It’s not even fun bad… It's just bad.

How they got this cast to do this movie is beyond me. The best part were the bad subtitles that kept calling Hyeri “he” and later Yoon Gyeom “sis”. There were just so many writing and directing choices I did not understand…

First of all, there is no set up for anything. They don’t tell, they don’t show. Half way through the movie you will still not truly understand the past events, current characters; motivations, who is on whose side and why. Not explicitly telling every little detail about the plot is fine, most viewers can put two and two together. Here… they told me close to nothing. I feel like I had to basically write 50% of the plot in my head, to make any sense of it. The vague idea of the plot in Monstrum is interesting, but that’s it - just a vague idea, a first draft of the plot…

I can't really comment about the acting, because the characters were so painfully one-dimensional a brick wall could play them and the result would be similar.

The comedy was also misplaced and just in poor taste. This is not a slapstick sitcom, so why are we getting fart jokes?

Overall… It’s been a while since I watched something so bad I was actually annoyed watching.

Lire davantage

A bit confusing characterization.

omeone who has not seen the original movie, nor was aware of the full story presented there, while the plot of this short gender swap version was easy to follow, the motivations of the characters were either confusing or shallow in presentation.

Instant love that seemed fabricated from the start, lady general who does not connect the facts and male lead who for some strange reasons trusts a demon? My brain hurts.

That said, for a movie that is basically shot in one location, it was visually quite well made. They truly used the limited space they had, so the plot never felt small nor insignificant.

The performance was good. He Chang Xi delivered the best in terms of conveying emotions, especially in the second half, while Ding Cheng Xin was able to combine the delicacy and destruction in his presentation of Xiao Wei.

If you want to watch it based on your good opinion about Wuliang and the Censored Romance tag, you might want to reconsider your motivation. Production and directing wise it’s not as strong as Wuliang (though still quite a good short movie), and the tag is at best baiting. It serves a vague ending that brings more questions than answers, and for me, who likes to overanalyze scenes and lines, even more confusion.

Lire davantage

Was it entertaining? Yes. Do I feel like I would miss a lot if I have not seen it? No. Do I regret watching it? No.

The biggest positive aspect - it had a great variety of characters. And yet a good majority of them annoyed me more often than not. While I understand Sina being suspicious of everyone, but her blindly accusing any person in the household of being the evil mastermind was at some point frustrating. She kept showing all her cards and not getting any closer to the truth. Like girl, use your brain.

There was quite a straightforward plot that had a nice conclusion. BUT It felt like a lot happened in the first 20 episodes, and at the same time... nothing was really happening. And then last 10 was a cluster F of plot lines coming together.

The part that at the beginning I enjoyed the most was the amazing chemistry Sina and Thi had, but even this died down a lot in the middle of the show, just to be brought back in the last few episodes in what seemed like a forced manner.

Conclusion: It was fun, but it was not amazing. I guess me and lakorns need to peacefully go our separate ways from now on.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage

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.

Lire davantage