The series is brilliant tackling the subject of killing hundreds to save millions. The story borrows from a few sci-fi novels and movies specially Kazuo Ishiguro'sNever Let Me Go. Is it ethical to create clones for experiment that kills them in order to save humanity? The illegality of owning pets is borrowed from Philip K. Dick'sDo Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?. The dialog-heavy style which many viewers find boring is similar to Danny Boyle's movieSunshineand the Russian movieSolaris. IMHO, the story is complete and doesn't need a second season. You draw your own conclusion based on what happened.
Action, comedy, corruption in politics and police, Korean series starts December 17, 2021 Fridays and Saturdays
The first episode suggests that the 2 characters are one and the same person just like the characters in Fight Club. Ryu Soo Yeol (Lee Dong-Wook) is a competent police officer but with questionable work ethics kissing a politician's ass for fast promotion. But his activities are suddenly thwarted by the appearance of K (Wi Ha-Jun of Squid Game) who is rather crazy but righteous.
Lee Dong-Wook as Ryu Soo-Yeol and Wi Ha-Joon as K
Ryu Soo-Yeol was relaxing in the sauna when K suddenly appeared fully clothed wearing a bike helmet and shoes and tossed the poor guy around. He asked for CCTV footage but K appeared nowhere in the video.
At the end of Episode 2, newly promoted Bad Ryu Soo-Yeol realized he is Crazy K when he kicked the dirty politician right on his face. One of the best and funniest second episodes in KDramaland. 😁
Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.
As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?
But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?
From the first book, The Thursday Murder Club
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.
The Man Who Died Twice is the second book of a new mystery series, The Thursday Murder Club. I read it because the first book is not available yet from the library. The story is a stand alone but there are recurring characters aside from the 4 septuagenarians.
The story-telling is straightforward without flowery language which I like and the story is full of surprises. I figured out who the murderer is about 2/3 into the book. Just a wild guess and I was right.
Amanda Jackson has always longed to be a mother. The early weeks of her first pregnancy are a mixture of joy, anticipation, and uncertainty as she and her husband prepare for the journey ahead.
Then comes a devastating loss. Even though her doctors tell her otherwise, Amanda believes she’s still pregnant. Her diagnosis is a rare, mysterious condition called pseudocyesis. Betrayed by her mind and body and her marriage strained, Amanda turns to neuroscientist Patrick Davis for answers.
Patrick understands the strange twists and turns of the human mind better than anyone. But as he spirals ever deeper into Amanda’s illness, his own homelife crumbles as his wife, Marissa, struggles to cope with her own loss. Marissa’s unique and, some may think, macabre work is her salvation, but it’s pulling her further and further away from Patrick.
As the two couples confront the fraught intersection of science, death, and human emotion, they venture into the darkest corners of each other’s lives. What they find there could change them forever.
*Sigh* I never learn. Once again I got tricked by glowing comments on Amazon, and the science aspect convinced me to download the book from Amazon First Reads for January 2022. What a huge disappointment and complete waste of my time! The book, inhabited by broken people, is nothing more than soap opera disguised as science-y. There are extremely long paragraphs on science and mathematics that bored me to death. The math theory that Marissa is working on is supposed to discover parallel universes but it never came to fruition. Nothing. So what was the point? SMH
I'm liking the music of Magdalena Bay, an American synth pop duo. Their songs are catchy and they have their own style unlike someone pretending to be country singers *cough* Taylor Swift*cough*.
Their first album, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, came out in 2020 and they have a new album, Mercurial World, released in October 2021. You can download both EP and album from Freegal.
Secrets (Your Fire) from Mercurial World
Killshot from A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling
Her voice and their sound remind me of several Japanese female music performers for animes and of course the Danish pop music group Aqua. Who can forget their cute and fun Barbie Girl?
In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.
Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.
When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . .
Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.
Silverview is the last novel by John le Carré published in 2021. I can tell that the book was written many years before he died in December 2020. The book is very short, a novelette, but packed with espionage mystery that has a distinct le Carré voice and style. I hated Agent Running In The Field so I was wary that Silverview might be the same. Thankfully, it is not and I loved it!
tags: fantasy, historical fiction, Polish, religious wars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
From GoodReads
WARRIORS OF GOD, the second volume of the Hussite Trilogy by Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the bestselling Witcher series, depicts the adventures of Reynevan and his friends in the years 1427 to 1428 as war erupts across Europe.
Reynevan begins by hiding away in Bohemia but soon leaves for Silesia, where he carries out dangerous, secret missions entrusted to him by the leaders of the Hussite religion. At the same time he strives to avenge the death of his brother and discover the whereabouts of his beloved. Once again pursued by multiple enemies, Reynevan is constantly getting into and out of trouble.
Sapkowski's deftly written novel delivers gripping action full of numerous twists and mysteries, seasoned with elements of magic and Sapkowski's ever-present - and occasionally bawdy - sense of humour. Fans of the Witcher will appreciate the rich panorama of this slice of the Middle Ages.
There is no shortage of dead bodies in this bloodier second volume of The Hussite Trilogy. The book has more magic, witchcraft, shapeshifting, and dark humor. Most interesting is the almost complete revelation of the true nature of my favorite character, the half-wit looking giant, Samson Honeypot.
The Cosmic Trilogy (The Space Trilogy) relates the interplanetary travels of Ransom, C.S. Lewis's ill-informed and terrified victim who leaves Earth much against his will and who, in the first book of the trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, published by the Bodley Head in 1938, encounters the imaginary and delightful world of Macalandra.
In the second book, Perelandra (1943), Ransom is transported to a world of sweet smells and delicious tastes, a new Garden of Eden in which is enacted, with a difference, the story of Temptation.
That Hideous Strength (1945) completes the trilogy and finds Dr Ransom returned from his travels in space and living in an English university town - where the Senior Common Room is given a mysterious depth, a more than earthly dimension which such things, in the author's view, always have in life.
The Trilogy should be required reading for all specially High School students, IMHO, for the message. The books are not really science fiction but more about deep ideas. I like that C. S. Lewis is never preachy and tells a great story that will make the reader think.
Aimee Mann has a new album Queens of the Summer Hotel. Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles also has a new album Bright Lights and one of the songs, a cover of a Badfinger song Name of the Game, features Aimee Mann. Great cover from two great musicianss. Both albums can be downloaded from Freegal.
I can't believe Aimee Mann is over 60 years old and she still sounds amazing. I read that she suffered a neurological disorder last year that distorted the way she heard music including her own. As a result she can only listen to Steely Dan songs. She said in an interview
Steely Dan's music have an enormous amount of feeling. The characters are sad, and pathetic, and despairing, and drug addicts, mostly involved in these terrible dead-end relationships. What's not to like? I feel like people have a serious damage and then I always relate to that.
Aimee always has a dark sense of humor IMHO. I own all of her solo and 'Til Tuesday albums, Bachelor No. 2 is still my favorite.
Jirisan is a Korean action drama series about mountain rangers at Jiri Mountain National Park. Seo Yi-Gang (Gianna Jun) is the best ranger who knows virtually everything about the area at Jiri Mountain National Park including where to climb the mountain. Kang Hyun-Jo (Ju Ji-Hoon) is a rookie ranger who graduated from the military academy and was once an army captain. They become partners in rescuing hikers who get lost around Jiri Mountain National Park.
I've seen the first episode and I loved it already including the OST by Jin of BTS. This is high-octane action drama with superb cinematography, even the CGI, and top-notch cast. Clairvoyant newbie Kang Hyun-Jo isn't given time to change clothes nor brief orientation and dives right into action.
The 9th season of Great British Baking Show's first episode started streaming today with new bakers. Something to look forward to on Fridays. The show opened with the judges and hosts wearing tacky Billy Ray Cyrus mullet wigs and singing their baking version of Achy Breaky Heart. Prue is even wearing moustache and cowboy hat. So. Much. Cheese. I like it.
You can have your fun
Make brownies by the ton
You can fill your donuts up with jam
You can ice your bun
And then when you are done
You can load your quiche with cheese and ham
You can do a choux
And then whip up a roux
Then produce a few nice cookies you can chew
You can sit and watch the muffins rise
You can make a cream puff and some pies
But don't bake my tart
My flaky pastry tart
I just don't think you understand
You'll over bake my tart
And that will break my heart
And then you'll never shake my hand...
My favorite baketestants so far are the funny Lizzie and the pretty Crystelle. I don't care if they are not the best bakers in the first episode. Lizzie and Crystelle have bright sunny personality and I hope they don't get eliminated quickly. Not only do Lizzie and Noel have matching pink smiley clothing, they have matching sense of humor and are very entertaining together.
Noel and Lizzie wearing matching clothes with pink smiley design
In the 1960s, Spain became a home to hundreds of survivors of the Mauthausen camp. Isabel, a young Spanish woman, is one of them. She is looking for Skorzeny, Europe's most dangerous man, but she is not alone.
Jaguar is a highly entertaining and binge worthy 6 episodes European Spanish thriller series set in the 1960s about a group of Nazi survivors trying to capture, shame, and punish Nazis sneaking into Spain and other European cities. The lead female actress Blanca Suarez as the title character Jaguar is enough reason for me to watch when the series started streaming yesterday. I first saw Blanca when she was just 18 years old together with Ana de Armas who was 19 in the 2007 Spanish melodrama El Internado.
Highly recommended. Watch in European Spanish with English subtitles.
South Korean dramas last year and this year created several family oriented and clean fun with very little romance or none at all. They are currently the favorites of viewers from around the globe, not just South Korea. I made a short list of my favorites so far and 2 are family friendly. All the series were broadcast in 2021.
My number 1 favorite drama is family and friends oriented, funny, has well developed characters, there are no lingering and annoying villains, the very young and very old people become close friends and are almost equally represented. A heart warming dramedy with plenty of humor and cheese [but in a good way]. The badminton games are surprisingly enjoyable and exciting as though the competitions are real. All the actors are excellent specially the teen boys and girls. I will surely binge watch the series again.
even when the much-awaited wi-fi was finally working at the house, the racket boys and girls prefer to hang out at neighbor grandma's house to enjoy her company and yummy food
2. Move To Heaven
Streaming on Netflix
10 Episodes
Based on the writings of a real person who cleaned up what the deceased left behind, excellent script and character development, great story telling, superb acting, no boring romance. Each story will probably make you cry, make sure there's a box of tissues nearby.
Geu-Ru is a 20 year old young man with Asperger's syndrome. He works in his father’s company, Move To Heaven, sorting out items left by the deceased. One day, Geu-Ru's own father dies and he is left alone but his father left a will assigning an unknown "uncle" Sang-Gu to be Geu-Ru's guardian. Sang-Gu is a bitter and cold man, a former martial artist who fought in underground matches. He went to prison because of a tragic incident during one of his fights. They run Move To Heaven together with the help of a teenage female friend and neighbor of Geu-Ru.
3. Hospital Playlist Season 2
streaming on Netflix
12 episodes, 80 - 90 minutes
I am not a fan of hospital dramas but this one is different. It is also about friendship, a little romantic relationships, and family. The "band" sings at end of each episode. It's an ongoing joke that the lone female doctor always sings out of tune and is hopeless.
"Wise Doctor Life" depicts the stories of doctors, nurses, and patients at a hospital. 5 doctors all entered the same medical university in 1999. They are friends since and now work together in the same hospital.
I've never heard of this group. The name of the band Closet Disco Queen joined by another band with a cute "cheesy" name The Flying Raclette plus the title of their new album, Omelette du Fromage, made me look, listen, and download from Freegal music. Not bad; I like.
The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient.
Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
I've heard of this book more than 10 years ago but never had the interest to read maybe because it was made into a movie with the trio I really dislike - director Scorsese and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo and the movie sort of sullied the book for me. These 3 are the Hollywood people whose movies I avoid the most. Scorsese to me is an overrated director; DiCaprio acts the same way in all of his movies, and Ruffalo is a loud mouth Hollyweird personality with no talent whatsoever. But I digress. This post is about the book. Sorry. 😔
Although I have suspected who Teddy really is from the clues left by the missing inmate and when he finds and has a conversation with her in a cave, it is still a great psychological thriller and it kept me guessing the whos and whys up to the end. The ending has all the answers although Teddy's fate is a bit vague and it is up to the readers to draw their own conclusion.
He's All That is a teen romantic comedy movie which is a gender-swapped remake of the 1999 movie She's All That. Rachael Leigh Cook who starred in the original movie plays the mother of the main character, Padgett Sawyer, a high schooler.
Padgett earns lots of money with her status as a popular social media influencer. She is able to save money for college and helps her mom with household expenses. She gets humiliated on live video finding her boyfriend with another girl, losing many followers and beauty product endorsement earnings. She vows to get her influencer status back mainly for her college funds and makes a bet with her friends that she will makeover an unsuspecting boy in school because she is the so-called queen of makeovers. The 3 girls choose a loner boy who doesn't follow the trend in school. He has only 2 friends, his younger sister and a girl who is of Indian descent. The boy, Cameron, is not ugly, he is just not stylish and is a magnet to taunting by schoolmates because he doesn't socialize with them. Cameron is an amateur photographer who never shows his photos to anyone, works as a stable hand in the morning before going to school. He loves Kurosawa films which is a huge plus in my book.
I was not interested to see it at first but then I read the nasty comments about the main actress's lack of acting chops and experience because in real life she got famous for being a social media darling. These people, I find, are just jealous. IMHO the movie is better, yes, better than the original. The script as expected is clichéd but acting is good. I liked it.
Don't listen to the negative comments and watch this updated remake with the same theme as Pygmalion, My Fair Lady, etc.
tags: gory, horror, Korean drama, Netflix streaming, violent
Episode 1 streams on Sept 17, 2021
Similar to horror books and movies Battle Royale, As The Gods Will, The Hunger Games, The Circle, Liar Game, etc, is a new gory drama series from Korea based on a children's game. Can't wait to see it.
Nanao, nicknamed Lady Bird—the self-proclaimed “unluckiest assassin in the world”—boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with one simple task: grab a suitcase and get off at the next stop. Unbeknownst to him, the deadly duo Tangerine and Lemon are also after the very same suitcase—and they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard. Satoshi, “the Prince,” with the looks of an innocent schoolboy and the mind of a viciously cunning psychopath, is also in the mix and has history with some of the others. Risk fuels him as does a good philosophical debate . . . like, is killing really wrong? Chasing the Prince is another assassin with a score to settle for the time the Prince casually pushed a young boy off of a roof, leaving him comatose.
When the five assassins discover they are all on the same train, they realize their missions are not as unrelated as they first appear.
A massive bestseller in Japan, Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller that fizzes with an incredible energy and surprising humor as its complex net of double-crosses and twists unwind. Award-winning author Kotaro Isaka takes readers on a tension packed journey as the bullet train hurtles toward its final destination. Who will make it off the train alive—and what awaits them at the last stop?
Can I give this novel 10 stars out of 5? Yes I can. I enjoyed the book very much and it is like reading a Takashi Miike movie script on steroid. 3 professional hired killers, 1 vengeful dad, and 1 demented bad seed teenager aboard the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) have different reasons for being on the train. The synopsis from GoodReads and pretty much from other booksellers is far from accurate. Only the 3 assassins have connections to each other. The dad and the brat have their own story but get to meet the other 3 people and several passengers who may or may not be connected to them.
- Nanao, the black-framed eyeglass wearing hired killer called Ladybug, in my version of the novel, is assigned to steal a suitcase filled with money, then get off the next stop. How hard could it be? Nanao finds it's rather complicated.
- The twin fruit assassins Lemon and Tangerine brought the suitcase onboard which they have recovered after successfully rescuing the kidnapped son of a much feared underworld boss. They are to deliver both to someone at the last train stop.
- Kimura, a former hitman and a recovering alcoholic, armed with a handgun is on board to kill the teenage boy, the Prince, who pushed his son off the roof of a building and the son is now in a coma.
- the Prince is a demented 14 year old androgynous boy who looks innocent but is manipulative and deadly, and has an obsession with killing. His reason is to taunt Kimura.
What could go wrong? Heaps with a capital H. A tale that is twisty turn-y, full of humor and philosophical musings, thrilling, unpredictable. The novel is hard to put down once you start reading.
Highly recommended. EBook is available to borrow from Hoopla.
I read that the original title is Mariabītoru (Maria Beetle) published in 2010 and is now being made into a Hollywood movie. 🙄🙄🙄 Oh please, avoid the movie which I predict will change the story to make it one of, if not the worst, movie adaptations ever. IMHO, everything Hollywood touches becomes garbage.
A Rant: People who have read the book compare it to Tarantino movies but I beg to disagree. Obviously they haven't watched a single Takashi Miike movie. Tarantino is a talentless moviemaker who steals ALL his ideas from other movies specially from Japan, Hong Kong, other Asian countries, and a few from Scandinavian countries too. Tarantino is one big poseur and a FRAUD.
In six months, Marion “Mally” Lee will wed the dashing Roger Mooring and become mistress of Curston, his family estate. Determined to enjoy her freedom before she becomes a married woman, Mally impulsively accepts a position as governess to the young daughter of a shipping magnate. But when she arrives at the Peterson townhouse in London, Mally has the strangest urge to flee. Sir George Peterson, whose wife left him for an itinerant artist, is an enigma. His sister, Lena Craddock, is nice enough, but Mally’s young charge, Barbara, hates Lena’s nephew, Paul, with a passion. When Mally is suddenly branded a thief and spy after valuable papers and a priceless diamond pendant disappear, she does the only thing she can: run away. With her fiancé believing the worst of her and private investigators hot on her trail, Mally goes on the lam, feeling like a fugitive from justice. But she’s stumbled upon a dangerous criminal conspiracy led by men desperate to get back the missing documents before a critical encrypted message is decoded.
The stand alone novel was written by Patricia Wentworth in 1927, a year before she created Miss Maud Silver. The tone and style is a tad different from Miss Silver books although the author's favorite word "frightful" is scattered all over the novel. It is a short but amusing and delightful novel.
Some readers find Mally a frustrating character and I agree a little bit, but I do like her a lot. She is one of the funniest young female characters I have read. She is hardly meek, always speaks her mind, and does whatever she wants. Her scary but funny adventure dodging her pursuers, real and imagined, made me smile and it leads her to the truth and finding love. The man she chooses is not her handsome and debonair fiancé but a young man that she describes as hulking and ugly.
The Dragon Awards are a set of literary and media awards voted on by fandom and presented annually since 2016 by Dragon Con for excellence in various categories of science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels, movies, television, and games. The nominations and votes are collected electronically. Participation is available to everyone, requiring only an e-mail address, but no membership or other fees, to vote. Register here.
A happily married man's life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious hit and run accident in Tel Aviv. Grief-stricken and confused, he searches for his wife's killers, who have fled to the U.S. With the help of an ex-lover, he uncovers disturbing truths about his beloved wife and the secrets she kept from him.
So many dead people in this Israeli and American produced mystery espionage series. I liked it enough to rate it 3 stars but it has serious flaws. The script is implausible and acting is stiff as if the actors are reading. The mystery is engrossing though and the reason for the 3 stars.
I'm hoping Season 2 is better written and comes soon because the cliff hanger is sooo frustrating. I wanna know what happened to Ella!
In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying.
After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her?
The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again.
The book is one of Amazon's First Reads choices and as expected, it is disappointing. The book is touted as science fiction and thriller but I find there's very little science fiction besides the cloning of the rich people who can afford it. The novel is nothing but a mediocre murder mystery with mediocre writing.
The premise is intriguing but the author does not deliver. On top of that he insists in making it annoying mentioning the ethnicity of ALL the characters, major and those who appeared just once. Who writes like that? It's distracting and does not add anything to the story except the author appears to be trying hard to sell this book to woke Hollywood hoping it will get noticed because it is populated by the obligatory "diverse" characters. Give me a freakin' break. My new pet peeve in modern fiction that I find more awful than f and c bombs. And the clones? Forgeddaboutit! The ending reads like a chaotic slapstick comedy trying hard to be serious. And the worst part is, this is book 1 of a series. Yikes! This novel is one big Con job. Sorry, I couldn't resist. 😉
tags: German movie, horror, Netflix streaming, thriller, vampires
⭐⭐⭐⭐
from Netflix
When a group of terrorists hijacks an overnight transatlantic flight, a mysterious ill woman must unleash a monstrous secret to protect her young son
I watched without any idea what the movie is about. But the #1 rating on Netflix got me curious. Foreign language movies hardly get the number one position for several days on Netflix and now I understand why. It is bloody entertaining and I liked it. The story of airplane hijackers mixed with vampires is very creative IMHO. The hijackers are shown to be more horrific and inhumane than the vampire who for many years has maintained part of her humanity because she has a son to take care of. What comes next after the announcement of hijacking is naturally predictable - vampires on a plane.
It is a tad long at 2 hours and the boy who was getting on my nerves became even more annoying on the last third, never listening to his mother, but it is part of the story which made sense at the end. Acting is okay and the movie won't win any awards but surprisingly gratifying.
Recommended for horror fans. German and English languages.
tags: fantasy, Kingdom series side story, Korean, Netflix streaming, revenge, sageuk, zombies
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
from AsianWiki
Kingdom: Ashin of the North reveals the origin of the resurrection plant and the mystery behind Ashin’s identity.
South Korea has perfected the zombie genre starting with Train To Busan and the Netflix series Kingdom, seasons 1 and 2, a zombie sageuk (historical drama). Kingdom: Ashin Of The North released today is a side story revealing the origin of the plant and the zombies.
The resurrection plant that brings dead people back to life is used by Ashin, who appeared at the end of season 2, to avenge the death of her family and her tribe. Ashin is played by My Sassy Girl herself Jun Ji-Hyun (Gianna Jun). Best revenge and zombie mash-up movie and that zombie tiger is awesome. I hope there is a season 3 with Ashin and the crown prince.
Homicide detective William Wisting struggles with the two toughest cases of his career. His serial killer investigation crosses paths with his journalist daughter's news story, putting her in grave danger. When Wisting is accused of evidence tampering in a former case, his entire career is in jeopardy.
10 episodes, 40 - 45 minutes
I like a few Nordic Noir movies and TV series and enjoyed the original Wallander but all the subsequent police procedural series coming from that region seem to be clones of Wallander. This latest series is the most boring yet and all the characters look like they are "acting". I read that this series is the most expensive series co-produced by 3 European countries. They should have spent the money on a good script and competent director. Cinematography alone won't carry a lousy story with sub par actors. It tries to be noir but I see it as a noir wannabe.
The actor playing the main character Wisting is ugly as sin with no charisma whatsoever and the series is partially ruined by the idiot daughter. This [grieving] father-daughter theme is done to death already and somebody should put an end to it.
I could probably have ignored the annoying daughter but the story of an American serial killer in Norway with American FBI characters helping the police turned it into another pointless American-style woke police show. So I dropped it like a hot potato. Carrie-Ann Moss of The Matrix as one of the FBI agents is a lousy actress and she is not aging well. She's never been easy on the eyes but here she looks like a haggard grandma in need of a day in the spa. The obligatory black actor as the other FBI agent is not a good actor as well.
Not recommended. You'll be wasting money or borrows from Hoopla.
Recommended reading for sci-fi space opera fans via Amazon Kindle Vella - Ravens of Eternity
tags: mecha, series, space opera, space battles, strong female lead
from Amazon Kindle Vella
A young woman is reborn anew inside Bellum Aeterna, a mecha VRMMO embroiled in galactic warfare, and must rise above the failings of her old life or be lost forever. As she ascends, a spreading darkness threatens to tear her galaxy apart.
I am a fan of sci-fi space operas and have read and own several books. Although I prefer already finished books and am not into serialized stories, I like it and will continue reading not just because this series is written by my son 😉😉😉 but I find it an interesting read.
This is a story of national change and personal tragedy. For Lucy Ashton and Edgar Ravenswood, acts of heroism are thwarted and love is doomed by social, political and historical division. This edition restores the action to the years of uncertainty and political flux before the Union of Scotland and England in 1707.
The opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti is based on this tragic story, a la Romeo and Juliet, of 17 year old Lucy Ashton and 20 year old Edgar Ravenswood, The Bride Of Lammermoor written by Sir Walter Scott. Scott has said that the story is based on a true story which is included in the book as a Preface. The true story is as interesting and tragic as the fictional novel. The book is short at 350+ pages and will be worth your time reading. I was surprised that the doomed story of Lucy and Edgar does not take up the whole book, just a part of it, but essential to the narrative.
Watch the opera first, then read the book, read the true story last.
The aria il dolce suono became one of the more popular soprano arias
after the release of the movie The Fifth Element. The aria is performed by the character Plavalaguna, sung by Albanian soprano Inva Mula Tchako. Inva Mula has the perfect voice for the aria.
tags: action, Netflix streaming, revenge, Russian movie, super hero
⭐⭐⭐⭐
from Netflix
When a masked vigilante’s killing spree throws a city into chaos, a renegade detective and his rookie partner are the only ones who can stop it.
The movie is an adaptation of a Russian comic book super hero. It is loaded with clichés and borrows from other comic book super heroes like Batman. I liked it regardless of its length. Cinematography is very good. Most important no "woke" Hollywood nonsense. Just good vs evil action movie. I hope there will be a sequel.
Note: The title at first confused me and I thought Major Grom is the Plague Doctor. Major Grom is a cop and the Plague Doctor is Major Grom's brilliant but insane vengeful foe.
Tags: aliens, Amazon original, streaming, horror, sci-fi, time travel
⭐
from Amazon
Time travelers arrive from 2051 to deliver an urgent message: 30 years in the future mankind is losing war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians to be transported to the future and join the fight.
Just say NO to this rubbish disguised as a movie which is blah and has nothing new to offer in this genre. Dreadful in everything - acting, script, CGI. I tried to watch the whole thing but couldn't continue torturing myself.
Amazon streaming has been coming out with original programming but I never found a single movie or series that is appealing to me. This is the first movie that made me click on it because it's Sci-Fi and Chris Pratt is on it. Chris Pratt is a lousy lousy lousy actor. He can only do Star Lord and nothing else.
IMHO foreign language Sci-Fi movies and TV series are superior to this Hollywood produced wokest movie yet and I was scratching my head thinking why Chris Pratt signed up for this. Maybe he has career suicidal tendencies or was given tons of cash. Wrong move Chris. I hope he chooses a better project next time.
Do yourself a favor - skip this nonsense and keep your IQ points as a bonus. Re-watch Edge OfTomorrow instead. You'll thank me.
Chava is a golem, a woman made of clay, able to hear the thoughts and longings of the people around her and compelled by her nature to help them. Ahmad is a jinni, a perpetually restless and free-spirited creature of fire, imprisoned in the shape of a man. Fearing they’ll be exposed as monsters, these magical beings hide their true selves and pretend to be human—just two more immigrants in the bustling world of 1900s Manhattan. Having encountered each other under calamitous circumstances, Chava and Ahmad’s lives are now entwined—but they’re not yet certain of what they mean to each other.
Each has unwittingly affected the humans around them. Park Avenue heiress Sophia Winston, whose brief encounter with Ahmad left her with a strange illness that makes her shiver with cold, travels to the Middle East to seek a cure. There she meets a tempestuous female jinni who’s been banished from her tribe. Back in New York, in a tenement on the Lower East Side, a little girl named Kreindel helps her rabbi father build a golem they name Yossele—not knowing that she’s about to be sent to an orphanage uptown, where the hulking Yossele will become her only friend and protector.
Spanning the tumultuous years from the turn of the twentieth century to the beginning of World War I, The Hidden Palace follows these lives and others as they collide and interweave. Can Chava and Ahmad find their places in the human world while remaining true to each other? Or will their opposing natures and desires eventually tear them apart—especially once they encounter, thrillingly, other beings like themselves?
I waited 8 long years for this sequel to one of my favorite fantasy novels and it is worth the wait. Chava and Ahmad spend their time bickering and start doing things separately. When Ahmad's only friend and business partner Arbeely dies, he holes himself up in their building for more than 3 years forging and constructing a 4 story steel spiral staircase with glass landings. He doesn't go out and nobody has seen him nor the inside of his building, the neighbors are getting worried.
Chava leaves the bakery where she teaches newly hired bakers. When the people around her who don't know she is a golem notice that she doesn't age, she leaves the bakery and attends college. She changes her name to Charlotte Levy and starts working as a teacher at the Asylum for Hebrew Orphans.
Highly recommended for fans of the first book, The Golem And The Jinni.
On the frozen rivers and canals of St. Petersburg, a petty thief on skates warms the heart of an aristocrat's daughter as forces try to keep them apart.
The description from Netflix is a bit lacking and inaccurate. This Russian movie is a fairy tale with a twist - it is a rich girl, poor boy romance instead of the usual beautiful princess rescued by a handsome prince. Matvey, the poor boy, works delivering pastry using his antique pair of skates but gets fired through no fault of his. His father is a lamplighter who is sick with consumption.
The setting is at the turn of the 19th century and the frozen St. Petersburg is transformed into a pretty Winter Wonderland where people go to walk about and shop. A group of pickpockets skates around and deftly dispossesses the unsuspecting people of their treasures including pocket watches and billfolds. The leader, who reminds me of The Artful Dodger, drops a watch while being pursued by a gendarme. . Matvey tries to return it to him not knowing he stole it. He gets recruited to the group to earn money for his father's hospital treatment.
He meets the aristocrat's daughter, Alice, on a dare from his new friends. They meet again at St. Petersburg while he was busy "working". Alice befriends him for her own reasons. As the story progresses, one needs to suspend disbelief but it is a fairy tale after all. Besides, I'm sure you'll love the superb cinematography and lush costumes, and the scenes of the skating thieves are beautiful to watch.
Language is mostly in Russian, some English, and French. Russian and French dialog have English subtitles, English has none. There are subtitles in CC English.
A millionaire big game hunter gathers six people at his remote English mansion, announcing that he suspects one of them is a werewolf.
I have the DVD of this 1974 British movie but I can't find it. It is streaming on Amazon. IMHO it is cheesy because of its 70s soundtrack, leatherette outfit of the main lead, his stiff acting, and the goofy looking werewolf, but is good enough to grant a 4 star since I enjoyed it very much. Two familiar faces among the guests are Peter Cushing and Michael Gambon.
The story is a mystery but instead of whodunnit, the question is, who is the werewolf among the 5 guests and the hosts, 7 people in all. Tom is a big game hunter and millionaire who wants the biggest of them all - bagging a werewolf. He invites 4 people whom he suspects of being a werewolf, to his mansion in England where he and his wife live. The 5th guest is the wife of one of the guests, a concert pianist played by Michael Gambon. The wives are friends and so she is included in the party. The set up feels like an Agatha Christie mystery mixed with cabin in the woods slasher horror movie where you are waiting who gets killed first. Only 2 people survived.
At the start of the movie viewers are invited to guess who the werewolf is and there is a 30-second break just a few minutes before the end of the movie for the viewers to do exactly that. It is not easy to pinpoint the werewolf although I guessed correctly after the silver bullet test.
A year after Katla's eruption, the shattered survivors are still grappling with the aftermath. Suddenly, an ash-caked woman appears on the glacier.
The drama mystery series from Iceland, although not a crime mystery, reminds me of the Welsh crime drama series Hinterland and the Russian movie How I Ended This Summer for its beautiful but bleak scenery. The mystery of the naked woman covered in ashes emerging on the glacier is captivating right from episode 1. More ash-caked people emerge. Fascinating watch.
Highly recommended.
On Episode 5, the little boy who died 3 years earlier appears as one of the ash-caked creatures but his father knows he is not his real son. The mother runs away with him and on the road realizes he is not who he is so she abandons him in the middle of the road. On Episode 6, he is shown looking at a downed small airplane. With his outfit -blue coat over light colored sweater and pajama pants, and his boots - he looks like the Little Prince. Then he starts talking to the dying sheep. Definitely an allusion to The Little Prince novel and maybe a clue as to his origin.
Patricia Wentworth--born Dora Amy Elles--was a British crime fiction writer. She wrote a series of 32 classic-style whodunnits featuring Miss Silver, the first of which was published in 1928, and the last in 1961, the year of her death.
Miss Silver, a retired governess-turned private detective, is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.
I've read a few Miss Silver mystery novels many years ago. Recently, all the 32 Miss Silver book series became available to borrow, eBook or Kindle, from the library. I started reading them from the beginning and have so far finished 10 books. I have given them 3 up to 5 stars.
Miss Silver doesn't always "solve" the mystery. She doesn't even appear until over halfway into the novel unlike Agatha Christie's Poirot or Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael or Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey. Readers might not like Wentworth's Miss Silver but I do like her quiet character over Miss Marple, and the stories that are more focused on the protagonists and antagonists are always interesting.
I read these in order the past few months. They are short novels, between 300 to 400 pages. Look for them in Hoopla if your local library has the service. These novels are a better reads than the latest books Amazon is giving for free. The Amazon First Reads for 2020 and up to the present are all dull and not worth a second of your time.
I wrote about my aversion to the C19 jab because it is experimental and might harm more than prevent the virus. More and more deaths have been reported after taking the jab. According toVAERS reporting system, 5,888 deaths out of 5,997 vaccination deaths are solely attributed to C19 jab. The latest is this guy who designed the app for tracking C19 jab. He proudly announced he took it on March 26, 2021; died 2 months later of CoVid19. 😵😵😵
We're heartbroken to share that Joel Kallman has passed away from Covid-19 on May 25th. He was 54.
Joel's warmth and enthusiasm touched countless across the globe. We miss him dearly.
He died of C19 just 2 months after getting the jab.And he is just one of increasing number of deaths due to thesame virus that is supposed to fight it.2 months! Don't be a victim like this guy.
Experts and scientists and ordinary citizens like myself who warned people of the dangers of the "vaccine" have been ridiculed and shouted at by those who think they know better. Take it if you are suicidal. Oops, millions of American have subscribed to the fear of dying from the virus but they should have been more cautious of the jab than the virus which can be cured by the dirt cheap Hydroxychloroquine combined with zinc which increased the survival rate of severely ill victims of the Chinese flu. Doctors around the world promoted the drug cocktail early last year, but the left and democrats shut it down because it was mentioned by President Trump. The hateful ignorant left and democrats successfully stopped its use because of their severe TDS. Now that millions have been experimented with around the world, doctors are now admitting the efficacy of the Hydroxychloroquine cocktail. The left is still trying to fool the people by suppressing this latest admission by doctors and experts. Anyone who mentions the new findings by the doctors on social networks are suspended immediately. This new admission by these doctors are never mentioned in the alphabet media either. This is how they prevent ignorant people from learning the truth that will save them from potential illness or death.
Need I explain further why I am not willing to take it?
