Good one-time-watch
Recalled is a decent psychological thriller. Nothing too extraordinary, but slightly better than the average thriller.With no further prelude or introductory elements the viewer is pulled right into the story, seeing things through the eyes of the main character Soo-Jin (Seo Yea Ji) , who has lost her memory due to an accident and struggles to distinguish between reality and illusion, going to the extent that at some point she even starts to suspect her husband.
The actual "mystery" is pretty predictable, but seeing things through Soo-Jin's eyes and witnessing her emotions, her horror and fright uncovering things actually made the plot interesting, far from gripping or engaging but enough to keep one invested. Seo Yea Ji once again proves her versatility as an actress and her capability to convey conflicted emotions to the viewer with ease. Kim Kang-Woo got some bigger parts in the second half and the chemistry of this on-screen-couple was also surprisingly pleasant. The rest of the cast had some minor roles and were frankly, quite forgettable.
The last 30 minutes or so were quite surprising, leading to a switch in genre and making this movie stand out from other psychological thrillers of this kind. While the rest of the movie, plot- wise felt more like a 6.5- 7 rating, the later parts turned it into a 8 for me.
So is it worth watching? Yes, if you are up for a decent thriller, do not expect too much from it and have spare time, go for it. And especially yes, if you like Seo Yea Ji's acting and her unconventional choice in scripts.
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always choose the 2nd lead!
1st of all I have to say, I'm a huge fan of both SYJ and KKW, but I'm not biased when I say their acting performance was amazing!I'm not sure if they were purposely "obvious" cuz they just wanted the journey not the shock value, or if it's just as I call it "mystery genres are dead"
I have lost hope in all crime genres and mysteries, it's been atleast 5 years since I thought a twist was shocking or revolutionary so it's nothing new for a twist to not faze me, and indeed I saw through it all but still it was a great watch
now for the story, to be honest, with stories like this there's always 2 options; it's real or it's fake. we've seen so many stories about having visions of the future so it's not that shocking to see her believe it, but I'll say the writer played it too safe by making all the "unfortunate" events around girls and worse, those girls didn't talk
so the only outcome is, memories, ie recalling which shows how a good title can atleast hide the plot, or they never intended to
so basically their plot twist was obvious, they wanted to make us doubt Seon Woo because that's where it usually leads to, the girl who forgets and the killer who pretends to be her husband, Secret Obsession had that plot to T. so even if the 1st time it seems "twisty", I knew they weren't going there..
also, actually the point I liked this was how obviously Seon Woo loved her. though as an actor I know he can pull both the sweet and the dark so I didn't doubt him as a serial killer but it was a nice subtle touch. as if to say "never doubt him"
also the fact that Yeom Hye Ran came and heavily implied that her husband abused her was a clear sign, also the way Seon Woo acted when he finally got caught, as if he was begging Soo Jin to believe his lies..
now the only thing that shocked me was how Ji Hoon was alive xD I thought that was another recalculation leading to the moment she got hurt, but it was wrapped up too fast and I hated how they had to kill Seon Woo cuz you know, he killed before and he's a main so he can't have a happily ever after
so I refuse to acknowledge that ending and will think they both finally fled their misfortunes and lived happily ever after
ok, I'll complain more on how both events would've been "self defense" so they reeeaaalllly didn't need to hide it or even worse bury a live body..
the ost was basic but I appreciated the low volume on the chewing, and I'd actually want to rewatch this but I would want the fire and hospital scene cut xD
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Masterpiece Movie
This movie is the best out of kmovies I have watched. Its duration is only 1 hour and a half, but I can't believe that the storyline is that good, and I could have various emotions. My mouth was wide opened out of surprise many times while watching. I've never seen such a masterpiece movie before. In fact, it's similar to "Flower of Evil" to the fact that the wife tried to dig the secret of her husband and found the shocking truth, but of course, it's different and they are masterpiece in their own way.In short, it's a masterpiece and a must watch movie.
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Are these visions of the future or memories of the past?
Recalled was a mystery, thriller, melodramatic and stars Seo Yea Ji and Kim Kang Woo. We follow Soo Jin(Seo Yea Ji) a woman suffering from amnesia due to a horrible accident and Ji Hoon(Kim Kang Woo) a loving husband who is always by her side.right from the start we are shown the confusion of Soo Jin not being able to remember anything and experiencing hallucinations. This continues for like an 1hr into the film and we are left to wonder who Soo Jin can really trust, Her "memories" or Her husband? I personally didn't know who to trust either and is in the same dilemma with Soo Jin. I wanted to trust her memories however she always gets these visions wrong, on the flip side the husband was suspicious and secretive. It was predictable and lackluster that had me unengaged at times because of it seemingly having little to no progression. Adding to that I was worried if the movie will be able to finish strong, however after the pieces are fitted in together does finish strong and I would recommend it just for the last 30minutes. The story is common and added nothing new to thrillers but it was still delivered well and gave ok thrills, so that's a plus. Acting was also amazingly done, Seo Yea Ji gave us an amazing performance and showed us the complexity of his character as the girl who blames herself, lost her memories, and no one believing in. Kim Kang Woo also was great giving us a pitiful, caring, and wholehearted brother that is willing to sacrifice himself for her step sister whom she loves. It shows us to what length a person can go to protect his/her love one. The music was terrible it added no value to the movies which is unfortunate because a good music could have leveled this up. It gave a similar tone and experience personally to memoir of a murderer with the amnesia and unreliable storytelling. Cinematography was okay, at times it was perfectly shot at times it was bad. Not something you would want to rewatch because of it's slow pacing and reveal but was an okay 1 time watch. Overall recalled was decent watch not something you should immediately watch right now but if you're a fan of either Seo Yea Ji or Kim Kang Woo then I do recommend this, just not set too high of expectations.Was this review helpful to you?
Not Bad But Not Good Either
i just finished this movie and it's is a little confusing with all that time skip you kinda had to manually fit the past n the present stories together, to understand the movie n the different faces from their younger selves made it a a little challenging to tell who's who,(and i say manually cuz it felt as if the timeskips were forced into the scenes and it didn't come naturally) unlike most of the comments here on mdl i didn't really find it enjoyable but it was okay~ but nothing more that just an okay movie, i had to watch this on 2xspeeed cuz i it didn't intrigue me enough, the plot was meh and not well executed. I feel like all of the problems could have just been resolved if they sat down and had a proper talk (this is mainly why i gave it a low rating cuz it dint really make much sense here), also lots of people mentioned about the plot twist at the end and i really had high expectations for the end but after watching it i don't think you can call that a plot twist it was super weak and kinda predictableoverall its an okay movie but i don't rec watching it unless ure just bored and seen about every other movie out there
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Incest-y vibes
There are other western movies that have a similar plot to this one, but what sets this apart from their western counterparts is the plot twist. This plot twist involves revealing that the the FL's adopted brother is actually masquerading as her husband to "save" her. Which gives off major incest vibes because surely there is a better solution than having to act as your amensiac sister's (adopted but still?!) husband. Yikes. Acting wise it is decent but I felt like it was a tad too fake. Like I could tell that Seo Ye-Ji is acting instead of embodying the character. Probably because she doesn't fit that "damsel in distress" image AT ALL. This movie felt really off to me in words that I can't describe and I honestly would not recommend this. Objectively, it is fairly decent as a psychological thriller if you are able to look past the psuedo incest. Thankfully I watched this on a plane so it wasn't a waste of my time but I would not recommend watching this on your own time.Was this review helpful to you?
Predictable Story, Poor Execution
For about 3/4th's of the movie, Recalled is completely predictable. Its plot points feel so familiar. However, that wouldn't be as bad if the story wasn't skin-deep. At no point was I ever on the edge of my seat, worried about what might happen to the FL. In fact, for a main character, she doesn't do much of anything. Things just sort of happen to her, and people show up conveniently to help. Then, there's a twist, revealed through a cluster of time skips, which I liked at first but made no sense to me by the end of the movie. It's one of those things where EVERYTHING could've been resolved if the characters sat down and had a genuine conversation with each other. The actors did a good job, but no one stood out to me in any particular way. It is the same for the music. There are some questions I have that could probably be answered if I watched the movie again, but I think I can live without those questions being answered. Overall, Recalled was an average movie. It wasn't outstandingly good or bad, just nothing new.Was this review helpful to you?
The cast did a great job at playing the characters, especially the main female lead and also the husband.
I don't remember much about the OST but the background music did an amazing job during the intense and thriller scenes.
I scored the rewatch value so low for two reasons. 1) I rarely rewatch stuff. 2) Once you know the big twist, the movie wouldn't hit that hard on you. However you can still rewatch it and enjoy finding out all the smaller details and hidden meanings in it.
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i liked it and i hope you dio too
The Movie had a dark Nature Main lead soojin (Seo yeji) played the role perfectly it felt like something I would read in a manga the storyline it's very unique. The adoptive brother who loves his sister will do anything to protect her even if it means ending up dead along as she's ok, Soojin goes on to has 'predictions' that actually happen she tries to stop it from happening but only gets called crazy we find out at the end of the movie that these 'predictions' are things that happened to her in the past and the reason why see had amnesia is because she fell off the building her abusive husband tried to kill her in. So yea good movieWas this review helpful to you?
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PLOT TWIST that's it
I've been wanting to watch this movie for quite a while, I didn't expect what I saw. In all honesty, I did had some expectations, because from what I read about the movie plus what I saw for half the movie, I got mayors vibes from the Netflix movie "Secret Obsession" with Brenda Song, however, the way it got so many plot twist like, the movie got me feeling like the main girl. The way every time she felt some type of way or saw something, I felt has confused and I really liked that I started to understand everything at the same time as her. If you want the unexpected watch the movie somehow it still made me sad even though it was more of a mystery thriller movie, which usually doesn't make me feel sad. ANYWAYS, totally recommended, for some good Ye-ji acting plus great story.Was this review helpful to you?
first half is a snoozer, second half is too crazy
the first hour of this movie is unnecessarily slow not even gonna lie. its a carbon copy of a lot of movies with this same plot, so nothing in the beginning really sticks out to you. even with the FL’s special ability, its not very enticing. the second half with the plot twist was good at first, until about twenty minutes in and then things just get too messy and weird. it was a good plot twist but the writers decided to do too much with it.the ML’s acting was good, but unnecessarily suspicious? i get that he had to act suspicious for the movie, but when a twist is revealed its supposed to have you like: “ohhhh! that’s why he was acting like that!” except i didn’t react like that at all. instead the twist just made his previous acting make even less sense. anyways, its overall a decent set-up despite the absolute droolfest that the first half is. however as a habitual movie rewatcher, i dont see myself ever rewatching this.
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PROS
+ The concept is really interesting
+ Most of the later half is unpredictable and surprising
+ Seo Yea-ji is a babe
CONS
- Some of the shock elements are humorous, rather than intense
- There is very little logic to the writing in some of the supplemental plot elements
- The mystery starts to lose its intrigue early on due to the pacing and "safe" tone
- The metaphorical/phycological additions to the plot are extremely hard to take seriously at times
- There is a lack of emotions conveyed in tender moments
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I don't know if I'd wholeheartedly recommend this one. Check it out if you think it sounds cool and don't mind just being entertained without thinking too logically... or if you just want to see Seo Yea-ji look good the whole time!
7/10
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