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Reviews
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)
Excellent emotional depth and detail.
There's a lot to love about this movie. I only expected to have a ten minute look, I was dead tired- but I was enthralled with the wonderful acting, the charming characters, the setting and the story from the first minute.
Wonderful the glimpse of Paris in this bygone era. The speech and mannerisms of the kind hearted lead, the by street savvy dialog of the Parisian bums to the hushed tones in the Maison de Dior. All the understated beauty. Nobody shouting but the grévistes, no accidents but a tiny fire, there was a moment of self pity and finally the triumphant finale. I really loved this wonderful story.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Excellent, but a tad light-hearted.
Watched the premiere tonight in Annecy. Unfortunately, it was in VF, so given what a surprising lexique you find in D&D, I missed quite a lot in translation, mostly clever comedy, so I will definitely watch it over again in English. Still, the visuals -(who knew where it took place in Eberron?) felt so real. Would love to see more of Eberron. Anyway between the visuals and the 80% of the script I did understand, I got it. It's amazing - like a crash course in D&D.
Only its the (ideal) version of a real game, one where all the players are so deeply in character they decide, roll high, play flawlessly, and keep the action coming. Four people in a room could never accomplish as much in 2 hours and 17 minutes or whatever, as playing often involves a lot of reading as you go along, since the player's handbook is like 189 pages long and you jumped right in. It felt like a real campaign in that the party decides an action, but on their way to achieving it, chaos ensues, and they are caught up faced with endless menaces and additional quests filled with peril and terrifying creatures, just like in a real campaign where you're all over Eberron looting, running errands,and dodging bullets. Thanks to Hollywood we get to see a complete campaign in just over 2 hours!
I could not imagine choosing a bard when creating a character, yet this human Edgin leads the party with intelligence,perception and insane charisma and persuasion skills.
Sooo many spectacular fight scenes with greatswords, axes, daggers etc , (I can't wait to play again) 2 ferocious females: a human warrior, very proficient in weaponry, carries a Greataxe -incredibly strong, tough and fearless, and the other a half-elf with 4 fingers, pointed ears, horns and a tail, with mad shape shifting, stealth, surveillance, skills and the coolest little wrist mounted crossbow. And the fourth is a young mage whose shy skills are gaining conviction and become very strong, all of whom make it easy for the unarmed bard to disappears behind the nearest rock.
Loved the Paladin, he played it soooo well. Very cool seeing the greatsword glowing with the astral radiance of the branding smite. Would be interesting to know his backstory. He'll obviously be the main character in the sequel.
First time seeing Hasbro affiliated with D&D, not sure how to feel about that.
The Last Airbender (2010)
I liked it. The tai chi is amazing
I wanted a tai chi selection on Netflix, thère were many to choose from! The acting is not very solid, but the material arts are excellent. The story was easy enough for me to follow (i hate plot twists) and im looking forward to a sequel. I'm giving it a 7!
Raketsonyeondan (2021)
Coming of age, Korean teenage athlete style
A lot of clichés to start with, but everything is sorted out for the best as often is the case with teenage groups. A surprising amount of decent badminton showing dedication, commitment, technical progress, challenges met and conquered. A glimpse of the pressure the kids and their coaches are under, as well as the situation in a typical agricultural township which is gradually experiencing depopulation and all of its inconveniences. Some confusing parts,
such as suggesting a third of the way through that Hae Kang Yoon and Se Yoon were in elementary school together when in fact he was from Seoul and she from Daegu. Though its a highschool team we never meet any other students, aside of the 25 baseball players, there is nobody that isn't a badminton player. There seem to be only 7 adults in the whole town yet they initially truly believe they've been outvoted about the development proposal even though it's being proposed by a man they have little regard for to a room full of these same 7 people, none of whom wanting to accept the terms.
But if you collect the names of Korean dishes you will be well served as food is hugely important and symbolic in this show, if that's your thing it'll peak your curiosity.
With one more episode I am amazed at the speed in which I devoured the whole series. Excellent character development and some wonderful acting. My favorite scene is probably when the whole town came to cheer in typical festivity garments.
Raketsonyeondan (2021)
Coming of age, Korean teenage athlete style
A lot of clichés to start with, but everything is sorted out for the best as often is the case with teenage groups. A surprising amount of decent badminton showing dedication, commitment, technical progress, challenges met and conquered. A glimpse of the pressure the kids and their coaches are under, as well as the situation in a typical agricultural township which is gradually experiencing depopulation and all of its inconveniences. Some confusing parts,
such as suggesting a third of the way through that Hae Kang Yoon and Se Yoon were in elementary school together when in fact he was from Seoul and she from Daegu. Though its a highschool team we never meet any other students, aside of the 25 baseball players, there is nobody that isn't a badminton player. There seem to be only 7 adults in the whole town yet they initially truly believe they've been outvoted about the development proposal even though it's being proposed by a man they have little regard for to a room full of these same 7 people, none of whom wanting to accept the terms.
But if you collect the names of Korean dishes you will be well served as food is hugely important and symbolic in this show, if that's your thing it'll peak your curiosity.
With one more episode I am amazed at the speed in which I devoured the whole series. Excellent character development and some wonderful acting. My favorite scene is probably when the whole town came to cheer in typical festivity garments.
The K2 (2016)
Who needs exercise? Try this adrenaline rollercoaster
I always loved action films. This is 16 hours of 1 hr episodes loaded with 40% adrenaline, 20% intrigue & political ambition, 20% bribery, corruption, private army stuff, for-hire loyalty, 10% mutual respect and friendship, 10%, intensely psychological romantic development.
Political Greed, corporate power, as usual on the romantic slate main characters are loners and/or outcasts that have spent their whole life honing an impressive set of skills, secrets of the rich that could destroy everything if they were leaked, (you wonder is surveillance that developed already in Korea or is that an exaggeration for this movie?) Every main character moves around with a little entourage of wingmen and assistants, all players know instantly what happened elsewhere. There is always a car waiting, there is zero downtime and somehow they feed you all sorts of crazy information so you can understand rapidly, because it is a seriously twisted plot. With 3 episodes left, I have no clue how it will turn out, but I feel like I'm running a marathon. Cunning Je Ha Kim, Ji Chang Wook's character, insanely irresistable and an incredibly well trained mercenary who just wants to lead a normal life again, can not rationalise taking a life, so as he pursues and masters his prey (and the prey of his enemies, employers, coworkers), all of whom he measures with respect, his mind races to find a solution to avoid killing yet he tortures himself that his humanity is a shortcoming. In so existing he elevates nearly everybody with whom he is in contact. Unsurprisingly the film places a gigantic emphasis on beauty, with a fair amount of film footage spent in beauty salons or in the presence of barbers and 7 out of 10 women are dressed to the nines. All crimes committed in jeans and hoodies and undercover agents in black suits (which honestly just helps with the flow of the story line).
It is tempting to binge it, but i am savouring it instead.
Excellent character development and acting throughout the cast. I've been sticking with historical fiction, there are excellent martial arts scenes in all of them as well, but i love Ji Chang Wok films so I am following him in both historic and contemporary series. Check out The Healer as well. I don't know why viewers in Korea preferred the chemistry between Je Ha and Yoo Jin because he was only using the million dollar smile with Anna, his leading lady.