War is Absurd

It has nakid children saving freshly sold-to-the-brothel girls while singing a jaunty tune.
Seriously it is a musical about early WWII Japan before the west got involved. It is so absurd in its portrayal of the ridiculousness of the war itself shown through child's play and the seriousness of reality.

The mostly child cast carries the movie through the harshness of resource poor Japan through symbolism and play. Mock wars to mimic the actual war that is waging at the time. Its kinda deep if you know history and its effects on societies. the thing that brought the rating down for me was the unneeded use of unclothed children.

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CGI Fish made with Trash 80 Computer

Typical Chinese God trial movie. But what stands out is the God Awful CGI fish that torments the village.

Comedy in the way of rival suitors and village oafs.

on the flip side the makeup department did an excellent job and CGI for the weapons and choreograph of the fight scenes was awesome.
My overall score of this is a seven because of the typical nature of the story and the Terra bad CGI fish. The village antics though do show typical village thought processes save The villages a whole but if a few stray or a different they are ostracized or pointed out.

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Not sure which one of these actors prompted me to add this to my PTW: Kubota Masataka,
Saito Takumi, Narimiya Hiroki (cameo ep6) or Yamamoto Yusuke but I am grateful it made it there. A detective story that isn't dumbed down and doesn't really focus on One method of solving a case. It never felt "same story different episode" that a lot of detective/mystery shows have.

The "Moriarty" character was both tedious and compelling at the same time...in the beginning episodes her story arc felt tacked, not needed. As the show progressed the scales tipped and her relevance became very apparent.

They did a really good job with this take on Sherlock Holmes and Watson, the bond between Alice and Hideo is unshakable and I look forward to watching the prequel.

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An app to call the dead that needs a referral to find or even know about. The only catch? Whoever uses it usually dies too.

This is a creepy movie but more about depression than the scare factor. This could have easily been a drama movie if it wasn't centered around "the App." Because of the social ramification this movie showcases I REALLY like the story. The cheap but effective scare effects were...used effectively but lost on someone like me who has soo much Scifi/horror experience under her belt. The movie quality not great.

I gave the story an 8.5 because i liked the story, bringing the scary movie into the 21st century with a logical thing, that if everyone knew about it would use it.

Overall a 7 it good, its not Excellent.

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Focusing on Horror this month for the next article and stumbled upon this and its predecessor (https://mydramalist.com/10675-blue-demon). I watched them both within 4 days of each other. I did not find them scary, even though they are meant to be. Maybe i just know the format too well : ).

Acting..Well its typical horror movie acting. Even if you are being told to act scared, it usually doesn't come across to the cameraand then the actor has to over dramatize it. So I will list it as Typical, not dialed in but not oscar worthy.

Music-Heavy metal type music, yet feels generic also. Re-watch value on all horror movies for me is low.

So its a good time filler but don't expect to be having in depth discussions about this one.
There is a lot of Eye candy in this though, it helped a lot.

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Again watched this to fulfill the Joseon requirement on the 2018 watch challenge. It is straight up comedy Mel Brooks style (for those who are familiar) with the sight gags coming hard and fast (no pun intended ...really). There is also lessons that are learned in hindsight. I am sure there were villages that something similar happen when all the good men got sent to war.

If sex makes you squeamish do not watch this. If you hate middle school boy humor, you may not like this.

Acting: Being able to pull off this script w/o busting out laughing every scene gives them props in my book.

Music: there is singing, but traditional chant singing. And dancing.

I give this an 8 because I thought i would play it in the background and do something else and found myself glued to the screen instead.

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Geishas vs Ninjas aka Geisha Assassin was a great leave you brain at the door and enjoy the action film.
It felt like a live action video game with each encounter harder than the last and the big boss taunting her every few levels to keep her chasing him. Lots of sword play and a few hand to hand encounters.

Do not come into this looking for realism..AT ALL. I think several times I kept comparing it Naruto. "Oh no honey he just put a genjutsu on you" or "Oh thats the Uzamaki Barrage"

Putting all my anime geekiness aside, it is a fun movie. My overall rating? 7.5

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I had this on my PTW and when I saw Reika's review I knew it was time for me to sit and watch it.

The story is fantasy based, but only in this little town, where the spirit world and the real world seem to touch. That was enough to get me to watch it. I came in with no expectations at other than I needed something other worldly in my life. I was surprised to enjoy the film, and what I felt were slow spots were actually building to an excellent finally. When it was getting to the end I prayed for a specific out come and it happened as I had hoped (Nope you are not getting spoilers from me). I was satisfied with this movie overall.

The acting was well done and while the CGI was noticeable at times, it wasn't out of place. People never looked in the wrong direction or reacted poorly to the CGI.

Music was unremarkable for me.

Other than the movie feeling a little long at points i really enjoyed this, I hope you do too.

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I love history, especially when it is humanized like it was in this story.  As an American we are taught one history, and the aftermath is usually skipped or glossed over.  I love seeing the same issue from different sides to see the whole picture.  I learned about events that were significant to Japan, but never heard of in my country.  The story that is told is the human story, one of survival, love and family.

The acting was superb, with this cast it would have been hard not to be.  You can tell there was pride in the work that they were producing and that they had invested themselves in telling the story right.

The music was good thematically and only repetitious when the story warranted it.  The Rewatch value of this for me would be to show someone else.  It is a heavy drama with little comedic parts or Action. It is straight story telling.

Overall I give it a 9 because It is an excellent piece of drama that pulls you in and makes you want to see more.

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This is a fictional  story framed around the illness of wind surfer Iijima Natsuki about the importance of councelling for the ill.  The story was well told and showed the many stages of dealing with terminal illness.  The acting never felt flat or forced not even from the child actress.  The music was repeative, Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven played at LEAST 6 times in 2  hours.  The rewatch value is almost nil for me as I usually don't like this style of show, I only watched it for Ninomiya.

Why did I give it a 9 then?  Because the story was well told, nice, calm and inviting. I didn't tear up but the feelings were definitely conveyed.  Its kind of hard to use the word nice when speaking about a movie centered around terminal illness but that's what it was, nice.

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This 1 Litre of Tears sad, I don't know if they are trying to encourage or discourage being foster parents.  It is one hour long so there is no time for lag or dragging. I liked how they didn't sugar coat anything though.  You definitely felt the joy, frustration, happiness and despair with the family as they bonded, fell apart and re-knit.  

This is from 2003 so the production value isn't super high but the acting was well done and immersed you well into the story.  I would recommend this story for some one looking for a good slice of life drama and only had a small amount of time to spend watching something.

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I am not a huge fan of whodunnit type shows, but my husband LOVES Poirot and he kept coming in and going did this happen? How about this? His conclusion is that this was a truer to the story than most of the versions he has watched. According to him most other versions streamline the complicated story and simplify the relationships.

That being said the first half of the show...I actually fell asleep...and had to back and re-watch about 40 minutes worth. The second half though was riveting and kept me entertained.

I am not gonna lie, I watched this for Nino, but the whole cast did an excellent job,

If you are a fan of the franchise or Agatha Christie or the genre I recommend this one.

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