Surprisingly bland.

I wanted to love it, but there was truly not that much to love about it. I feel awful saying that. The fact is, the drama barely made me feel anything.

The bromance was fine, the cases were fine, the stakes were fine. But I felt like the whole show lacked... emotions. With the rather diverse variety of the cases, victims and perpetrators, it seemed like the majority of them reacted the same subdued way. Even for situations that would validate a proper rage, despair, fear - there was barely anything. I felt like the whole show lacked... emotions.

As I said though, we do get quite a variety of different cases that focus on different social struggles and dilemmas - social and workplace discrimination of women who struggle to secure their place despite presenting outstanding skills, loneliness of the youth, desperation that comes from love, social stigma towards victims of sexual abuse and how it can lead to not seeking justice, cyber crime against seniors that uses their lack of technological literacy and love for their families against them and many more.

What’s more to love? The acting was amazing, I give it to them. Tan Jian Ci might be one of the most diverse young actors in China right now. The way he can deliver a baby girl energy here, and edge lord energy in Lost You Forever alone should be the proof. He truly becomes the character he is playing - nothing about his performance seems fake.

While he truly became the star of the show, I do want to give props to the casting director. Crime procedural shows have a lot of guest roles for all the witnesses, victims and perpetrators - it’s not easy to have good actors play every role. Under the Skin managed to achieve that.

I think my biggest issue was how unrealistically good Shen Yi was at his job. I understand that professional forensic artists can do this, but he was not one when he took the job for the first time. The level of skill he showcased fitted more the “about to retire, working criminal cases for past 50 years” scenario. If they made him make some mistakes, maybe I could accept that, but they truly made his skill borderline supernatural.

So it did not matter how much I loved his character, when I could not stop laughing every time he started to sketch. I don't even want to talk about the prosopagnosia case, because that was a bit of a clownery. While it’s clear the production team researched a lot about forensic art and art overall, I cannot say the same about various other topics that were presented.

What’s more? Bromance was not truly bromancing for me. There were a few scenes here and there, but overall, I don’t think Tan Jian Ci and Jin Shi Jia have that much chemistry on screen, or maybe it was the issue of directing their scenes? I guess we will see in the second season.

Overall, something did not click right with me when I was watching. I was enjoying it, but I was not obsessed, even though on paper it seems like a drama I should want to binge watch in one sitting, forgetting to eat, sleep and pee…

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Who are you - the question we don’t have an answer to.

Realistically speaking, I understood around 80% of the movie. There are many things that are just hinted at, especially about the details of the resolutions/conclusions. Does it bother me? No. If anything, it makes me more interested in potential rewatch to see if I missed anything. The movie presents a lot of questions, but not all the answers.

How much do we change and curate ourselves to match social expectations and responsibilities set by the roles we decide to take? On the other hand, is following our desires the true freedom or just another cage? Driven by desires or led by society - where is the freedom in both, where is the place for personal choices?

These are the questions I kept thinking about while watching Cure. It also reminded me that we as humans love to simplify everything - binary thinking is easier. Extreme solution to mundane problems - that’s how I saw the freedom Mamiya was spreading. Momentary freedom that led to more restraints. Because living is not as simple as always doing what others expect you to do, nor is it simply following your current needs. Forcing others to adhere to your narrow definition of freedom is not setting them free, it’s just taking the leash in your own hands and controlling them by your own standards.

Cure is a great psychological mystery that masterfully crafts the tension. The longer I watched, the more I wanted to get the answers, but by the end, I was fine with still wondering. Strangely it felt as if I was given the freedom to find my own conclusion. It’s not a typical crime movie where we want to know who did it. Rather, we desperately try to figure out why it was done. It’s slow and atmospheric.

With a script like that you need charismatic actors to pull it off. And I was blessed with Yakusho Koji’s performance as Takabe Kenichi - a detective and husband, who struggles with maintaining these two roles, slowly cracking under the pressure. Hagiwara Masato as Mamiya Kunihiko was simply terrifying. Something about that detached, but piercing presence made me feel extremely uncomfortable.

Editing and production was truly perfect. From longer and uncut scenes that created the tension, or the quick cut flashes of moments and frames, that in addition to giving important clues, served as a good indicator of the shift of perspective and the connections the main lead made.

Overall, highly recommend to all the folks who liked to be asked questions and not get conclusive answers, making your own brain do the work. Less investigation, more philosophical. Slow pace might deter some people from watching - proper watching conditions might be the key to enjoyment.

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It was not perfect, but it was perfectly entertaining.

Personally I like my zombie horrors with a dose of humor and I am a Hero delivers. I do think I might have laughed at some not exactly humorous moments too, but that's how you roll when you've seen so many horror movies in your life.

The best aspect of this movie is the fact it has personality. Having a normal guy be the real and grow to be a hero is a dynamic journey I love to see in movies. I do believe that he was too dumb and too naive for too long, but with how the story ended, I can somehow forgive it. What's more, I appreciated how the zombies had these specific behaviors connecting them to their past lives. Big shoutout to athlete, who from zombies' perspective must have been the MVP.

On the other hand, I wish they turned Hayakari Hiromi a bit later in the movie, or let her meet Suzuki Hideo faster. We did not really get to know her that well as full human before she turned, but after the change, she was not really much of a character to follow anyway.

The acting - good. I feel like the only person who truly had to show some skills was Oizumi Yo. The other characters were a bit too flat to requite a high level of performance.

Loved the design for the zombies. The eyes going sideways was creepy and the visible mutation was a great touch. They actually looked scary. Props for all the practical effects that made the movie that much more gruesome.

The action scenes were also great. Some more, some less believable, but I appreciate no one turned into a ninja or professional fighter. They all fought with all their strength and limited skills. That said, there was one scene closer to the end that did feel a bit long and I was really close to skipping few seconds.

Overall, this was such a fun ride. A lot of blood, a lot of killing zombies.

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Trying to balance horror and drama is not always a good choice.

In this case, the drama was far more engaging than the scares. The story about a female lead learning from the beginning how to view the world would probably work better as a slice of life - at least with the scenes presented in this movie. Loved to see how she still needs to assist herself with other senses, because she doesn't know how to fully depend on her eyesight.

Even the drama related to the cause of the nightmare reality she needs to face was great. Diving deeper and in more detail in these stories would be amazing.

And the horror? Mediocre at best. They did not deliver the scares, nor the true suspense.

Acting itself was good. My favorite performance must be Yut Lai So as Ying Ying. Adorable actress and heartbreaking tale.

For the production, you can feel it's 2002 movie based on the special effects. What’s more? They thought they were clever with the braille credits, but nope, it was dumb

Overall, neither the story nor the horror was that well written and presented. While I was not bored, I was not that interested either.

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My brain is dead, but at least I had fun?

I get people loving it because it was entertaining, but damn this was extremely poorly written. Too many plot points were simply ridiculous and beyond unrealistic and too many things were just vaguely explained. Some scene progressions were questionable at best, distasteful at worst. One of the best examples - the way they switched from showing physical abuse to a silly rap battle made me so uncomfortable. Or when the witness starts with “she almost made me blind”, but they end the statement on “she asked me to buy her sanitary pads” as if that was the worst thing he had to deal with - is this a joke? Social satire? What is going on?

I think the biggest flaw of the drama was Cha Woo In. She was stagnant throughout the whole show, and her character development happens before the story starts. She is presented as a basically flawless person - smart, strong, righteous, caring, determined. Anything she had to learn she already did, anything she had to improve she already did.

On the other hand, we’ve got some great development for the other characters, including many supporting ones. Stories that focused on admitting to your wrong doings, facing the consequences and learning from them. Lessons that show kindness can change a person, even if we think they can never improve. Surprisingly a lot of depth considering the over the top scenario.

The highlight of the drama? Everything Noh Tae Nam related. I would love to see a drama focused on him as the main character. This could be some great character study.

Production value was the standard high quality we get from tvN - nothing stood out either on the positive or negative side. The soundtrack was great, especially the opening song - Ha Hyun Woo has simply magical vocals.

Overall, it was fun, but painful for my brain.

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While the first and second half of the movie did not exactly fit in themes, both had quite good ways to create suspense and scare the audience - be it with visuals or the story itself.

Personally I enjoyed the first half far more - the mystery of all the supernatural events, the small details in the background that you need to pay attention to. The directing truly made me focus on what was happening on screen, since I did not want to miss any one of the bizarre moments - all thanks to some small detailed images.

And then the story started to get explained and for me it lost a bit of its charm. The scares shifted from unexplained supernatural to human’s evil deeds - it made me more uncomfortable than scared. There is value in exploring such themes, but it was not something I was looking for in this specific title.

The acting was decent. Nothing too outstanding, but good enough not to get distracting. Koki did a good job with the duality of her performance.

Overall, kept my interest till the end, even if the second half was slightly disappointing.

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Who comes up with these ideas?

This started so normal if we compare it to how it ended. I was in tears from crying during the last 20 minutes. Undoubtedly they had a lot of creative freedom while writing and filming this movie.

It has everything - decent CGI, awful CGI, small snakes, big snakes, friendship, romance, morality lessons, social commentary - all in the amazing trash quality.

I did laugh because of a few stupid jokes that were perfectly timed and well-delivered. I’m just glad there were exactly zero seconds where they tried to be serious about the plot. The acting was surprisingly fine - ain’t no high production quality mainstream title, but I was expecting something far worse.

Whatever comes to your mind after seeing the poster and the title is exactly what you will get.

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Two worlds that maybe should not collide.

Opening with rather dark themes got me excited for some teen dark investigation thriller, just to switch to fluffy slice of life in remaining episodes - it did not click well for me.

The story of our (technically) main duo barely existed except for the first and last episode. For the four episodes we followed stories of their classmates and I could not stop myself from thinking how insignificant they are compared to what was introduced in episode 1.

Here’s the thing - the stories were nice. Various situations present many issues teens might have to deal with as they mature. These were good takes and I did enjoy watching them, but my mind just kept coming back to Sappukei - her story became a distraction for me.

All that said, the drama has an amazing energy and vibe (don’t ask me to explain what it means, I can’t). Even though some of the presented issues seem like small problems, when you think about them a little bit more, they can be easily applied to a larger scale and become relatable no matter your age, experiences and surroundings.

The acting was good. Yamada Anna did a phenomenal job! She aced the role of someone being strongly emotionally affected, but trying to keep it all together and push forward, hiding how hurt, sad, scared, but also angry they truly are.

Overall, a nice show that does not quite well blend the stories. Different plots and themes did not fit together and created a bit of disconnect.

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How to quickly describe this drama? A fun soft makjang - technically there are a lot of makjang like plots, but they are not overdramatized in presentation. A well executed take on questionable and toxic decision making, when people are so hungry for power, respect, love, admiration, control (you name it).

Let’s start with the fact this is not really a “strong female leads being badass” type of a show. All free leads are emotionally broken in one way or another, selfish, egocentric and cunning. None was worth rooting for and that’s exactly what made the drama a fun watch - you could see them messing with each other's lives, laugh about it and not feel many conflicting emotions.

Character wise, both Go Mo Ran and Bae Ok Sun were fascinating. Completely misguided in their actions, created an avalanche of devastating situations that only made them both feel more frustrated, sad, angry. On the other hand, Woo Hyun was simply poorly written, and the performance by Kim Ha Neul did not help either. Lack of development, ambiguous morals, questionable motivation - this character more or less served nothing.

Production and directing wise, it was fine until it was not. Last two episodes are a pacing nightmare sprinkled with confusing editing. Sadly, the director and production team did not know how to deal with the cut of two episodes, making it impossible to deliver a proper closure that did not feel rushed and out of the blue.

Overall, not a bad watch.

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Anyone know a horror movie called Wish Upon? SLR was similar, but better, which made it worse.

It took me 3 attempts to get into this movie. The exposition and introduction to the characters and plot is just way too long - this ain’t that deep, there ain’t no complex lore to flesh about. It’s as basic and predictable as it gets. Just move on to the wacky supernatural deaths…

I honestly think the movie should lead more towards a B class horror movie and deliver entertainment. Somehow, I felt like they were trying to be a little bit too serious about it all. In the end it was neither entertaining nor interesting.

Nanon’s acting was too good for this production. Cherprang gave me close to nothing - flat from opening till the end.

Production value was fine. Closer to the end we’ve got some nice supernatural moments and the CGI was decent.

Overall, the biggest issue I had was the fact the movie was simply boring.

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Started as a full on alien sci-fi, 10 minutes later turned into a modern investigation and then Indiana Jones like adventure. When the male lead got on top of an alien and started punching it in the face I figured out the type of a movie I am watching. A mess.

Here’s the thing - I truly believe this could be a decent movie about the parallel universes collapsing into each other and male lead trying to figure out how to stop it. Edit out all the alien monster flick scenes and tweak the plot slightly, and you get a good sci-fi mystery with nice aesthetics.

Instead we’ve got cheap halloween costume type of aliens running around, barely developed plot and ridiculous out of the blue romance.

Overall, I kind of got what I expected looking at the poster, and yet cannot stop myself from feeling disappointed, because I saw glimpses of potential as I was watching.

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Lacks proper set-up and introduction.

When is a tomb raiding story good? When it has a solid backstory and mystery set from the start that drives the curiosity of the viewers. When the characters are fun and interesting to watch and the teamwork and dynamics are entertaining. What does The Tomb of Ghost Mojin lack? All the above.

It’s another case of a movie that works on paper, but was not translated well on screen. The characters were painfully dry and boring, the story was fun, but only retrospectively when they explained it all by the end. It was nice looking, but also way too dark to truly appreciate it.

Overall, I honestly have little to say. I liked the ending? I guess that’s that.

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Exaggerated scenarios that had strangely wholesome vibes.

I think the best part of the show is the fact it’s not really dumb, even though it might seem like it is at first. The writers had a decent grasp on social media, start up and internet culture and took a proper jabs at the proper topics. At the same time, this is exactly the reason a lot of people would not find the show that interesting. You need to know the basics of the topics to understand the absurdity that is presented.

It does not go into great details into the topics, so don’t get too scared. I found a lot of the jokes and plots fun and entertaining even though I don't have a professional background in any related areas. Spending enough time in the right corners of the internet was enough.

The tone of the show slowly shifted from being just a workplace comedy to focusing more on the characters and their personal struggles, while keeping the fun and entertaining tones. It’s not one of the shows that start as a comedy to lean into melo later - it’s a crack of a show from start to finish, the topics just slightly shift.

Another selling point were the eccentric characters that still managed to be relatable. Jay was probably the most down to earth person - using him as a way to introduce the Maccom and its employees was a perfect choice - Jay and viewers were on the same boat, trying to stay afloat with a peculiar crew.

When I talk about the characters, I have to compliment the whole cast for their phenomenal performances. How they were able to make me believe a workplace like this one could actually exist is beyond me. They all had such a consistent performance, no matter how out of the box and ridiculous the characters’ and their actions were, I just accepted them as a norm.

The production value was great. Both intros were as absurd as the whole show and for that I am grateful - they stayed on brand. It is an office show though, so do not expect some beautiful screenshot worthy scenes.

What Unicorn lacked was the substance. As much as I enjoyed the episodes as I was watching them, there was not much inviting me to start the episodes in the first place. It’s a show you love as you watch, but forget it exists in between the episodes.

Overall, great watch if you are interested in the subject. Might be a bit boring and ridiculous if you have a high level of expertise or know nothing about it.

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If I was rating just the female lead, I would give it a 10. Smart, calm and collected, caring, just and driven. Can I even ask for more?

This would actually be a really good investigative thriller if it was not for the Sea Monster from the title. There was an interesting mystery, crime, murder, kidnapping, corruption and conspiracy… And there was also awful CGI and over the top monster make up.

Still, even with that ridiculous twist and awfully animated monster jumping around, it was truly an enjoyable watch. I am probably biased, because I loved the female lead so much, but the movie does focus on her alone, so it’s fair to add some points thanks to that character.

Both acting and production quality was nice. Even though Du Qing Ling was a calm character, it did not mean she was emotionless (which often is an issue, as some writers associate being calm with having no reaction to anything). Except for the CGI monkey monster, the movie was also aesthetically pleasing. The surrounding of the forest and the village were rather dim, but the film never truly felt dark.

Overall, short and interesting with great female lead.

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This is actually a well done and fun movie telling a few “urban legend” type of stories, linked by the main character - the hunter from the title. Everything kind of adds up by the end.

The mentor-mentee relationship between the two main characters was natural and fun to watch. While it was never the focus of the movie, it gradually and realistically built the trust and care the two had for each other.

The separate stories were interesting, but the background linking plot sadly was underdeveloped. Sure, by the end you get it all and the motivations of the villain are explained, but for me, not enough detail was put into crafting his backstory and presenting him as an interesting figure.

Production wise, it's honestly hard to describe. It masterfully mixed beautiful shots and sceneries with mediocre CGI - a rollercoaster of aesthetics. Acting was great. Not surprisingly, I liked Shang Tie Long's performance the best. I do have one complaint though, which I usually have with Chinese movies and shows. The generic white actor with awfully done dubbing - why? Why do we always have to have them?

Overall, surprisingly fun. I went into it thinking it would be a C class supernatural horror with all the aspects below average quality at best, but received a rather enjoyable 1 hour and 20+ minutes ride.

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