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Reviews
Ôyukiumi no Kaina: Hoshi no Kenja (2023)
Recommended for Tsutomu Nihei fans that don't care much about the plot
The setting is great and the visuals are stunning. Elements from Nihei's earlier works, such as something like a 'graviton beam emitter' and the iconic food ration bar, reappear in this movie. If you are a fan of giant robots (though not as sophisticated as those in BLAME!), megaprojects, and a long-dead hyperadvanced civilisation, you won't be let down.
However, the 'Nihei feel' stops there. The plot seems rushed in a few places, and suggest that the movie should start later in the series and the TV season should be more compact. The plot even fails to be believable: why wouldn't a determined and smart Kaina put on the admin suit in the room he found it? That the suit had to be taken away by the villain suggests the laziness of the writers: they couldn't even come up with a more engaging way to make Kaina fail (they could say that the suit would only respond to certain genes possessed by Plant residents, for instance). The characters seem underdeveloped. The man in black is the most stereotypical narcissistic villan I've ever seen.
San Ti: Episode #1.6 (2023)
Finally, a zero-star-worthy episode!
Better than the previous episode. Worth zero stars instead of minus two.
Nobody could believe that a famous genius professor would have such disgusting taste, not to mention the stupidity of his actions. Hosting wild parties in government buildings and flying fighter jets would't even be approved by the pdc for fear of planned assasination by eto. This lack of seriousness and credibility completely ruined Luo Ji's character which was not developed and portrayed in the previous episodes. He is not the intelligent, somewhat existentialist professor that could come up with the dark forest hypothesis.
Even if it was garbage cooked with mayonnaise, I could have stood it. However, clone-wars style beach parties and completely pointless shots ruined the last bit of its enjoyablity--that's not quite true, it's so bad it's good!
Pan deng zhe (2019)
a bit disappointing
I'm fine with the propaganda, it's blatant enough to ward off those who can't stand it.
However, the film still disappoints me. The romance is just too out of place during the whole story, and it weakens the courage and nationalistic pride that the film intended to convey. I felt thoroughly embarrassed during what was supposed to be the climax of the film. The characters are depicted badly, the music is tiring, and the plot is very predictable, but that's commonplace for most films I've seen of the same genre. Due to these, I found it hard to empathise with any of the characters. However, the performance of the actors is nice, the stirring of emotions is forced yet moving, so the film is somewhat enjoyable.