Anyway, jokes aside if you know anything about me, you know by now I'm a sucker for obsessive love that goes beyond the boundaries of morality.
Absolutely one of those films and couples that will be my go to from now on.
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In short "Double Mints" is a manga project that projects as a fantasy to a forbidden world in which it does not enter, but it is strongly impressed that the film is a reality and a terrain with more realistic brushstrokes.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is not a fluffy BL story that is for sure. The relationship between the main leads is twisted and intense and S/M abusive. Having said that I didn't regret watching it ... it was sort of interesting thinking about the 'whys' of this strange relationship and some of the unexpected twists that occurred. In short:
For me this movie is about love ... what is it ... who can have it ... and under what circumstances can it be ‘had’. It is a kind of fascinating melding of greek philosophy and S&M. The reason for my thinking this was the reference to Plato’s feast (the TV documentary they were watching on the TV). Maybe I read too much into that TV documentary, but for me it seemed relevant to the story.
In detail:
Plato’s Feast was kind of symposium or talk fest, where all these philosophers ate, drank and talked a whole lot of philosophical shit. In respect of the TV documentary, it particularly referred to the feast held at Agathon’s (a poet) house. At that feast, the topic of discussion was “eros” or “love”. Quite a few philosophers had their say about what they thought “love” was ... in particular:
Pausanias believed that loving attraction was not always sublime, that it could sometimes be ‘base’ because there were two kinds of love from the goddesses Aphrodite (Aphrodite was the Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation). One kind of love was Aphrodite Heavenly and the other kind was Aphrodite the Vulgar so therefore it must follow that there were two kinds of love - heavenly love and vulgar love.
Aristophanes, on the other hand, spoke about the myth that original inhabitants of the land were androgynous i.e. they were both male and female at the same time aka the Androgyns. The Androgyns had 4 legs, 4 arms and 2 faces that looked in opposite directions. When they wanted to move, they moved on their 8 limbs like a wheel. The god Zeus didn’t like the Androgyns so he ordered Apollo to cut them into half. Afterwards, even though the Androgyns were now separated, the memory of the connection with their former half gave rise to a desire to search for their other ‘half’ in order to restore their original nature and integrity. However, this was not as easy as it seems as if they were 'wicked' the gods would 'cut' people into even smaller parts.
Anyway, given the above as a kind of background to the story, it is not surprising that the two male leads have the same sounding name Ichikawa Mitsuo … the only difference between the two is how they spell their family name "Ichikawa". One spelt it with the kanji for the number "one" i.e. "Ichikawa" / "一川" (one river). The other spelt it with the kanji for 'city' - "Ichikawa" / "市川" (city river). Is having the same name symbolic of them being each other's other half ... they are the same but different ... same coin, different sides ?. This is interesting as when both Mitsuo’s meet in high school … right from the beginning, you can see their two very distinct and seemingly different personalities but there was a hidden S&M kind of connection / attraction between them none the less. Since their first meeting they have 'danced' around each other ... like a pair of orbiting neutron stars that spiral ever closer together. One receives from the other, one gives to the other … one receives abuse, the other gives it … one masochistic, the other sadistic … one gets a girlfriend, the other takes her for himself ... “No. 1” Ichikawa is “City” Ichikawa’s dog and will come to his 'call'.
After high school the two Ichikawa's go their seemingly separate ways. “City” Ichikawa comes from a Yakuza (gangster) world and is a low level ‘dog’ for the Yakuza Boss. “No. 1” Ichikawa is a Systems Analysist and true to his "number" name, is brilliant on coding. They had no contact with each other until that phone call.
When “City” Ichikawa "murders" his girlfriend … the only way he can keep it secret from his Yakuza brothers, is to call his own “dog” from high school. That "City" Ichikawa still has "No. 1" Ichikawa's phone number after all these years is interesting. The rest of the story is really about the “dance” they have with each other against the backdrop of murder and the brutal gangster life … and in doing so, how they slowly grow in awareness that despite how their lives have gone, despite the predicaments they get into, they are best together ... live together, die together. They are two sides of the same coin … each is the "mint" (as in stamping) to one side of the same coin ... one has no meaning without the other ... hence "Double Mints" ... not the peppermint kind but the coin minting kind (well imo).
So this for me is a love story with a twist ... and it is fascinating. Who is it that deserves love … what kind of love do they deserve … ''heavenly love vs 'vulgar love' … if the love is consensual, is one kind of love necessarily 'worse' than another kind of love ? … I am not into S&M but who am I to judge what other people need in their lives so long as it is informed and consensual ... “love is love” be it ‘heavenly love’ or ‘vulgar love’. Interestingly, regardless of the type of love had between people, when it is informed and consensual, there seems to come with it a potential degree of personal 'evolution' … so in that sense can all kinds of love be 'good' love ?.
The ending of the movie had an air of bitter sweetness … I think they were both going to Korea knowing they would meet their deaths there … but in so doing, they would meet it together as "one". The movie is a bit of a mind f*ck ... but that is the way I see it at this point in time ... maybe if I watch it again in another year or two I might see things differently ... who knows.
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Overall: an Ok movie. It's entertaining.
Rewatch? Nothing I yearn to see a second time.
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This review may contain spoilers
Someone said obsession?...Ready to watch!
Recently I keep coming upon series where the main theme is obsessive love. Well, this one is in a class of its own!Double Mints is a story of two men with a same name who cannot live apart no matter how bad they are to each other. We know nothing about the two characters: what is known is their relationship: toxic, codependent, raw, addicted, obsessive, damaged.
They met in high school where one becomes the owner of the other one calling him "the dog". Every time "the dog" tries to break free, he is pulled back into the weird relationship. So much so that "the dog", even adult, has no will of his own before his master. But when he realizes that his master is someone else's dog (in this case, he has become an errand boy for the local yakuzas), he starts to change. They are still addicted to each other but the erstwhile dog decides to become equal. And they understand that they are the two halves of the same . Soulmates sounds too fluffy for this damaged relationship. But that is what they ultimately turn out to be! Unhealthy it may be but they need to stay together.
What is it about these toxic , obsessive relationships that is so fascinating?
The movie is dark. The cinematography is appropriately black and bleak. The acting is perfect: the actors managed to portray complex feelings through posture, voice and facial micro expressions. The cello music is ominous and rather scary not allowing for a glimmer of hope in this world filled with cruelty. The editing is a bit messy: the timeline seems stunted and it is difficult to understand how much time has passed between the scenes.
It is a hard watch, long and draggy at moments with minimal dialogue. They did not need to say anything, everything was crystal clear from the way they walked and behaved.
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Thrilling dark BL with master - servant relationship: captivating, wish it was longer!
This BL movie is centered around the master-servant relationship of two guys, as they are intertwingled with each other while facing a dire criminal situation. I really enjoyed the story and I honestly wish the film would have been longer, especially to have more time in the last act of the script and with the conclusion.The chemistry between the two main leads was very strong and captivating. One of the character has a clear chokehold on the other one, the introduction and the set up allows the viewer to immediately grasp the toxicity of the link between the protagonists. I truly enjoyed the performance of the two main actors but I found the antagonists a bit too caricatural. I think the scenario is really carrying the performances of the cast, it really provided great acting opportunities for the two main males leads but was maybe not developed enough regarding the antagonists and the crime aspect of the film.
The filmmaking was good with an indie feel that I appreciated. I loved the reference to Plato’s "Other Half" speech, it was so adequate with the feelings of the main characters and truly added an additional layer of deepness to their relationship. The soundtrack was pretty gloomy and angsty, very fitting with the dark atmosphere of the movie.
I would recommend this to people looking for a captivating BL relationship with subservient/dominant tones. Given the context in which the characters are evolving, be aware that it is a pretty toxic, violent and triggering story. It is very thrilling and chocking at the same time, I wish it would have been more developed on some aspects (especially regarding the past of the two main characters) but it might be me being greedy.
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This Move is to see different side of our normal society
There was no plot JUST Showing the minority part of our society. Not everyone is perfect, Not everyone lives according to social norms, and Not everyone's love is the normal love we see in movies and dramas. This movie showed the story of those people who exist in our society but our society ignores them.I wanted the main characters to be more crazy. I see love but not the crazy passion of obsession of love for each other. which I was looking for. On crazy people's standards, this was so general and average character behavior.
The script writer did a great job of making the story as acceptable kind for normal society as a writer could.
Watch this move from a new perspective. This move is not for normal people who follow social norms.
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This review may contain spoilers
Interesting psychological mess
I understand why people are so divided when it comes to this movie. It's pretty hard-to-go-with, has lots of TW and it's definitely something different. For me it's more about new topic here, "broken people", which is really interesting for me to begin with.I really like the psychological plot there. The theory about androgynous fits perfectly, because I really believe they would be the one person. Two crazy people who actually have met and completed each other in such an unstandard way, they whole story, how everything started is described that I as a spectator actually could understand, but not that clearly, so some scenes and ending are free to interpret. I have a weak spot to difficult and complicated relationships in BLs and I really got it here. Good work.
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This review may contain spoilers
Strong characters
The movie is very interesting. The main characters are very well crafted, both in personality and appearance. The beginning of the movie is very good, and captures the attention of the audience in an instant.The camera angles and clips are all very well done, and the acting is well delivered.
The movie is R15, but I think it would have been better to make it R18. I hate to say it, but the recorded rape scene wasn’t gruesome nor graphic enough. I also think that the movie deserves a sex scene (without rape in it).
All in all, it was a good movie and I would watch it again.
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Watched Again After 7 Years
I didnt remember most of the story (though i did remember most of the twists) and god, I forgot how good this movie is. I gave it a 10 in the past and Im keeping it as a 10 for my personal rating, but showing some restraint and giving it a 9 here.If you like dark anything, watch it. If you like unequal power dynamics, ooooh my god is this for you. I love obsessive love done well and this is done spectacularly. My kingdom for this to have been a series because i could absolutely gorge myself on these two's relationship.
Mitsuo is in charge but Mitsuo is in charge so, secretly, Mitsuo is in charge. Its a lovely watch, filled to the brim with violence and grimy living... ah, I just love it!!
So worth a watch. And a rewatch for that matter, this pair is just ??. Anyway, if you watch things with your ethics or morals in mind, mayne skip, otherwise, jump in :D
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Film natočený podle mangy se netrefil do mého vkusu, příběh se mi nelíbil. Některý z jednodužších diváků, když uvidí tyto násilnosti a vraždy, tak je může začít používat i ve skutečnosti. Navíc zabalené do převráceného gay vztahu. To ale neznamená, že film budu trestat v jiných kritériích hodnocení, kdy především herecké výkony a zpracování mi přišlo nadprůměrné. Pro jemné romantické duše film nedoporučuji.
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uh...no.
Only watched an hour of it. The entire time I was caught up and yet still confused. There was no build up to anything. Just a bunch of unnecessary side stories and flashbacks and rape scenes that are supposed to explain how a man fell in love with his bully. Personally I think one is an emotional pussy who uses violence because he can't own up to his own emotions and the other one is a sadistic sociopath that needs help. Either way this movie is terrible and I would not recommend it to anyone.Was this review helpful to you?
