The rating is not good, but I really have a hard time understanding why. Yes, the actor's strike had a huge negative impact on the public vision, and watching plenty of the other countries movies/series decreased significantly the impact of US movies. Oh well, we cannot change that (yes, it was the most idiotic imaginable thing that both actors and producers did, categorically!!) and probably we cannot get back the people who started watching k-dramas (who would watch an American movie\series again after some mesmerizing k-dramas?) but this movie is pretty funny. Let's give it what it really deserves!
Reviews
93 Reviews
Mr. Sunshine
(2018)
Oh my!
11 May 2024
If you are in the brutal period fights, willing to sacrifice nothing (not even a beer) for a good Neanderthal fight, this series is not for you! This series is mainly about fairness, and correctness, and patriotism, and whatever other adjective that describes noble feelings there is out there. Because this series has all of them! Did you like Lee Byung-Hun in IRIS or All In or somewhere else? Oh well, here he is better! Am I saying it just because Kim Tae-Ri is my absolutely all time favourite? Maybe, but the truth is that you will really love her in this absolutely mesmerizing series! You will love it, love it, love it!
Love to Hate You
(2023)
It's funny, romantic and smartly done
6 May 2024
Being in my top 5 k-dramas (and I must confess that I watched over 200), this series boosts my mood every time I watch it. Excellent play (Theo Woo was just nominated for a BAFTA award), scenario, directed flawlessly as well, this combination of comedy, romance with some social involvement in empowering women, and even action, creates an unforgettable series.
It takes also unexpected turns, it does not have a regular ending and in general is a very fresh, super watchable series. Short episodes and no uselessly extended number of them (there are just 10, that is pretty unusual for a k-drama) contribute also to the success of it.
It takes also unexpected turns, it does not have a regular ending and in general is a very fresh, super watchable series. Short episodes and no uselessly extended number of them (there are just 10, that is pretty unusual for a k-drama) contribute also to the success of it.
Encounter
(2018–2019)
Her sadness and his enthusiasm are overwhelming
6 May 2024
I never understood people who rate according to the subject/scenario. You don't like it, move on, because it's not on your goal radar, but don't rate it! It's unfair, if I don't like adventure movies/series, and rate them 1/10 because they are adventure and I don't like the genre. Within the same genre, there are also plenty of artistic ways to describe something, because cinematography is an art. To be more precise, if, after two episodes I see that "her" (the lead female) is sad permanently and looks "lifeless" permanently (doesn't matter what the male lead does), and I don't like this or I don't understand this, move on! Without rating it, of course, because I didn't even try understanding what happens.
I loved the series. It's very well played and excellently directed. The actors transmit perfectly the problems their characters face. I would love more like it!
I loved the series. It's very well played and excellently directed. The actors transmit perfectly the problems their characters face. I would love more like it!
Love Island South Africa
(2021– )
Amateurish stuff
24 April 2024
I was curious about a new culture of relationships, the one in South Africa, that I don't really know about. Unfortunately, the first 7 episodes were terrible at best. I didn't really understand what's been in the mind of the producers, but there was chaos from one end to the other. Not a single real couple from about 14 individuals, not a single spark at least from one of them to another one (I mean not as a couple, but at least some attraction from one to another; absolutely nothing). The presenter observed this (how couldn't she?), but ... nothing! There were two sheilas who didn't even bother to hide they were there just for exposure, not for relations (one called Sarah and another one Rochelle), and the producers didn't even bother to kick them out. Technically speaking, some cameras were not even HD, besides the cutting and assembly which were terrible.
Wonderful World
(2024– )
Emotionally spectacular!
28 March 2024
Kim Nam-Ju is unforgettable due to her mesmerizing play in Misty. I had very high expectations for this drama, and up to this point they were 100% fulfilled. Very loaded emotionally (the beautiful music contributes a lot to creating an atmosphere that engulfs you), with a perfectly build tension, this drama captivates the viewers from the very beginning. Kim Nam-Ju and Oh Man-seok, together with the entire cast, play at the highest possible level. It's difficult to be dissapointed, even if you are not that much into heavy dramas, but more into action or romantic comedies. I recommend it warmly, and if you like it you may want to try Misty if you haven't watched it.
The Girl Who Sees Smells
(2015)
An Entertaining Series
7 March 2024
The series starts with some dumb secondary characters (not their fault, but director's, clearly), who act like aliens on our beloved planet (in the first episode policemen who sit in the car, then perform some circus dumb thingies like stepping on their own foot and stuff, while being later critical of the main character who really tried something), everything is super ok, so there is a clear reason to enjoy it! Shin Se-Kyung is as superb and charismatic as ever, Park Yoo-Chun plays fantastically, and the other actresses/actors are really good as well (like Park Jin-Joo, for example, who I liked a lot in My Private Life).
Alchemy of Souls
(2022– )
A Beautiful Fairytale
5 March 2024
It's not Game of Thrones, but it's not far away of it. Of course, nobody spent hundreds of million of dollars to produce it, but the tale is beautiful, the actors/actresses are over-charming and of course they know how to act, the computer simulations are flawless and... it is also funny, as a bonus (compared to GoT that does not have anything similar). To synthesize, it is charming from one end to the other. I don't agree at all with contributors who say the first "season" is better than the second. Both of them have the same characteristics that I hope will make you get in love with this series!
Strong Girl Bong-soon
(2017)
The Actress Makes the Movie
3 March 2024
Imagine the most girlish, innocent, suave girl in the world. Then multiply it by 10 and you'll get the full image of Park Bo-Young in this k-drama. Never she is doing something bad to somebody until she tries to convince the evil guy that what he is doing is wrong. Did the bad guy brake her beloved phone? She starts with Oh! Ah! Mmm!, then, girlishly upset, after trying to put it together, she tries to get the bad guy pay for repairing it, because he is guilty! And, imagine the bad guy's reaction. Only after that she fights; a bit upset, but not full of hate or something! She is Do Bong Soon, from Do Bong Dong of Do Bong Gu, or, as it's been suggested by a character in the drama ( :)) ), she moved there to remember her name :)). You will have fun only watching the face of Park Bo-Young: she is astonishing in the role!
Freelance
(2023)
Entertaining in kind of a dumb way
27 February 2024
The movie doesn't take itself too seriously, and this a positive, because there are lots of fully nonsensical action scenes (let aside the plot, which has as much realism as The Little Mermaid has, for example); however, being kind of a comedy, you can repeatedly tell yourself that the screenplay and director intended it that way. The actors are good, and this is a positive too, so, on a Friday evening, if you fight with your friends/family over watching a comedy or an action movie, you can try this, which has a vague resemblance with both. Not much else to say about this movie, that critics hated entirely (I would never rely on critics' opinion anyhow).
True to Love
(2023)
One of the best romantic K-dramas
20 February 2024
Actually, it's more than it! One of the best screenplays of romantic k-dramas I have ever watched (and not only k-dramas, but in general), with strong impact to our lives, superb actresses/actors (Yoo In-na is at the top of her game, but she is not the only one playing beautifully), and funny, funny, funny! I laughed a lot, learned a lot, and enjoyed basically every moment! You will not be disappointed at all! I loved the scene at the restaurant when In-na showed to the main lead her methods of seducing; I laughed, but not only!
All the lines are great, and I hope you'll enjoy them even if you are a k-drama beginner! Thank you, Amazon for it!
All the lines are great, and I hope you'll enjoy them even if you are a k-drama beginner! Thank you, Amazon for it!
Love Is Blind: Japan
(2022)
Oh well, it exceeded my expectations by a lot!
11 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Years ago, I watched the first "Love is Blind" (US version) ever. It sounded kind of false: people just trying to be on TV for growing exposure. Actually, I was watching just the first few episodes, and abandoned, for the lack of authenticity. Oh well, I tried it again with "Love is Blind: Sweden" and that one impressed me a lot. Sincere people who REALLY wanted to find a partner for life tried their best over there. After two Japanese reality shows (Love Deadline and Love Like a K-drama - oh well, the last one is Korean based, but it casted four astonishing Japanese actresses!), I tried this one too, and I was not disappointed at all! If you like reality shows, this is one of the most authentic ever! Oh well, except for Odacchi and Yudai, who clearly went there for publicity, and I think that playing with a human being's emotions (and life, in the end) is pitiful. I didn't like them at all!
Gyeongseong Creature
(2023– )
Partially fiction, partially real, but a great movie
4 February 2024
Unfortunately for human race, there were way below "human standards" creatures. Like nazis, and some japanese imperialist dudes (Unit 731 is a nefarious example, for japanese), who did all kind of experiments on humans. I do hate them equally (sue me, if you don't agree with it). Fortunately, at least nazis paid for their crimes. Unfortunately, japanese subhumans did not. Americans granted them amnesty for sharing the result of their research, as everyone knows.
This movie has a beautiful story about those bitter times. I enjoyed the movie because the two main characters are played by two of my main favourite Korean actors, who played flawlessly again their parts. I guess that the movie is making the world, by amazing metaphors, aware of some dark history. Kudos to the producers!
This movie has a beautiful story about those bitter times. I enjoyed the movie because the two main characters are played by two of my main favourite Korean actors, who played flawlessly again their parts. I guess that the movie is making the world, by amazing metaphors, aware of some dark history. Kudos to the producers!
Love Like a K-Drama
(2023– )
I enjoyed it a lot!
27 January 2024
The format is really interesting, and the fact that the Japanese ladies were amazing actresses helped raising the level of the series a lot. I must confess that, despite all ladies really knew what they were doing (everyone could see that they were really good professionals), Rio Yamashita was kind of a class above them, and I deeply cherished her. The Korean gentlemen were interesting, but it was a chasm between their acting and the ladies' ones. It was obvious that they were amateurs, trying (not that hard in most cases) to become professionals. Rio raised, in my opinion, to the level of Ko Shibasaki (thank you, Netflix, for Orange Days!!). I would love a second season!
My Demon
(2023–2024)
It's not an Oscar nomination movie, but it's superb for us
24 January 2024
The fact that "Past Lives" has been nominated to Oscar, and Parasite won it, says a lot about the capability of Korean cinematography. This series is not the one (oh well, it's a series not a movie). No amazing ideas, trembling suspense, global problems or similar. No. It is a series with beautiful actors (oh well, really beautiful!!), who know very well how to play. Watching Kim Yoo-Jung playing beautifully in Dong-Yi (a superb series and she is just Dong-Yi young over there) and watching her again here, makes me think about how strong and powerful you need to be to in order to get over zillion of negative thoughts there are over there (watch Doona if you don't believe it :)) ). Congrats Kang Song and Kim Yoo-Jung!
Orange Days
(2004)
The series is incredibly emotional! I love it, I love it, I love it!!!
11 January 2024
I have watched the series twice... This is not my first J-drama. I liked them all. I would recommend: "The Full Time Wife Escapist", if you are interested in the psychology of characters, as it is impressing, despite it is be pretty strange for our western culture but this one is different. Ko Shibasaki interprets astonishingly the frustration of a violinist genius who lost hearing. The truth is that I am less into a great scenario (this series has a great scenario, story, everything by the way), and more for real emotions shown truly and deeply on screen, and Orange Days excels on them! By the way, I watched it continuously, from one end to the other; couldn't stop ... I strongly recommend it!
The Girl in the Café
(2005 TV Movie)
This movie is absolutely amazing!
10 January 2024
When you hear: 30,000 kids die annually in the world by starvation, you tend to say: Oh well, plenty of them wouldn't have had a future anyway, or they would have been bad people (because there are plenty of bad people in the world), but at the very end for us, the viewers, it's just a number. We hear about the Ukraine, but... it's not us! About Israel and their problems, but... it's not us. We are very concerned about inflation going up one cent (eurocent)/year. This movie is by far one of the strongest advocates for Humanity in us. By far! If there is nothing up there in the mansard, it's just a comedy (quite funny, I would say...). Or a social whatever, that we pronounce, or talk about, on a boring Saturday night with the friends, and also, out of our generosity, give, like a bone to a hungry dog, an 8/10 rate on IMDB and go satisfied to our beds... Oh well, if this movie is not a wake up call for the humanity in us, nothing is going to be! Remember her answer: "Does it matter?" when he asked: "Was she/he your kid?" There are 30,000 others/year who are not.
Nevertheless,
(2021)
Kind of strange to review a Korean title that has been banished after 2 episodes
28 December 2023
Oh, well, what can I say? Culture is different, principles are different, almost everything is different but the truth! You know it or not, 99% of chaebols or whatever rich thingies you have there, are doing things 100 times worse than you see in this movie. Not airing it is the ostrich policy: I don't want to watch (but especially I don't want my kids to watch it) sexual things in dramas. Oh well, guys, there is an old joke about asking questions on a certain radio show: Question: "Can I talk to my kids about sexual things?" Answer: "If you want to learn something new, yes!" Therefore, hiding the head in the sand is never going to be the answer. The series is interesting (not that I ever been a fan of these type of series but whatever), so prohibiting it is not the answer!
A beautiful, smart, funny k-drama
18 December 2023
This series is about relations that start/lead to love and/or marriage, and tries a comprehensive approach; by comprehensive I mean that lots of relations/marriages are analyzed in a funny, creative and smart way. There were plenty of features in the series that I loved, and also plenty of them I haven't seen treated in this way before. There are lots and lots of heartwarming situations, for those who love these; the actors are great (again, and again, I am in awe for how good Korean actors/actresses are). If there is one thing that I can guarantee for is that the fight between the actors and producers of Hollywood pushed me to k-dramas, that I got to love to bits!!
Leave the World Behind
(2023)
A metaphor of Divided USA Today
10 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I have not seen so many dumbos gathered as I have seen on criticizing this movie! It looks like IMDB got all of them here!! This movie is very far away from an extraterrestrial, or terror movie or whatever. No, it is a parable of today's USA society. If you didn't get it and you are from USA, it's not good. It starts by the scared white family when the African-american dad and daughter got in - did you start getting the picture? Then, the first scare: Arabic-chinese-korean pamphlets falling from the sky (oh well, we didn't see but the Arabic, however the contractor talked about the others). Then, the masonic cabala or whatever, that Mahershala talked about, which is one of the main tools of scaring plenty of American people: news is false, global warming is false, vaccines are stupid and they just try to put you in a database, so a small group of very powerful people try controlling you by this :)). And finally, the coup of grace, the 3 steps bringing you to your knees: 1. Isolating you by stopping communications, that generates: 2. Division, therefore internal fighting: everyone for the own family (this is the metaphor of the movie) and 3. Change the government. The sarcastic advice at the end of the movie: just go watch your tv shows, as you usually do.
Mona Lisa Smile
(2003)
A shocking experience
24 November 2023
The high class baby boomers USA ladies' problems (as probably educated ladies problems everywhere else) were not that clear to me. I haven't experienced them, despite I am a baby boomer (late baby boomer) myself, but never acknowledged the real wall ladies from that era hit. For me, this movie was an eye opener, and that why I gave the high rating. It's not easy to acknowledge a truth that is buried in centuries of very pointed and specific education. When everyone, every book, every professor, your parents say a certain thing is like that, you trust it blindly, and absolutely convinced. Oh well, I had tears on plenty of scenes that contradicted my beliefs. Of course, besides this, the fabulous group of actresses played absolutely amazingly.
Polar
(I) (2019)
The movie is just after graphic novel
24 November 2023
The movie addresses a certain age and/or watcher category (as it is after a graphic novel), and you have to be aware of it when start watching it. Oh well, again, as in plenty other cases, critics were not. According to what the movie tries to accomplish (which is not to decipher the mysteries of universe or whatever, and not to conquer the souls of movie art critics), it is a very well done one. Mads Mikkelsen plays his role perfectly, the others are convincing, visual effects are good, so, again, for the type of movie it deals for, it's a really good one. Of course not an Oscar level movie, but it never ever it tried to be one. Each time you watch a movie, you must be aware the category you watch.
The Accountant
(2016)
An unique combination of an action movie and a psychological one
12 November 2023
Critics really like movies involving people with psychiatric problems. On this one, critics who are maestros of this genre, and who solidly understand anomalies of regular and boring movie characters, salivated when an autistic kid was put in scene, and were super prepared to very skilfully depict how beautifully they understand the interaction of that kid with the real world. Oops! This became an action movie! Who is the superhero? The autistic guy. No!! Therefore, a 5.1 average mark followed from critics...
I strongly recommend this movie, who got an excellent average from the viewers. Trust them!
I strongly recommend this movie, who got an excellent average from the viewers. Trust them!
Doona!
(2023– )
One of the best series on Netflix
21 October 2023
This is an artistic series, not a crowd pleaser. The characters are very well defined, however, the most impressive part is the psychology of the K-pop idol. The series tries to make everyone understand what the difficulties of being a k-pop (or k-drama actor/actress, whatsoever) star in plenty of cases really are. I loved the miniseries to bits. It fits perfectly to my idea of romanticism as well as the idea of realism. To be a star, in all languages and on all meridians doesn't mean necessarily happiness. It may; but it may not. I am from Canada, but I really appreciate k-dramas. However, watching the weddings of some k-stars (Jang Na-Ra, Kang So-Ra, for example) and the fact that the non-celebrity spouse's face is hidden, most of them cannot really have girlfriends/boyfriends while young and working in this business, made me think a lot about the traumatizing life of idols. The movie is nice, but also realistic, doesn't matter what the others say. Plenty of people will complain about the ending :)) There is no other real possible ending! I strongly recommend it! It's beautiful, romantic and realistic.
Forgotten Love
(2023)
A movie adapted from the Polish novel "The Quack" by Tadeusz Dolega Mostowicz
27 September 2023
I waited a long time for a movie (series) adapted from the book and I'm happy that it's finally here. As usual, very good Polish actors, excellent decors and a good adaptation, taking into account that it's just a movie. In my opinion, a series (a short one, 6 of 1 hour episodes would have been enough I think) would have been more appropriate to emphasize the fame and skills of the professor, his reputation and relation with his wife, and his increasingly warm relation to his daughter. However, the movie does a good job given the time limitation, so I recommend it, especially if you read the book.
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