Run Away

 

tags: cults, drama, Netflix, thriller 

⭐⭐

From Netflix 

Simon's perfect life is shattered when daughter Paige runs away, later found strung out in a park. Simon's search leads into a dangerous underworld where an act of violence rocks his life. 

The Netflix series is an adaptation of Harlan Coben's book Run Away. The synopsis sounded familiar and I checked on Goodreads if I had read the book. I had, in 2019. I vaguely remember except for the cult and the PI Elena. In the book she is an Hispanic lady but since the series is a British production, the character was changed. I don't recall some of the additional characters and I may have to read it again. 

I am not too happy with the casting, as usual. How in the world does a shortish overweight woman work as a SWAT team leader(?) and sort of able to "rescue" a fit tall guy, who later became her husband. I was laughing hard at the giant beach ball running while carrying a heavy weapon trying to kill the bad guys in a warehouse. The warehouse scene explaining how she met her husband is totally unnecessary. The other fat girl is a police detective/investigator acting like a teenager in love and sleeping with her partner. Speaking of the partner, the young Black actor is surely an eye candy but sheesh, he simply cannot act. His idea of acting is knitting his eyebrows. All. The. Time. 

Not recommended.

Ang Mutya Ng Section E

 

tags: action, comedy, drama, Filipino series, High School kids, romance, violence

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from IMDB

A notorious all-male section is shaken up by the arrival of a female transfer student, causing chaos as the grumpy class section president tries to drive her away.

I noticed the second season of this Filipino series in one of Kdrama websites but the first season is missing. I looked for and found the complete first season 16 episodes in another website and finished watching. I'll start the new season when it is complete. 

The Jewel Of Section E is the literal English translation of Ang Mutya Ng Section E. Mutya, pronounced moot-ya or moo-tcha, means pearl, gem, jewel, or muse. The series obviously got the idea from Japan's Hana Yori Dango but I can't accuse the writers of ripping off HYD because HYD is a Japanese anime version of Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Darcy and Lizzie Bennet. Yes, it is.* The lead male is always wealthy, arrogant, and a snob and the lead female is feisty and not afraid to speak her mind. Pride and Prejudice probably created the original love triangle with Darcy, Elizabeth and Wickam. But the similarity ends there because Wickam is a cad and HYD and AMNSE made the second lead a kind lovable boy. In HYD, he has blonde hair and in Mutya, he is Japanese with rooster red hair.   

The girl JayJay, was expelled from her school because of violence and she was taken in by the International School with the help of her wealthy cousin. JayJay is not just feisty, she is downright gangster. LOL. In no time did she become friends with the boys in Section E and also a few of the girls in the higher Sections. 

Recommended for Hana Yori Dango fans.

* Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet pairing is the staple of Mills & Boon romance novels - wealthy, stiff, arrogant mid 30s male and very very young spirited female. I read enough of them to say it is true at the time. I can't say for sure if it is the same today, though. 

Guns & Moses

 

tags: Amazon Prime movie, gun toting Rabbi, thriller 

⭐⭐⭐⭐out of 5

from Amazon Prime Video 

A small-town rabbi becomes an unlikely detective and gunfighter after his community is violently attacked in this sharp, high-stakes thriller packed with action, wit, and heart 

The title got me to check it out on Amazon Prime Video. I thought it will be a comedy but it is not and I loved it. A murder mystery with cliched usual suspects but I enjoyed it very much. Rabbi Moyshe is an unlikely gunslinging detective wannabe but he had no choice in order to protect not just his family but also the innocent patsy. 

I like the part where rabbi Mo, a few days before the murder, approached the young man falsely accused by police. The boy was taunting the group of Jewish people outside the strip mall. Rabbi Mo offered some brownies and asked him to talk to the group. The boy listened to the old man about being a holocaust survivor and he eventually got a brownie and ate it, didn't argue with them at all. Rabbi Mo believed his innocence because he "ate the brownie". It's very meaningful, IMHO. The movie is not about anti Jews but about money and corruption. Cliche, I know.

Having gun protection during congregations not just for Jewish people but all religions specially Christian gatherings, is absolutely necessary. Hanukkah and Christmas are specially targeted by satanic moslems wherever in the world they are. So, this line is important not just in a movie but also in real life: "May God and your Glock protect you."

Highly recommended.

The Great Flood

tags: AI, disaster, Korean, mystery, Netflix movie, sci-fi 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐out of 5

from Netflix

When a raging flood traps a researcher and her young son, a call to a crucial mission puts their escape — and the future of humanity — on the line. 

I loved the movie. Visuals, acting, dialog, and CGI are very good. One of my favorite Korean actresses, Kim Da-mi stars as the "mother". 

It is part disaster, sci fi and mystery, I was confused at first but I stayed on watching the seemingly endless time loop similar to Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow. 

When researcher An-na died, her memories and emotions were used to create an AI version of a mother who genuinely cares for her child, recreating it over and over again until they are ready to be sent to Earth and repopulate it after devastation from the flood disaster. 

Viewers who love a disaster movie will be disappointed because the story is about AI and how it might become useful in the future. The movie is not for everybody but will be appreciated more by true science fiction fans.

Spoilers

Brat Farrar

tags: mystery, ugly

goose🥚

From Goodreads 

What begins as a ploy to claim an inheritance ends with the impostor's life hanging in the balance. In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerisms, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the impostor's plan and his life. Culminating in a final terrible moment when all is revealed, Brat Farrar is a precarious adventure that grips the reader early and firmly and then holds on until the explosive conclusion.

This is the worst mystery novel written by Josephine Tey and the worst I have read this year. She made an impostor, criminal, and thief an honorable character and made a 13 year boy murder his twin brother right after their parents were killed. Just because he didn't like his brother. No other explanation and not believable at all. This was an awful read.  

Tey had a habit of telling instead of showing. Throughout the short novel, now 21 year old adult Simon, never showed that he is an evil Cain. It was all in the mind of the impostor who was always sure it was Simon, at age 13 who killed his brother, without explaining why he thought so. Just a hunch. What?? Simon confessed to him when got drunk and justified the impostor's suspicion. 

The author never showed any sympathy for the fictional family who lost the parents at the same time, just told what happened., as though in real life she abhored the landed gentry. Anyway, the parents left 13 year old twin brothers Patrick and Simon, 11 year old Eleanor, and 1 year old twin babies, Ruth and Jane. I was so annoyed when out of the blue, the impostor Patrick thought that 9 year old Ruth probably has never been spanked. She hadn't done nor showed anything to make an adult spank her. She was a well behaved and spoken young girl. That's lazy crazy writing. Tey was not a talented writer or she was absolutely bonkers when she wrote this book. 

Not recommended.

The Jealousy Man and Other Stories

tags: Jo Nesbø, short stories, mystery, The Jealousy Man

⭐⭐⭐ 

From Amazon  

A detective with a nose for jealousy is on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin. [adapted into a movie, Killer Heat.]

A bereaved father must decide whether vengeance has a place in the new world order after a pandemic brings about the collapse of society.

A garbage man fresh off a bender tries to piece together what happened the night before.

A hired assassin matches wits against his greatest adversary in a dangerous game for survival.

An instantly electric connection between passengers on a flight to London may spell romance, or something more sinister. 

From Goodreads

Five stories set in the near future.

 

Welcome to Rat Island and a post-pandemic America, where the upper-class elite is waiting atop a skyscraper to be evacuated while the masses fight for survival down in the streets. 

In Shredder, a scientist researching eternal life has finally found a memory shredder that will help him forget everything, before it’s too late. 

Cicadas tells the story of two best friends on their way to the bull races in Pamplona when they fall in love with the same girl. 

The Antidote follows an estranged son with an agenda as he goes to visit his father at a snake farm in Africa. 

Lastly, in the epic and vicious Black Knight, we meet a psychologist who also happens to be an assassin contracted by big business.

All the stories have a common theme: jealousy. Some are very good but some are mediocre at best. The movie adaptation of The Jealousy Man has just 2 similarities to the story - the murder and the location. Everything else is skewed. The role played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a 60 years old Greek, still active police detective. He is not a lousy poser that the producer made him in the movie. Movie adaptations from books are always annoying. 

J and K Drama OST

Collecting original music from Japanese and Korean dramas started with Japanese Hana Yori Dango and Korea's version, Boys Over Flowers. I downloaded songs from several dramas until I got tired of it. Most are from 2012 series. I recently downloaded a couple from 2 newer Korean dramas. Netflix also added several of my favorite romance dramedy series, some from 2009, and I rewatched You're Beautiful. Park Shin Hye was just 19 years old and not very good but I still love her and the series, and the songs. This is another gender bending theme, with Shin Hye's character playing her twin brother invading the boys' house. So much fun and crying in this drama. LOL

The latest from Korea, Dynamite Kiss, is currently airing on Netflix, Wednesday and Thursday, on the  US Top Ten every Thursday. 

   

Korea, 2009, You're Beautiful with Jang Keun Suk and Park Shin Hye, newly added on Netflix. The song is performed by the blonde one, Lee Hong-Ki with his band F.T. Island. All 3 boys are musicians. 

Japan, 2005, Hana Yori Dango, 2 seasons, theme song by Arashi, member Jun Matsumoto plays the male lead,Tsukasa Domyoji. This is way better than Korea's Boys Over Flowers. The video was made in 2007 and has nothing to do with the drama.

Korea, 2024 - 2025, Iron Family, 50 episodes

Japan, 2012, Rich Man, Poor Woman with Oguri Shun 

 

Korea, 2012, To The Beautiful You, Korean version of Hana Kimi. It has more drama and romance and cuter leads, Minho and Kang Haneul. Sulli, the actress who pretended to be a boy sadly passed away in 2019.

 

Korea, 2009, Boys Over Flowers, Korean version of Hana Yori Dango. It made Lee Min-ho an international star. Still on Netflix.   

Japan, 2012, Sprout, with really young actors ;

Korea, 2012, Love Rain, with Jang Keun Suk and Im Yoona, coming to Netflix soon.

Nouvelle Vague

 

tags: Jean-Luc Godard, movie about a movie (breathless), Netflix, Nouvelle Vague

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐out of five

A playful, poignant love letter to cinema, Nouvelle Vague reimagines the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless in an exuberant exploration of the youthful rebellion and creative chaos that shaped the French New Wave. Directed by Richard Linklater, starring Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, and Aubry Dullin.

Zoey Deutch who played Jean Seberg's role as Patricia is the daughter of Lea Thompson.  

Last Samurai Standing

tags: Japanese dorama, Netflix

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Wikipedia

Last Samurai Standing is a 2025 Japanese Netflix original live-action television series adapted from a Japanese manga series of the same name, which is also based on the novel of the same name written by Shogo Imamura and illustrated by Katsumi Tatsuzawa. Starring Junichi Okada, Yumia Fujisaki and Kaya Kiyohara, and set in the late 19th century during the Meiji period, the series takes place at the Tenryūji monastery in Kyoto. 

292 fighters came together at Tenryū-ji Temple in Kyoto after sunset, drawn by the chance to win a grand prize of ¥100,000. The challenge was clear: take each other's wooden tags and make it all the way to Tokyo. The winner would get the prize. One of the warriors, Shujiro Saga, joined the dangerous contest with a personal mission: to help his sick wife and child.

All 6 episodes are streaming on Netflix. It's action packed period series - a mash up of Battle Royale,  Alice In Borderland, and of course Squid Game. 

Game host/master Enju is played by Ninomiya Kazunari whom I recently watched in Ties Of Shooting Stars. He was also the voice of the animated Kurosensei.

Hana Kimi

 

Ore Wa Homo Janai~!!

Hana Kimi is my favorite Japanese dorama, a live version of the anime. This was filmed in 2007 and has never been equaled. I think it is funnier and better than Hana Yori Dango. There are Korean (To The Beautiful You, which I also like and still have the OST in my iPod) and Taiwanese (never saw and liked Chinese language dramedies) versions. It has a gender bending theme a la Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and As You Like it but with the Japanese style silliness. I watched this series in 2010 and watching it again on Netflix. I still love it specially Nakatsu. 

Nakatsu thought he was gay because he felt a spark and is attracted to the girl pretending to be a boy. I believe he set the trend in second lead syndrome in dramaland. I love the first couple, though, and the first series I've seen with Oguri Shun. He is also in Hana Yori Dango and numerous movies. He has a new dorama currently streaming on Netflix, Romantics Anonymous. I have seen probably half of all his TV series and movies. One of my favorites is live action movie, Lupin the Third. 

The lead female enrolled in an all boys high school where intelligence and wealth are not necessary. The boys just have to be ikemen and apparently weird. Word got out that there is a girl in the school and the boys set up tests to determine who is female among the students. The tests were weird but hilarious.

Highly recommended for Japanese dorama fans.