.
My biggest issue was how unrealistic this whole plot was, and how it forced too many characters to act painfully stupid - this stopped me from getting immersed into the story and caring for the characters.The setting is truly interesting and allows you to slowly build the atmosphere. The dark tunnels, small spaces - all anxiety inducing. You could potentially feel the disorientation of the characters, when they are being chased by the killer. Sadly, I could not feel it. Why?
With the number of victims, the police reaction, or rather the lack of reaction, was quite ridiculous. It would be better to not involve the police at all, and make me wonder where they are when needed, than make me suffer watching this level of incompetence and lack of care.
I can deal with one stupid character… maybe two. But all of them? That’s just a pain for my brain. I get it, if everyone is smart, the movie ends before it starts. Just write a smart villain with a realistic setting that does not need characters with two brain cells to make it work.
Was the villain part of some supernatural evil gang? He was undestructable. I feel like one could cut his head off, and he would go: day like any other.
So, what’s good? Amazing performance. It’s Jung Kyung Ho we’re talking about. I am 100% certain he can sell literally any role and make it good. I also really liked Choi Deok Moon as Jong Ho, one of the victim’s father. Yun Seo had some clever tricks and moves, so it was truly entertaining to watch her navigate this deadly underground labyrinth.
Overall, good suspense, good visuals, great idea - if only they lowered the number of initial victims and kept the police away from it. Make it only a story of Yun Seo, Soo Jung and Jong Ho, and I would love it.
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Gory and gimmicky to the point of comedy.
Sadly, I’m disappointed. While it still was a fun and entertaining watch, season 2 lost the unique and eerie atmosphere season 1 was able to create. Too much blood, ripping of the skin and flesh - they even shot an arrow with an eye being attached on top of it. None of the scenes were shocking, unique, memorable - it was all about giving more action and more blood.I’m not gonna lie, I do not watch Kingdom for the plot. It’s not new, fresh, complex nor groundbreaking. It's the same old court politics and struggle for power we have seen thousands of times. The court plot was literally the weakest part of the series, and yet it was the focus.
The characters also lost some brain cells in this season. Too many stupid decisions and actions for the sake of creating visually appealing shots. How many characters can just stand there watching the horde of zombies running straight to kill them, just so we can have that 3 seconds beautiful shot?
Queen’s arc and conclusion? Anticlimactic at best. We got to the end of it and all I could think about was: that’s it?
That said, it was not all bad. The action scenes were great. They found just the right balance between the dimmed light and enough visibility so we can actually witness the fights without losing the atmosphere. Throughout the whole show the lighting was just a masterpiece of its own. The way they worked with light and shadows was just beautiful.
The acting was exactly what we could expect from the cast - brilliant in most cases. Kim Hye Joon felt flat in some scenes, and I wished to see a bit more expression from her character.
Overall, it lost the impact season 1 created, but was still a fun and entertaining watch. It got quite a few laughs out of me.
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The star of the whole drama, both in terms of character’s writing and the portrayal was for sure Erek Lin as Amber. One of the truly refreshing and important stories to be told delivered with great skill. I appreciated how Amber’s identity was quite obvious from the start for the viewers, so we could see all the internal conflicts he was feeling from day one, and how it made it easier to understand him and his decisions by the end.
While I also enjoyed Pu Le Chien, I think his struggles were lost in the lacking storytelling. There were many moments perfect for setting up what’s to come in the 2nd half of the show, but none were used, so when the actual conflict happened, it did not feel earned in terms of writing. Sadly, I was not as impressed by Lukas Huang. I had no issues with the "daily life" scenes, but the more emotional ones felt over the top, often exaggerated by the facial expressions, with little emotions actually conveyed.
Surprisingly, by the end of the drama, I loved Hsieh Yu He. Not gonna lie, I was quite scared they would turn her into a typical jealous female character, as we often see in BLs, so it was a pleasant surprise that she was written with more nuance.
On the other hand, I could have done without Li Ching Lung and Guan Yu Chen - both not really interesting characters, at moments even unlikable. Their storyline brought little to nothing of value and seemed like a typical filler couple.
Production quality was good - many times there was a good use of the lighting creating a great atmosphere for the scene to happen. All that surrounded by an amazing, truly perfect soundtrack.
Overall, for sure one of the better BLs with important topics being brought into discussion and no over the top dramatic plot twists and scenes. More down to earth, falling closely to a slice of life genre.
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Supernatural thriller about human’s weak minds.
Surprisingly well crafted and presented story, that despite its simplicity, was able to keep me interested till the end.Expecting horror from this watch would be a mistake, and for me, the poster and the title were misleading in terms of the core focus of the movie - it’s not the wacky possession scenes Emily Rose style. The plot centers around the investigation of the missing kid - So Jin. While there is a fair share of creepy supernatural elements, the more important part is the human aspect.
How much are we willing to do in a dire situation? How easily can we be influenced and believe in unbelievable things when all the other options turned out to be futile? I felt like the true horror came from people, and not from the supernatural. Rather than a critical view on religious views, for me it spoke more on the desperation people face and how they are willing to try and believe anything as long as it might produce the needed results.
That said, I’m not the biggest fan of mixing different religions and folklore in one story (unless there is clear investigation of the origin that would validate it). A little bit of christianity here, some shamanism there, and big nothing big nothing by the end, since it’s neither one or the other in the conclusion.
The acting was rather good. I was not impressed with Shim Eun Kyung as Kang So Jin. She did not really have that much screen time, but the few scenes I have seen just did not convince me at all.
The production was good. Nothing outstanding and visually over the top. It had the usual thriller aesthetics with some darker suspense moments that were supposed to bring that horror out of it.
Overall, surprisingly fun to watch for such an overdone topic. Nothing new, but presented in a decent way.
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Cherry Blossoms After Winter
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Improves with each episode.
Cherry Blossoms After Winter is not anything groundbreaking, it’s something we have seen in one form or the other countless times, but it is cute. Light and fun watch with some questionable directing in the first half.Here’s the thing, the second half was truly nice. The plot seemed to have the right pace, the scenes did not seem random, the dynamic between the leads was more clear and easy to understand. That said, the first (about) four episodes were just confusing directing wise. The plot was easy to follow, but how the specific scenes did not flow well was at times funny. Characters be talking about going grocery shopping, so I get excited to see some cute shopping scenes, just to get none of that. It felt like quite a number of times they were setting up a specific sequence of scenes, just to give up halfway through, and cut to something completely different.
The characters were fun. Hae Bom had a nice and realistic character development - it was presented in a gradual way. Realistically speaking, Tae Sung was there just to like Hae Bom. Hae Bom was the main character who had to face different external and internal conflicts. Not mad about it. With a short show like that, it’s better to focus more on just one character.
Acting wise, I am okay with what I got. The shock I felt when I found out the ages of the actors was something new. Being in your mid 20’ and 30 and still being a convincing teenage boy? That’s an achievement.
Production, as I said, improved in the second half. The show was better structured. Instead of trying to fit many random scenes in one episode, we get less, but better paced and developed moments and present the dynamics and relationship better.
Overall, I almost dropped it half way through. It just truly jumped around a lot and it felt like random cute scenes put together to create a typical BL show. It’s still a typical BL story, don’t get me wrong, but the quality improved a lot in the second half, and I was actually excited for the new episodes by the end.
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I could see they tried, but they failed.
This movie attempts to give us various plot twists based on the non-linear storytelling, character development of the female lead, who learns her ways when she experiences the treatment she served others, commentary about the clickbait culture and cheap journalism, and then fails them all. The only thing worth complimenting are a few scenery shots.Here’s the thing, you cannot make the female lead a trash human being and then try to make me care about her, while also not giving her any real, well written character development. The circumstances were there, she just did not react to anything with any sense of responsibility till the end of the movie. At first they introduce her as someone who values true journalism and tries to write about important topics, even if they are not popular in the clickbait social media. It does not take her even 3 minutes to completely change her attitude, trespassing on the accident site, moving around bodies to take pictures and stealing a necklace from the victim. And I was like... when exactly that change in her happened? Because it was never shown on screen. I honestly just wanted to see her dead.
The movie would also do better without any police involvement. That was a new level of idiocy, and I saw a fair share of dumb cops in dramas and movies. This tops it all.
U-Turn does not even try to build any type of atmosphere, there is literally no build up. They drop the ghost stalking the girl in the first few minutes, and then the whole movie is just copy-paste similar sequences.
As I said at the beginning, the only redeeming qualities were a few aesthetically pleasing scenes. The acting was good, but what’s the point of decent acting when the writing is worse than the grades I had in math in high school? And believe me, I had hit rock bottom then.
Overall, I would honestly not recommend it. It is not worth spending 1 hour and 30 minutes on it.
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EPISODE 1 - RENT
Probably the weakest of the episodes. Rather than scary, it was simply gross. Not only it contains animal cruelty, it feels like over the top edgy content, that crosses the lines just for the sake of the shock value. The plot itself was rather messy too, even with how short and simple it was.
EPISODE 2 - HUNGER
Horror with elements of comedy and a nice small plot twist that ends a well executed storyline. Saying that the opening made me confused would be an understatement, but everything made sense by the end. The narration made me laugh a few times, and even though it felt weird at times, it ended up as my favorite of the 4 stories.
EPISODE 3 - HIDE AND SEEK
Kids are creepy. Kids with masks are even creepier. This one gave me chills, but the shift of mood by the end caught me off guard and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Still, I enjoyed it a lot. The acting by the young cast was great, especially the main lead.
EPISODE 4 - TAXI
I'd view the story as a psychological themes packed in a horror genre. Pregnancy being a theme in horror is a bit off for me. I thought Rent was at times edgy, but one scene in Taxi was a whole new level of edge. I appreciate them trying to give the female lead a whole completed arc throughout these 20 minutes, and I think it's fair to say they have succeeded.
Overall, it's a short series of rather obvious horror stories that will not scare anyone. They are still entertaining to watch, some having nice twists to them.
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What a lovable mess this show is.
I don’t think I have any brain cells left to write this review, but at least I’m truly happy. I’m not even sure my brain can grasp what I have just watched.This drama is a pure form of entertainment. Name a trope, and you will find it here: hidden identity, crossdressing, male lead going from borderline psychopath to cute lovely sweet boy with the power of love, poisoning, double poisoning, fake identities, making masks from human faces, crucifying people on torture devices, raping girls on the wedding night (which was amazingly called "doing the nasty" in the show), almost biting someone's lips off... and there is more.
I love the separate cases the main leads dealt with, BUT the main plot that unfolded as the drama progressed was weak. I truly couldn't care less about all the past events. Maybe if it was shown as more of a vital part of the drama itself, I would be more engaged.
Our main leads were truly an amazing duo. After we got past Lu Yi abusing his position to abuse Jin Xia (dude literally kicking her injured leg at the beginning episodes) the romance became truly adorable. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, but the fact they made it into "enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers" just made me laugh my ass off.
That said, Jin Xia was an awesome character. She was smart, driven, hardworking, brave (when the situation needed it), forgiving but also funny and a bit over the top. I could not stop smiling whenever she was on the screen. She is just one of the characters that make you happy as you watch them grow.
I also appreciate the fact that the 2nd lead was so useless and annoying. Xie Xiao made the watch so much easier for me. No need to fear SLS. It won't happen.
I wished we saw more of Yan Shi Fan. I wanted to see more of his behind the scene schemes. There was something about how he dealt with things and interacted with people that made me more curious and interested, but I didn't get enough. I mean, the drama went into some details about his character. For example, I know he has a foot fetish: 6.6 inches is the best length. I just wished he was more integral to the story in the first half. Sometimes he was completely gone for a few episodes which made him less scary and imposing.
That said, the whole cast did a great job with the acting. Nothing felt over the top. The emotions were clearly visible and fitting for the scenes. I definitely felt the chemistry between all the characters and couples.
Objectively speaking, though, I should not rate it higher than 5. Some plot lines were just lazy. Whole Chun Yu Min story is questionable at best. Some directing choices were ridiculous. The underwater scenes (which also made me call the show "underwater wuxia") were iconic bad. This is CGI level -100. The weird close ups on characters' eyes were more often than not, too much and made me feel uncomfortable.
But... the show is what it is. It was crazy fun. I did not laugh so bad for ages. Binge watched it in a few days. Once I started watching, I could not stop. The entertainment value is as high as it can get. And for that, I don't feel bad about giving it 7.5. Not to mention, the opening soundtrack is beautiful.
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I just couldn't comprehend how stupid the characters were. They were making dumb decisions for the sake of plot and I could not take it. While in the second half I could excuse the wife and her odd behavior, her decisions in the first 30 minutes have no explanation. Min Ho was not better, probably worse. He knew his wife's condition, and mother's dementia. He was literally asking for trouble when he ignored the problem in the first place.
Last 30 minutes? Literally comedy. I did not laugh so bad in quite some time. Especially one mirror scene - it was gold. The intent was probably to scare me, but ain't with stuff like that. They just... went too far. I always say it with horrors: sometimes showing less is more.
The acting was really good. Especially impressed with Shin Rin Ah's performance. Truly chilling. I mean, it's not that hard to make kids seem creepy, but she was especially good at it.
The movie was shot in a beautiful way. Some editing could have been better, especially closer to the ending, but all in all the quality of the production was good.
Overall, the movie felt lazy. The idea behind it was entertaining and interesting, since I adore all the horror folklore based movies, but the presentation was quite... messy. And I don't even want to talk about that ending.
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The story of how a sense of support can give you a ray of hope for better tomorrow and strength to work your way up. Overcoming the struggles, accepting defeat and putting it behind you so you can move forward. Welcoming someone into your world and heart and being able to say goodbye. This movie has quite a lot of truly emotional messages wrapped in a nice, simple storyline with a big heart.
The acting was amazing. Jo Jung Suk has this ability to make me hate his character with my whole heart at first, to later make me love and adore him. Doo Sik's treatment of Doo Young at the beginning got my blood boiling, but the gradual and solid character development done with his character made me care for him far more than I expected.
Do Kyung Soo's scene after the final match broke me for a few good minutes. It amazes me how natural he is with the craft of acting. Kim Kang Hyun's character was a lighter touch to the story, perfectly balancing the comedy and drama. Even Park Shin Hye did a good job, portraying a coach who is not willing to give up on Doo Young.
Overall, I didn't expect to like it that much, but I truly fell for its charm and the well written characters. The portrayal of mental struggle after facing a tragedy was done in a realistic way that made me feel the pain the characters' were showing. Rather than painfully sad, it's a touching story that will make you cry your eyes off, but won't leave you in a depressive mood.
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