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Du jia ji yi (2019)
Somewhere I Don't Want To Go °5.4° °avg, & not a romance° 💯%🔍
Xue Tong's father died a hero as she was preparing to enter college. "I found a new burden being added onto my shoulders," she explains. "I must score well in exams because I'm the hero's daughter. I have to be considerate all the time because I'm the hero's daughter. I can't afford to make any mistakes because I'm the hero's daughter. I can't bring shame to my heroic dad... I realized that this burden has become a part of my personality. For the past few years I've been a timid coward. Today, I decided to put down that burden to become a brave yet ordinary person. Only by doing so can my dad's bravery bring light into my life." She's crafted an extraordinary manifesto.
Xue Tong was framed. All she did was pick up a piece of paper. But the exacting exam monitor, Mu Cheng He, accused her of cheating. XT's Professor knows she's not the type to cheat, so he does not render a verdict, but rather takes time to look into the issue. Ep1 is about how she goes on a quest to clear her name & find the true culprits, but even moreso, it sets up a clash between her & Mu. She "doan" like him. Notta bit.
Li Ting Ting from Unique Lady plays FL, XT. Without a sense of style, she's no fashionista. More Sporty-Spice than any other, she walks, talks, & quacks like a jock, but they didn't put her on any team, other than the infamous dorm room 323. She is smart, down-to-earth, & she's girl-nextdoor cute. Protect yourself & hit the mute button when she sings. She & her two beasties, Bai Lin (Baby-Spice) & Song Qi Qi (Surprise-Spice) remind me of the 3 friends in the amazing 💘anime Maid Sama(10). The FL is a tough, smart overachiever, then there's the studious, bespectacled QiQi, & finally the ponytailed fan-girlie, Bai Lin, who always seems to make trouble. Unlike the rule-enforcing Misa from MS, XT is not a great rule follower. She's downright disruptive sometimes.
At some point they get Scary-Spice as a roomie. She's a model, she looks like Joan Jett, & she's as cool as her too. They are in their 3rd year. 21 year old XT is really popular this year. All kinds of guys are approaching her - to pass messages & gifts to her new super-hot rommie, Zhao Xiao Tang. As it turns out, the guy XT is interested in only sees her as a buddy. Tang is his kinda tangy, he thinks. But, YO! Tang is totally Tangsta.
XT's thing is languages. She's an English major, but she's also learning Russian. When she shows up to her first Russian class of the semester, guess who's filling in for the professor who is out of town? The show teaches us about the alveolar "al 'vee lar" trill, or rolling of the r's. Those w/ ankyloglossia (tongue-tied) aren't able to do it, but ethnicity is not a risk factor for that condition. Asians simply aren't used to making that sound. (How many of us in the USA can reproduce most of their consonants? According to Google translate I'm hopeless). Anyway, XT's alveolar weakness is exposed promptly. Extra homework. Mu will be keeping a close eye on her. She ends up as the class representative. She'll be in his office daily...
Zhang Chao is ML, Mu. He looks like Michael Crawford's Cornelius Hackl from Hello Dolly. He's not a bad guy, he's just a physics major. They're precise & rely on what they see. He's been skipping grades since he was young, So he's always been surrounded by people older than him. Nobody played w/ him when he was little. "I didn't care. I don't need others to play w/ me. Because I knew in my heart that physics was the most interesting topic," he insists. When he wants to speak romantically it might be something like this: "Time is irreversible in general relativity. The only ruler of time is the transfer of heat. But when the heat begins to pass, What happened can no longer be erased." Just fan yourselves, ladies, before you pass out! Left-brained folk aren't known for their touchie-feeliness. As a physics PhD student & teacher, Mu is in a position of authority at school. He & XT end up clashing many times. He even has to pick her up at the police station. So when he needs to break into the lab, who's he gonna call?
SOWK is tagged as a romance, but it's more a college drama about XT & her roomies. The romance is low-sizzle. This isn't where you get your dopamine fix. (For that I recommend Well-Intended Love-7.5, which is rom-porn. Just be warned that the ML pulls a very offensive stunt. The two best modern-day Cromances I've seen are, A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5 & Find Yourself-9.2) The show sort of acts like a scientist in that we observe these characters more than identify w/ them; our emotions are not fully pulled in. The viewer might get irritated w/ Bai Lin, but our feelings are not subjected to intense wind resistance. This isn't hot love, it's cool fusion.
While XT remains oblivious, the viewer sees Mu start to smirk at her. Next, his gaze lingers on her. She's been helping him as a way to apologize & say "thank-you" in the aftermath of their various run-ins. He invites her to the planetarium. She's in bummy pants & a t-shirt w/ an oversized plaid button shirt hanging like a moo-moo over the ensemble. She skips & scampers from one exhibit to another. When she sees all the tweens making a model she wants to do it, too. She just had her heart bruised by being placed in friend-zone by another dude, yet here she is doing it to Mu. Or is she? Soon it's obvious that they are each attracted to the other & they are self-aware. They aren't people that talk about feelings though. They keep it lowkey.
For a nerd, he does a nice confession. Once they are dating, XT gets frustrated because he's slower than the sea turtles they observed while diving. Not only is he a scientist, but he's 10 yrs her senior. Who can blame him for moving slowly? Her youth & inexperience make her look like a bomb to him. Does she really love him? Will another guy catch her eye? Is she going to stay? That coupled w/ his old-fashioned tendencies & the deference he shows to her don't pave the way for anything hot-&-heavy. In fact, when they go on their trip, the couple next-door to them asks for a condom & he claims he doesn't have any. Is he even attracted to her? Little does she know, they are one good scare away from getting much closer, until... "He can't accept anyone in his world." When his experiment runs into problems, He becomes obsessed. He abandons XT on Mars.
Thematically, there's no central message here; to the extent that there is a central theme, it's growing pains. "Your life belongs to you. People like your parents, best friends or even your partners can't be held responsible for your life." QiQi may have the hardest time w/ that concept. For a girl w/ her nose always in a book, she perhaps has the strongest emotions & the toughest time sorting through them.
XT is upset at one point because she & one of her close friends will have to compete for a scholarship. Her friend's been going through hardship & XT almost prefers to lose. The pragmatic Tang breaks it down: "You are not showing kindness by avoiding the problem. That's hypocrisy. If I was your competitor, the way you were behaving now would only make me think that you were looking down on me." In the USA, individualistic nature makes us think that we have more importance & influence in situations & we actually do. We have a drive to fix things. Before we act we should look at our intentions from all sides.
There's lightly sprinkled quality tidbits. In ep15 he says they can brave the rain together. He's talking about the weather, but it feels portentous... They go on a trip to Malaysia & it's gorgeous. They even take out a transparent kayak. Mu Hai (Li Jiu Xiao) proves that hair does make the man. Bai Lin is disappointed by yet another guy. She's on a school outing so she climbs up the mountain. It's an overcast morning. One of her classmates calls out to her & she raises her head. "Look, the clouds have parted! " Maybe the one who won't disappoint her is right behind her. Or is something else going on? It's a nice little scene. The music is well above avg but I couldn't find any of it by way of Shazam or spotify.
Here's a quote From the show: "Scriptwriters these days aren't reliable at all." Just as Voyager 1 will soon run out of battery & transmissions to earth will cease, SOWK ends up doing the same thing. SOWK isn't deeply flawed, but these characters don't draw the viewer in sufficiently to make up for what it lacks. We don't dislike them, but are they likable enough? There was a promise of more. I'm writing this as ep20 closes. 20 hours in & I'm starting to feel disappointed. The show hasn't given me enough to compensate me for my time. Instead of floating higher, it's gotten water-logged. Now I'm looking at 4 episodes to go, & I'm already done.
Update: At ep23's close I started to actively dislike SOWK. XT is hard to read - does she care at all? It's impossible to tell. At times I think she's horrible. She goes too toxic on one character without sufficient reason. I'm starting to find her distasteful. Bai Lin is frustrating. The urge to slap her is making me frustrated. (To be fair, she does mature before the credits roll). QiQi is a big disappointment. SOWK has a low degree-of-difficulty. There's no buildup or foreshadowing or meaning to it. It doesn't make for high quality entertainment. Many viewers love it - for more than half the show I thought I did, but it slipped out of my orbit long before its allotted time.
QUOTES📢
There are many kinds of love but there is only one kind of breakup.
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause & reflect." -Mark Twain. (Amen).
〰🖍 IMHO
📣5.8 📝4.8 🎭7.5 💓4 🦋3 🎨5 🎵/🔊7.5 🔚 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡3.3 😅3 😭5 😱3.5 😯2.5 😖1 🤔4 💤3.5
Age 14+ Violence, sad/adult situations
Language: he!!×2, b@$+@rd+1 pr!ck×1 d!(khe@d×1
F💣×1
Re-📺? 👎🏼
👷
Saekomdalkom (2021)
If you lose a person they're lost for good °Good° 💯%🔍
Pucker Up.
A chubadub... pardon... a sweet young man is ready for his career as an engineer to take off, but he lands in the hospital with jaundice and hepatitis-A before he can start his job. He's not contagious - that's hepatitis-B - as the nurse keeps telling people, but e'erbody is terrified to go near him, regardless. The cute little nurse ends up taking breaks at his quiet bedside because she's worked to death. Everything she does is cute to him. Lee Woo-Je (True Beauty) is patient Jang Hyeok and Chae Soo-Bin (Love in the Moonlight) is nurse Jung Da-Eun.
He's discharged against his will. Finally, he plucks up the courage to call nurse Da-Eun. To his surprise she tells him to come over. He's overjoyed! He can't wait to help her out. He cooks for her. He sees things that need to bedone, like the light bulb that is out, and he takes care of it immediately. She's quite touched by his attentiveness.
He swears he'll lose weight. He will reinvent himself. Next we see a svelte Jang Ki-Yong (My Mister-9.5, The Atypical Family) as Jang Hyeok exercising. Hyeok has to work. An opportunity comes up for work that will better his career - in Seoul. The commute is sour - it's murder. He has a lot less time with his cutie. They start to fall apart under the heavy stress of work. At his new job, he is forced to put up with coworker, Han Bo-Yeong (Krystal from The Heirs-7.3 & Crazy Love-7.8). She's hotting up the place, but she's messy and eccentric, and he's been teamed up with her. His work will be as good as hers is. Their results are linked.
The light bulb's out. The light bulb's on. The light bulb's blinking. It's sort of a status indicator of Da-Eun in the relationship. S&S is a tasty little study in irony that teaches us to treasure the people in our lives. There's nice camera work and cutting. The directing and acting are solid. Kim Mi-kyung, the ubiquitous mother, makes an appearance. I don't know how she does it. She's in everything.
Hyeok's life twists like taffy until things start to pull apart. When things happen, sometimes they happen fast. Sometimes they happen gradually but it seems fast to the person that has only been tasting the sweeter things of life, unawares. The film's decisive end has been building the whole time, but it zings the viewer and Hyeok. Gravel in his mouth, he won't hit the ground running again for awhile.
QUOTE📢
If you miss a cab you can wait for the next one. If you lose a person they're lost for good.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬7 📝7 🎭7.4 💓5 🦋3 🌞4 🎨6 🎵/🔊5 😅3 😭4 🤔6 💤3 🔚8
Age 14+f💣 and other colorful linguistics + adult situations
Re-📺? It's worth 1 watch, not sure about a 2nd.
💂
Tonari no Totoro (1988)
Cheshire Cat's Fun Uncle °8.2° °Excellent ° 💯%🔍
The wonder of childhood.
A family with two young girls, Satsuki & Mei, moves to the countryside to be near the hospital where mom is getting treatment.
When the girls walk into the dilapidated house they immediately meet little dust creatures that scurry and scatter to escape the light. The countryside contains special magic, it seems. They meet the rest of their cheerful neighbors. A granny, a boy their age, schoolmates... and Totoro. What is Totoro? He looks like a giant cat-blob with huge human-like teeth. (What Teeth! The Better To Roar With!) He likes acorns. Two mini Totortos follow him around. He rumbles and it sounds growly, but Satsuki & Mei aren't scared.
Once again, studio Ghilbi lights our world with the liteness of childhood imagination. These easily made friends will delight the whole family. This movie is gentle and calmative. It's a cheerful visit to the countryside. The lovely artistry and the sounds - from the voices to corn rustling in the soft warm wind, to crickets chirping- it all soothes the soul. The English voice actors are outstanding. Mei slowly breaks into tears - the actress outdid herself. The sound of little feet running in the dirt is like a brain caress. The sound production radiates a peacefulness. It's outstanding.
At first the girls are filled with wonder over everything - a rotted pillar, an acorn in the house... Well, the wonders will never cease. They'll get even more wonderful. There's also a budding romance - nearly...maybe... There's no maybes about how much you & your family will 💗 the movie.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬8.2 📝7.9 🎭 8.5 💓5 🦋5 🌞8.2 🎨8.4 ⚡🎵/🔊10 😅6.5 😭4 😱2.5 😯3.5 😖0 🤔5 🔚 10
Age 4+ but it depends on the child. Some elements could be scary.
Re-📺? 🔛
👮🏻
Xia Yi Zhan Shi Xing Fu (2020)
🐕JACKPOT!🐬 °8.9° °Outstanding° 💯%🔍
'I know a rich woman who hired a young gigolo; she said his skin was as smooth as a 🍼Baby 🐬Dolphin''s,' Fan's BFF recollects~
FY is a fairytale for older single chicks. The story of Fan reminds me of the Princess Bride as I imagine it starting w/ the 32y/o Fan sitting in bed. Grandma, sitting bedside, pulls out a 📖 (entitled That 🍼🐬 is Mine). 'Tonight we'll read about the director & the intern who loves her,' starts grandma... Soon it's all hitting the Fan. Or should we say she Fans the 🔥 of a walking lawsuit? Even in 🇨🇳, "doing" the intern is a no-no, so here we go!
"If humans all live the same way it would be boring, wouldn't it?" Marriage & kids, marriage & kids. It's all the older generation knows. The young-gen isn't much better- 'You're pretty & you have it all together. Why do you want to go on blind dates?" 'At age 32, you are considered a leftover woman.' 'Look at your age - Don't be so picky.' "A virgin can't reincarnate, right?" This is what Fan is up against. She's reaching an expiration date, like the 4th yogurt from a buy-3-get-1-free deal. 'What others say about us is not scary. The scariest thing is when you believe it,' she despairs. What might be scarier is falling for your baby brother's student.
Victoria Song is "Fan". I 💖 her. In ep1 she meets ML#2. David Wang is "Ming". Sure, the waif thin Song is beautiful w/ skin as smooth as a 🍼🐬 & he's a compelling ML, but I fell hard for this Ming guy! Domineering? He isn't that, so much as driven. He can take it too far, but as a bf he's absolutely lovely. The handsome actor is manly while being funny & a tad ridiculous. He's also the Sun Tzu of human relationships. That's skill. Ming's firm is a client of Amazing Decorations, Fan's employer. She has to apologize for a screw-up, which places her in his office, & he's repugnant. Fan's submitted to a tirade of insults along w/ the news that AD is fired. Fan starts sobbing (it's a really bad day). He relents, but 1st impressions are cemented in. This starts out a string of junctures between them. He's convinced she's stalking him. By the time he realizes his misconception (falling for her utterly in the same moment) she's already fallen for Song. So when they meet up yet again (blind date), Ming switches gears & adopts the "Let's be friends" ruse. He wants her badly. He had pre-ID'd his blind date & showed up ready to seal the deal. The viewer almost hears screeching brakes as he wriggles into her life. He 'came to this blind date to mollify his sister'. He 'already has someone' he likes, too. They 'can be friends'. She confides in him as she thinks he isn't interested. He offers to be her romance coach➡he jumps on her fumble & runs it back to the 5 yard line.
The acting excels. Expressions & lines are full of life & wit. We like these people. Song Wei Long is Song. He's perfect at being a sexy, winsome puppy - sweet, loving & cuddly, but not too compliant, w/ a touch of the 🐕 in him. Yang is Fan's brother. He can really yang&bang - he's a college prof & a total playboy. Esther Yu (Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9) is "Cai", Ming's niece. Her wavery voice is adorable.
Here's the seating chart: FL/Fan is Yang's twin sis & Song's boss at AD. Yang is Song's college prof & got him the job at AD. Yang is Cai's prof as well. Ming, client of AD, is Cai's uncle/guardian as she goes to school. She stays w/ him on the w/e. Cai is in 💘 w/ Song. This leads to scenes in which Cai & Ming are both mourning over the same thing - their crush is in 💘 w/ someone else - but they don't know that their crushes are in love w/ e/o.
Fan cannot resist dating Song who is 10 yrs her jr, but~ 'Do you think that's his gf?" "No way. She's too old." "She's not that old." "Maybe she's rich & he's a paid escort~" Standards; Ideal mate; What do you want in a spouse? There's so many topics that Fan now finds uncomfortable. She demands they keep it a secret. Fan is not a salmon. Going against the current is exhausting. She doesn't want to deal w/ professional, office, college frenemies, family, nosy neighbors, & random people on the street w/ their snark, condescension & judgment. She can't take the pressure. Song's a beautiful 🍼🐬; she's not that, either. She wants to try a relationship in a sedate & carefully cultured koi pond, so she breaks it off w/ Song. Ming convinces her to try dating him to distract herself from her 💔. Yes, on 📑 Fan & Ming are perfect for e/o. Analytics will only get you to the playoffs. It doesn't necessarily win championships. When it comes to matters of the heart, the intangibles are what scores the 🏆
"Didn't you play flip the box in Kgarten?" "No, we played minesweeper & the loser had to buy lunch." FY depicts the generational disconnect & how rigid the mindset of older people can be. Yet it's gentle w/ the elders & reinforces our obligation of deference & patience toward those who worked & sacrificed before us. Other themes are tossing out silly taboos w/ the societal pressure that keeps them in place & the disparity between the sexes. Most of all, it's abt lies, incl the struggle between the truth as we want to see it & actual truth. FY is Fear>Deceit>Pride>Secrets>Relationship hierarchy>More lies>Gossip>Judgment>Expectations>Responsibilities>Finally, Freedom.
"Relationships between adults are usually maintained w/ white lies." "Where is the line between hiding & deceiving?" "Sometimes, a lie is like quenching thirst w/ poison." Fan gives it serious thought. "Perhaps lies are ice melting in truth. Eventually, there's no difference." Why do we lie? It's almost always for our own short-term comfort. Lying is like taking drugs. Comforting effects are temporary & the residue left behind is enslaving. Thus the adage: The truth will set you free. Society actually runs on lies, but that's not a good thing. James Spader, who falls for an older Susan Sarandon in the film White Palace, plays a reformed habitual liar in the movie Sex Lies & Videotape. He stopped lying altogether. It's portrayed as shocking. He was still kind - people who won't lie must know when to say nothing. We lie to ourselves first, & the biggest lie we tell ourselves is that we're okay. The truth is that we all have alot to work on. We're all damaged, hurt, or spoiled in some way. To let go of lying we have to let go of pride. We're all better off without it; pride only obstructs 💘. Humans tend to complicate things endlessly. Fan has to sort through all the societal garbage to arrive at what's really important. At the end of the day, things are simple. We just have to toss the trash that's been thrown on top of us by family, friends, society, & ourselves.
The writing is excellent. There's humor & an understanding of human relations. The dialogue is snappy. The director is skillful w/ cutting & segues. He plays it well for comedy & there's a bright crispness to the flow. The pace is almost methodical - in the best way. Early on the viewer might wonder how they will fill 41 eps. They do it steadily. I can get a teensy bit stressed when I like a show, waiting for it to go downhill, as so many resort to padding & idiocy to fill the required eps. FY doesn't merely hold the line, it improves as it goes on. It's 1 of 2 modern-day Cdramas I've seen that aren't significantly flawed, (the other: A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5). 🇨🇳 is not a free country & it has seemed like they were at a loss as to how people should behave. It appears they've reflected on themselves & decided to get more real. Perhaps we can thank K🇰🇷. FY makes positive references to Kpop&dramas.
Now for the Scooby snacks:
"Being friends w/ your ex is the highest level of break-up." Seriously, can it get more 🇨🇳 than that?
On the wall of the office is inscribed: If you are always trying to be NORMAL you will never know how AMAZING you can be.
The family dynamics are very cute. Fan's overprotective brother got in the way of all her romantic relationships when they were growing up. Ironically, he introduces Fan to her first 💘 after blocking 💘 for so many years.
The wardrobe contains some duds but has lots of winners. They had fun reinventing mens collared dress shirts. She accessories well.
Fan & Song play badminton. Determined to lose & not embarrass the other, each claims s/he is not a good player, though Fan could have made the nat'l team. Soon the competitive juices fire up w/ video game animation overlay to enhance the scene. It's very funny.
Ming's cousin is his assistant. They strictly set familial vs work boundaries. She keeps it all business on the 🕰 unless she requests a time out to talk to her cousin. Then their expressions, body language & demeanor will change instantly while they talk as family for a tad. Then it's back into work mode.
Ming only knows half of the equation & he says, "could it get more complicated than that?" Lol - It already is.
Fan protests- "I'm only 31... & 1/2..." The actress delivers superbly.
"A sense of belonging is, 'I am yours.' But a sense of security is, 'You are mine'." Young people want someone they like, older people want to find the right one. What does Ming want? He admits that he's childish, but he wants his destiny. FY tells us that's like hitting the jackpot🎰. Love at first sight is like winning the 🎰. Finding 💘 on a blind date? 🎰. Finding 💘 when a woman is over 30 is definitely like hitting the 🎰. Fan hits the super~🎰~schizzle. Cha-ching!
QUOTES📢
Men have a bad habit of being w/ their exes even if they don't have any feelings left
Siblings are debts from a prior life
Parents' tears drown relationships
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.8 📝8.8 🎭8.5 💓8 🦋8 🎨7 🎵/🔊7 🔚8 ▪ 🌞7 ⚡2 😅5.5 😭3 😱0 😯3 😖0 🤔7 💤0
Poli-wagging 2/10
Age 14+ by Hollywood standards this is positively chaste but the primary couple does get it on prior to marriage and they do 😚 generate some steam.
Re-📺? 🔛
👨🚀👩🚀
Hello, Love, Goodbye (2019)
🕰 Time Must Start Again °7.7° °VG ° 💯%🔍
🕰Timing in life is everything; so the adage goes. In Hong Kong, time is G💰LD. As long as you move you'll live. Once you stop you'll starve. Over 200,000 Filipinos work in Hong Kong. It's most common to have a 2-yr domestic helper contract as Filipinos are not allowed to do anything else - unless they manage to become a citizen. Therefore, when Joy loses her job because her employers can no longer pay her, she takes an illegal waitressing job. The cops, inevitably, will come by to check IDs. When Joy sees them, she busts a move and runs. She ends up running right into the handsome bartender and 😙busts another move. She uses him as camouflage to hide from the po-po. Cops rarely bother a couple snogging in the alleyway, afterall. It's done so often in movies you might think that they would start checking, even if a duo is rounding first and headed for second, but it always seems to work.
The Filipino community in Hong Kong is small. Everyone is within 1° of separation, but it's large enough to support a Filipino radio station. (They have a nifty microeconomic system in place as well.) Joy thinks she got away scott-free only to wake up the next morning to a radio announcement about her! Ethan, the bartender, is looking for Joy so that she can return the kiss that she stole from him! Joy's friends go insane.
HLG is about what decent, but poor, people must do to survive: It is all about hard choices. It is also about the nature of love. Joy & Ethan. Ethan + Joy. She resists him, but she can't for long. The problem is that she's leaving. She's definitely leaving. She has a nursing degree that she can't use in Hong Kong. She's going to be a nurse in Canada. That's her dream, and n🅾thing's going to change her mind. N🅾t a thing/budkis/pist🅾🅾za/larkaflark/nuffink/jack squat/NATTY. Joy is no wimp. She has a will of iron. She warns Ethan to not get attached. Yet they allow themselves to fall in love. Every day they push the knife in a little deeper.
Their story is sweet and these protags are likable. He says he can handle it and he won't get in her way, but as that 🕰 approaches the pressure ratchets up. Because, 'when you love, it's all or nothing. If you hold back, then why love it all?' Ethan has a point. 'There are questions inside of me that only I can answer,' Joy insists. Joy has goals, a mission, and an ironclad agenda. She will not be swayed. Not now.
L💘VE. What does it look like? To Ethan it's: "If you loved me enough you would stay." ♻ To Joy it's: "If you loved me enough you would want me to go." Later, Joy asks the universe: "When a woman gives too much of herself, she's stupid, but when she prioritizes herself, she's bad. Where do we need to place ourselves? Is love only expressed through sacrifice?" Why so often, indeed, does every option, for women especially, seem irreconcilable? Love can teeter from selfish to selfless. Perhaps love always starts down in the selfish zone, but the more we sincerely love someone, the more selfless we should become. Leaving the shallow end and diving down deeper should elevate our love higher. If not, we must question how much in 💓 we are or how selfish we actually are. A young person should never be expected to throw away h/h future for a relationship, particularly a relatively new one. Talk about creating a debt for regret - No sane person would endorse that. Joy agonizes over this unexpected timeout from the race she's been running. Either option is valid. Her choice is hers alone. HLG tells young girls that their personal development and future is every bit as important as love.
Befitting a modest budget, most of the filming is on the street or in contained spaces. There's a couple of wow shots. They take a day off to go up into the mountains. On a cliff looking down on the city, the buildings are uniformly white. While they look like bad dental work there's also an ethereal beauty to the vista. The effect is otherworldly.
HLG is a 118 minute, 2019 release that is rated 8.2 on MDL. Overall, this is a well put together production. The writing, directing and acting all blend to make a great product with few flaws. This is a 🇵🇭Filipino production and I am looking forward to seeing more of their works. I've seen 2 🇭🇰Hong Kong productions, The Defected and Hong Kong West Side Stories(7.5). Both of them are good but also dark, edgy, sad, and a display of the worst elements of humanity. The group that is the most downtrodden in Hong Kong seems to have a brighter outlook. Between the 3 productions, one wouldn't think it's the same place. HLG is well worth the time to get a peek at life in Hong Kong from the view of the hard working, overlooked Filipino community. We🇺🇲 have alot to be thankful for.
QUOTE📢
Choice is only for the rich.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣78 📝72 🎭79 💓70 🦋67 🌞71 🎨70 ⚡30 🎵/🔊78 😅23 😭47 😱30 😯49 😖20 🤔45 💤0 🔚70
Age 12+
Adult situations kissing - mild
Rated PG: Parental Guidance Suggested
Re-📺? Not opposed
💔
Hong Kong West Side Stories (2019)
Not endorsed by the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce °7.5° °VG° 💯%🔍
HKWSS could be considered a public service. It reminds us to not get snookered. It explores the downside of Hong Kong life and by extension, human existence in general.
Most stories are one episode long while a couple occupy a second episode. Ep1: "What do Chinese people love most? Gambling. Taking risks. Even when they lose, they numb themselves as if they've won the process." So the ML is told by his buddy who is urging him to consider a career change from insurance sales to bookie. He ends up becoming an even worse shyster - a pet telepathist. His career change starts as revenge against his gf who broke up with him after he criticized °her° pet telepathist, to whom she had just paid 5k to try and find her cat, Tofu. The ML did nothing to help her find Tofu, she points out. Revenge turned lucrative: He's getting paid and laid. He's loving life until he realizes, in ep2, that his choices will keep him from getting what he wants most. The last story features a family of 6 who live in a 380sf apartment: Mom & dad, 2 grown sons and their wives. The couples share bunk beds, and the story is outrageous. The only other Hong Kong show I've seen is The Defected. Both of these shows are good, they are both rough, and they both have a coldness to them. Hong Kong seems like a tough place.
The opening shot is in black & white and it's, well, it's ⬇down⬇. The language sounded strange - I'm used to Mandarin, cru-'shay (but), this is Cantonese. For those of you keeping score at home, Cantonese and Mandarin are considered quite distinct from eachother. Cantonese is also considered more difficult to learn as it has twice the tonal inflections (8) as Mandarin, which has 4. It's more sing-songy than Mandarin as a result. Inflections will change the meaning of a word, making the same sound another word altogether. The populations in the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, Hong Kong, and Macau primarily speak Cantonese and it's the most common language spoken by expats all around the world.
HKWSS is a 2018 release that is rated 7.5 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 12 "30-minute" episodes. Some of them are barely more than 15 minutes sans the credits. They pack a punch for the time investment. Also Known As: Hong Kong stories, episodes are linked by characters as we drop off one protag and pick up another. Stories are also linked by deception. Nevertheless, When They Met in Taipei 1 (ep6) is sweet. Don't let down your guard, though. These aren't happy bedtime tales.
The actors are terrific. Director Nero Ng has a keen sense of irony, and he has no mercy on the weak and downtrodden. A common thread in these stories is how people get scammed because they overestimate their own importance while wanting everything to fall onto their laps with minimal effort. Not only do we need to remain wary of others, but we always need to be working on ourselves. Many of the protags in these tales aren't the most attractive, but even the beautiful people trip themselves up. Are you plain looking? Most of us are average. Don't fret: The sexiest thing in the world is confidence. The beauty that comes from within is the one with staying power, but that beauty eludes those that sit around wallowing in misery while never trying to improve. Keep working on yourself. Your efforts will never betray you.
The music is quite good and augments an amusing, almost lighthearted air. These people may be screwing up their lives, but they aren't taking the viewer down with them. Viewers that have an excess of empathy, like me (Charlie Brown always made me fight back tears), might feel slightly down or uncomfortable watching these short stories, but they are worth the time investment. Episode 12 actually ends on a hopeful note. Life will go on, so get along, open your heart, and love those around you.
QUOTES📢
When people lack analytical thinking for a long period of time,.. They obey the intelligent ones and do everything they're asked to do.
Do you know what humans are good at? Self-deception.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.5 📝7.5 🎭8 💓2 🦋1 🎨6 🎵/🔊6 🔚8.3 ▪ 🌞0 ⚡4 😅2 😭6 😱4 😯4 😖4 🤔8 💤0
Age 17+ for hard R-rated Language (F💣s), sex acts, and violence are depicted.
Rated R - restricted
Re-📺? It's not that it isn't rewatch-worthy, but I don't think I want to go through these trials again. Once is enough.
📑
Keureiji reobeu (2022)
❣ She Got the Chance ❣ To Live Like She Was Dying ❣ °7.8° °VG+° 💯%🔍
Even if you aren't a country fan, the song, Live Like You Were Dying, contains universal human truths. The singer meets a stranger. It goes alittle something like this ▫▫>
▪ He said: I was in my early forties ▫ w/ a lot of life before me ▫ When a moment came that stopped me on a dime ▫ I spent most of the next days ▫ Looking at the x-rays ▫ & talkin' 'bout sweet time ▪ I asked him: How's it hit you ▫ When you get that kind of news? ▫ Man, what'd you do?" ▪ & he said: I went skydiving ▫ I went Rocky Mountain climbing ▫ I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu ❣ & I loved deeper ❣ & I spoke sweeter ❣ & I gave forgiveness I'd been denying ▫ I was finally the husband ▫ That most of the time I wasn't ▫ & I became a friend a friend would like to have ▫ Well I, I finally read the Good Book, & I ▫ Took a good, long, hard look ▫ At what I'd do if I could do it all again... ❣ Someday I hope you get the chance ❣ To live like you were dying ❣
CL goes alittle like that as well. Our FL Shin-a, is in a similar situation.
▪ How'd it hit Shin-a ▪ When she got that kind of news? ▪ Man, what'd she do? ▪ She went social climbing ▫ She did some crazy driving ▫ She hole-punched the h3!! Out his seven favorite suits ▫ (& she said: I'm not dying this way...) ▫ She chopped up his cacti & ▫ Force-fed him fish fry ▫ & pelted onions at his head to boot ❣ But it only led to: ❣ She loved deeper ❣ & she spoke sweeter ❣ & she gave forgiveness she'd been denying...❣
Lee Shin-a works for a horrible boss. Noh Go-Jin could be described as coldly cruel but he's actually highly intelligent & hopelessly left-brained. Feelings? Nonsense. It translates to his being intolerant of incompetence. But next to him, everybody is incompetent. His genius has no equal & it's gone straight to his ego. (He's such a heartbreakerrrr - trill those R's!) Shin-a failed her teacher audition at Noh's academy. Those who don't make the cut get the "honor" of being Chairman Noh's personal secretary. It's the company's way of getting them to quit. Nobody has made it more than 3 mos. She has endured 12 months. Shin-a needs this job. She'll endure b/c VP Oh Se-Gi gives her regular doses of positive re-endorphins. When she's at her lowest from Noh's worse, VP Oh always picks her back up. He's the best.
Ep1 sets up Shin-a's horrible situation. She gets particularly bad news from the doctor. Those headaches? That is a brain tumor. She's going to die. Yes, severe stress can open the gates for cancer to take hold. She's likely dying from stress. Noh, that rat-b@$+@rd, is killing her. Shin-a decides she ain't going out alone. Just like the (rightfully) disgruntled ex-employees of Noh, she will make sure he gets what he has coming. It's HAMMER TIME! Enacting her plan leads to a crazy chain of events, & Shin-a is in the right frame of mind to step off a cliff to see if she can fly.
"Try harder to remember. You MUST remember!" Bedside at the hospital, e'erbody thinks she's pleading out of love for him, but in reality, she desperately wants Noh to remember how she stood up to him before his accident. "No way I'm dying like this." She won't be able to die in peace unless he remembers that she clobbered him & then quit. Good old amnesia is an overdone Kdrama trope. They borrow from the excellent comedy, Overboard, & Shin-a claims they were secretly engaged prior to the accident. The interesting thing about amnesia is that when people forget all of their past bad choices & the previous offenses they've suffered, they forget to be miserable. They totally forget to be @$$h0!e$. Ignorance truly is bliss. Shin-a remembers it all, though. She decides the best thing to do, as she waits for the cancer to take her, is to take him through Hell. Vengeance is HERS.
Noh, in the meantime, hasn't thought of being mean. He may not remember his "fiance", but he certainly grows used to having Shin-a around. She's going behind his back setting up expensive company dinners (you all deserve beef! Make sure to use all your vacation time before the end of the year... & start leaving on time!). It's not easy being mean, at least it's not easy being mean to someone who is always nice. & Noh is always nice, anymore. She knows the doctor expects a full recovery. When this genius (IQ 190) finds out what she's done, what will happen? In addition, Noh may be new & improved now, but his enemies don't know that. His enemies don't care. & he's made a lot of enemies.
Several characters have to show personality shifts & hidden sides. This isn't a serious show, but the acting is still quite good. Krystal (Heirs7.3, Bride of Habaek7) is excellent at putting on some antics, esp in one scene that would flop w/ most actor/writer/director combos, but they make it work. I cringed in anticipation of pain when she started ranting, but I ended up grinning (&fairly relieved). They could have done alittle bit better w/ fleshing out her character, though. What is her passion? Why did she fail the audition? How smart & capable is she? How hard has she worked to get to where she is? Getting more personal w/ her would help the audience relate to her more. She remains a tad distant from us, emotionally. That is writing & directing - Krystal is great.
Kim Jae-Wook (Her Private Life8) is Noh. HPL was a big surprise for me. The premise sounds like a low IQ show, but it's actually wonderful fun. Now that I'm getting a 2nd look at Mr. Kim, it's obvious that he is quite talented. His comedic timing is excellent. He sells his character both as an insufferably toxic narcissist & as an innocent, confused amnesiac. He can dance! In ep8 he puts on a show! Ha-Joon plays VP Oh. He's completely different as a teacher in Black Dog8. Ko Kyu-Pil (Crash Landing on You9, The King's Affection8) is a PI. He's clearly having a great time, & he's funny.
CL is VG & it narrowly misses excellent marks. Given that this is a new director/Kim Jung-Hyun & writer/Kim Bo-Gyeom I am very excited to see what they do next. I think we have some winners here. Overall, the romance is VG, but it could have been even better. This probably goes back to the fact that we don't know Shin-a as well as we should. They share a great first kiss. He lies to himself about what he does to keep her by his side. She's oblivious to what's going on in his head, as she's been keeping her head down & just moving forward.
They run into some small logical stutters. Nothing too 'crazy'. Some of the drama in the later eps is a bit ham-handed, but again, it's not too 'crazy'. The show isn't intended for anything but fun escapism, & it shouldn't be over-analyzed. The good by far overshines the substandard. They end up providing enough plausibility for ?s that arise. The director is skillful in handling the part of Baek Soo-Young, Noh's ex. In the beginning of the show she seems impossibly beautiful. As the show goes on she looks less so. Her clothes don't fit her right & the makeup & camera work are less complimentary. Woody Allen did the same thing w/ Scarlett Johansen in Match Point. Is it stretching to think their names are an English language pun? His name sounds like "No-go Shin". It's close. She's definitely decided to "go" & the doctor told her, unfortunately, that soon she'll be go-ing, but he's there, & his name says "No-Go". 'No-Go-Shin'.
CL is plenty funny, She hates him. She really hates him. She hates him so much. So why is she sad? She turns on the TV to forget him, & there's his commercial: "Make your decision NOW." He's pointing thru the screen at her! While everyone around her assumes the opposite of what is true, the overhead camera will look down at her face from a side angle & her eyes will tilt up sideways as she's lying. She'll often comment like that to the camera directly. Then he starts doing it in later eps. It's skillfully played for laughs. By mid show I became a fan of the director. The little things add up to something bigger.
CL features a horrible boss b/c that isn't exactly a rare thing. A horrible boss is almost always a person caught up in h/h own power. It's an offshoot of pride. Psychology teaches that people who do get ahead tend to presume they deserve it, which leads to them assuming that those beneath them are truly °beneath° them & deserve to be so. These things aren't mysterious. Everyone knows that power is corrupting, yet nobody ever sees their own corruption. Pride is the worst liar & we are blind to our own stuff. Practice kindness: It takes determined effort. Also featured is online gang mentality. Technology allows us each a voice & that is power. Virtual pitchforks are no different than horrible bosses. We should be slow to judge & be constructive when we criticize. CL's online lynching leads to a suicide attempt; a particular problem in Korea (highest rate in the developed world). We have too much of it in the USA, too. People will take that pain & go the other way as well, becoming abusers themselves. If you want to live w/ a free conscience, then practice kindness. It costs you 🅾.
The wrap up is excellent. They tied & trimmed all the bows. "Life can be shorter than we think it should be. If you're sorry, say you're sorry. If you're thankful, say you're thankful. Try something again. You never know." At one point Shin-a's anger abates. She reflects on life & what is most important as she is preparing for her final exit. She decides to forgive & release her rage. She realizes that all humans are merely flawed humans. In the end, crazy love made her sane again. 💘, afterall, is the answer.
QUOTE📢
I've been ignorant. I had no idea those in my life were precious. & so, I've never appreciated them at all.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.8 📝7.6 🎭7.9 💓6.7 🦋6 🌞6 🎨7.4 ⚡4 🎵/🔊7 😅7 😭3.5 😱3 😯2 😖3 🤔4.8 💤0 🔚8
Age 14+ PG-13 Language An unmarried couple is pressured to have a baby.
Re-📺? 👍
🏆
Call It Love (2023)
Goodbye Concentration Camp 🏮 Hello Glamping °8.4° °excellent° 💯%🔍
CIL is a show that shows us what happens when a stormy cloud latches on to a gloomy front and electrifies it. It brings together the manic and the depressive in nature's way of bringing balance to the force. Sim Woo-Joo hates her father, who had abandoned them (her, mom, sister/Sim Haesong, and brother/Sim Ji-Gu) for his mistress (THAT woman) years ago. Watching her is like watching the backstory of a supervillain. If she had a theme song it would be The Rolling Stones' Paint It Black. She attends dad's funeral. (in a leopard dress and red spiked heels) and lets it be known. Han Dong-Jin is a slumped pile of suffering on long legs. He exudes depression more than Joni Mitchell or Radiohead. More than Eeyore, even. His one love is camping. His company brings together vendors for outdoor living fairs and exhibitions. (He does all the work and his partner does all the golfing). He is also the son of THAT woman. Crashing the funeral wasn't enough. SWJ decides she's bringing HDJ down.
Soon, SWJ realizes she'll have to queue-up to bring HDJ down. He's down already because of his ex. The only thing he has going is his company. The crows and raccoons have rifled through most of that already. As she's implementing her plan she grows more uncomfortable with her goal. HDJ is not the bad guy. All the critters around him are. Though morose, here's a handsome, perfectly good man. He's been dropped in the dirt, but all she needs to do is brush him off alittle. To begin, all she needs to do is take his hand...
CIL is a 2023 release that is rated 90 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 16 60ish-minute episodes. The directors are Lee Gwang-Young (The Secret Life of My Secretary) and rookie Kim Ji-Yeon. The writer, Kim Ga-Eun, is another rookie. If this is what they can do right out of the gate, we can look forward to great things from them.
SWJ is played by Lee Sung-Kyung (She's marvelous in Cheese in the Trap as the borderline Baek In-Ha). SWJ let heartbreak make her hard and mean. She decided to be hateful. Sis, Haesong, put her efforts into becoming lovable. She looks to boyfriends as substitutes for her father's love. Brother, Sim Ji-Gu, is played by Jang Sung-Bum, who has a voice like an angel. He's the baby and is somewhat insulated from the pain by the women in his family. He dreams of a singing career while SWJ insists he spend all his time studying for the Civil Service exam. THAT woman is portrayed by Nam Gi-Ae. She's a force. Playing #313 guest in 2015's Oh My Ghost10 led to 25 mostly bit parts. Next, she is the ML's mother in When the Weather is Fine9 & quite a different Oma in 2020's Flower of Evil8.9. Since then she's been in 19 not-bit-parts >8/yr. I'm not the only one who thinks she's capable. HDJ is played by Kim Young-Kwang. His hands are often bleeding. He's always getting cut. His mother abandoned him when he was a kid and his GF dumped him a few years back. He's been slowly bleeding out for most of his life.
The Romance is a tranquil campsite with a warm kindling fire... And a river of lava flowing 10ft beneath the surface. The two leads are under a weight of grief. There's a China-sized wall between them. She's been out to destroy him over his mother's transgressions. He promised himself he would not be hurt, nor would he be abandoned, ever again. Will we get to see them smile freely? The audience knows her secret, and we know that the truth will come out. As we get to know all the characters more, the more wary we are of the truth being told - It is going to hurt. The more we know, the more we know it will hurt. Romance is in the eyes, more than anywhere else. In ep15 he manages to go from gloomy eyes to lovey-eyes - he does it better than my cat, and that's saying alot. My kitty has the best lovey-eyes. In ep16 we get to see some smiling eyes.
CIL is a thoughtful commentary on human relationships. The show is quiet. The viewer feels like s/he is watching the grazing heard from the quiet of the woods. Wolves are prowling while the prey are tending to their daily routine, mating up, and vying for power. The themes revolve around hurt, revenge and weakness - and the enslavement those bring - but also endurance and forgiveness, with the freedom they bring.
Revenge. 'Do you crash your ex's wedding?' He sincerely wants to know. Her: 'Yes, you get revenge by any means possible. You trip your ex if you have a chance.' Him: 'No, you'll have to live with that horrible memory and that empty feeling the rest of your life." Oprah is attributed with stating that if you're 40 and people call you "nice" there's something wrong. "Nice" is often substituted for "weak", and weakness invites aggression. She tells him this. She tells him people are trying to take him down and pick his bones because he's too easy. He's been focused on pain. Endurance. Pain. ENDURE! "I keep going back and forth." "Just deal with it," she says. Athletes know all about it, she'll tell us. So does he.
CEO Shin let wounded pride fester inside of him. He, perhaps unwittingly, let a desire for 1up-manship take over his life. He was the original malefactor. HDJ simply reacted accordingly and left his company. CEO Shin then let a desire for "revenge" take over his life. He allowed HDJ to live in his head which prevented him from moving forward freely. HDJ enslaved himself in grief. SWJ enslaved herself in rage, grief, and vengeance. CEO Shin enslaved himself in pride and vengeance - false vengeance, at that, as he had no valid complaints. "I've been living like a crazy person as if I was possessed by something. I ended up coming this far. I wanted to stop, but... I don't know what else to do with life. I'm so terribly sorry." In the end he was left with regret, which leads us into ~>
Forgiveness. CIL is satisfying and inspiring and as good as it is because it has a true and positive message. It offers solutions that we all can use. All of our protags are called upon to forgive. They aren't called on to forgive small things, either. We see how forgiveness brings release, Forgiveness doesn't mean we let go of justice or proper punishment - That is not a requirement. Forgiveness is us releasing ourselves along with the offender. It's stepping out of the cage of bitterness and hate. It is freeing ourselves, though it ain't easy. I find that trail too rocky and difficult without a lot of prayer and divine help.
Our leads are no lazy slouches and neither are the directors. The filmcraft is excellent. CIL drops tasty tidbits along the trail to keep us following along. There's connections made with good use of dialogue, camera shots, and the actors themselves. Many lines have double meanings. Juxtaposition is used cleverly. CIL is often accompanied by pensive, somewhat melancholy piano and the whole show is like a concerto of such music. It's sad, hypnotic, emotional, and oddly relaxing. What Can I Do, by Hyunji, is Spotifyable. They do some fun shadow animation as HDJ conjures up some of his favorite camping memories. The well-off people drink at a bar that looks like it's on the inside of a cob of roasting corn. "I think I'm going to cry," Haesong says happily, because she sees SWJ holding a man's hand. The camera pans to a woebegotten pharmacist... In one episode, Haesong is wearing a top that has two fabric straps hanging from her left shoulder, and her work name tag is pinned in such a way that they make a big "A" on her chest, resurrecting Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter. Haesong has dated alot of men. She is looked at, by some, as tarnished. By ep15, Jun and Haesong are unconsciously matching their clothes. Quality touches such as these turn a good feature into an excellent one. CIL is excellent.
As moody and methodical as the pace is, there's smiles to be found. "His house is big, but there's nothing in it. Just like him." HDJ's misery is reinforced to the point of humor throughout the show. "How could you 3 make so much drama every day? You guys make trouble one after another. It's almost like teamwork, " remarks Jun. SWJ isn't much of a people person. "I'll pretend being ignored is all in my head," is cheerful CEO Sun-woo's response to her non-response. 'It's good to be gathered with you all - You who trust me least in this world, but cherish me most,' Jiju quips at one point. It's all good for regulating the pressure valve and providing sufficient release.
HDJ and SWJ are seen walking alone in every episode. One beautiful irony is that his mother had been an obstacle in all of his relationships, but she ultimately brought him together with SWJ. She is the broken road that led them to eachother, and forgiveness paved the road. God bless that broken road - They don't have to hike alone ever again.
QUOTES📢
Do you know what the most loyal thing in the world is? A sense of foreboding. Animals know that an earthquake will happen and take shelter. Even animals are able to protect themselves.
If an issue can be solved with money and time then it's not a problem.
Nobody cares about loyalty anymore, so why should I? It only stabs you in the back.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.3 📝8.5 🎭8.5 💓7.7 🦋7 🌞6 🎨6 ⚡1 🎵/🔊7.8 😅3.5 😭4 😱2.5 😯4 😖2 🤔6.4 💤1 🔚8.5
Age 13+ with the following cautions: This is an adult romance that is mostly quiet and respectful and conservative. The benefits outweigh the liabilities. Not much physical contact is even depicted throughout its entirety, but we do see couples kissing in bed. A man invites a woman to spend the night. There is violence that is depicted without being fully shown as the screen goes black. The ML's mother always has a man in her life. Language: PG-13 here and there.
Rated TV-14: Parents Strongly Cautioned.
Re-📺? Very likely
🎰
Gôruden taimu (2013)
Can Two Halves Fill A Hole? °6.9° °good° 💯%🔍
GT starts with Men In Black. FBI? Mid 20th century IBM employees? Mormons? Nope. They're law students. But what kind of a lawyer can you be if you fall apart over a female stalker? Law student, Yanagisawa Mitsuo, can't handle his cloying childhood friend, Kaga Kouko. She's determined to marry him, and nothing can distract Kaga from her goals. Tada Banri becomes Mitsuo's friend. When Banri first sees Kaga he is blown away: She's gorgeous. Satou Takaya, Oka Chinami, and Linda (Banri's hometown bestie) round out the group of friends.
Kaga, our FL, comes over as imbalanced because she's chasing a guy - and she's well over the line; she's into the mental illness zone. It's uncomfortable for the men around her and for the viewer. She finally starts to understand the psychology underneath her motivations. She realizes it was all about her and going after something she wanted. She never thought about the man at all - not who he is and what he wants, at least. The odd thing about attraction is that if it's real, it's always mutual. When it's not mutual, it's usually a situation in which one person likes the idea of the other person, not that person h/herself.
"I decided I want to move on. I don't want to be persecuted by things that happened to me anymore. I want to live. I want to live my life," Banri moans. The concept of self, who we are, and what we are, is brought into question. Banri Tada suffered a traumatic fall a few years back and has had amnesia since then. He doesn't remember the person that he was prior to the accident. In fact, he sees /that/ Banri as another human being all together - a complete stranger. He feels out of place in his own body, and he knows that his family and friends miss the old version of him. It's isolating. As time goes by, the more upset and anxious his loved ones seem because he is not the old Banri - They want that °other° person, they don't want °him°. He doesn't know that Banri, and he doesn't want to lose who he is now.
Are we us without our memories? When Banri woke up from his accident he was a clean slate. Part of who we are in the present is our past mistakes, failures, and successes, along with the good and bad times. Our memories are a collection of the result of our choices, but they shouldn't control what and who we are. The past can boost us, but it can also shackle us. Even our past successes can shackle us if we get trapped in our "Glory Days". Banri gets to start over, and any of us can do that. We need to be free to be the best version of ourselves. "Free your mind," the sages, En Vogue, tell us: "The rest will follow." We see Banri's old self as a forlorn ghost feeling forgotten and left out. Ironically, Banri does to his old self what others do to his new self (just wishing this Banri would go away and the other Banri would stay) until he is finally able to shake free of the mold.
He isn't the only one that shakes free. Kokuo finally learns to let go as well. She thinks about the other person, finally, and that is also oddly freeing. Too much self-focus will only lead to anxiety and despair. Helping someone can, at times, help the helper more than the receiver. We need to always be improving, but also to forget about ourselves. It's a balancing act.
GT is 25 24-minute episodes. The art and the English dubbing are VG. The song for the closing credits is quite nice. The opening song is Japanese pink-pop. One Scooby-Doo Snack they threw in is a character named Nana, who is clearly based on the punker, Nana, from the popular anime of the same name. It's a fun shout-out. It is a pleasant series to watch, with plenty that's good, but it's also a bit bland, even though Kaga's antics generate anxiety. More than a romance, the primary appeal is hanging with a group of school buds. The episodes roll by quickly. I kept thinking that I would ditch the show, but each episode put me in the mood to watch another one the following day. I never caught binge-fever, so one-a-day was the right pace. It is not a waste of time, but there are anime that are worth your time before this one, particularly if romance is what you are looking for. For example: Toradora is an excellent romance in every way. Real Girl is a fun HS story about how a nerd, who only likes 2D girls, scores a hottie. Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun is HS romantic anime in which a young artist helps out her crush with his monthly girls manga story. Interestingly, this nerd can write about teen girls in love, but in reality he has no clue what's going on around him. Love- Chunibyo And Other Delusions - Heartthrob is one that cannot be denied. It starts out good and it keeps getting better. It's truly an excellent show with some superb romantic moments scattered in the mix. Finally, Maid Sama is a top-tier romcom, hand drawn or not. It's in the highly rewatchable category. The real currency in GT is how damaged people move past their mistakes and regrets to grow. That storyline is always golden.
QUOTES📢
Is fear of rejection a form of rejecting yourself?
You're the next to the next to the next person I like as much as Linda.
This is how time flows for everyone. Right after it's born, every moment becomes the past, and eventually has to die.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬70 📝57 🎭74 💓53 🦋49 🌞67 🎨70⚡45 🎵/🔊77 😅38 😭35 😱15 😯63 😖0 🤔57 💤35 🔚70
Age 14+ with the following cautions: The tea club throws a wild party. Some dancing in bras and a bizarre crotch sniffing incident. Those b!+che$ are brazen! There's also the usual close-ups of cleavage with a case of the jiggles.
Re-📺? This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again....
As of today, GT is available on Hidive. Some dubbed titles worthy of a visit of Hidive are:
Maid Sama 10, Made in Abyss 9 (currently the 3rd movie and S2 are not dubbed. Per Hidive: "Since MADE IN ABYSS: Journey's Dawn... and MADE IN ABYSS: Wandering Twilight... are compilation movies, you can either watch MADE IN ABYSS season 1 or just the two movies before moving on to the MADE IN ABYSS: Dawn of the Deep Soul..., the third movie is NOT optional ");
Parasyte the Maxim 8.9,
The Eminence in Shadow 8.8,
No Game No Life Zero 8.8,
RahXephon 8.6,
Akame ga Kill! 8.6,
Princess Principal 8.6,
Chihayafuru 8.5,
Girls Last Tour 8.5,
CR Chaika The Coffin Princess 8.4,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4,
Special A Class 8.2,
Food Wars 8.2,
Land Of The Lustrous 8.1,
Girls Und Panzer 8,
Land Of The Lustrous 8,
Reincarnated as a Sword 8,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU 8,
Gate 7.9,
Ao-chan Can't Study 7.8,
Beyond the Boundary 7.8,
You're Under Arrest 7.8,
Pet Shop of Horrors 7.8,
Hakkenden 7.7,
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun 7.7,
Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? 7.7,
Flowers of Evil 7.7 (not dubbed),
Farming Life in Another World 7.7,
Princess Resurrection 7.6,
Akiba Maid War 7.5,
Real Girl 7.5,
School Live 7.5,
Kokkoku 7.5,
Needless 7.5,
Senryu Girl 7.5,
D4DJ 7.5,
Iria 7.5
Kokoro Connect 7.4,
Aura Battler Dunbine 7.4,
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall 7.3,
After the Rain 7.3,
BToom! 7.3,
Ice 7.3,
Armed Girl's Machiavellism 7.1
Honorable Mention: Wasteful Days of High School Girls,
Blue Seed, Patlabor, Get Backers, Clannad, Tsurune, Tada Never Falls in Love, Kino's Journey, Lupin III.
👙
Tian Guan Ci Fu (2020)
Beauty Among Blessings In Disguise °8.8° °Outstanding° S1 episodes 1-13🔍
A newly reinstated son of Heaven's emperor has a mission on earth to clear out an evil spirit that is nabbing and killing brides. He sets out with two lesser-god/warriors. One thing leads to another and they end up in several skirmishes while meeting a variety of characters while encountering a mystery or two, to-boot.
HOB is a 2020 release that is rated 8.34 on MAL. It is 2 seasons consisting of 24 24-minute subtitled episodes, including the caboose episode: Tian Guan Cifu Special/Heaven Official's Blessing Special. This is the most popular offering of Haoliners Animation League. They are faithful to the style and feel of Japanese anime but the show also has the elegance that is strictly Chinese. The voice acting is exactly like a Chinese live-action fantasy piece, and China does some of the best fantasy in the world. I have a preference for dubbed anime because I usually like the English-speaking dubbing more than the original acting, which tends to be alittle monotone for my taste. HOB's voices are a pleasure. When spoken by professional actors, the Chinese language is lilting and melodious. It is very beautiful.
The opening credit visuals and music are arrestingly gorgeous. The shows that find me watching the opening and closing credits every time, no skipping, are mostly Chinese with a couple of Japanese animes in the mix. HOB 's artistry is wonderful. People are drawn with simplicity, but realistically, and backgrounds are artistically beautiful and detailed.
The best fantasy takes place on the road. Xie Lian is on the move for most of the show. He gets into one scrape after another along with his lesser-deity sidekicks. He picks up a stranger (Hua Cheng in disguise) around mid-show. He knows his new friend is mysterious, but he also trusts him implicitly. Together they unravel a viperish mystery and correct a longstanding wrong. The thrills just keep coming.
I'll just quote HOB Wiki on the characters and their backgrounds, as once I read this content, it became hard to leave it out: "Hua Cheng is the male lead of the novel. As one of the Four Great Calamities, Hua Cheng is known as the richest and most dangerous of the three Devastation class Demons. One learns to fear the silver butterflies and blood rains for they are the heralds of his presence. He is charismatic and intelligent, with a nonchalant attitude...
Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Xianle. He was loved by his citizens and was considered the darling of the world. He ascended to the heavens at a young age; however, due to unfortunate circumstances, was quickly banished back to the mortal realm. Years later, he ascends again-only to be banished again a few minutes after his ascension.
During the inaugural years of his divinity, his kingdom experiences upheaval and war, due in part to drought and a terrifying new disease. Going against the edicts of both the heavenly realm and of fate, Xie Lian involves himself in the affairs of the mortals who have always loved and supported him, hoping to achieve peace and relieve suffering in his kingdom. Unfortunately, his appearance in the mortal world only amplifies the conflicts between his people, and their desperation leads to the dramatic and abrupt downfall of Xianle, as well as the downfall of Xie Lian. The people destroy his temples, statues, and shrines, abandoning him as their most respected religious figure and earning him the reputation of a God of Misfortune... Now known as a peculiar, peripatetic scrap-collector with perennially bad luck, Xie Lian is ridiculed or ignored by most other heavenly officials. Nevertheless, he retains his good-hearted nature and only wishes to fulfill his duties as a god.
Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the heavens for the third time as the laughing stock among all three realms. On his first task as a god thrice ascended, he meets a mysterious ghost who rules the ghosts and terrifies the heavens, yet, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this ghost king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time... By the time of his third ascension, Xie Lian is a kind and gentle person... He never holds his status above others and treats people equally, disregarding status as a sign of one's worth. He is a compassionate man who's willing to offer his help, being indifferent towards opinions of others. Although he does not care for reputation, he still finds himself often caught in situations that make him unsure whether to laugh or cry, usually when faced with moments that cause him embarrassment or feeling awkward..."
Along with kindness, especially to the powerless, and the courage to do right, "Shatter all taboos." is the Theme. There is an understated romance building between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. They actually do a mock wedding walk in the early episodes, while on a mission, though it feels real when the show looks back at the ritual later. Love does not come to fruition in S1, but there is a sadness and longing that appears to run deeply in Hua Cheng, as if he's been taken with these feelings for centuries, while Xie Lian seems to have no memory of Hua Cheng. It's rare for China to feature a same-sex romance. They usually wipe it from the story, like they did in The Untamed, so they are loosening up. China had a 1 child per household rule for an extended period of time towards the latter 20th. It resulted in millions of forced abortions and a shortage of women as girls were routinely aborted or adopted out to the West. One has to wonder if a shortage of women is playing a hand in the changes we see in such a traditionally conservative censorship-prone government. "If you can't find a reason to live, then take me as your reason to live. If you can't find the meaning of living, then take me as the meaning of your life." Xie Lian chuckles as he recalls what he told somebody long ago. It's obvious to the viewer that he must have said it to Hua Cheng, who looks soulfully sad that Xie Lian has forgotten so much. Right now, S2 is not available without a Crunchyroll subscription. I will be opting for that before too long and plan to see what they get into in S2. HOB is truly otherworldly.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣9 📝8 🎭8.5 💓6 🦋6 🌞5 🎨9.4 ⚡6 🎵/🔊8 😅3.5 😭6 😱5 😯4 😖4.5 🤔5 💤0 🔚?
Age 13+ Language: PG-13, scares, violence, blood and gore
Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? Yes
❣
Yedinci Kogustaki Mucize (2019)
Getting the Memo °9.5° °divine° 💯%🔍
"Your father is the same age as you." That's how grandma explains it to Ova (Nisa Sofiya Aksongur, who delivers a superb performance). "Whatever they say, whatever they order, whatever punishment they give, your father is a good man. Remember that." Ova is a darling girl who loves the story of Heidi, about a young girl who lives in the mountains with her grandparents. She lives with her grandmother and her father, Memo, who is mentally challenged. Her mother became an angel long ago.
MiC#7 is a 2020 132-minute release that is rated 85 on RT & 8.2 on IMDB. It is based on the 2013 Korean movie of the same name. The director is Mehmet Ada Ozteki and Ozge Efendioglu did the screenplay. Every element exudes competence, if not excellence. Sound, acting, Directing, editing, scenery, costume, cinematography... MiC#7 is marvelous all-around. If you haven't checked out Korean features, particularly their shows which are typically mini-series with 10 - 20 episodes, you are missing some of the best entertainment in the world today. Per Wiki, "The movie is based on the real-life story of a man who was tortured and pleaded guilty under duress to the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl on September 27, 1972 in Chuncheon before being finally exonerated in November 2008." That's the Kdrama. For this adaptation, Turkey took it and made it their own. Per Wiki, "The film was the most watched film in Turkish theaters in 2019, with more than 5.3 million admissions. It also gained a large worldwide audience due to its release on Netflix, especially in France and Latin America, where it topped the charts."
The opening scenes of the film will set up how Memo (Aras Bulut Iynemli, who is outstanding) is set up for the murder of a young girl, who in reality was climbing on rocks and fell to her death. Memo scooped her out of the water and attempted to revive her, but he didn't know what to do, only having the mental capacity of a child himself. This girl is no ordinary girl. Her father is the powerful Lt Colonel Aydin, played by Yurdaer Okur. "He's a god, as far as you're concerned," the inmates are told). In an attempt to ease his own pain, he makes a snap judgment about Memo's guilt and has him arrested. The police cruelly beat a confession out of Memo. This is not the Turkish prison from Midnight Express or Locked Up Abroad, but it's still a rough place. In prison Memo nearly dies as his cell mates, thinking he's a child-killer, break multiple bones and land him in the hospital. Lt Colonel Aydin steps in as he insists Memo live until he can be publicly executed. When Memo returns to the group cell, the others cannot help but notice his deficiencies. Memo has no deficiency of kindness, though. He is gentle to animals, insects, and others alike.
Ova doesn't give up on her father so easily. She explores the area and finds a man who witnessed the entire incident. When she brings her Nana back to meet him, however, he is gone. Her teacher makes a deal: Come to school every day and I will take you to visit your dad in prison. When the day comes, they are turned away at the door. Memo will not be permitted visitors. This doesn't sit well with Memo's cellies. They have experienced growing unease as they continue to watch Memo. They know something isn't adding up here. "He shouldn't be executed. He has a brain the size of a pea." "The health board cleared him..." "He should be able to see his daughter before he dies, regardless."
Memo will save the life of one of his cellmates. This cellie has connections with a gang who can get things done. They bring Ova into the prison to see her dad. Humorously, this cellie's wife thinks he had a daughter out of wedlock (She has your eyes! She's so cute...Shame on you!). They eventually get that straightened out. The prison visit is a spellbinding scene. The inmates are quite aware that an angel is in their midst. Precocious Ova wants her daddy home now. They explain he's sick. All of them are sick. Her daddy can come home when he's well. Ova points out that they don't look sick. She asks each one what his illness is as she studies them, eye-to-eye, and they scramble for an acceptable answer. The whole cell hears Ova tell her daddy about the witness who can clear his name. Now, they have a new mission. They know Memo is innocent.
The law can be thugs and sometimes thugs can be saints. Abuse of power can be overt and also more subtle. Lt Colonel Aydin has set his sights on Memo to pay for the grief he feels over losing his daughter. He doesn't care about the truth while he is nursing his own wounds, and at the same time, he is blind to others' pain. He is piling burdens on himself. At the same time, the criminals come out of their time with Memo as better men. They are releasing burdens. Powered people rarely get the Memo. They only add to their burdens. Better to release them here than in the afterlife. To people of normal intelligence, every special needs person is powerless. Don't let power turn you into an abuser. There's an interesting scene in which Ova and Nana talk about death. Nana assures her they will be together until Ova is grown. Adults shouldn't lie to kids. No answer is better than a lie. Lies that we tell for our own comfort are never right. We can't reveal too much of the ugliness of the world to kids too soon, either. Nevertheless, part of being a responsible parent is navigating those rocks safely. Try to figure out how to tell the truth to the point that it is age-appropriate and deflect the rest for later. Don't wait until later to watch MiC#7, though. This is not one that should escape your attention.
QUOTE📢
Love is not to kill yourself for someone but to live no matter what.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣9 📝9.5 🎭9 🌞7 🎨8 ⚡4.7 🎵/🔊8.3 😅3.8 😭5.9 😱4 😯4 😖4 🤔8 💤0 🔚10
Poli-wagging
Age 14+ with the following cautions: R-rated language w/ F💣s; Murder, violence and blood. The positive message triumphs over the world's ugliness.
Rated TV-14: Parents Strongly Cautioned.
Re-📺? 🔛
{}¿^
Mucize (2015)
Love Teaches ❣ Love Builds ❣ Love Heals °8.6° °Excellent° 💯%🔍
A teacher (Mahir, played by Talat Bulut) is assigned to a remote Turkish village. As the film opens, we'll see that this assignment is not easy for Mahir. His wife is fit to be tied. She isn't going with him. Neither are his daughters. So he hops on the train, the bus, and then the dirt road by foot. The roads don't go to his new place of employment. He must cross no less than two mountains to complete the journey. All in a 3-piece suit. The year is 1961. This is based on a true story.
After the villagers lower their guns and accept Mahir (on a provisional basis) one of the first customs he experiences is a marriage. 'Pick a pretty girl with a nice shape! Oh, and the teeth! She has to have good teeth, mom!' A man urges his mother to select a wife that he will find attractive as mom heads out with the village women to collect and bring back his bride. When the women return, the bride is wearing a veil. The groom won't lift the veil until the couple retreats to their private chamber after the ceremony. I'll simply add that while mom may disappoint, the director does not.
Before too long, we meet the bandits. There's no school in the town, which Mahir finds unacceptable. (Teach the kids in a barn!? Children are NOT animals!). He takes a couple village leaders on the long journey to the closest government office only to learn that there's been a military coup. It's suggested that he use the excuse of no-school-building to just go home. Home he goes... where he sits and thinks. He stares at a picture of his beloved daughters. In the morning, now in just a 2-piece suit, he finds the village leaders still waiting for the bus. Mahir offers a deal: He will teach if they allow girls to attend school - something they weren't willing to do a day earlier. Offer accepted.
In a precious scene, Teach gets his wife to send money. He's apparently a tad mercurial. No matter, his wife's family can afford it. That $ is the construction fund - He will have his school. The whole village pitches in. Who does the best cement work? The bandits. Before long, the kids are piling in.
This village is so old-fashioned that they have a "village idiot". Aziz is non-verbal, has a halting gait on crooked legs, and his left arm appears shriveled and frozen. Teach shows compassion and insists the kids do as well. He takes extra time with Aziz, who is a grown man, but is fascinated with the school. It is endearing. Halfway through the film the elders tell Mahir: If you want to write a letter, write it now. The snow is about to begin. The snow turns the village into a prison for 8 months. Regardless of the warnings, Mahir is thrilled to see snow for the first time. It never snows where he lives.
TM is a 2015 136-minute release that was written and directed by Mahsun Kirmizigül. He also composed for and produced the movie. He plays the part of Bozat - he's a handsome dude. The beauty of watching entertainment from around the wide-world is for the proof that people are the same everywhere. Cultures are different. Ethnicities are unique in the same way that families are, because an ethnicity is merely a large family. People love, hate, anguish and laugh the world round. Even stereotypical characters such as villains, weasels and saints have similarities in entertainment, globally. What's heartwarming in Turkey is also heartwarming in New Jersey.
Zazacki, the Kurdish village, is the main character. The people in this village have teeth that are difficult to look at. It may be entirely accurate, but the director plays it for laughs. There's too much focus on er'body's grills for it to be a coincidence. The director evokes situational humor well. We hear things like: "The government never makes mistakes. How could this happen?" Clearly they haven't been to the DMV. The sets, cinematography and scenery, on the other hand, are gorgeous.
Mert Turak plays the disabled man, Aziz. His acting is superb. There is no central star in this film, but Aziz is the fulcrum. The character, Aziz, causes people to reveal their character. Erol Demiroz plays the village chief and Aziz's father. He looks like a burly but adorable walrus. He is excellent.
Kindness is the main theme of the film, as shown in the following excerpts: "Some people have eyes in their hearts. They see the world through those eyes. They see everything through those eyes. May God always guide you all towards kind-hearted people." "My son is handicapped." "It's Okay as long as his heart is not." It is most challenging, for most, to be kind to Aziz, because he is severely handicapped. His behavior is odd. He, in fact, has muscular dystrophy, something of which the villagers know nothing. We should be kind because we ultimately understand very little of what other people are going through. Anyone mocking Aziz is just revealing h/h own ignorance.
This film is also about charity of spirit, hope, and the healing power of love. It's about community. Marriages are arranged in Zazacki. There is no going against the flow. The rigid structure is comfortable enough for most, though it's obvious that anyone who cannot fit in must leave, one way or another. Such a structure is inconceivable to us in the West, but hold off from feeling too superior. Our family court dockets show that we have plenty to work on ourselves. One thing people will always struggle with is balance. Too much structure is oppression, but too much freedom is chaos. Living under either system without balance brings misery. I will always be thankful that my parents didn't get to choose my mate. They wouldn't have done well; it would have ended badly. I would always choose freedom over oppression, but freedom doesn't work without morality. Just like a power imbalance, a decline in morality leads to a society where cheating, stealing, corruption, lying, and cruelty are rampant. This gives way to hate, anger, and bitterness. Sound familiar? James Madison famously said: "If Men were angels, no government would be necessary." If we cannot police ourselves, then an oppressive regime will end up doing it for us. These things are cyclical. Be kind, decent, and patient. Our choices matter; even the little ones.
Seven years later, the road to the village has been completed. Roads bring visitors. Visitors touch the heart. Watch until the end and your heart will be lifted.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.5 📝8.2 🎭9 💓6 🦋3 🌞6 🎨8.5 ⚡4 🎵/🔊6.5 😅3 😭5.5 😱2 😯4 😖2 🤔7 💤0 🔚10
Poli-wagging
Age 14+ with the following cautions: Language: he!!, @$$; A man asks his mother to pick out a wife with big boobs and a nice butt, among other things. This is all played for comedy, and it's amusing. They ask a newly married man if he could "find the hole". Nudity - a man's bare buttocks. He's special needs and he got away from his mom while she was trying to bathe him. All the above are thinly scattered and enhance realism. The positive message of the film is what shines through.
Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.
Re-📺? ☑
👨🎓
Stories by Rabindranath Tagore (2015)
🍀The Fully Faceted Female🔆 °Outstanding° 💯%🔍
SBRT is the works of Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore, committed to the screen. As one would expect, the writing is beautiful - Perhaps transcendent. It is a 2015 release consisting of 26 45-minute episodes. Stories take up 1, 2, or 3 eps. Set in 1920's Bengal, the tales rub up on eachother with the next one often starting at the end of the previous episode. It got me hoping that maybe I'll see these people again in the latter episodes, but my hopes remain unfulfilled.
I'm a few years into an Asian programming addiction. All the women are beautiful, but Indian women seem to be the hottest. These actresses look like they have plenty of African, Asian, and Caucasian in them, so that's why. Mixing up the gene pool tends to make the most beautiful humans. As for the men, Chinese dramas feature some top-tier male leads, but on looks alone, Korea edges out the rest of Asia... The screen is a visual medium, afterall😅... but I digress...
Back at SBRT, there's abuse of power (men vs women, British vs "dark-skinned" older vs younger, etc) and more adultery than romance. Not all the romances work out as nearly every story is ironic. We only get a couple of happy endings. Yet, probably due to the artistry, the effect is elevating. The protags are kept at a distance, emotionally. We are watching them more than identifying with them, which makes their travails less painful for the viewer. We see what they are experiencing, but we don't feel like we're living it ourselves. Episode 1 features an educated woman with independent thoughts at a time when women's literacy was considered a vice. It sets the tone for the rest of the show as every episode is centered around a woman. The acting is wonderful. In ep9, actress Amrita Puri must hold back laughter. She's tremendous.
Episode 17 begins with the following commentary: ''Up until now in our journey with Tagore, our effort is to make you acquainted with the various characters of Gurudev, especially with his female characters at a time when they were struggling for their identity and place in society, when in Western literature the role of women was getting defined. At that time, the way Tagore understood the mind and emotions of women in his work, no other creative writer of his age could live up to his mark in their writings. Now look into the story of {episode 1's Binodini}. Being a widow, she does not suppress her physical, mental and sexual desires. When the husband of Giribala of Maanbhanjan leaves her because of falling in love with famous theater actress, Labang Latika, instead of crying over her bad luck, she establishes herself in the world of theater at the top most position, in place of Latika, and takes her revenge. In Sampati's Abodh, Mrinmayi does not understand... why do all changes come in life for women after marriage, and the life of men remains the same? Is marriage really necessary? The silent revolt of Shasti's Chandra. The presentation of Charulata'a attraction toward her brother-in-law, all these were revolutionary in themselves..."
The first story features people carried away by wanting the wrong things and falling prey to a fair amount or irony. A mother finds a woman who will be the perfect wife, but her son refuses to marry her, and when mom offers her to the family ward, he refuses as well. Both of these men will later fall for this woman and their lives are forever altered by her. In the second vignette, a family picks up a runaway while on the road. They bring him back home and decide, over time, but he's the perfect husband for their bellicose daughter. She's fallen in love with him, but the only way she shows it is through cantankerous confrontation. The Runaway is what he is because he never stays in one place for too long. Eventually he'll disappear. Next, a husband falls in love with an actress and leaves his wife for her. While the wife is investigating the affair she falls in love with the stage. After the husband leaves, she takes the actress's place. Then there's a detective who is tired of rounding up miscreants. None of them are intelligent. None of them are criminals. He would like to face off against a true criminal mastermind one day. Watch out! Criminals steal. A criminal might steal something from you. We will meet a fruit seller who is a better friend to a couple's daughter then the husband they select for her. One of the main themes is: Nobody can have it all.
"When a woman loses her self-respect, she finds all injustice and insults meted to her as correct. That's why women are always apprehensive in expressing their pain and sorrow. Then, everything that is happening is fine." Thus the nature of physical and emotional abuse is analyzed. None of these early studies in irony are happy; in the middle of the show, the viewer gets a break and the sun pokes through.
SBRT is a color extravaganza. 🔰The colors gold/yellow and green are everywhere. Green represents a new beginning, as well as the harvest and happiness, while yellow stands for knowledge and learning, and gold stands for prosperity. Crepuscular golden light bathes every scene so that it always looks like twilight with sepia overtones. The women's saris are trimmed with laced and ruffled remnants of Victoriana. The music is exquisite and serves to build subtle tension. Many episodes have strong sexual undertones without being overtly sexual. There's a sleepy, almost dreamish quality.
Tagore lived from 1861-1941. For the time that he wrote, he was °progressive°. India was not independent during Tagore's life. It was still under British rule, in fact, Tagore's younger years were spent under Victorian colonialism. In a court scene, the judge is wearing one of those silly white wigs despite the sweltering heat. Tagore has no less than 104 writing credits on IMDB. That's prolific. Most of them are not available for steaming. I will be keeping watch for them to show up as I'm now a fan of his work.
QUOTE📢
Wishing for something is futile. You have to deserve it.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. ~Albert Einstein~
〰🖍 IMHO
📣9 📝9 🎭8.5 💓3 🦋6 🌞3 🎨 9⚡3 🎵/🔊8 😅3 😭6 😱3.6 😯4 😖2 🤔7 💤0 🔚8
As a side note, perhaps some readers were unaware that Calcutta is no more. The proper English spelling is now Kolkata, and it's pronounced "Coal-cot'-ah". Similarly, Bombay is now Mumbai. Just like Russia scrapped the names Stalingrad and Leningrad for Volgograd and St. Petersburg, India took back a part of their culture that had been strong-armed from them.
Age 14+
Adult situations, scares and violence
Re-📺? Absolutely
👩🎓👨⚕️
The Giver (2014)
From Hubris to Hue 💝 Take it Back °6.5° °good° 💯%🔍
"After the ruin, we started over, creating a new society, one of true equality. Rules were the building blocks of that equality:
Use precise language.
Wear your assigned clothing.
Take your morning medication.
Obey the curfew.
Never lie."
All memories of the past were erased. This society is of and for the Newchildren.
Jonas is about to graduate. As the film opens in black-and-white, he knows that tomorrow he will be assigned his vocation. Jonas doesn't want to be different. Who would? But he knows he's different, in a world where differences aren't allowed. There is no popularity, no fame, no losers and winners. The elders eliminated all of that and in doing so, they eliminated conflict. "Fear, pain, envy, hate... they weren't words so much as sounds. Their Echoes were gone to the other side of history." But Jonas... Jonas has begun to see color. He's... different.
This is a 2014 97-minute release that is rated 35/55 on RT & 6.4 on IMDB. Director, Phillip Noyce, has 60 credited works as a director with his high water mark being The Dismissal from all the way back in 1983. TG is based on the book by Lois Lowrey. Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide wrote the screenplay. Mr. Weide has several highly rated biographies and documentaries. As for the the rest of his work and the other two, if one looks at their film resumes, TG is representative of their body of work; fair to middling. It's understandable that the film has a rating under 6, but many things about the film tug at me. I think it is worth seeing once and am now interested in the book. I initially rated it a 7, but it doesn't quite rise to that level. TG fails to distinguish itself from any number of films with similar themes. Ironically, for a movie about shaking off oppression to find one's feelings again, this film does not evoke much emotion! It is largely forgettable as it wasn't crafted for thrills though it seems like it should have been. The tension, particularly, should have been continually heightened to a climax, so the director is the one that floundered. The good does outweigh the bad, though, especially the writing, which is quite good; there's plenty to think on.
Jeff Bridges is The Giver. He is the Keeper of Memory and when he passes memory to the nextgen, he is the Giver of Memory. Mr. Bridges is an institution - He's the Big Lebowski, for goodness sake. I am not 100% happy with his performance. His voice is too low and gravely, to the point of distraction. There's something missing, though his acting is mostly good. TG is a person that has experienced deep pain and isolation, and Bridges does convey that along with having moments that are mesmerizing. Meryl Streep delivers a sound performance as Chief Elder. She is not afraid to look horrible, and horrible she looks with bangs and straight long hair. Brenton Thwaites is Jonas and he does a good job. Alexander Skarsgård is excellent as Father. Katie Holmes is Mother: "The elders are never wrong," she assures Jonas, as she's the perfect stern regimentarian. Taylor Swift has a brief but important part as Rosemary, and she's good. Nothing lacking.
In the graduation ceremony, Jonas is skipped over for an assignment. He has to stand there, scared and befuddled until the end, at which time all are informed that Jonas will be the receiver of memory. His training will be painful.
His job has 5 new rules.
Report directly to the receiver of memory for training and then return immediately to your dwelling.
From this moment, you are exempt from all rules governing rudeness. You may ask any questions
Aside from your daily injection, you may not receive other medicines, especially those for pain.
You may not discuss your training with anyone. Ever.
You may lie.
On his first day he learns that the world existed generations and millenia back from their present society. All memory of the past was wiped, but for one human, the Keeper & Giver of Memory, whose job it is to provide wisdom and guidance for the elders. The Giver will transmit all of his memories of the past to Jonas. "There's no way for me to prepare you for what I'm about to do. If this proves too much for you, please tell me immediately," and TG grabs ahold of Jonas's forearms. Jonas starts having visions. The first is of a sled and snow. "Why don't we have snow?," Jonas asks TG. 'Snow is cold. Crops can't grow in the cold. It leads to food shortages and starvation. We have climate controls so that the cops can always grow,' TG explains.
In his sessions with TG Jonas starts to see more colors, more often. "My first was yellow," says TG. Slowly, gradually, the film takes on hue. Then Jonas experiences music for the 1st time. How can this all be wrong? Why do the elders keep these wonders from everyone? Jonas cannot help but wonder. In the beginning he's learning about the cultures, families, celebrations, animals (which have all gone extinct), births - natural ones, not labrat Newchildren - and life as it existed before the Newchildren. Then the day comes, as it must. Jonas must learn about death and tremendous cruelty. The first lesson is "merely" an elephant being shot for its ivory. Jonas couldn't sleep that night. Next he learns about war and murder. Finally, he learns that the elders haven't eliminated murder at all, they just relabled it.
Knowing what something is, is not the same as knowing how something feels. "Feelings are just fleeting. On the surface. But emotions... they're very deep. Primal. They linger." The daily medication? - Those injections? They take away emotions - AND feelings. Jonas now sees and feels how his society is built on lies. He has to decide what, if anything, he will do about it. He has been skipping his injections.
Those Pesky Emotions: The Giver and the Elder argue it out at the end:
"If you can't feel... then what's the point?" {Indeed}
"You've seen Children starve. You've seen people stand on eachother's necks, just for the view. {Strep delivers that line like a master}. You know what it feels like when men blow eachother up... over a simple line in the sand. And you and Jonas want to bring all that back..."
"If you could only see the possibility of love... with love comes faith. With it comes hope."
"Love is just a passion that can turn. It turns into °contempt° and °murder°."
"We could do better. We could choose better."
"Humans are °weak°. People are selfish. When people have the freedom to choose, they choose °wrong°. Every single time."
Human existence involves constant tension because people know what is right, but it's never the easy thing to do. It gets easier with practice - if we practice. Humans, tragically, are born creatures of self-interest that, even more tragically, don't understand that it's in our best interest to give and to help others. People that have strong families and the support of loved ones are the happiest and most satisfied, while primarily pursuing selfish goals drives people to trample on others and leave misery in their wake. The more people pursue self-interest, the more rules, law, and government control society requires. Freedom diminishes and misery grows. Self-interest and political overlords were never the answer. TG was right: "If you could only see the possibility of love... with love comes faith. With it comes hope." Love is the answer. Jonas gives it all to take it all back.
QUOTE📢
Faith is seeing beyond. Something felt, but not seen.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣5.7 📝7.8 🎭7.5 💓6 🦋5 🌞3.5 🎨6 ⚡5 🎵/🔊6 😅1 😭4.5 😱4.5 😯3.5 😖2 🤔7 💤0 🔚7.5
Poli-wagging
Age 12+
Scary elements, death, killing children
Rated
TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? It's possible
▫
Cinderellawa Ne Myungui Gisa (2016)
👡Eun Ha-Won & Those Shoes Kickstart A Family Royale °good tween show° 💯%🔍
Cinderella and the Four Knights
is a show that I watched early on in my Asian programming addiction (a gripping addiction that has taken me quite by surprise). I wasn't happy with it at the time, but I can see now, after watching dozens more shows, that it is geared towards a younger audience. There are better shows out there, but CAT4K is a perfectly acceptable way for tweens and teens to spend some downtime.
Eun Ha-Won is an outstanding role model. She is cheated by her stepmother, so no school. She is hustling jobs to save up and make something of her life. She meets Kang Heoyon-min, who rents her for the evening to pose as his date. H3 has his reasons. One thing leads to another and soon she's working and residing in the Kang household which consists of grandpa (He's loaded), 3 grandsons (They are like princes), and a collection of staff, including secretary Lee. This family is in a rut, but EHW will soon shake things up so much it will never be the same again.
The plot is cute and simple. Most problems are wrapped up in a tidy package relatively effortlessly. The romance is sweet. The acting is VG, and the art design and sets are good. They had the elements for a better show, which is why it's so popular, but they skated in the second half of the show and the final couple episodes were downright bad.
They also just hadda trot out an overused Kdrama trope: WKEWY, or, We Knew Eachother When (We Were) Young (The "K" is silent; it's pronounced "Whey," which is what "WHY??" sounds like in Korean. It's MY word. I can do that😜). What a worn-out, 15th-hand, dried out plot point in which a couple, after connecting when they were kids, end up falling in love after years of separation. It's a tie in to a couple being "fated", but is that important enough to wedge it in and toss out originality? Along with the word "cringey," let's put WKEWY to sleep for a hundred years. When WKEWY makes it into a show for no apparent reason, we must ask WHY?? Would they do that?! Kids Show or not, there's more eye-rollers than Knights in CAT4K.
It is still good enough. They deal with the death of a childhood friend and a character that is riddled with guilt. It is a good opportunity to discuss these topics with your child, but it may be too much for some kids, so decide accordingly.
You May Like:
For the 10-14 age group, Part Time Idol, Strongest Delivery Man, D4DJ, The Miracle, Spark, Bodacious Space Pirates, Belle, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, One Piece, The Dragon Prince, Avatar The Last Airbender & Trollhunters are all good to excellent.
👐
Iria: Zeiram the Animation (1994)
🌠Beaded Redhead Directs Her Spacecraft, Baster & Temper °7.5° °VG° 💯%🔍
This 1994 animation has a retro sound and look - anime's structure, sound, and feel changed very little in the entirety of century-20. It is a prequel to the live-action film Zeiram. Just 6 short episodes, it's worth watching this b@d@$$-in-the-making for even the casual anime fan.
Iria
is wrapping up her bounty hunter apprenticeship. She's out on a mission with her brother, Gren, when things go horribly wrong. Gren and his partners went after their target, Zeiram, who was surprisingly impervious to their weaponry. Now Gren is missing and presumed dead, though Iria is determined to find him. Gren's partners, Fujikuro and Bob will help her, though a grumbling Fujikuro sometimes claims that he won't. Post Zeiram mission, Bob is reduced to a consciousness existing on a computer, which was the only way he could survive the mission. They want to find Gren, and they want to kill Zeiram - if he can be killed.
Iria has a Cowboy-Bebop-Vibe without the sexual content and the humor. It predates Cowboy Bebop by at least 4 years and seems to have influenced CB. Ed, from CB and Kei, from Iria, are particularly similar. Kei is not unlike Iria, herself. I suspect a cloning program to keep gingers in space. Most of Iria takes place on a planet (Myce) with a landscape very much like Tatooine from Star Wars. The SW impact has left its residue, sans the Jedi... or the cuteness - Iria is edgy. Iria, herself, is a cool, brave, talented, and bold lil' sis with a proceed-with-caution beaded hairdo - It's awesome. Iria is not a feel-good show, but it is good ol' Sci-fi. It is smart and direct, like Iria herself.
As of today, Iria is available on Hidive. Some dubbed titles worthy of a visit of Hidive are:
Maid Sama 10, Made in Abyss 9 (currently the 3rd movie and S2 are not dubbed. Per Hidive: "Since MADE IN ABYSS: Journey's Dawn... and MADE IN ABYSS: Wandering Twilight... are compilation movies, you can either watch MADE IN ABYSS season 1 or just the two movies before moving on to the MADE IN ABYSS: Dawn of the Deep Soul..., the third movie is NOT optional ");
Parasyte the Maxim 8.9,
The Eminence in Shadow 8.8,
No Game No Life Zero 8.8,
RahXephon 8.6,
Akame ga Kill! 8.6,
Princess Principal 8.6,
Chihayafuru 8.5,
Girls Last Tour 8.5,
CR Chaika The Coffin Princess 8.4,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4,
Special A Class 8.2,
Food Wars 8.2,
Land Of The Lustrous 8.1,
Girls Und Panzer 8,
Land Of The Lustrous 8,
Reincarnated as a Sword 8,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU 8,
Gate 7.9,
Ao-chan Can't Study 7.8,
Beyond the Boundary 7.8,
You're Under Arrest 7.8,
Pet Shop of Horrors 7.8,
Hakkenden 7.7,
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun 7.7,
Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? 7.7,
Flowers of Evil 7.7 (not dubbed),
Farming Life in Another World 7.7,
Princess Resurrection 7.6,
Akiba Maid War 7.5,
Real Girl 7.5,
School Live 7.5,
Kokkoku 7.5,
Needless 7.5,
Senryu Girl 7.5,
D4DJ 7.5,
Iria 7.5
Kokoro Connect 7.4,
Aura Battler Dunbine 7.4,
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall 7.3,
After the Rain 7.3,
BToom! 7.3,
Ice 7.3,
Armed Girl's Machiavellism 7.1
Honorable Mention: Wasteful Days of High School Girls,
Blue Seed, Patlabor, Get Backers, Clannad, Tsurune, Tada Never Falls in Love, Kino's Journey, Lupin III.
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬7.5 📝7.5 🎭7.5 🌞5 🎨7⚡7 🎵 7.5 😅3 🤔6 🔚8.3
Age 13+ feeling up breasts, underwear joke - mild; Hot shower scene, we see a taught backside and the side-boob. Iria has a rocking hard bod with full udders.
Re-📺? Possibly
🙇🏽
Bap Jal Sajuneun Yeppeun Nuna (2018)
A Fluttery Slow Dance Around Pumpkin Patch Parenting ☂ Good Girl Disease & Jung Hae-in's Superp💥wer °8.6° °Outstanding° 💯%🔍
Here's to breaking taboos; it's harder than you'd think.
SITR is all prancing in puddles & laughing for the 1st few eps. Enjoy it. Lightening, thunder & pain are in the forecast. This duo is going against the norm, & mom is not merely the norm, she's a veritable Joseon. HER daughter (Son Ye-Jin, from Crash Landing on You, is Yoon Jin-a/YJA) will marry a 🔝 prospect from a MO💲T respectable family. He (Jung Hae-In, from While You Were Sleeping, is Seo Joon-Hee/SJH) is all abt breaking taboos. He means dating his noona. His declaration is loaded, as taboos are being hacked to pieces & falling all around YJA. She can't make a move w/o stepping on something.
SITR is aka Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food - A Noona is an older sister by blood or close relationship. In Asia, age is status. It's a big deal, but this isn't a May/Dec tryst; it's more of a June/July one. The early eps cover the intros & how they fall in love. The rest are the fallout between them & everyone they know. Especially her mother. Then it's the fallout between the 2 of them from the fallout. The 1st part of the show is wonderfully warm fuzzy-fun, & the 2nd part is soul-crushing. My main complaint: How dare they give us a 30-second wrap-up & leave so many things in the wind⁉ Are we meant to infer everything? I don't want to! I felt absolutely robbed at the end. They need a follow-up movie to complete this story.
YJA & her brother, Seung-ho, grew up friends w/ the Seos, SJH & his older sister, Kyung-seon/SKS (Jang So-yeon, who is excellent). When the Seos are orphaned, the Yoons quasi "adopt" them, so they're practically part of the family. SJH moves to the States for work. In ep1 he's back. YJA has been rising up the ranks of the coffee shop chain that employs her, while her friend, SKS, manages one of the chain's stores.
Hollywood has truly forgotten how to do romance. They traded it in for cheap titillation long ago. In SITR they percolate slowly. He's probably had a thing for her for yrs, but she's just realizing he's a man. She has to get beyond seeing him as that little boy. Hand holding took until ep3's close. The buildup is beautiful. Masterful. They long to touch & alternate posing hands where the other might take notice. He makes a few halting & failed attempts to put his arm around her. They don't just strip off their clothes & jump in the sack: That's anti-romance; it's just lust. There's a difference between lust & wanting to do it w/ somebody w/ whom one is deeply & emotionally connected. One robs you & one nourishes you. He says: "I'll never let you go. It took ages to hold your hand." People! LADIES! Is it worth the wait? It's up to you to decide, but you won't know unless you've tried holding back until the emotional commitment is there.
Next, they're running around hiding like kids. She's sneaking out at night & stuffing her bed to make it look like she's still there. It's cute. They got to know each other as kids. It's all in the family, so acting like kids could almost be expected. She has a taste of the childhood she was denied. It's also portentous. She is still afraid of her mother. She is not free.
That drops us off at the show's themes. Foremost is the toXic mother. She thinks parenting is about her. The 1st time we meet Oma, she's soaking YJA in acrimony. Mom's friends brag about their kids' friends & spouses, while her own daughter hasn't given /her/ anything to brag on. "All your friends are married & look at you. What's wrong w/ you?" "Maybe their mothers were nicer to them," is YJA's acerbic response. The acid leaks out more often as the show goes on. As long as the dude is rich, Oma doesn't care what happens to her daughter. In SITR, marrying a CEO is NOT the happy ending; SITR features anti-hero SJH.
Stand By Your Man repeats In the background. Everybody sees him as the kid-brother's-kid-friend. She grows to respect him as a man, but she must stand before she can stand-by-her-man. I haven't unlocked why that man, Jung Hae-In, is SO delish. No doubt he's handsome, but not the most. It's not like we can smell pheromones through the 📺. Can we? It seems that his superpower is shooting pheromones over the TV waves. That's a cool superpower. He's not even my type. All I can do is smh. The 1st words he says are: 'while you were sleeping'. That's just adorable.
Writer Kim Eun also has One Spring Night to her credit. Ahn Pan Seok directed both. These two incorporate a complexity of symbolism & insight into their work. All that rain... Is it the tears she never let herself cry? The rain is crying for them. Crying for the upbringing she's suffered & for the Seos who were orphaned. Do we love her? No. She's not honest, she soaks up the love but doesn't return it, & she has a big selfish streak. She's on her way to adapting Oma's values, b/c she's never had the energy to fight them. When he came into her life, everything happened at once. Things tipped sideways, a deluge overflowed the spout, & it was more than she could process. I wanted to take her head & pound it into the ground when she doesn't simply free herself. The director might have been illustrating how we lose patience w/ people. We often fail to offer the lowest common denominator of understanding. It's reminiscent of Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gregor isn't doing much, other than lying around & being contemptible, so, bring out the Raid! Be honest but patient. Growth takes time.
"Toxic" simply means narcissistic. Now that the condition has been categorized correctly, it's easy to spot. It's everywhere. I have friends & family w/ deep wounds from narcissistic parents. Pride is a homewrecker & a sneaky liar. The better we have it, the higher we believe we are floating. Mom married a man who had moderate success. That small taste gave her appetites that could never be satisfied. I learned in the pumpkin patch how easily parents succumb to the power & pride delusion. On a school trip, my 3 y/o picked a small crooked 🎃. Oh, no. "Put that down." I directed him to chubby round ones; but that wasn't what he wanted. I checked myself: "It's just a 🎃. Why do I care? What am I doing right now?" Pivoting, I told him to pick whatever 🎃 he wanted. This time he selected one that was smaller, more crooked & part green. On the bus back, I overheard how other moms controlled their kids' 🎃 selection. Once home, I sat him on the front step & took his picture holding it up. He was beaming. His dad commented that he is compassionate & identifies w/ the small outcasts. And what's wrong with that? I almost smooshed that part of him. Parents must give direction & at times rule by fiat - but only when absolutely necessary. At every opportunity, we should allow kids to make choices & grow into their own personality. It is not about YOU. You are supposed to be raising them to LEAVE. Your job is to develop a useful, caring, responsible & independent member of society.
YJA is none of the above. She's out in the rain alone. The blind date her mother fixed up isn't there. No ☂. No shelter. No warmth. That's where her mother's path will leave her. Why does she put up with it?
Good-girl disease.
There was never a way for YJA to withstand mom's steamrolling. She had to subjugate herself & put up a front. All she knows is phoniness & being controlled. So, YJA can't stop lying. Everything's fine, is what she projects, as she's fraying at the seams. She can't hold up the ACT anymore, but she's such a chicken. Oma immersed the whole family in her acid rain. Seung-ho & dad attend to mom during one of her fits while saying: "It sucks to be a man". It sucks to be in a relationship w/ anybody who abuses power. Women hate it when men do it, but it is no less destructive when women seize power in the family & abuse it. Next, YJA starts to treat SJH like she treats herself. She's pounded herself down to nothing to fit into the space her mother allowed, & she unconsciously expects him to do the same thing. What unfolds between YJA & SKS, and mom & the Seos is agonizing. YJN's brother will admit he's contemplated suicide. The pressure Koreans put on their kids has manifested itself in the highest suicide rate, by far, in the developed world. Instead of pushing our kids to bring us glory, we should teach them to never stop improving themselves. Consider Iiving a small life. Have enough, but not too much. Take time to enjoy family & friends, because that is living. Practice gratitude & contentment as they will lead to true fulfillment.
No matter the upbringing, we are responsible for our actions. We are born 100% selfish. Maturity is learning to become unselfish, & maturity is not in fashion these days. Many western kids have no idea what humility is. They think it's some vague malady. Our self-absorption leads us to be too forgiving & generous w/ ourselves while we turn a harsh view to the outside - other people's problems always seem easy. We should be exactly the opposite. Nothing is level. There is no horizontal existence. Not really. We all have different DNA, gifts, deficiencies, talents, challenges, parentage, upbringing... nobody is coming from the same place. There's really nothing to compare. We exist in lies we tell ourselves, we chase after meaningless & empty things, & we generally lack compassion because we love to feel superior to others by comparison. As Solomon said: It's all vanity.
Director Ahn utilizes ☂ of varied colors as messages. ☂ Red/Stop (passion?) ☂ Green/Go (grow?)... In the end, umbrellas are cast aside like bad taboos. They'll brave the elements and rising pressure together. Let it pour!
QUOTE📢
Passion is necessary in a relationship; without it, it would be disrespectful to the other.
Being nice isn't something to be proud of. It's rather a flaw, you idiot!
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬9 📝9 🎭9 💓8 🦋10 🌞6 🎨8 ⚡1 😅3 🤔8 🎵/🔊8 😭7 😱1 🤢0 💤3 🔚5
Age 14+ sex, lang F💣x2
Re📺? 👍
👩⚖️
Lady Bird (2017)
The Bird Flips °7.8° °VG+° 💯%🔍
"I wish I could live through something," Ladybird says as she hits the road with her mother. She literally hits the road. Don't let the first 60 seconds, or so, throw you. Stay on this ride and ready yourself for a jolt. We'll start with LB's relationship with her mother. Right away the viewer can see that they love eachother, and they are similar souls. Soon friction causes sparks and old, worn out tread leads to some slippage.
LB, a 94-minute, 2017 release that is rated 99/79 on RT, follows Lady-Bird-don't-call-me-Christine McPherson through the last couple months of her High School years. She lives in Sacramento. She hates Sacramento. She wants to go to college as far away as possible, preferably the northeast. Her mother, a consummate penny pincher, insists that she should only go to a state school. Her grades aren't that good anyway. Clearly, mom isn't expecting great things from her daughter.
Lady bird is about to turn 18. The movie covers a mini freak-out that she goes through as she prepares to launch from HS onto the highway of life. She starts dating, she leaves her best friend for a little while to hang with a popular girl. She has sex for the first time with a total tool. She regretted it immediately, even though the guy does look like Timothy Chalamet.
Saoirse Ronan plays Lady Bird McPherson. She's funny and flippant. She feels repressed, though she's not. She is a free-thinker and fiercely independent. Sometimes she takes it too far. She can be out of line, but she has a warm heart. Laurie Metcalf shines as Marion McPherson. Mom is loving but tough - She's a steel robot in a plushy costume. To LB's continuous consternation, mom's had to keep an eye on the family budget. They're on the side of the tracks where people have to do that. Odeya Rush is adorable as Jenna Walton, Ladybird's BFF. Timothée Chalamet plays Kyle Scheible, a musician that seems so cool... at first. Lucas Hedges is endearing as Danny O'Neill, who LB meets at drama club. Tracy Letts is the dad we all wish we had, as Larry McPherson. The warm family dynamic is one of the best things about the film.
Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Barbie) is the director/writer. The editing is crisp. It's masterful, actually. LB is a colorful character, and the show incorporates color well. The snappy dialogue, abrupt editing and nippy performances provide steady chuckles. In one scene, the JV football coach has to fill in as drama club advisor, and it's really funny.
As the deadline for college approaches, LB can't find her footing. It doesn't pan out with her first boyfriend, so she makes a major gear shift. She neglects her BFF for a cool girl. Their friendship is so adorable that it hurts. Ladybird is too often flippant and downright unkind, but she finds respect and gratitude by the end of the movie. She needed independence. It was time for her to adopt a broader perspective, and being out on her own prompts her to fly straight. She's going to be alright.
QUOTE📢
I'm like Keith Richards. I'm just happy to be anywhere.
Money is not life's report card.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8.2 📝7 🎭8 💓3 🦋3 🌞5 🎨7 ⚡3 🎵/🔊7 😅5 😭3 😱1 😯4 😖0 🤔4.7 💤0 🔚8.6
Poli-wagging 3/10
Age 17+ Language, partying, sex, frontal nudity - a page from a playgirl magazine shows a penis shot
Rated R - restricted
Re-📺? Wouldn't object
👉
Gravity (2013)
Clear Skies with a Hail of Satellite Debris °8.3° °Excellent° 💯%🔍
Apparently at 600km (373 miles) above earth the temperature can fluctuate from +258 to -148°F. That is what we read as the film opens. They are making the point that space is impossible; it is not set up for human survival. Quite the opposite.
Sandra Bullock is Dr. Ryan Stone. She's developed medical hardware that has space applications. She's had 6 mos of training (enough to cover the highlights) and now she's over the ozone, installing her creation. George Clooney plays the mission commander, Matt Kowalsky. He's the type of affable guy that always has a funny story. I do mean /always/. He never shuts up. His droning has clearly become part of the background noise that Dr. Stone has become accustomed to shutting out.
They are out space-walking, getting the job done, when they get a warning that shrapnel from a Russian satellite that blew up is headed their way, and it's moving faster than a high-speed bullet. From there, AHBL (all hail breaks loose). Everyone else inside the craft perishes after the hull is breached. If they are going to make it back to Terra-firma, they have to make it to the space station, but everything appears to be in shambles, and O2 is at 5%. What ensues is one harrowing moment after another. They barely have enough thrust to get to the station, the tether breaks, the O2 runs out... She uses everything at her disposal, even some very low-tech equipment. All this is amidst stunning, positively gorgeous filming. G is a visual confection.
G is a 2013 release that is rated 96/79 on RT & 7.7 on IMDB. At a scant 91-minutes, it's just alittle longer than an NCIS episode. Alfonso Cuarón (Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, A Little Princess, and the under-appreciated Great Expectations) directed this film and co-wrote it with his son, Jonás Cuarón. Every element, from acting to editing, is competence on parade. The voice of Mission Control will probably sound familiar because it's Ed Harris. It's a perfect escape for the next time you're grounded.
QUOTE📢
"I've only flown the simulator. I crashed every time." "It's not rocket-science. Just point the d@mn thing at earth."
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8 📝7.3 🎭 7.7 🌞4.5 🎨9.4 ⚡6 🎵/🔊6 😅3 😭4 😱4 😯4 😖3 🤔4 💤0 🔚7
Age 12+ scary, multiple deaths
Language: $h!+
Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? It's rewatch worthy
👈
Ready Player One (2018)
Ready, Set, Flop °4.9° °avg with glimmers of more° 💯%🔍
A tech billionaire leaves his estate in a video game easter egg. First-come inherits all. In 2045 gaming is what people live for. Reality is too hideous. The whole world is after this egg. The whole world includes Innovative Online Industries (IOI), the evil corporation headed up by the loathsome badguy, Sorrento. Wade Parzival is on a mission to get to the egg first. He collects allies, friends, and even a girlfriend on his quest.
RP1 is a 2018, 2h 20m, Steven Spielberg release that is rated 72/77 on RT & 7.4 on IMDB. There's lots to like in RP1. The wide scale CGI, art, and animation are quite something. There's impressive scenes and elements stacked on top of eachother. The core of the movie's fun-factor is the steady stream of call-outs to other superhero and sci-fi/fantasy works, which is the key element of the film. RP1 takes place IRL and also in the game, so it intersperses live-action and CGI. The Chinese show, The King's Avatar (which is about a game competition), has a similar divide. Doing it that way is almost double the work. (For the record, KA has some deep flaws, but it is still better than RP1, overall). One of the gamers looks like a metallic Deion Sanders in CGI. If /he/ had made an appearance, my rating would have gone up a point. (DS raises the level of everything he touches, afterall).
Tye Sheridan is ML, Wade Parzival, Olivia Cooke (Queen Alicent) is FL, Art3mis/Samantha, and Ben Mendelsohn is badguy Sorrento (He's fantastically likable and decent in The Outsider). The hilarious T. J. Miller is I-R0k; they have fun with his part. Unfortunately, the acting is bland and reflective of bland direction. There's formulaic music, cutting, direction, dialogue, and characters. At one point, just like the PS2, all of this was new, but that was then. RP1 is frequently stale - so played out. There's plenty of bright spots, but they are too few and far between to light up the night sky or the game console. The value in watching is for the tie-ins and the visuals, which is generally not enough for me. A few good elements a good show does not make. RP1 is not a good show.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣4.5 📝5 🎭5 💓5 🦋5 🌞4.5 🎨9 ⚡7 🎵/🔊6 😅6 😭4 😱4 😯4 😖3 🤔4 💤3 🔚7
Age 14+
$h!+ ×2 and 1 f💣 involving Chucky, from Child's Play, in the last battle.
A cat in a low cut dress with huge mams.
Some foreplay in CGI - Feely dancing, no kissing.
Some freaky creepy and scary moments. Someone drops in on the movie The Shining for a bit, with a bonus decaying zombie.
Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? Nope
What do I recommend? Trollhunters and its sequels - 3Below and Wizards, Avatar The Last Airbender, Hunter X Hunter (watch at least until they get to the prison and then decide), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Watership Down, the entire works of Ghilbi Studio, Over the Garden Wall, The Dragon Prince, Stranger Things, Cobra Kai, The Mitchells VS The Machines, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, The Eminence in Shadow, and the entire catalogue of Star Wars shows on the Disney Channel, for starters.
🤙
Good Time (2017)
Wangsta Adventureland °VG° 💯%🔍
Seriously, there's never a good time for this $h!+. I don't mean the movie. GT is a good ride-along. I mean nearly every move Connie makes is wrong. Many of his wrong moves are because he's too greedy. He doesn't know when to fold em or walk away. GT is a 102-minute, 2017 release that is rated 91/82 on RT. Ronald Bronstein (The Curse) co-wrote this with Josh Safdie who co-directed it with Benny Safdie who also starred as Nick Nikas. The three have done several projects together.
Robert Pattinson is ML Connie Nikas. Pattinson is all over the place - he's Bon Jovi - He's played a million faces, and he's ROCKED THEM ALL! He's so authentic as a New-York-slacker in GT that he's almost unrecognizable. Benny Safdie is the mentally challenged Nick Nikas. He opens the film and his performance is convincing. Taliah Webster, as Crystal, has a quality that draws the viewer to her. Jennifer Jason Leigh is Corey. She rocked the 80s and early 90s, settled into working sporadically, and now she's picking up steam again. She brings her otherworldly air and a touch of fragility to her roles that is hers alone. I've always enjoyed her. She's 24 years older than Pattinson, but they play friends (lovers) in GT. Corey is emotionally unstable and reliant on her mother's graces (money) for survival. She's older than Connie in years only. Her part is not extensive, but she nails it. All of the acting is excellent.
Connie loves his brother Nick. He loves him despite Nick's shortcomings, maybe moreso due to them. He collects a crying Nick from the shrink. He tells Nick to 'forget grandma, it's just you and me.' We next see them robbing a bank. It's an effort to fund a place where they can live together in peace and safety. This starts the dominoes toppling that will eventually land Nick in prison. The rest of the film is Connie's efforts to rescue his brother. Nick may have his mental challenges, but Connie is truly clever and bold. His boldness doesn't always pay off, and things get crazy pretty quickly in this odyssey. The feel is dark and grungy throughout. I had an urge to shower after the credits rolled. It's appropriate to the theme. GT is dirty on the inside, but it's in a nice and tidy package that has been assembled with competence and skill.
Connie loves his brother... Does he? We'll learn he isn't always looking out for his brother's welfare. Some of his actions may be closer to control than love. Connie acts and reacts without thinking things through. He's the type of person that has no brakes - it's full throttle, all the time. He never knows when to stop because he is entirely self-involved. Just like crazy people never consider the possibility that they might be crazy, self-involved and narcissistic people never deign to recognize their own deficiencies, either. It's a form of mental illness that is self-induced. Easily avoidable, it's brought on by one poor decision at a time. His cleverness has only emboldened him to the point of that old pride that comes before that fateful fall. He isn't as clever as he perceives, nor is he as loving and good as he pictures himself, which is a ubiquitous human delusion - We are all blind to our own stuff. Connie leaves destruction and pain in his wake. When the movie ends, he's finally in the "right place." Hopefully he'll wake up. Most people don't.
QUOTE📢
The pure always act from love. The damned always act from love. The truth is an act of love. (Closing credits song).
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.5 📝6.8 🎭8 🌞2.5 🎨6 ⚡4.7 🎵/🔊7 😅2 😭5 😱3 😯4.5 😖3 🤔4.8 💤0 🔚7.8
Age 16+ R-language, violence, drugs, general thuggery
Rated R - restricted
Re-📺? Neutral on the issue. It's well done, but pretty sad.
▪
The Farewell (2019)
Family Treatment & Secret Burdens °7.9° °Excellent° 💯%🔍
TF is a wonderful peek into the life of a Chinese family. The matriarch (Grandmother) is in China. One of her sons lives in Japan and the other lives in NYC. It opens with a woman, Billi, strolling NYC while talking (in Mandarin) on the phone with Granny all the way over there in China. Billi is very much a New Yorker, as we can tell from the way she interacts with other New Yorkers on the street. This Chinese family is Americanized. Soon Billi will learn that her grandmother has been diagnosed with cancer, only has a couple months to live, and nobody is telling grandma! They think it's better that Grams doesn't know. They are using Billi's cousin's wedding as a ruse to go and see their matriarch for the last time. "You shouldn't go," Billi's mom says in typical acerbic fashion. 'You know you can't hide your emotions.'
TF is a 100-minute 2019 release that is rated 97/87 on RT. The film is a USA production and the dialogue is in English and Mandarin. The writer/director is Lulu Wang, who clearly wrote Billi from an autobiographical standpoint. As the film opens, we read that the story is based on an "actual lie". Per a Screen Daily interview from 2019 with WENDY MITCHELL, Ms Wang said the following: "Back in 2013, when her grandmother's cancer story was unfolding, Wang was finishing her debut feature: art-world romantic comedy Posthumous. She knew immediately that her family's true-life drama would make a great film. "I felt like this was a perfect scenario that had so many emotions - it was funny, joyful and sad. When I got back from China, I would wake up in the middle of the night and write down these excerpts. It felt so visceral and visual." In keeping with the spirit of the film, we also learn: "One of Lulu Wang's biggest fans has not seen her hit film The Farewell. That is her grandmother, who inspired the story. "I don't think we're going to show her," Wang explains, with a hint of guilt in her voice."
They methodically twist the knife into Billi during the first 2/3 of the film. Grandmother is concerned about everyone /else's/ health, which pierces Billi's core. Billi feels increasingly uncomfortable about keeping Grandmom in the dark. Grandma will say things like " Don't tell the kids I still have this cold. They'll worry for nothing." Billi starts to put pressure on other family members to tell Grams the truth, but then Billi learns from one of the doctors that most Chinese families handle sickness in the elderly the same way. In fact, Grandma did the /same thing/ with her /own/ father. Further emphasizing cycles of behavior in families (for good or for bad) we see how mom is tough. She's inclined to disagree with Billi at every turn - just like grandma was with mom. As the cycle churns things up, Billi lets her parents know how scared she was as a kid when they moved to the USA. She was always scared. Her parents never told her what was going on, which only heightened her fear. Her grandfather died and no one ever told Billi he was sick. From her kid-perspective, it was like he disappeared. {Sometimes we think we are doing the right thing for our kids, but we aren't. More communication is the key. That does not mean Q&A sessions. You may have to spend some downtime and work on a project or something to get them to open up.}
At the dinner table the family debates the benefits, and otherwise, of living in China vs the USA or Japan, etc. It is quite interesting. Her cousin, just terrible at drinking games, gets drunk at the wedding and can't stop crying. It's a funny scene. Awkwafina (the crazy roommate from Crazy Rich Asians) plays FL Billi. Billi bears no resemblance to that cropped blonde except for the exuberance under the surface that's always shining through. Billi loves her grandmother, and their interactions are sweet. Tzi Ma is Haiyan and Diana Lin is Jian. They're good. All of the acting is natural and seamless; the result is authenticity.
The themes of TF are individualism vs the whole, carrying burdens for those we love, and the question of whether deception can be beneficial. "One difference between the East and the West is that in the West, everyone thinks their life is their own, while in the East a person's life is part of a whole. Family. Society." Billi's uncle drops that on her and continues by saying that she (Billi) just wants to ease her guilt, while the family is trying to carry the emotional burden for Grandma. Eventually Billi starts pouring her overflowing emotions into other things, like playing the piano, but she ends up being a part of the deception. An active part... So, did the family do rightly? They make an excellent case for their actions. Knowing about the cancer may have tempted Granny to give up sooner. Lying will generally put a wall between us and our loved ones (think Pinocchio - no one can get near to him with that long nose). We lie to ourselves first. Most lies are about covering our weaknesses and allaying our fears. Lies are usually designed to make our lives easier (in the short run). If you are going to propagate a falsehood to a loved one, just make sure it's for /that/ person's °benefit° and not your own comfort. Otherwise you are poisoning the relationship.
"You'll encounter difficulties, but you have to keep an open mind. Don't be the bull endlessly ramming its horns into the wall. Life is not as much about what you do, it's more about how you do it," muses Grandmother, as Billi is getting ready to leave. Billi doesn't want to leave.
Hunchbacked throughout the show, Billi'sbody language signals that life has been tough. She hasn't gotten the breaks she's needed - yet. But Grandma told her that she's STRONG. She will be FINE. At the very end, while strolling NYC once again, BILLI straightens up visibly and lets out a primal YELL. She will stay strong. She will fight on.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣8 📝8 🎭8 🌞5 🎨5 ⚡2 🎵/🔊7 😅4 😭3 😱0 😯3.5 😖0 🤔6 💤0 🔚9
*Don't stop watching too soon. Make sure you get the final update on Grandma before you exit.
Age 11+
Language: $h!+
Rated TV-PG: Parental Guidance Suggested
Re-📺? I would
There are many excellent Mandarin speaking shows to stream. In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
Historical/Period:
Overlord 8.4,
The Sleepless Princess 9.1 (there's a minor fantasy element),
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
Fantasy:
Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome siblings 8.7;
Heavenly Sword 9 (Kung-fu!);
Love and Redemption 10
💭
Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince Movie: Kakusei no Idenshi (2016)
The Battle Rages On °6.7° °good° 💯%🔍
MPGA is a 77-minute, 2016 sequel to the MP series that is rated 7.1 on MAL/ 7.2 on IMDB. It picks up the moment MP drops off and continues the story. The battle rages on. Ange continues to amuse. Ultimately the team Must work more closely together than ever before in order to prevail. The characters start having breakthroughs where their skills reach new levels. (Suruga Ataru - "I've never felt like this before. Right now I know I won't miss!")
The following is my MP series review which is 100% applicable to the movie as well.
A Majestic Prince is Well Suited for Combat, but a MP must also be able to work as a team member. Enter the "Failed-5".
It's just another day for the Failed-5 of the Military Junior Pre-Academy (MJP). "Don't call us that!" MP takes place in space. Our team operates power-suits. They have just had a below average practice session and now they are being deployed for the 1st time. The Failed-5 (sometimes even called "fart-knockers") must distract the enemy long enough for a rescue of some trapped colleagues to be successful. The battle is HOT. Will they survive? It's time: Fight or die.
'The purpose of the MJP was to create human beings better suited to the rigors of working in space and not, as some put it, a sick super-soldier experiment.' Eh, tomato tom-ah'-toe. These kids were genetically engineered and their powersuits (AHSMBs, or Advanced High Standard Multipurpose Battle Devices which derive power from something called the Juria System) were built from their DNA. The suits themselves have a fight-or-flight instinct that can take over when the battle intensifies.
MP is a 2013 release that is rated 7.13 on MAL. It is 1 season consisting of 24 24-minute English dubbed episodes with CC available. The show has a bit of a halting start but improves with time and is overall good to VG. MJ is mecha manga and anime. Per anime planet, "Mecha are self-propelling machines that are modeled after humans; some can change into multiple, non-humanoid formats as well. They're usually controlled by an internal pilot or by remote, but are sometimes sentient beings that move autonomously. A mecha's size ranges from bulky, wearable armor to a massive, towering contraption and beyond. While mecha have a wide range of applications, such as making manual labor easier, they are most commonly portrayed as heavily-armed war machines." The most popular mecha include Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Mobile Suit Gundam. I've seen 2 of the 3 as well as Aura Battle Dubliner, Patlabor, and RahXephon. They all range from VG to exceptional. For me the mechanics are cool but a mostly neutral device. The show must fly on its own merits. MP is good, but borderline. With the benefit of foreknowledge, I would not opt to watch it again for the first time. If I, however, had a special affinity for mecha, I most certainly would watch and rewatch MP.
MP has a kids show vibe in terms of simple interpersonal relationships, plot and dialogue. Our 5 main protags attend MJP in the academic city called Grandzehle. Each is a "Prince", one of the genetically engineered children raised to operate the AHSMBs. This is a team composed of individuals that were originally deemed of poor team material. They have unusually high survival instincts but their poor teamwork causes them to stick out unfavorably at school. The fun of the show is the interpersonal relationships and interactions. There's even some budding romance - and some heartbreak, too. Here's our main players:
Irie Tamaki has an abnormally high G tolerance. Her brown hair is short and tousled. She's got a heavy weight on her chest. Two, actually.
Asagi Toshikazu has short shaggy black hair and a short temper. He was genetically designed to process vast amounts of data.
Kugimiya Kei has highly developed auditory perception. She has long ash brown hair in a layer cut.
Hitachi Izuru has abnormally high focus. Right now he's focused on becoming a hero. His black short hair is stopped over his forehead. Out of the 5, he is the most significant one.
Suruga Ataru has outstanding memory in select areas and wavy strawberry blond hair.
Kuroki Ange is a late addition to the group. Ange appears one way but can act quite differently, at times, /especially/ in combat. Ange represents a direction change that is played for edginess and sometimes humor. Not only is Ange's split personality a lot of fun, but we don't know Ange's gender yet. After a few failed sorties for information, the team has temporarily given up trying to pin it down.
Then there's Rin. Don't call her RinRin and certainly don't call her fussy britches (as the head mechanic is wont to do). She's Captain of Godinion and Commander of the team.
The English voice acting is always excellent, and MP is no exception. The ubiquitous David Matranga and Greg Ayres each play bad guys, and it's not a good fit for either of them, but all the other parts are spot-on.
The setting is the invasion, or pre-invasion by a more advanced and hostile race called the Wulgaru. These rapacious beings hunt those of "lesser DNA" for sport. Princess Theoria has rejected their cruel ways and has been helping earth combat the Wulgaru as they trickle into our solar system. The MJP program is a result of her help. Things are already crucial, and the main invasion hasn't even begun.
Some of the space scenes are gorgeous. The use of color is excellent. People have simple features along with some hyper-fantasy (Go BIG: big boobs, big eyes, big muscles, big colorful hair, big color-palette). Backgrounds are minimized and stylized realism. They are detailed and artistically beautiful. They do an especially nice job with the space scenes. The enemy craft are lit with red, yellow, or orange. The zoomed out battles are a light display and the effect is stunning. The art is truly top-notch.
The theme is Free Will vs Programming. Hitachi Izuru struggles with this particularly. In the end he decides he has free will and exerts it in a worthy story arc. This is above average and even VG at times. The pacing is moderately slow which generates some drag. The characters are simplistic and on a child fiction level: Thus, the scarcely scattered elements that push it into PG-13 range are regrettable. It's all borderline stuff that stops short of providing an easy answer, so it's to each parent to decide as to age suitability.
〰🖍 IMHO
I've rated the series and movie 7s. These are generous 7s and part of me feels a 6 is more accurate. A 6 rating would cause people to think it's bad, and it isn't bad at all.
📣7 📝6 🎭7.5 🌞5.4 🎨8.5 ⚡7.4 🎵/🔊6 😅4.5 😭3 😱2 😯3 😖2 🤔2 💤0 🔚8
Age 12+ with these cautions:
Language $h!+ ×1
Rated TV-14: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again....
Offshoot productions are the original 2013 Majestic Prince series and a 25th episode put out the same year as this film. While the dubbing is top tier, we get no interpretation of any written communications. They should just have a voice actor read them.
As of today, MP is available on Hidive. Some titles worthy of a visit of Hidive are:
Maid Sama 10, Made in Abyss 9,
Parasyte the Maxim 8.9,
The Eminence in Shadow 8.8,
No Game No Life Zero 8.8,
RahXephon 8.6,
Akame ga Kill! 8.6,
Princess Principal 8.6,
Chihayafuru 8.5,
Girls Last Tour 8.5,
CR Chaika The Coffin Princess 8.4,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4,
Special A Class 8.2,
Food Wars 8.2,
Land Of The Lustrous 8.1,
Girls Und Panzer 8,
Land Of The Lustrous 8,
Reincarnated as a Sword 8,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU 8,
Gate 7.9,
Ao-chan Can't Study 7.8,
Beyond the Boundary 7.8,
You're Under Arrest 7.8,
Pet Shop of Horrors 7.8,
Hakkenden 7.7,
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun 7.7,
Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? 7.7,
Flowers of Evil 7.7,
Farming Life in Another World 7.7,
Princess Resurrection 7.6,
Akiba Maid War 7.5,
Real Girl 7.5,
School Live 7.5,
Kokkoku 7.5 - on the border,
Needless 7.5,
Senryu Girl 7.5,
D4DJ 7.5,
Kokoro Connect 7.4,
Aura Battler Dunbine 7.4,
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall 7.3,
After the Rain 7.3,
BToom! 7.3,
Ice 7.3,
Armed Girl's Machiavellism 7.1,
Honorable Mention: Wasteful Days of High School Girls, Blue Seed, Patlabor, Get Backers, Clannad, Tsurune, Tada Never Falls in Love, Kino's Journey, Lupin III.
🤦🏾
Ginga Kikoutai: Majestic Prince (2013)
Born to be Heroes °6.5° °good° 💯%🔍
A Majestic Prince is Well Suited for Combat, but a MP must also be able to work as a team member. Enter the "Failed-5".
It's just another day for the Failed-5 of the Military Junior Pre-Academy (MJP). "Don't call us that!" MP takes place in space. Our team operates power-suits. They have just had a below average practice session and now they are being deployed for the 1st time. The Failed-5 (sometimes even called "fart-knockers") must distract the enemy long enough for a rescue of some trapped colleagues to be successful. The battle is HOT. Will they survive? It's time: Fight or die.
'The purpose of the MJP was to create human beings better suited to the rigors of working in space and not, as some put it, a sick super-soldier experiment.' Eh, tomato tom-ah'-toe. These kids were genetically engineered and their powersuits (AHSMBs, or Advanced High Standard Multipurpose Battle Devices which derive power from something called the Juria System) were built from their DNA. The suits themselves have a fight-or-flight instinct that can take over when the battle intensifies.
MP is a 2013 release that is rated 7.13 on MAL. It is 1 season consisting of 24 24-minute English dubbed episodes with CC available. The show has a bit of a halting start but improves with time and is overall good to VG. MJ is mecha manga and anime. Per anime planet, "Mecha are self-propelling machines that are modeled after humans; some can change into multiple, non-humanoid formats as well. They're usually controlled by an internal pilot or by remote, but are sometimes sentient beings that move autonomously. A mecha's size ranges from bulky, wearable armor to a massive, towering contraption and beyond. While mecha have a wide range of applications, such as making manual labor easier, they are most commonly portrayed as heavily-armed war machines." The most popular mecha include Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Mobile Suit Gundam. I've seen 2 of the 3 as well as Aura Battle Dubliner, Patlabor, and RahXephon. They all range from VG to exceptional. For me the mechanics are cool but a mostly neutral device. The show must fly on its own merits. MP is good, but borderline. With the benefit of foreknowledge, I would not opt to watch it again for the first time. If I, however, had a special affinity for mecha, I most certainly would watch and rewatch MP.
MP has a kids show vibe in terms of simple interpersonal relationships, plot and dialogue. Our 5 main protags attend MJP in the academic city called Grandzehle. Each is a "Prince", one of the genetically engineered children raised to operate the AHSMBs. This is a team composed of individuals that were originally deemed of poor team material. They have unusually high survival instincts but their poor teamwork causes them to stick out unfavorably at school. The fun of the show is the interpersonal relationships and interactions. There's even some budding romance - and some heartbreak, too. Here's our main players:
Irie Tamaki has an abnormally high G tolerance. Her brown hair is short and tousled. She's got a heavy weight on her chest. Two, actually.
Asagi Toshikazu has short shaggy black hair and a short temper. He was genetically designed to process vast amounts of data.
Kugimiya Kei has highly developed auditory perception. She has long ash brown hair in a layer cut.
Hitachi Izuru has abnormally high focus. Right now he's focused on becoming a hero. His black short hair is stopped over his forehead. Out of the 5, he is the most significant one.
Suruga Ataru has outstanding memory in select areas and wavy strawberry blond hair.
Kuroki Ange is a late addition to the group. Ange appears one way but can act quite differently, at times, /especially/ in combat. Ange represents a direction change that is played for edginess and sometimes humor. Not only is Ange's split personality a lot of fun, but we don't know Ange's gender yet. After a few failed sorties for information, the team has temporarily given up trying to pin it down.
Then there's Rin. Don't call her RinRin and certainly don't call her fussy britches (as the head mechanic is wont to do). She's Captain of Godinion and Commander of the team.
The English voice acting is always excellent, and MP is no exception. The ubiquitous David Matranga and Greg Ayres each play bad guys, and it's not a good fit for either of them, but all the other parts are spot-on.
The setting is the invasion, or pre-invasion by a more advanced and hostile race called the Wulgaru. These rapacious beings hunt those of "lesser DNA" for sport. Princess Theoria has rejected their cruel ways and has been helping earth combat the Wulgaru as they trickle into our solar system. The MJP program is a result of her help. Things are already crucial, and the main invasion hasn't even begun.
Some of the space scenes are gorgeous. The use of color is excellent. People have simple features along with some hyper-fantasy (Go BIG: big boobs, big eyes, big muscles, big colorful hair, big color-palette). Backgrounds are minimized and stylized realism. They are detailed and artistically beautiful. They do an especially nice job with the space scenes. The enemy craft are lit with red, yellow, or orange. The zoomed out battles are a light display and the effect is stunning. The art is truly top-notch.
The theme is Free Will vs Programming. Hitachi Izuru struggles with this particularly. In the end he decides he has free will and exerts it in a worthy story arc. This is above average and even VG at times. The pacing is moderately slow which generates some drag. The characters are simplistic and on a child fiction level: Thus, the scarcely scattered elements that push it into PG-13 range are regrettable. It's all borderline stuff that stops short of providing an easy answer, so it's to each parent to decide as to age suitability.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.3 📝6 🎭7.5💓4 🦋2 🌞4.4 🎨8.7 ⚡6.8 🎵/🔊6.8 😅3 😭4.5 😱3.5 😯3 😖2 🤔4.5 💤1.5 🔚8
Age 13+ with these cautions:
Language d@mn, bull$h!+
~ One of the maintenance workers is a Rosy the Riveter looking gal with enormous exposed cleavage - each is 5-gallon sized.
~ "Ya gotta fall in love, squabble and touch eachother's parts", says a pilot from another team. That dude tricks them into watching an adult film. They only show their shocked reactions.
~ One woman has 5-gallon-boobs covered by cloth straps as wide as ace bandages.
Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again....
Offshoot productions:
In 2016 they hey put out a 25th episode and a movie, Armored Fleet Majestic Prince: Genetic Awakening.
As of today, MP is available on Hidive. Some titles worthy of a visit of Hidive are:
Maid Sama 10, Made in Abyss 9,
Parasyte the Maxim 8.9,
The Eminence in Shadow 8.8,
No Game No Life Zero 8.8,
RahXephon 8.6,
Akame ga Kill! 8.6,
Princess Principal 8.6,
Chihayafuru 8.5,
Girls Last Tour 8.5,
CR Chaika The Coffin Princess 8.4,
Love Chunibyo And Other Delusions 8.4,
Special A Class 8.2,
Food Wars 8.2,
Land Of The Lustrous 8.1,
Girls Und Panzer 8,
Land Of The Lustrous 8,
Reincarnated as a Sword 8,
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU 8,
Gate 7.9,
Ice 7.8,
Ao-chan Can't Study 7.8,
Beyond the Boundary 7.8,
You're Under Arrest 7.8,
Pet Shop of Horrors 7.8,
Hakkenden 7.7,
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun 7.7,
Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? 7.7,
Flowers of Evil 7.7,
Farming Life in Another World 7.7,
Princess Resurrection 7.6,
Akiba Maid War 7.5,
Real Girl 7.5,
School Live 7.5,
Kokkoku 7.5 - on the border,
Needless 7.5,
Senryu Girl 7.5,
D4DJ 7.5,
Kokoro Connect 7.4,
Aura Battler Dunbine 7.4,
Pet Girl of Sakura Hall 7.3,
After the Rain 7.3,
BToom! 7.3,
Armed Girl's Machiavellism 7.1,
Honorable Mention: Wasteful Days of High School Girls, Blue Seed, Patlabor, Get Backers, Clannad, Tsurune, Tada Never Falls in Love, Kino's Journey, Lupin III.
💅
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
A Beautiful Ride(?) ☮ I Smelt It °awfully funny° 💯%🔍
It's Not What It Looks Like, as Dewey says whenever he gets into trouble. This film is pretty awful, yet it's so droll. I hated it the first time I saw it. My son insists on throwing it on from time to time, and I must admit it grew on me. I even quote it from time to time. Caught up in the moment, I've even quoted it at funerals.
WHTDCS is a lewd comedy that parodies the movies Ray & Walk the Line, as well as the mid 20th century music scene in general, Forrest Gump style. It follows the composite trope of a wildly successful American musician: Tragedy ☮ Ambition ☮ Road ☮ Success ☮ Inspiration(💊🚬💉) ☮ Arrest ☮ Rehab ☮ Social Consciousness ☮ Mediocrity ☮ India ☮ Decline ☮ Paternity Suits ☮ Lifetime Achievement Award ☮ Comeback... TARSI-ARSC-MID-PS-LAAC? (I guess there's no acronym needed; you get the jist, I'm sure). To quote Tim Meadows: You don't want none of this! Unless you are craving something mindlessly stoooooopid, rather obscene here and there, and very funny, that is.
WHTDCS is a 2007 96-minute release that is rated 75/57 on RT 6.8 IMDB. 75!!? The critics gave it a 75? This is the second time I've seen the critics overrate a comedy in the last month. Both movies happen to feature frontal nudity, including some 'dewey cox'. Coincidence? Mehbee... Either they've overrated this film, or they underrate most comedies. Often brutal in assessing comedies, something in WHTDCS caught the critics' eyes.
I get where they are coming from. It really is funny, mostly due to the excellent performances. Even I didn't have the heart to rate it a 6, tempted as I was. The writing is mostly crafted for groans, with some succulent morsels in the mix, but it's the directing and the cast that produced value. John C. Reilly is Dewey Cox. He can sing, and he can also cry on cue at any moment, repeatedly. He is excellent. Jenna Fischer is terrific as Darlene, a June Carter type. Raymond J. Barry as Pa Cox is truly hilarious and one of the highlights of the film. Kristen Wiig, in a very early, pre-Bridesmaids role, is Edith Cox, Dewey's first wife. Tim Meadows may steal the show as one of Dewey's band members. There's also loads of cameos/small parts with familiar faces: Jason Schwartzman as Ringo Starr, Paul Rudd as John Lennon, Jack Black as Paul McCartney, Ed Helms, Martin Starr, Craig Robinson, Bobby Shad, Chris Parnell, Ghostface Killah, Jonah Hill, Harold Ramis, Jane Lynch, Eddie Vetter, Jewell (who can hardly contain her laughter), Lyle Lovett, Jackson Browne, a distinguished giraffe and more.
Jake Kasdan, who also directed the underrated Orange County, wrote WHTDCS with producer Judd Apatow. They apparently watched tons of music films and biopics for inspiration, and their effort shows. They skewer the genre perfectly. While the film did not recover its budget at the box office, it is now a cult classic.
QUOTES📢
The wrong kid died.
I never realized until this very moment how easy it is to cut someone in half.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.4 📝7 🎭7.7 💓7.5 🦋3 🌞4.5 🎨7 ⚡3 🎵/🔊5 😅7.3 😭4.5 😱3 😯1 😖4.9 🤔2 💤0 🔚8.6
Age 18+ Rated R - restricted, and consider it a hard-R for language, sexual innuendo galore, dirty dancing imitating sex acts, drug use, nudity w/ penis close-ups (the title is literally true, from a homophone standpoint), a hotel room of naked people having sex, and drug use.
Re-📺? Guilty as charged
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