Psychological drama with supernatural elements.

Judging by the poster, I expected horror. Checking the genres, I expected a suspense thriller. At the end - I did not get any of these. It's a well crafted and written psychological drama that uses the supernatural elements to tell the stories of two young girls, and how they confront their past and the mistakes that they made.

Detention serves as a commentary on youth's problems and how they and adults perceive and deal with them. We follow two different stories, set in different time periods, yet resembling each other a lot. Liu Yun Xiang and Fang Rui Xin try to work around the restrictive and outdated school system and the twisted mentality of the adults running it. Both girls had to face family and relationship problems that led them to take, at times really drastic measures.

I loved some characters (the list was really short though), and hated many. Not everyone got what they deserve. There are some triggering themes included in the show, so I would advise checking the tags before watching it. That said, they were presented in a quite realistic manner, showing them as something serious and not easy to deal with.

The production value seemed high. The show is shot in an interesting and aesthetically pleasing way. Some camera work choices perfectly complemented the writing and the plot points happening on the screen. I honestly do not remember any song or instrumental used in the series, but I am confident they were all fitting (would most likely remember if they weren't - one always remembers what they dislike).

The acting was believable and the delivery was ranging from good to great. I only had a problem with Wen Liang's dad. The acting was just quite robotic and not on par with the rest of the cast.

Overall, if someone looks for a horror or a thriller with fast paced plot and a lot of suspense - this ain't that. If someone wants to see an emotionally driven story with romantic elements, that comments on overwhelming pressure that is put on the female leads, family drama and struggling in a constricting environment, with some nicely done horror/supernatural elements (mostly in first and last episodes), then this is for you.

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The first half was tense and anxiety evoking, the second half was pure entertainment, the last 10 minutes were not to my liking and the last scene was perfect closure taking into consideration the theme of the movie.

The Witness dives into the exploration of Bystander Effect, a situation when individuals are less likely to help a victim or interfere in a situation when there are other people present. Why? Because they assume someone else will help, that there are others, who can take that responsibility on themselves. While Sang Hoon's actions were frustrating, they were also perfectly understandable. Everyone likes to think that if they were in a similar situation they would help. Let me enlighten you: you wouldn't. Most likely I wouldn't. It's easy to be a hero sitting safe in front of your laptop. That's why, even though the male lead's inaction has terrible consequences, I can't really condemn him for his weak and cowardly behavior.

That said, the creepiness and intensity the first half had, slowly died and the movie started to be more entertaining in nature. It wasn't just the killer lurking and hiding in the shadows anymore. The confrontation was approaching, but when it actually happened... It was lacking. I don't think they gave enough reasoning for Sang Hoon's behavior towards the end, but I kind of accepted it because... fun?

The performance of the cast was amazing. The paranoia in Sang Hoon and the desperation in Jae Yup were clearly visible. We haven't seen that much of Tae Ho, but that was the smart choice. The more of him we saw, the less intense and interesting the movie became.

Overall, it's a fun watch. Even though the first and second half give different quality and might even seem like parts of different movies, the ending scene quite well brings us back to the tense and eerie vibe we see at the beginning.

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I have 0.5 brain cell and this show was still too dumb for me.

I don't even know what to say about the plot. Nothing made sense. I am left with just questions. How did she even get into the university without applying? She took part in the tryouts, but no one knew who she was. How was she accepted? I am still confused why Bing Bing's prosopagnosia was shown as him having 3D filter vision blurred af. Or how she was curing him with kisses. Or how he was actually cured of prosopagnosia by having a mild concussion. Or how there were NO repercussions of her attending the university as a boy when she was a girl. Or how the prosopagnosia was not a problem to him unless the plot needed it like 4 times. Or how he could even play hockey with a shitty vision like that. Did the mom have DID? Her personality changed every 5 seconds...

Why does it feel like Fang Qiang Qiang and Fan Kan stole the script from a 9 years old child and pretended it's theirs? I just cannot comprehend how two adults could come up with it. Or they were drunk and wrote it in one evening as a joke, but then they saw $$ so decided to go with it.

That said, Darren Chen is good. He was the most adorable being ever. His acting was also amazing. Quite honestly, I finished the show ONLY for Bing Bing. All the butterflies I felt because of this pretty face. Damn.

Overall, the whole cast did a good job with acting, it's just the script that was painfully bad. It's obvious the writers and producers did not care at all for it to make any sense or even be close to reality. Consistency? Don't know her. Not even one google search has been done while writing and producing it.

One thing that this drama has though, is an amazing ost. I enjoyed a few songs, with Be There For You taking the crown.

I don't know guys. The last two episodes made me want to go and die. While the whole show was a mess I did find Bing Bing and Sang Tian cute and their interactions were fun. But the amount of frustration this show caused is unimaginable. If you are able to COMPLETELY turn off your brain and are in the mood for pure rom com, this will definitely satisfy you. My 0.5 brain cell was quaking with the level of bullshit presented. I'm thankful for Darren's pretty face. Dude is really something else.

As a closing statement, I will leave you with a question:
Why can no one stay truly single in romantic comedies?

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Could have been a music video.

Honestly speaking, the story is so simple and the characters have no depth, this could easily fit into a five minutes music video.

Most of the enjoyment I felt came from the visual aspects of the movie - some scenes were truly beautiful. Sadly, this does not live up to my expectations as a movie spin-off of The Untamed, as it has no wits, silly undertones and comedy, nor the interesting characters. One would think making a spin-off would be a perfect way to explore the side characters and the lore of the created universe. I did not get it here.

It was just a really basic plot with predictable plots and conclusions. The cast did what they could, but the script was just too empty to make the movie exciting.

There is not much to say. In my opinion, this is a skip even for The Untamed fans. It did not bring anything to the table, except from improved special effects. Sadly, that’s not enough for me to enjoy a movie.

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Surprisingly inspiring - a watch for all the young (not exclusively) people. I appreciate how it shows the world is more than just your little bubble, there are many different opportunities, ideas, paths that one can take.

Mi Joo is a true entertainer - capable of turning any situation into a content worth the screen time given. Even if she made a lot of jokes during the filming, it was also obvious she put a lot of work into any task given. I especially liked the interaction between Mi Joo and PD, which brought that fun bickering dynamics that many find fun to watch.

We’ve got to see a huge variety of workplaces, skills and professions. They did what they could in a short format like that, but at times, I barely showed a tip of the iceberg of what goes into a specific work.

Overall, perfect short bits of both entertainment and some (realistically speaking not that much) educational content.

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How to ruin a good movie in 20 minutes.
How NOT to do superhero movies.
How to kill the joy of being alive for the viewers.

...
I was thinking for a few minutes about how to title this review. It was not easy, because technically I enjoyed more minutes in this movie than not. Sadly, the bad ones were... bad. I feel like the writers didn't know if they should keep the plot local and in a small area, or go wild. They tried both and it didn't work out.

I love me some good redemption stories. The fallen human being is trying to better himself, but here it felt a bit flat with an extremely (and I mean EXTREMELY) anticlimactic ending. I'm sorry dear writers, but you can't go "realism" on some parts, but disregard it on others and call it a day (and no, I'm not talking about his superpowers here).

There were many elements in the plot and some characters that were pretty useless and/or under explored. For example:
What was the point of Director Hong? She brought nothing to the movie. They could have simply kept it vague, who the big bad guy/girl is and don't waste time on scenes with her. Use that precious time to explore the father/daughter relationship more.

Why would you allow the media to be involved if the only purpose of it was to inform the main character about what is going on? Not following it by showing the public's reaction made it unrealistic. You want to tell me that a video of a man fighting police with his superpowers would not go viral? That other countries would not get involved? And it could be so easily fixed; make the bad guys "kill the press" by restricting anyone's access to the area where the confrontation took place.

With superhero movies you can either go big or give depth. If you go big - go silly about it, unrealistic, don't take yourself too seriously. Don't give a realistic ending - give a good ending. If you want to give the movie depth - keep it local with a smaller cast. Focus on the relationships between characters, not big fights and special effects. Tone down comedy a bit, make it more organic and natural. This movie tried to combine both of the approaches and it simply backfired.

At the end of the day, the comedy bits were the best. The ending was poorly written and made me annoyed. While I enjoyed watching for the most part, that last 20 minutes made me feel like all I have seen so far has no meaning and it was a waste of time.

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I was quite amazed how well all 3 main relationships worked and how I was almost never angry or annoyed by some ridiculous, easily explained drama.

Phana will come down in history as the best boyfriend. Find me another guy in BLs who asks for permission before he kisses, says they will wait until their partner is ready and then lets them decide when they will take the relationship further (if you know what I mean ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), wants to talk and communicate with their partner about any situation that may cause misunderstandings, easily forgives mistakes, but first explain how they did hurt him, is not obsessed and possessive by not letting his partner hang out with other boys, understands that friends are as important to their partner as he is. The amount of times I screamed: YES MA MAN YOU DO IT RIGHT!

Not to mention Ben's acting, damn he good. He truly did look like he was deeply in love with his boi. I've got butterflies in my stomach just watching him look at Wayo.

Then we have the imperfect character of Wayo which makes the drama that much better. With how insecure he is, he creates the necessary tension and conflict that make the watching experience more entertaining. I wasn't sold on Earth acting tho. It wasn’t always natural and at times, his facial expressions felt exaggerated and over the top.

Ming and Kit... Another interesting dynamic - shy boy and a playboy. We saw it many times, but here it was a perfection. Ming was not portrayed as an asshole who cheats on his partners and parties all the time. He stays honest to his feelings and tries his best to not hurt others in the process of figuring stuff out. Kit needed someone persistent enough not to give up on him, because it took him some time to open up. I loved how they both learned how to accept each other.

Forth and Beam, my babies. They are the most different from all the previous couples. Their relationship literally sparks in one evening and then they have to figure out how to deal with what happened. Yet again, the key was communication. They were both honest about how they felt, even though they were not on the same page at first. But it helped them navigate and decide what kind of approach would be the best (or rather, it helped Forth decide how to go after Beam).

Can we talk about Park tho, because damn boi got me shook. He was literally just lurking in the shadows, showing up every few episodes causing just slight mayhem up until it all went to hell in the last episode. He was so hard to figure out and gave such an amazing creepy vibe.

Honorable mentions to: Cake for being the best girl ever. She was so amazingly relatable with her funny remarks (how she tried to hint to Ming's ex that he liked boys now, or how she reacted to guys being cute together and trying to cover it up in a natural way). Pretty gang too, such supportive friends! Willing to protect their boi Wayo from all the creeps around.

While some may say this drama was quite cringe, I'd say: that's what I love about it. Some lines were so ridiculous I started to anticipate more of them. It was simply fun and entertaining to watch. In my eyes, all BLs are more or less cringy and that's their charm.

Overall, I finished the whole show in one day/night. Was impressed how reasonable the majority of the characters were. The jokes were over the top, but somehow fitted perfectly into the type of storytelling presented.

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By the end of the drama I hated the characters I loved at first, and loved the ones I hated with passion. And I definitely loved the drama enough to be excited for the second season.

The strongest points of this show are definitely the characters, filming sequences and the lack of CGI and the payoff we get in the last episode. I was amazed with how smart this drama was filmed. Instead of using mediocre special effects, they focused on conveying the special powers and how they work/manifest with creative angles, camera movements and lighting. They worked their magic and it truly enriched the viewing experience . This drama shows that sometimes “less is more” as long as you are smart and creative in your work.

I also appreciated the sci-fi vibe this drama had, from the design of specific scenes, grounding the special powers in the scientific biological changes and even the background music. It all made a coherent picture surrounded by a fitting atmosphere.

The pacing and the structure of the episode made it easy to get to know, relate and understand the characters themselves, but also slowly realize the bigger picture gradually presented. A good portion of the episodes was dedicated to exploring the stories of each specific member of The Gifted program, which made me think of a procedural crime show: one case (character) per episode with an overlying bigger plotline being entwined between them. This format definitely worked for the plot, sub-plots and characters' background, making it easy for me to immerse myself in the story.

The last episode was amazing. It had more plot twists than all the dramas I have ever watched combined. It made me cry from frustration and I did feel exhausted by the end of it, but it was all worth it.

Overall, it was an awesomely done drama with interesting characters and logical storyline. I did not have high expectations when I started watching it, but even if I did, I feel like this would exceed them anyway.

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Found footage horror genre is not an easy one to execute well. There are many mistakes that can be made, and this movie avoided almost all of them.

The premise of the plot is quite simple: a group of young adults goes to a haunted location to film some spooky stuff and things go wrong. To sell such a story and make it believable you need few elements.

REASON
Why these people and that specific location? Here we have Ha Joon being the "captain" of the ghost hunting team bringing a group of selected people into one of the top 7 scariest places. It's not hard to believe that a group of haunted houses and ghost enthusiasts would sign up to go to such a location, especially since money was also involved. This setting makes it easier for us to believe this story could happen. There are plenty of youtubers doing just that.

CAST
The chemistry between the characters was amazing. While some people might say that the beginning part was boring and a bit too long, I'd like to say it was necessary. We got to know what are the dynamics between different characters, their motivation and style of acting and communicating. All the characters were relatable and easy to like which made the stakes much higher. I wanted them to survive.

That said, making a horror movie believable in the style of Blair Witch Project and using actors' names for the characters works only if the actors are not well known. Here it did not make much sense. I see no reasons why the fictional characters did not get original names since it's not like the writing, nor a production team really wanted to play on that "believability" aspect like it happened with BWP.

ENDING
Why no one searched for the kids? Why no one was concerned with what was going on? Why did none of the viewers call the police as they were watching? All of those questions have been answered in a simple yet quite clever way in one of the last scenes in the tent. Since they used a "live broadcast" as a way to showcase the found footage trope, I was afraid it would be hard to give it a reasonable ending, yet the writer and director made it work.

Overall, it was a nice horror movie. There were quite a few moments that made me scared. It wasn't heavy on cheap jump-scares, but instead they created a nice atmosphere and did a good job of playing with the different lights and shadows to make a viewer question if they saw something or not. While some scenes at the ending were unnecessary for me, and cheapened the movie a bit, I still believe it was a watch worth my time.

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It’s fine to hurt people, if you were hurt first - all forgotten and forgiven…

What a hot mess this show is. I am amazed.

I won’t lie, the drama was entertaining. But I also find C class horror movies entertaining. Entertainment does not truly equal quality. I was in a constant state of confusion, and that’s what made it fun.

First of all, I still do not understand when Lee Shin A started to have feelings for Noh Go Jin. She was already liking him before he started to act like a human being and not a psychopath. What made her attracted to him? Was it just his handsome face? I cannot comprehend it. It’s not the case of “he seemed cold, but he showed warmths towards her, so she started to see the good in him” - she was already into him when the tiny bits of goodness started to force their way out of the depth of his trauma and trash personality.

About trash personality and excusing bad behavior because of a painful past - that was a whole ass trend in this show. Except for Lee Shin A, LITERALLY every significant character acted shady and did bad things because of either their current bad situation or past issues. And then it was forgotten and forgiven. The level of scheming was a bit too big for such a sweet resolution if you ask me. Consequences of your actions? Don’t know them.

While the romance had rather good pacing, and even though I do not understand Shin A’s reasoning, I can see a proper progression of both of their feelings. I cannot say the same thing about the mystery aspect of the drama. For the longest time the writer makes you believe male lead is a naive idiot who ignores all the red flags of everything wrong happening around him, when in fact everything was happening behind the scenes, outside of script, probably only in the writer’s imagination. We see none of the process, just the results and it’s so fucking unsatisfying.

I did like a lot of supporting characters. I found every teacher in the academy unique and entertaining. I liked that they were written to stand out on their own and not just fill the space. The side plot for the ex-secretaries was also endearing, especially with their inside woman ;)

The acting was good. Nothing amazing, but I did not have any bigger issues either.

Overall, there are so many better rom-coms, I cannot recommend it with a clear conscience.

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For a movie that was supposed to give these characters more depth and present their perspective of the events that were part of what happened in The Untamed, I'd say they leaned too far into simplicity in writing. Little to nothing happens, and the whole movie consists for what feels like less than 10 scenes.

The CGI, still a bit awkward at some places, was still a huge improvement from the drama. What's more, I actually did like the last fighting scene. I would remove the "transformer spirits" from the equation though. There was not that much acting to be done, even though the movie was over an hour long, it felt more like 30 minutes - with that I don't think any performance had a chance to shine.

The best aspects of the Fatal Journey was the last shot of Nie Huai Sang that could be described as "ah yes, this is his origin story". Knowing what's coming next, that shot was truly impactful.

Overall, it's clearly movie that targets TU fans only. It's rather meaningless for anyone who does not have prior knowledge of the overall story.

Ps. Adding black eyes for 2 scenes is not enough to call movie a horror.

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How can a slice of life feel so empty?

Things happened but everything was meaningless, because nothing was established. There were so many things that did not work out.

They tried to tell us the main characters are struggling. With what? What was the focus of the story? Honestly, I don't know. Was it striving to achieve your dream no matter what? Was it changing your dream after finding out who you truly are? Was there something going on between the leads or not? Did any of the characters have any depth, personality, personal story? Everyone was so one dimensional, defined by one personality trait or personal story, it was hard to care for any of them…

It’s hard for me to comment about the acting, since the characters were rather shallow. There were few highlights from Shin Seung Ho and Irene did fine - the character had just nothing to offer, so she had nothing to show.

What’s good? The movie is rather pretty.

Overall, it’s not like there was something wrong with this movie… but there was not anything right about it either.

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20th Century Girl was going strong as a light, fluff and full on cliche teen romance with cute characters, fun interaction and a bit of 90’ nostalgia, until the writers decided to be “ambitious” and give it a random, unfitting and poorly executed ending to make the movie “more memorable”. And I’m here questioning why? I get it, as a writer you don’t want to start your career with a cute, but not memorable rom-com, but what we’ve got here is not the way to go.

What went well? Most of the characters are likable, even if they lacked depth. Bora was your typical energetic and bubbly girl, Woon Ho was a perfect first love material with his warm demeanor, and Hyun Jin was the most fun and entertaining of the group. Sadly, the writer did Kim Yeon Doo dirty presenting her in rather unflattering light - clueless about the situation she was in, not getting a hint about the relations people around her have, defined by her circumstances and the illness - little to no info about her as a person.

Surprisingly, I adored all the piling misunderstandings. All of them presented in a light and heartwarming way, showing the mistakes most of us made when we were teens facing our first love.

What’s more - 20th Century Girl is simply beautiful. The use of light and shadows gave me goosebumps more than once. I am a sucker for good dim aesthetics.

So what went wrong? For a movie that is 2 hours long, we truly did not know much about the characters. Halfway through the movie I started to question, how there is still an hour to go and why are we not exploring any of the circumstances the characters are in?

The acting was also not mind blowing. Maybe I expected too much from this cast, but with a plot so simple and full of well known cliches, the performances are what carry it. Here, while everyone did a great job, none of the portrayals of the characters was truly unforgettable. My biggest issues were the more emotional scenes - they did not resonate at all. Maybe because Kim Yoo Jung tried to tap deep into the overly emotional teen, but her crying was more annoying and less moving than I would like.

By now, everyone knows the ending is just disappointing. I honestly don’t have an issue with the idea the writer had for it, but the execution was simply bad - no set up, no explanation, no message to tie it all together, no nothing.

Overall, it’s a decent movie, bringing back many memories of my teen romances and for that I am grateful. It’s not exactly memorable, nor innovative, nor a simple feel good watch. Tries to stand out in the sea of teen rom-coms with the ending, but fails to truly deliver a cohesive narrative that leads to this conclusion.

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There is not much to say, except for a fun ad. Visually great, as expected - they wanted to show off how amazing the camera on that phone is.

The story itself was surprisingly solid. Silly, leading more to comedy than horror, but still decent in both writing and presentation. It’s also refreshing to see a morally questionable character in the main role. The acting was also fine, no major complaints.

The concept itself was great and personally, I think it’s worth a full length movie. There is so much that can be done with it with more screen time, good script writer and decent budget.

Overall, for an ad, really good.

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Asian horror movies creators have to start using their imagination a bit more. How many times can we get horror about the vengeful spirit of a woman that was either betrayed or abused and then died in an unjust way? Too many movies are more or less a copy paste of the same story with few details changed, and this one is no different.

You can still have a fun horror movie even with a basic story, sadly the writing here was just not that strong. They did not really establish anything. One hour into the film I still did not get all the characters' motivations. Why was the female lead even assuming there were any issues with the paintings? Why did she think from the start they were haunted? It’s not like they can give me exciting plot twists with such a basic set up, so why not just explain it from the start?

Thing that frustrated me the most about Cracked was how they played ominous music for random and normal moments. A woman is standing in the background? Cue the scary sounds… She did nothing. There was no real foreshadowing. Nothing.

Also, that ending? I don’t know how I feel about it. Kind of makes me annoyed knowing the full story.

Not all was bad. It had quite a few fun visual moments. They even used the kid to deliver some eerie body horror. Last 30 minutes were just comedy. There was one scene that almost made me cry from laughing. I just did not see that coming at all. Acting was also good. Compliments go to Nina - with kid actors it's either hit or miss, and I think she did quite a good job here.

Overall, decent. It made me question “why” a lot of things were happening a few too many times, but overall, even if I was not that satisfied with the ending, it did give a closure to more or less everything they introduced.

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