Not just on the eye because it's so beautifully shot and acted. It gave of even totally different moods in few scenes as well, though all of them melancholic, it was great to look at! The music always hightend the scenes to melo-max, in case someone wanted to maintain a dry eye. Because everything felt so heart-wrenching it is easy to hate the story but I think no one can deny that it is pretty darn intelligent with it's insightful look at the truth.
It's a psycho thriller from my point of few. Son Ye Jin shows us one of the deepest human abyss I have seen - greed. Hence the writing is pitch perfect - I would give it a 10 - but the story itself...just sucks as I mentioned before. Does that make sense to anyone? The issues used in this movie are death, murder, rape and selfishness that causes them all.
This film is not for the light hearted ones I swear (because I am). I think it's even worse than a horror movie that makes you shiver at night since this is all about the darkest moments of humanity packed in the story of three people, it feels like this can actually happen. Yes this is how high I think about this movie - because I felt destroyed afterwards. That's why I would never watch it again...but because of the effort they put in it...maybe I might...
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The story is good, but really sad. I thought it was a murder mystery, but I figured out what was going on in the first ½ hour. I don’t think there is much mystery to it. I thought the way they filmed it was really well done. The acting is extremely intense and dark . Son Ye Jin plays a part far removed from the only other thing I have seen her in which is Personal Taste. She is a very versatile actress. I had never seen Han Seok Kyu or Go Soo in anything else. I think they did well in their respective roles as a cop and criminal. The ending was off the hook!!!
Again due to certain scenes and because the premise of the movie is not light, I’m not sure if I would recommend just anyone watch this. Watch at your own risk.
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as “journey under the midnight sun”, the book this film was based on, is one of my favourite books, maybe my review is a bit biased. the movie wasn’t bad at all, and i’m sure far more enjoyable for those who haven’t read the original story. the story stays quite true to keigo higashino’s, which i’m glad about. they did switch a few things up but that’s understandable. nothing too big.
one of my biggest issues with this film was the confusing timeline and that it felt rushed.
the story starts with the second murder, jumps back to the first murder and then back to the second again—for a while, it didn’t even register what was going on. just as they started out of the blue, these storylines were also abruptly ended, with not much explanation. why did they stop investigating the first murder? while i know the answer, it wasn’t given in the film. i found the beginning very sloppy.
besides the timeline, i found the pace just as confusing. i think the original book is difficult to convert to a film because it’s so very detailed that it’s impossible to put it all in just two hours and make it make sense. yet like i mentioned before, they switched between events and some were over before they even started. maybe if they hadn’t mixed the present and the past, it would’ve been easier to begin and finish every part of the storyline.
another complaint i have is that there wasn’t no much mystery at all, to my surprise. again, my judgment might be clouded by the original: where the affiliation between the main characters wasn’t quite obvious until much later, where they weren’t even suspected until later. in this film, it’s really easy to figure out the people involved. it takes away a lot of the mystery it’s supposed to have. i wasn’t watching on the edge of my seat all the time, and sometimes i felt certain things were a bit anti-climax. they had build up and had me in suspense, yet dropped the ball.
there’s also some parts of the story that, while they were in the book as well, i felt in this film were lacking wnd insignificant and i personally would have left them out. they were started but i have no idea why or what the motive of this event was; it just happened and was never brought up again, like the story of the missing detective and the missing investigator. quite disappointing i must say. instead i would’ve left these out and instead put more details in the main story.
however, i loved the overall feeling of the film. it felt dark and melancholic. the cast also mostly did a beautiful job. go soo’s portrayal of yohan (ryoji) was far more desperate than the book’s counter, but it was a good twist that made sense. i’m quite sad they didn’t dive a little deeper into yohan, he could’ve been even better in my opinion.
son ye jin also showed good performance. she looked innocent and perfect, to the point where it felt eerie, yet in particular scenes she made miho look as cunning as she were in reality.
i don’t actually have much of a complaint about any of the cast, but i did feel that detective han’s desperation was at times lacking. overall i think they did a great job with this cast.
although i think the song of choice is beautiful, i did feel it was repeated far too often. halfway through the movie it didn’t even give me any particular feelings anymore, it was just kind of there as white noise.
i don’t think i would rewatch this, but i do recommend it for people who have not read the book. as long as you don’t have any expectations or knowledge of the storyline, i think this is a very decent and enjoyable, but dark and heavy film.
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this was a good movie but talk about messed up. and the only ones to blame where the adults that started all this sh*t. Yo Han's parents not to mention that f*cking mother - like how can any woman do that to their child?!? (and as astonished as i'm - this isn't the first time i've heard about this happening. and still my mind just can't comprehend how a mother could do that to their own child).as much as Detective Han Dong Su was supposedly the "good guy", didn't like him much, first off his hitting his partner even jokingly on the face and head, would've made me homicidal. that sh*t aint funny. then this genius takes his son to that old boat - alone - with no protective gear, and tells him to go down the freaking shoot, with zero visibility. is his kid a rock climber?!? like which idiotic reckless father/parent would do that??? this guys - like seriously.
felt sorry for both kids, yeah easy to call Yoo Mi Ho evil, considering what has become of her, but going through the sh*t that was enabled by her mother, on the daily - to suffer like that. how could u come out of it normal? even now that she has it all. and will likely get off scot-free. she won't lead a normal life. she will try too, but that is impossible - as she doesn't know what "normal" is. which is kinda scary - for everyone around her lol
Yo Han the poor poor boy, yrs to not only carry around the guilty of killing his own father, but then to become her tool to be used, she turned him into her personal hitman - and everything just kept weighting on his conscious. little wonder this ended for him as it did. i think that's why his mother at last called Han, cause she was worried that he wasn't gonna live long. and if Han caught him he would have a chance in prison. something better the nothing (guessing - otherwise dunno why she suddenly changed her mind, and told Han the whole truth).
haven't seen the Japanese movie, but this was well acted (not that i had any doubt with actors like Son Ye Jin, Han Seok Kyu or Go Soo) enjoyed it as much as one could with this kind of sad plot.
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