Change Your Image
andisass
Reviews
Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon (2023)
Truly heartwarming and touching
In Japanese, the name of the show is 'My Happy Decision', I absolutely loved it and it definitely goes into my top most favourite anime. The animation is very good, maybe not as good as some Ghibli studio, but much more importantly, I found the story to be truly heartwarming and touching, and I think there's a message in there for every woman (and man). The absence of cliche was welcome.
It begins as a story of a girl born into the most unfortunate life and how her life unfolds unfolds in the world of the supernatural when Miyo the main character, is betrothed to who is believed to be an uncaring and unkind man. But is he or is he not. She was not the first. I'm not sure that the English translation of My Happy Marriage, is the right. The tital itself give something of a clue.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Snore fest
The surround sound was very nice. Despite an impressive cast lineup, it only managed to keep me watching for 1 hour and 6 minutes. Nice visuals, but not interesting enough to quite keep me adequately entertained. From the beginning it was hardly believable. I quite like fantasy, but wear fantasy fails to have believability it loses my attention rather quickly. IMDb shows it is a comedy first, clearly I missed that aspect. One can only hope that it came from a book, as books are often touted as being way better than the movie. Still, I doubt whether I would have been able very far through the book.
Hwan Hon (2022)
Overrated. Americanised. Deeply disappointed.
I found this kdrama very frustrating to endure. It wasn't helped by the fact that the fantasy concept of alchemy of souls was obscene to me. There are moments of brilliance, but too many moments of missing the bus, not in the sense of missing the boat though it has elements of that too. By 'missing the bus' I mean, you're standing on the side of the road, you see a bus coming, and yet you walk right in it's path and get run over. Too many characters, too often miss the blatant obvious. It's almost like days-of-our-lives moments where the characters stare with a kind of blank face and then don't act or react to what is self evident. I wouldn't have made it to the end of the often tedious 20 episodes had it not been for the truly wonderful performance by Jung So-min and charming character she portrayed and also many of the other actors also gave an admiral performance.
Fantasy kdramas are obviously fantasy, however they tend to be consistent and intelligent in their approach to the fantasy elements. They typically rarely or never feign ignorance to the obvious. Alchemy of Souls is full of this. The supposed to be strong and intelligent characters often come across as unintelligent and weak as they miss what is unmissable.
If you are going to watch it, I'd recommend you wait for the second season as it contains a nonsensical Americanised style cliffhanger. Were it not for it's unmerited high rating I wouldn't have persisted with it. I kept thinking it was going to get better.
Eoneu Nal Uri Jib Hyeongwaeuro Myeolmangyi Deuleowassda (2021)
An unmissable Park Bo-young.
A Korean drama with Park Bo young only needs to be barely washable for me to watch it. Just the fact that this has Park Bo young in it makes it worth 7 of the 8 stars alone that I've given it. Were she not in it I'll probably would have given it 7 stars Fortunately the show was interesting in itself and it was enough to keep my eyes on the screen.
Melancholia (2011)
The worst things I have ever had to sit through.
I watched this from beginning to end, and it was the worst cinema experience I have ever had to endure. Unrealistic and boorish, only the reality ignorant arty farty people could endure this let alone actually enjoy it. I can't help it, I'm a realist and when two planets get that close in the first instance it's going to cause a tidal movement that would likely destroy all coastlines and do much damage inland. In the end the depiction of the two planets colliding is completely fanciful. Life on earth would have almost nearly if not entirely ceased to exist long before the planets actually collided due to massive earthquakes and tidal waves. One of the things that bugs me the most is that first year physicist would have been able to work out whether the planets would have collided or not. Once again, the alleged unforeseeable ultimate consequence would have been entirely predictable. The only way I can think of to describe this thing is vomit in the mouth that you can neither swallow or spit out.
Isanghan byeonhosa Woo Young-woo (2022)
Ok but highly overrated.
I like Park Eun-bin. I've seen her most recently in Age of Youth and Do You Like Brahms, and Extraordinary Attorney U (Woo) is no exception, she does a beautiful job in the show. Overall though it won't make it into my top 10 favourite kdramas, probably not even close. The romance is nice and at times really lovely, but the court cases and Court scenes are mostly tedious, uninspiring, boring, frustrating, skippable and at times stupid, and it makes a mockery of the Korean Court system (I hope). The only exceptions are U young-u, sea mammal moments of brilliance. Other than an attorney, even seeing her as a doctor as the female Goods Doctor, a musician or some other occupation could have only made the show better. I'm not sure what they were thinking, if there was thinking at all. It certainly doesn't deserve the ratings it's getting. Park Eun-bin's great performance isn't enough. Having said that I'm only up to episode 12 but I just can't see things improving, and even if they do, it's still a lost opportunity for a potentially brilliant show.
Hannari Girori no Yoriko-san (2018)
It doesn't really deserve a 10
For those who have been to Japan, or are interested in Japan or Japanese culture, more specifically Kyoto, the imagery of Kyoto in the show is worth seeing. It's a lovely story and singer Yui Yokoyama couldn't have been a better choice, she's delightful and entertaining, and does a wonderful job as Yoriko Shindo, and especially at singing the Kyoto street song, which I only found out was real thing after hearing it.
In reality, it's probably only a 7 or 8 out of 10 as far as Jdramas are concerned. It consists of a mere four, 24 minute episodes so it's around the same length of a movie and can be watched in an evening. I gave it a 10 despite it's weaker moments because I found so many that were captivating,.The English translation, 'A Sharply Graceful Girl', although a little unusual sounding, is the perfect expression of Yui's performance as Yoriko.