Reviews

It's nice to have Filipino musical movies like this one.

The second movie I took advantage to watch as part of MMFF50, this movie is really worth being my other choice to watch aside from the Jose Rizal 1998 film.
Filipinos boast a lot of singers and musicians, but the fact that the country doesn't produce a lot of musicals is such a travesty. That's why I love that they were able to make this musical (I'm referring to the stage show this was based on) and I love that they were even able to make a movie version of the musical through this movie. I also really enjoyed the casting. I love that they decided to put legit musical and theater actors as headliners for this film instead of the usual big names. Joanna Ampil (who I'm only familiar since I read her name as someone who played Fantine in Les Misérables London, she also performed as Fantine along with her Les Mis costars like Ramin Karimloo back in 2004 for Queen Elizabeth of the UK and France's Jacques Chirac) and Rachel Alejandro are so amazing as the main characters. The only actor who is a big name (among the main characters) is Paulo Avelino, but I think he auditioned to get this role. He's also really capable and I like him as an actor in general (praying he doesn't get stuck in a loveteam with Kim Chiu as they have two recent projects together). The other characters are also well played and well sung. There are some big names and some less well known ones but all did well. I was surprised that character actors such as Nonie Buencamino and Jaime Fabregas (would have been surprised more if I hadn't seen him in Jose Rizal just a day earlier where he sang a bit) can sing as well. So nice to see Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo again here. I only know her as the Liesl in the Sound of Music video performance from the 80s which I found on youtube where she performed with renowned names like Lea Salonga (who did Les Misérables in London like this movie's Joanna Ampil) and Senator Risa Hontiveros.
The story is about two girls who protect their childhood home and their father's legacy against all odds. I love their sisterhood and their deep care for each other. Their father, a cripple who was a renowned painter, had his last painting still in their house and many people want to buy it. Losing support from their selfish siblings and losing money to take care of their father and the house, the girls are tempted to sell the last painting of their father. We later learned that this painting was considered as a curse by both girls (despite being valued by many) as this last painting was painted by their father after the father committed suicide by jumping (which caused his crippled state) after the girls blamed him for something (I forgot the reason why). As a way to apologize to their father as well as to maintain their childhood home their father loves, one of the sisters destroyed her father's last painting despite almost being tempted by Paulo Avelino's character to sell the painting so that she'll fulfill her childhood dream of travelling the world while being with a man who loves her (Avelino's character was willing to marry her provided she sells the painting to an American buyer he talked to since the American promised a commission to him).
It's pitiful that we don't see the painting, but I guess the filmmakers feel the character's description are enough (don't know if the audience saw the painting in the musical version).
I think what we can get from the story is that we see that the two girls value their honor and their love for their father more than money. I just wish that they'll still be able to find love as their sacrifices to maintain their family home is enough.

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This movie could've been an email

I normally avoid watching C-dramas set during the republican era as they tend to be the most heavily lathered in government propaganda. 1911 is case in point.

The film tells the story of the 1911 revolution (or the Xinhai revolution as it's otherwise known). I'm not surprised that this particular event was the subject of such hammed-up propaganda given the revolution is key to the grander political myth-making of the modern Chinese state. That said, you can still do propaganda a lot better than this??

The storyline reads like my high school essays on Bolshevik Russia. It's a boring chronology of events with political commentary slapped across the top. The music and melodrama seems to indicate that you're meant to care about the characters on screen. But you don't.

It's normally a pretty safe choice to start a story in the middle of the action – in this case the failed Second Guangzhou Uprising – but without an emotional hook to the characters, mid action scenes exhaust their oxygen pretty fast. By following a Great Men of History approach, the main characters feel flat and 2D, their entire psyche presented in the form of political speeches or the flashing of guns.

By the end of the film, you're feeling pretty uninspired. There's a lot of monologuing where you start to think the character just likes the sound of their own voice. Jackie Chan is the only one allowed to wear a leather jacket for some reason. And the two normie characters who should've been the soul of the movie are really awkwardly tacked on at the beginning and end.

tbh, it's quicker and more interesting to read the wikipedia page.

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A Neo-Noir Masterpiece of Visual Poetry

Decision to Leave (2022) is a multilayered neo-noir that skillfully blends mystery with a touch of eccentric, almost unsettling romance. What makes this film stand out from Park Chan-wook’s previous works is its accessibility. Unlike some of his more abstract films, the plot here is easier to follow, yet it still maintains the subtle nuances and hidden layers that make you pause and reflect.

While this film may not hit the same notes as Park Chan-wook's previous films, I was captivated from start to finish. Visually, this movie is nothing short of a masterpiece. Every frame feels meticulously crafted, like a piece of visual poetry. Each cut seems deliberate, adding emotional weight and narrative depth. The film has a dreamlike quality, almost as if you're drifting through a fever dream. I lost track of how many times I paused just to soak in the beauty of a particular shot. I think I took over 50 screenshots because the visuals were just that stunning. Not a single frame was wasted.

Ultimately, the film reveals that sometimes the decision to leave is an expression of love, capturing the delicate balance between loss and sacrifice. It’s a quiet kind of heartbreak, but one that lingers just as powerfully.

Content Warning: Violence, Death, Self-harm, Sexual Content

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with in-laws like these, who needs enemies?

This quietly brutal film depicts a violence of memory/remembering - a violence of erasure, of withholding, of rewriting history and truth - enacted against queer people by their family members once those queer people are silenced by factors beyond their control. It unflinchingly shows how family members betray the two lesbian women in their lives after the death of the one who is their biological relative. They do this by ignoring her wishes, by betraying her grieving widow (their in-law), by insulting the widow's dignity, by undermining the widow's belonging in the family, and by betraying any sense of proper relations among kin - all in order to take the wealth left behind by their deceased relative. The film helps us to understand the motivations for each character's choices against a history of class differences and the oppressive backdrop of Hong Kong's material scarcity for basic needs. We are shown how a lack of institutional and societal recognition of queer relationships creates the opportunity for shameful behavior between family: in a deeply unequal society organized around capitalism (alluded to throughout the film, but most explicitly in the mention of how the deceased woman had managed to rise from being a factory worker to a factory owner; and also looming in the background of the housing crisis hanging over everyone in the film), these extended family members see no way to pursue a decent life other than by turning against their queer kin.

The disgracefulness of this so-called "family" is shown in how they apologetically disrespect the two queer women who had previously helped them financially (at least to some limited extent), specifically by kicking the surviving partner out of the apartment she had shared with her deceased partner. They justify this choice as a way to give her nephew his own exclusive place to raise a new baby. Heterofuturity (here as a privileging of the heterosexual continuity of future generations against queer people still alive in the present) manifests in the way that the extended family assumes that the only reasonable way they can benefit from their deceased kin's estate is by asserting their exclusive control over her apartment; they aren't even able to imagine or propose any compromises in which they might share the apartment with their lesbian in-law by living in the apartment together and taking care of each other. In this way, they foreclose any possibility of keeping this queer family member in their lives, much less any possibility of growing closer to her after the loss of this person who had been such an important presence in all of their lives. If (to quote a remark made by the queer couple when they shared a particularly expensive whiskey with their extended family in the film's prologue) "sharing with family isn't wasting", then the extended family lays waste to their kinship relations with their lesbian in-law, by taking the apartment from her and then refusing to share it with her.

Ultimately the film ends with a bitter sense of exasperated acceptance, and perhaps of resignation: with no options available under the legal system for staying in her apartment, the widow has capitulated to the demands of her deceased partner's extended family. She makes this decision after getting written confirmation of the truth of her partner's intentions (which had been to leave everything to her) after even that was questioned by one of her in-laws. The widow's lesbian friends (which is her and her former partner's found family in multiple ways) step in as replacements in order to carry out the familial rites and responsibilities to her deceased partner, responsibilities which had been so coldly abandoned by her deceased partner's biological kin: I am especially talking about the burial-at-sea of flower petals as a symbolic way of fulfilling the deceased's wishes which had been overruled by the extended family. We end with a scene remembering how much meaning the deceased woman had found in her queer family as an adult, after a childhood of hollow and sometimes even violent biological kinship. This scene bookends all the ways the film has shown us the biological/extended family using their traditional values to rationalize their understandable - yet utterly shameful - behavior, underscoring the film's critique of heterosexist ways of doing "family".

This film evoked a complicated mix of emotions in me. Through much of the film I felt anger at the unjust way the family treated their grieving lesbian in-law. And in the ending scene it transformed into a heavy sadness, in my recognition of an aspect of my own difficult experiences with family with the ending scene's reflection on finding meaning in the concept of "family".

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Best Adaption Movie Ever

I first encountered this movie and later I watched the original western one.

Both movies are obviously the same but they have a slight different ending and each movie portrays its own uniqueness.

I love both versions of the movie but the chinese version won my heart. The chinese version is more funnier, the plot, and the castings are everything that made me very emotional.

For me, the main theme of this movie was friendship. It portrays raw true emotions. This movie made me know how beautiful a true friendship is. Despite their little revenge games, they still care about each other in the end.

Angelababy and Nini did a very good job at this movie and I'm so greatly touched. I really recommend this movie to be seen by everyone.

- Review by sukimatchagirl

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Keep Going South

It took me a while to write this because I was angry. This film affected me to the point of wanting to reach through the screen and punch Young. Tae should have been the one with the rock above Young, smashing his skull in. Yes, I was that angry.

Perspective:
It's 2012 and homosexuality is still considered a crime. So it's understandable that Young would be hesitant to continue a relationship with Tae for everyone to know. It's 5 months since Young was discharged and Tae still has some time to complete his service. On his last leave, he visits Young. Young, driving Tae back to compound, tells him coldly, "Don't contact me again." Tae, hurt and grappling with the change between them, decides to drug him and desert. It is revealed through a series of conversations and tussles, that Young had sent a letter telling him that he liked him as a "person". How much more humiliating could he have been? Young was the one who approached Tae. Enticed him and encouraged him to have sex. Young was the one who told him he liked him. Tae believed. He fell deeply in love with him. During the 5 months they were apart, Young is denying his homosexuality, their relationship and has a girlfriend. He says to Tae, "he feels nothing for him, it was the army." Here, he as heartless as they come. The denial, selfishness and cowardice Tae endures, finally rips through him. He has a point to prove. He asks for sex for the last time, in exchange for the letters Young had wrote to him. Sitting on top, Tae rides him and as he senses Young about to ejaculate, he reaches for his small camera and snaps Young's face. He has his proof. He would not have enjoyed it, if he did not feel anything for him. After another hard to watch scene of them fighting in the mud for the camera, Young gives up. After all this, he still chooses to be 'straight'.

This is what causes the anger. Had he taken the time to break things off properly with Tae, rather than discarding him like dirty rubbish, Tae might have had a better chance of handling it. The film ends with Tae
telling Young to get lost. Dancing defiantly and more than a little drunk, with the music glaring, he chooses himself. It's as if he's saying, I know who I am. I will live true to myself. You didn't break me. Young, continues to walk in the opposite direction. Going back to the army would only remind him more of Young and what he thought they shared.

Tae's anguish and emotional ride he took us through was felt. Kim Jae Heung shines. He carries the film. Jeon Shin Hwan had the easier role and I'm still left wanting to see when he would show up to fully deliver. He seems flat against Kim. His true rage only evident when he raises the rock to hit him. Here, Kim steals again, crying in the mud, controlled by the betrayal and pain he feels, he cries out, " Don't treat me like I'm invisible. You had a hard on!"

The short is good and worth a watch. At least once.

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Life imitates art and art imitates life

I wasn't very impressed with this. I somehow expected more drama, intrigue, and obsession from this. I think for me this film falls short of executing what is otherwise a very interesting premise. It's partially due to the ambiguity of the narrative but it's not just that. There's also the fact that the film's intrigue is amped up too high because the actual film fails to deliver its meaning at certain points so it's both ambiguous and vague.

Plot: An idol rapper is (for some reason) doing a super moody theater production with a famous theater actor known for his method acting. This whole thing seems convoluted because theater is too prestigious for idol actors like...seriously! But whatever. After initial disinterest and rebellion, the young idol slowly becomes interested in acting as he watches the seasoned actor. He tries to imitate the method acting technique and soon, things get weird!
Btw, the idol coming from a group called "P2S" is so gauche...Korea, please do better. Seriously...

Plot: So I could not understand the narrative from watching the film. It was so vague, choppy, and scattered for me, that I ended up reading the plot summary on Wikipedia in order to figure out what was happening in the film. I have since read some interesting interpretations of this film which partially succeeded in redeeming some aspects for me but for the most part, I could not understand why characters went from one point to another. Basic details of the plot were so convoluted and unnatural that I also failed at suspending my disbelief and spent a good amount of the film distracted by technicalities that made me feel second-hand embarrassment. Like how are they getting away with making a racy theater production about a gay affair?! It's been seven years and Korea can barely accept a TV show with a gay character in it, in the year of 2024! And why is an idol actor doing theater to begin with?! And why is everyone so chill about the bizarre behavior of these men?
That said, it wasn't all bad. The plot has a cyclical nature and that's so interesting. We're thrust in the middle of a script reading with no context of the drama's plot. We slowly figure out that the drama is the final, bloody moments of an affair gone wrong but we have no idea how the characters got there. Then we see the actors going through a process of living as the drama's characters, becoming them in every way. It's a self-fullfilling prophecy. The actors' attempt to embody the characters sets into motion a series of events that eventually come to precede the events of the drama they are supposed to act in. Real life becomes the cause and history of the drama's events and the drama is the cause and catalyst that brings about the incidents happening in real life. It's actually brilliant! There's also a seriously interesting point made about sincerity and bravery and it's completely entangled with the queer representation in the story which makes this an exclusively queer narrative, impossible to recreate with any other type of dynamic and that's so amazing. I love that!
But I didn't really get all this from just watching the film. I only put these together with the help of other people's analysis and reading the summary! So while I think the idea is great, I think the execution of the plot was sloppy.

Acting: and that brings me to the second point. I don't think the acting was great. It was too much and too little in different scenes and only hit the mark occasionally. I know there's supposed to be ambiguity in the story and we're not supposed to be totally sure if the characters are being honest or pretending but for that to be shown, sincerity and insincerity need to be contrasted against each other. Here though, characters are unreliable and vague all the time! I could never grasp a normal behavior standard for them to measure their abnormal behavior against. So that led to more confusion.

Production: I think the main issue of this film is directing. A better director would have directed the actors better, established the world order better, chosen the best shots, and made sure the editing was immaculate. Then this movie could have been a 10. I really think a better direction would have fixed everything. And that's odd because I believe the director wrote the script too so they should have been the perfect candidate to make this. I wonder why it fell short a bit.

Rewatch: Not really. It wasn't that interesting though it wasn't awful. Once was enough.

Overall: If you're curious, just watch it. But it's not a personal recommendation, for me.

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Gentle giant & Scaredy cat

Unfortunately this is a very low budget production: they must have filmed it in producer's office!
Fortunately, this again goes to prove that you don't need loads of money if you have a good story and a good writer.

Unfortunately there is the height difference.
Fortunately, the gentle giant is cute.

Unfortunately the cat is 32 year old virgin who does not know what he wants. Such a typical situation for an asian drama. He has a crush on the giant but when he asks him out, he choses to misunderstand!
Fortunately the giant knows that so he starts playing hard to get.

Unfortunately the cat is so embarrassingly inexperienced.
Fortunately there is the female coworker teaching him the ropes of dating.

Unfortunately they have zero chemistry.
Fortunately, the gentle giant is rather proactive.
Unfortunately the cat is not.
Fortunately, eventually he needs to be so he is. Hooray!

Unfortunately they did not make this about teenagers. It would have been more convincing. Or would it?
Fortunately, they did not make this about teens it would have been ridiculous. Teens usually jump before thinking. This is the opposite: the cat thinks and then does not jump!

Unfortunately they kept those boring manga tropes like clear distinction between seme and uke roles.
Fortunately the kisses were nice.

Unfortunately this reminded me of She Who Cooks: the same awkward uncomfortable relationship.
Fortunately the guys here seem to get over it by the end.

Fortunately, Nicksden subbed this expertly so we get to enjoy it a lot! Thank you!

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Warning: Rant ahead. Cringe fest

Wotakoi was my first ever romance anime in 2018 and I love it till now to bits. I later read the manga too that too was fantastic. So, when I found out yesterday about this movie, I was really excited. However, within the first 15 minutes in, I was cringing hard. The song, lyrics, conceptualization, everything was off. Why musical!!! This is not Broadway. If the director wanted to still make it into a musical, please incorporate it into the story seamlessly not just throw it away somewhere randomly. Such choppy editing and direction. What a waste of the actress's talent! I had to drop to preserve my happy memory of anime. I needed to cleanse myself by binging the anime for 1000th time lol. And that is all I am thankful for. I wasted my 20 minutes trying to get into it. Then ran to MDL. As expected I was not the only one cringing hard. The disappointment is huge!!

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Check the tags!!!!!!

I think this was a recommendation from Anne. I've just finished watching it. I should have seen the tags beforehand though. It got really uncomfortable at several points. So, do check the tags before going in folks.

Now, let's come to the story, acting and direction part.
Story is ok, typical Sokor fighting crime movie. I liked as it somehow tried to spread some awareness but would have liked it more if they had delved a little deeper into the mission.
Acting is good, from everyone. The movie is a little short to actually go for some character depth, so it lacked in that department. But that's ok.
Direction is average. Saying this because I've seen better action choreography and Korean movies excells in it.
Overall, it's a 7.5 for me. This can't be placed into a 'light watch' nor 'heavy watch'. And that's the dilemma for me.

Now, I don't want to comment on Sokor law enforcement. If I start, I will probably lose track of time. But if a police-law-prison system can't break/rectify a criminal within sentenced period of prison time, that's just total failure. And there should be only one punishment for child sex offenders, hanged till death. I can't comprehend how such a heinous criminal gets 20 years of prison time and still comes out as such trash. Total failure of prison system.

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'You only live once, so don't leave any regrets'

This movie took me a while to watch as this movie is a sentimental movie that needs a certain mood.
All I can say to this movie is to enjoy life... live to the fullest and just go for it.
As a traveler myself, this truly hit me on the spot as I am someone who is struggling with whether to enjoy my 20s by traveling as much as possible or to go to back to school and get a career job.
In this world, most people want to earn as much money as possible and to travel the world.
That is still what I want but it's just so difficult as responsibilities build up as we get older.

I know that everyone has their clock... but were just overwhelmed and pressured within the society and by our family.
This drama made me cry and inspired me in a certain way... to follow your dreams...

Life is hard. But we should be grateful for what we have and what God has offered us...
I'm truly grateful for what I have as there are others out there who do not...

This drama truly inspired and motivated me yet made me think about life in a certain way.

Why does it have to end that way tho...😭😭😭😭

I feel numb.
Now I'm rewatching Twilight..
124am
92824

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Taboo or To be

Gay teen goes to a bar, mutual attraction occurs, later it turns out to be his homeroom teacher. No hook-up was implied, just eye contact. In the light of day, teacher Hoon sets boundaries but over a year, teen Woo sees every act of sparce kindness as Hoon's continued attraction for him. Woo stalks him. Hoon's job is to interview the parents at home of all the students. Finally, Woo forces the situation to come to a head by physically inserting himself in Hoon's care and doesn't leave. Woo wants an admission from Hoon. Does he remember their previous encounter? Will he admit that he is attracted to him? Will he give in and let Woo into his life? I should mention here, Hoon is 35 and his pursuer Woo is 18.

Before 2020, the legal age of consent in South Korea was 13. The film was made in 2012.

Hmmm, gray area or no?

Woo doesn't take no for an answer. He relentlessly pursues Hoon, blackmailing him into spending time with him with pictures he took of Hoon in the gay bar. Hoon is searching for another teaching position to escape as he recognizes that Woo will not give up. He knows that Woo is forbidden fruit. Woo knows himself. He is gay and he wants him. He understands the position well as his mother knows his orientation. Hoon viciously rebuffs him, and Woo hurt by his words, leaves the car in anger and cries. Finally, Hoon is free. He looks down, finds Woo's forgotten headset and carries it home. He sees Woo enter before him and on his steps he waits.

Gray area:
Though legal, what can an 18 year old teen bring to the table?
Should Hoon resist further as Woo is still in school?
Can 18 form a stable relationship?
2012 gay relationships were still no fully accepted, what would they endure as a couple, being gay, age difference and social status?
If Hoon gives in, how will his job be affected?

The film brings these thoughts to mind and only answers one. You will have to watch the entire film to get it. The actors did a commendable job with their roles. Hoon's frustration with himself and Woo is believable. Woo's dogmatic focused attitude towards the situation is dealt with an 18 year old fervor. I will recommend this film for the questions posed and the actors themselves. Though I liked it, more could have been done. Rewatch - maybe not. In 2024, this comes across more like a period piece from 2012.

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