Reviews

This movie is so bitter sweet, like Romeo & Juliet. It' such a tragic story, but at the same time their love is so powerful and beautiful it makes the movie worth watching. Although im only giving it an 8, i really did love this movie. The acting was amazing and the story was very creative. It wasn't really an 'edge of your seat' kind of movie and i ended up watching it over the span of two days. The romantic aspect of the movie is so beautiful.. almost surreal in the sense that its pretty much love at first sight. It kind of reminded me of a Korean take of Jordin Sparks; The Notebook in many ways other then the obvious fact that both female leads have alzheimer's.
This movie is definitely a great one. i would recommend it to anyone who likes romance. Its a tear jerker though so bring some kleenex and keep it beside you. ^^

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Being a lover of Nana and of Nakashima Mika I figured I owed it to myself to watch the sequal to Nana. I can't say I disliked it or liked it. Although it followed the manga enough that I understood what was going on. I felt a little disappointed by how rushed everything was. However since it's a movie I can understand how the writers couldn't fit everything in. Another thing I didn't really like how they changed the actress for Nana Komatsu, it's not that Ichikawa Yui did a bad job it's just I personally didn't enjoy her playing Nana as much as I did with Miyazaki Aoi.
If you liked the manga NANA then you owe it to yourself to atleast give this movie a shot.
I recommend it.

Happy Watching

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This movie is a campy fun blast to the past. With all the recent trends of gender bender in Asian dramas, it's fun to look back at something from before, when it was more unique to use this plot story.

The story itself is fun and well paced, nothing is really going to surprise you, but Peter Chan and his cast make that ok by delivering a sophisticated light comedy/drama.

The main actress and actor do a phenomenal job. Yuen does a good job as a boy, and still comes off as loveable and sweet, without being annoying or overbearing. you can't help but root for her. Leslie Cheung is spot on with his role, and the supporting cast do a great job as well.

I will say one stumbling block for many will be the age of this film, at almost 20 years old it might be a turn off for some. I think however that if a film is good, time doesn't really matter. And this film, in my opinion, seems to hold up well.

I would also like to note that there are some more adult scenes in this movie (unlike so many of the closed lip kiss is the climax of many other films). So please take into consideration that this is definitely geared towards adults.

Overall I would say if you like GB stories and don't mind the old school feel this is definitely a movie you should check out.

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My Mini Back-Story:

As usual, I was looking for a new Korean movie to watch, and Chilling Romance caught my attention. From reading the synopsis, I thought the story and characters sounded interesting. Then I went ahead and searched for more background and information. Let's just say that the dramalist rating set my hopes a little too high.

Storyline:

The storyline is quite original. To be honest, the beginning was bizarre. I didn't really know what to expect. However, about 20 minutes into the movie, I got the concept/feel of it. In a nutshell, Chilling Romance is a mix of horror/drama/romance/comedy. Quite a lot, eh? Sadly, it didn't meet my expectations on most of those categories listed. I thought they could have added more spice/excitement to each of the already captivating elements laid out in the movie, but I guess they preferred to stay on the safe side. They had a bit of everything, but the bits were very loosely handled.

Here are some of my thoughts on what Chilling Romance has to offer, yet lacks at the same time...

a) Mixed feelings on our OTP. It's weird how sometimes I thought they were ultimately adorable together, but sometimes I thought they were a bit awkward with each other. I guess their awkwardness is understandable, since Yeori is anti-social in some ways.

b) Sense of humor. I actually enjoyed some of the witty/funny conversations between the characters. I specifically thought some of Jo-Goo and Yeori's conversations were funny. Her friends were also funny (at times).

c) Supernatural/ghosts. I liked how they originally presented the idea to us, but it seemed like they sugarcoated the whole "horror" element (especially in the last magic trick). In other words, the ghosts felt out of place and were left unexplained in a lot of areas. At first, it was funny to watch Jo Goo's reaction to the "little kid". I thought they were going to play around with the comedy/horror aspect, but they went in a different direction. Moreover, it got to the point where I was questioning if some of these ghosts were really necessary at all.

d) Story all over the place. I felt like it tried too hard to be a bit of everything that it ended up not fulfilling/satiating anything at the end completely. It originally had several interesting aspects/themes, but it was unable to connect them altogether in a smoothly/properly fashion. Hence, a lot of parts felt random for me.

e) The ending. It was a little too clean/corny for me. It felt like an easy way out for the writers.

All in all, the storyline is definitely unique from the lot of Korean movies that I have watched. It had a great mix of many elements that a great movie should have, but the execution was done somewhere between poor and meh. I guess it's hard for a movie to pull off the horror, romance, and comedy altogether.


Acting/Cast:

Nothing outstanding from these characters and actors.

Though, I thought Lee Min Ki acted pretty naturally when it came to the funny scenes. It's my first time seeing him, and he's not a bad actor at all. His character, Jo Goo didn't have enough backbone (past stories/in-depth understanding), so I didn't really care for him all too much. I don't know what else to say about him from this movie, truthfully.

I fairly enjoyed Son Ye Jin, especially at the emotional scenes. The part where she was talking super fast over the phone to her friends was one of the more memorable ones from the movie, IMO. However, I personally don't find she's fit for a comedy movie/drama. The frog mimicking scene came off as too cutesy wannabe or forced for me. In general, Son Ye Jin doesn't seem natural in those the funny scenes. In any case, I prefer that she sticks to melodramas or more serious dramas/movies. She's definitely one of the more emotional/natural actresses when it comes to sad/crying scenes. I give her props for that.

Clearly, the whole movie focuses on our OTP. Like I typed previously, I fairly enjoyed some of their scenes. Do they have chemistry together? Sure, but it's nothing awe-worthy or new.

Music:

The OST was really soothing to the ears. I guess it caught me attention because I even went ahead to search for them. "Falling in Love" and the one from Jami Soul are both very soft and relaxing. They both totally remind me of songs that could be played in a comfortable/"home-feel" coffee shop - haha.

Bonus:

I liked the cinematography, especially the slow-motion part with the bus.

This probably doesn't fall under the bonus category, but Son Ye Jin looks mighty young and fine for her age - haha!

My favorite scene was where Jo-Goo performed a card trick in front of Yeori ^^.

Overall:

In conclusion, I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd liked to. It's definitely not a must watch movie.

Despite some cheesy romance and horror, I actually didn't mind the whole cheesiness factor. Though, I think the small/funny gestures and sense of humor from our OTP stands out the most.

Basically, it's a borderline of good/fine movie that could have been great if the elements worked out correctly. Perhaps, it could have worked out better if they had cut/crop out some elements altogether. Sometimes too many things in one isn't good because it's too hard to handle!

Overall rating for review: 5.5/10

Purely for entertainment: 6/10

My Dramalist rating (avg): 5.75/10

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