Movies and short films I watched in 2023

Ackery Jan 16, 2023

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1. Those That Follow

Thai Movie - 2022

8.5
- Pretty good concept
- Would like to see a full length movie of it
- Good acting
- Pretty good visually
- Many camera angles (it is promoting an iPhone after all)
- What horror movies should be like
2. PTS Original: The Silent Forest

Taiwanese Special - 2020, 1 episode

8.0
- Fantastic acting
- Disturbing
- Hard to watch
- Loud silence
- The majority of the movie is in sign language
- Deals with many sensitive subjects such as rape, abuse, circle of violence, corruption
- Frustrating
- Worth the one time watch
- Raw
- Well written
3. Lipstick

Korean Movie - 2019

8.5
- Low production quality
- Pretty good acting
- Symbolism heavy
- Very smart way of depicting some things
- Worth the watch
4. Yurigokoro

Japanese Movie - 2017

4.5
- Nothing special in the directing department
- Bland atmosphere
- Bad lighting
- Low production quality, that didn't really bother me
- Okay acting -with some bad overacting here and there-
- Good concept
- Okay beginning
- Generally badly and nonsensically written plot
- Over the top for the sake of being over the top
- Some -not that- disturbing scenes
- Characters that you could feel nothing about
- Some makjangish tropes
5. Kill Bok Soon

Korean Movie - 2023

8.5
- Fun and easy to watch action film
- Nothing extraordinary for the genre
- Amazing acting from the entire cast
- Well choreographed action scenes
- Mother-daughter relationship (with a nice ''twist'')
- Could be a bit more suspenseful
6. Hunger

Thai Movie - 2023

9.0
- One of the best movies I have watched in a while
- Great acting
- Amazing directing and cinematography
- Dark atmosphere
- Food porn
- Social commentary on multiple themes (greed, poor vs rich, success)
- Easy to watch (regardless of duration)
- Not for everyone, since it is slow paced
- Symbolism heavy
- Didn't feel preachy, but they could have done a better job at handling the balance
- Ending could be better
7. Lighting Up the Stars

Chinese Movie - 2022

8.5
- Emotional
- It is one of those movies that you will believe you won't get emotional, but you will figure out that that was just a false hope
- Amazing and memorable performance from Zhu Yi Long
- Awful, full of screaming first 10-15 minutes
- Worth the watch in the end
- Deals with the theme of loss/death and family
8. Escape from Mogadishu

Korean Movie - 2021

7.5
- Great production quality
- Not as entertaining and suspensful as I expected
- It is always interesting leanring about some real events (even if the movie is just based on them)
- Good acting from most of the main characters
- Some overacting from the side characters that made the movie feel a bit comedic...
- Not satisfied with Zo In Sung's acting
- Koo Kyo Han was the highlight of the film - great performance
- Heo Joon Ho and Kim Yoon Seok also stole the spotlight
- Too many scenes with ''kids are holding guns'' that felt forced
- Not as good as I expected
- Some not that good and unecessary CGI
- ''In favor of unification'' film
9. Paradise

Japanese Movie - 2019

6.5
- Interesting themes
- Thought provoking
- Good enough acting
- Not that great production quality
- Character driven
- Slow paced
- I found it a bit boring at times (could easily be 20 minutes less)
10. Lesson in Murder

Japanese Movie - 2022

9.5
- Amazing in the psychological thriller genre
- Dark atmosphere
- Interesting plot
- Wonderful performance by Abe Sadawo
- Twists and turns
- Needed improvement in the make-up/hairstyling department
- Easy to watch
- Disturbing without trying too hard
- Great ending
- Compelling plot -even though it is not unique-
- All scenes are important
- Thought provoking
- Interesting and well written characters
11. Midnight

Korean Movie - 2021

6.5
- Wi Ha Joon was perfect *clapping*
- Pretty good acting performances from most of the main leads
- Intense
- Easy and fun to watch
- Purely for entertainment
- It has MANY dumb scenes that made 0 sense
- Scriptwriter probably tried to make a point about our society, but failed
- Most of the times it felt like there were no actual people in this movie's universe besides the main characters...
12. 1987: When the Day Comes

Korean Movie - 2017

8.5
- Great production quality
- Great acting performances especially from Kim Yoon Seok
- Generally good directing
- Moving and powerful plot
- Needed less close-ups
- Could be 20 minutes less
- Star-studded cast
- Shows real life footage in the end and during the movie that is deeply appreciated
13. Broker

Korean Movie - 2022

9.0
- From the colors, atmosphere, even plot, it feels more like a film inspired by him, rather than something that he made (not in a bad way)
- Great acting by everyone (oscar to the baby actor please
- Great dark humour
- Great social commentary on multiple themes like child abandonment, human trafficking, family
- Some scenes were brief and imo needed more screen time to make some parts of the story work and not feel as rushed
- Relatively rushed ending comparing to the rest of the film
- Probably his ''less-exhausting'' film to watch
14. Hell Dogs

Japanese Movie - 2022

4.5
- A mess
- Good acting
- Awful editing
- Too many (nick)names and places to remember
- Difficult to fully understand what is going on
- Too much talking lol - People speaking at the same time, saying things that no one cared about or just (again) put all those places and nicknames in one sentence.
- The music was out of place in some scenes
- Fighting scenes were mediocre to bad for my taste -awful editing or felt videogame-ish-
- Some eye-candy
- Last 30 minutes were fun
- Time passed quickly unexpectadly
15. The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves to Die

Korean Movie - 2022

9.0
- Great and fully entertaining for what it is
- Fantastic action scenes
- Nothing unique for the genre
- Jang Hyuk was hot af
16. Blade of the Immortal

Japanese Movie - 2017

6.0
- Pretty easy to watch even though it was almost two and a half hours
- I just have a thing for Kimura Takuya so there is that
- Entertaining enough with some very fun to watch fight scenes
- Directing was pretty good
- The gory elements were quite well done
- The FL was quite annoying. Dumb, incapable of anything and existed to be saved by M
- Acting of FL was mediocre to be kind (she shouted like 80% of her lines)
- I would appreciate more long shots in fights
- The film was boring at times, because of the immortality of the ML.
- Fight scenes were a bit anticlimactic, because it was impossible for him to die (Blade of the immortal obviously they would be)
- It has all the manga elements including weird hairstyles
- They could at least try a bit more with the wigs. For such a high budget production, some of the wigs were pretty meh
17. Decibel

Korean Movie - 2022

5.0
- Good concept, but that's it
- The submarine scene was the only highlight
- Awful -and I am being very honest- directing and editing. It ruined the movie.
- Too many changes in one scene (editing cuts)
- No continuation in many of the scenes
- Way too many shaky scenes (that they were supposed to intensify the atmosphere), many "bright" scenes (where some faces were not even visible).
- It looks like a much older movie (2014 at best and drama quality not cinema)
- Once again, we had the stupid/comedic relief character.
- I don't even get how the ending worked, anyways...
18. War of the Arrows

Korean Movie - 2011

6.0
- Great production quality
- Good enough acting
- Everyone looked realistic. Not typical pretty boys.
- I liked how they showed without shying away war cruelties
- Very simplistic plot
- Way too many action/war scenes that got a bit tiring
- No character development
- Pretty tiring editing/directing (the shaky camera movements, tons of angles etc.)
- The music was overly used
- Felt extremely unrealistic at times. That tiger scene was a big no ⛔
19. The Battleship Island

Korean Movie - 2017

8.5
- Great production quality.
- I liked the ''silent'' and ''black and white moments''
- Easy to watch
- Plot was pretty good
- Kim Soo An better be having a bright acting future ahead of her
- They showed everything without shying away (dismemberments, deaths, kids working etc.)
- Why is So Ji Sub so hot? I need a scientific explanation.
- Mentions comfort women sustraightforwardly.
- The final 20 minutes are a bit like Hollywood type of ''things escalated quickly'' and it can feel a bit corny, but generally not that bad.
- Hwang Jung Min's performance was not that great. Partly the scripts fault I suppose, but it felt a bit like he was trying to offer comedic relief...
20. My First Client

Korean Movie - 2019

8.0
- The movie deals sensitively with a very triggering and heartbreaking subject (child abuse)
- Pretty good generally, but not that great comparing to others that deal with the same subject.
- Lee Dong Hwi's acting isn't really good, especially in the emotional scenes, but he is portraying a realistically written characcter
- The movie became a bit too melodramatic in the end.
- The court scene felt unrealistic
- I felt like the scriptwriter and director wanted to pass a specific message, but they couldn't do it in a subtle manner.
- Great performance by Yoo Sun. You know she is good, when you want to personally beat her character up.
21. The Perfect Fishplate

Korean Movie - 2005

6.5
- Okayish short film
- I get that it was supposed to be over the top to portray perfectionism, but it was too much
22. Ballerina

Korean Movie - 2023

7.5
- Decent action film
- Not groundbreaking plot wise, even though it has its moments that break away from some action clichés
- Entertaining and very easy to watch
- Solid performances
- Jeon Jong Seo was great as usual
- Kim Ji Hoon was also pretty good and he fits these type of roles with his dead eyes
- Different vibe directing wise than many action movies
- Pretty entertaining action-wise, but not phenomenal
- No emotional impact. It felt very emotionless, but it also tried hard not to be
- The climax felt like it never happened
23. Hidden Blade

Chinese Movie - 2023

8.0
- Has a peculiar charm
- Visually it is impeccable
- Great production quality
- Acting is fantastic
- Great soundtrack, but the music didn't fit in some scenes
- Wang Yi Bo, hellfire type of hot and loved his performance
- I need a romantic series with Wang Yi Bo and Zhang Jing Yi
- The first hald is confusing and disappointing
- We are just thrown into the story, no explanations about who is who and a more informative historical background -> It is very hard to follow
- Way too many backs and forths that were pretty confusing, especially in the first half
- Cutting scenes *angry stare. They cut suspenseful scenes and showed us what happened minutes later that we had forgotten about it and it ruined the intense atmosphere
24. Race to Freedom: Um Bok Dong

Korean Movie - 2019

8.0
- Definitely not one of the worst Korean movies out there, like they say
- Fictional dramatization inspired by true events
- Not great, but extremely entertaining
- Many cliches you will find in similar films
- It looks very cheap at times - doesn't look like a 2019 movie
- Has some awful CGI
- Questionable acting performances
- Simplistic plot
- Has some nice comedic elements
- Has some heart racing parts
- An extremely easy and fun watch
25. The Childe

Korean Movie - 2023

7.0
- Different from what I expected based on the trailer
- More of a comedy-action film
- Has some caricaturish characters and some not that intimidating villains
- Kim Seon Ho was hot af
- The action scenes were pretty good
- I would personally prefer less shaky camera movements
- Car chase scenes felt like a long commercial
- "Speaking other language scenes" made me cringe a little
- Some intentionally (?) not that serious acting performances.
- Wrongly advertised or maybe I just interpreted the trailer wrong.
- KSH's character was a comedic relief and felt like he had super powers (jumping from a high bridge like spiderman lol)
- Some scenes were too much
- If I knew what I was getting into, I would enjoy it much more.
- Pretty entertaining and easy to watch
- Directing was pretty good
- I will never get bored of hot and crazy main leads.
- The actual surprise? Go Ah Ra was not bad!
26. Monster

Japanese Movie - 2023

10
- Splendidly directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
- Script is perfect - Sakamoto Yuji, the person that wrote Soredemo, Ikite Yuku is behind it
- A movie that stays with you for a while
- Can't fully explain with words how good this is
- Better to watch with no knowledge beforehand
- Acting is great from everyone
- The two younger actors are just amazing
- Music, composed by Sakamoto Ryuichi is heartbreakingly hopeful
- Plot is magnificently written from beginning to end
- Nothing is there just to exist, it needs to be there, because it wouldn't work otherwise
- Every detail matters
- Every character is vital and realistically written
- Shows the complexity and ugliness of human nature
- Character-driven and slow paced
- Shows the power of perspective
- Deals with many subjects in a very delicate manner
- A critically acclaimed film that is worth it
27. Phantom

Korean Movie - 2023

6.5
- Great aesthetics/directing
- Good enough acting
- Great concept
- It felt draggy and emotionless
- I felt nothing for the characters
- Had some good action scenes
- It was an okay watch, but not as action packed or fast paces as it was advertised
- First half was not it
- It had its moments, but didn't worth the anticipation