Mary

 

December 6, 2024 on Netflix

Fruitcake

 

tags: comedy, Filipino movie, Netflix

⭐⭐⭐⭐
 

From IMDB

In modern-day Metro Manila, a diverse group of Filipinos faces life's lows as their destinies collide on a fateful train ride, unfolding a heartwarming and comedic tapestry of interconnected stories.

First time I watched a Filipino movie in 1 sitting. I usually stop the movie or series to decide if it is worthy of my time then I eventually abandon it. Filipino movies are always either dramedy romance or horror usually with subpar script and acting. 

Fruitcake is mostly comedy except for one character who got pregnant after a drunken night with her ugly co-worker. She wanted to abort the baby and asked her brother, a priest, for advice. Naturally the priest was against it and gave her the reasons why she shouldn't. And they were good reasons too without him being preachy. The movie bombed at the theaters. I knew why I liked it because Filipinos didn't.

The characters have indirect connection with each other except for the guy who wanted to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend. The movie will be funny only to Filipinos. Foreigners won't understand the jokes. Example: the guy who went to Manila to look for his ex-girlfriend has a piggery he runs with his mother. The sows have names of famous movie personalities with 1 or 2 letters altered but still recognizable as the celebrities they are named after. One of the pigs was sold by the mom so he can afford the trip to Manila from the province. It was later shown being roasted over live coals, a Filipino delicacy called Lechon. 

Photo by DUDE FOR FOOD

Spoilers

City Hunter

I've been waiting a year for this live action City Hunter. Streaming on Netflix April 25. 

Ripley

Goose🥚

The actor Andrew Scott is almost 50 years old and therefore much too old to play 25 year-old Tom Ripley. He looks more like the father of Marge or an older friend of Dickie. Who did the terrible casting? 

Scott also lacks the irresistible charm of Tom Ripley as described in the books. What young people befriend an old man with no charisma nor good looks? 

Filming in black and white screams overly pretentious and it annoyed me so much. 

I've seen two versions, one with Matt Damon and another with Alain Delon. They are not perfect but I enjoyed them more because both actors did excellent job as a con artist. Watch those instead. 

Not recommended even if you haven't read the book.

The Signal

tags: drama, German, Netflix, pseudo sci-fi 

Goose egg🥚

The Signal: Woke In Space 

I just wasted more than 4 hours on this nonsense. It was made to spew wokeness. It has no entertainment value. The writer made up a ridiculous nonstory mainly to promote kumbaya We Are The World stupid idiotic nonsense with some "they are so greedy" and "we should stop war" without any context or back story. 

The female lead character said such dialogue but they were never discussed before or after EVER. What? Did I miss something? It was frustrating. 

The script is utterly bad and so is the acting. The woman chosen to be on board the ISS looked like she was really high on something. The program funded by an evil billionaire to let 2 civilians to board the ISS for some experiment chose a woman who is a smoker, takes drugs, has psychological problems, and hallucinates. Great! Sheesh. What could go wrong?

She is so stupid for not recognizing the voice she picked up from space which is the voice of Carl Sagan's son in Voyager 1 saying "Hello". She thought it was communication from aliens. What a moron! Her equally ignorant or maybe evil partner prevented her from telling the real astronauts who would have told them it is from Voyager. They could have prevented their murder by the evil benefactor. But they are stupid so they deserve what they got. 

Avoid it. I watched so you don't have to.

A Killer Paradox

tags: crime, Korean drama, Netflix

⭐⭐⭐⭐

8 episodes, 55 to 60 minutes

Choi Woo-sik and Son Suk-ku. How can I not binge watch the whole thing? The series has similarity to the characters in the book Crime And Punishment but the reason for the murders is closer to the 1999 movie The Boondock Saints. The writer IMHO plagiarized the main theme of the movie which is the moral dilemma in killing evil murderers and rapists. There are too many similarities I just cannot ignore. I still rate it 4 stars.

For those who haven't seen The Boondock Saints, the movie is about twin brothers in Boston who in self defense killed 2 Russian thugs terrorizing their local pub owner. They also killed in one go 8 of the Russian mobsters, including their leader, by sheer luck. They believed and decided they are good in getting rid of mafias, drug lords, pedos, sex merchants, or anyone who is a menace to society. The FBI agent played by Willem Dafoe was no match for the boys and eventually joined them. LOL. The Boondock Saints is one of my favorite movies.

JUNG_E

 

tags: Korean movie, Netflix, sci-fi

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Set in the year 2194, JUNG_E portrays a desolated Earth in the 22nd century that is no longer habitable due to climate change where humans are forced to live in a man-made shelter built for survival. Amid the chaos, an internal war breaks out in the shelter.

Victory – meaning the end of the war – now hinges on finding a way to clone the legendary mercenary Jung_E into a scalable robot.

The Korean movie shot up to #1 on Neflix in USA after just 1 day of streaming. I'm going to watch it again. I love it for the visuals specially the scary robots that can walk, skate, and leap to kill their prey. The emotional sequence between mother (JUNG_E) and daughter makes this AI movie a little different from other sci-fi movies and I like it. The ending reminds me of one of my favorite AI movies, Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

Highly recommended for sci-fi fans.

Romantic Killer

tags: anime, comedy, Netflix streaming, romance

12 episodes

⭐⭐⭐⭐

A "non-heroine type" high school girl is thrown into a situation like something straight out of a dating simulation game! This slapstick adolescent romantic comedy follows the romance-averse Anzu.

Anzu Hoshino is a "non-heroine type" high school girl who pays no attention to fashion or romance and spends every day playing video games. After the wizard Riri suddenly appears and confiscates Anzu's three favorite things — video games, chocolate, and cats — she gets pursued by hot guys!

Super funny anime series. It's a departure from the usual anime love story. Anzu is not interested in boys, not even ikemen. She just wants to play video games, eat tons of chocolate, and play with her cat Momohiki. A wizard takes over her life and is forcing her to look at handsome boys and start dating. The episodes kept me in stitches. Brilliant script. Silly but entertaining as always. 

Highly recommended.

2022 Outstanding South Korean Dramas

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

16 episodes, 60 - 62 minutes, Season 1 complete

tags: dramedy, [bit of] romance

Woo Young-Woo is extremely smart and she also has autism spectrum disorder. She never forgets what she sees, but she lacks in social skills and empathy. Woo Young-Woo begins to work as a trainee lawyer at a large law firm. While working there, she faces prejudice and irrationality against her, but she solves cases with her own unique perspective and grows as a lawyer.

Although the main character Attorney Woo is a 28 year-old lawyer, the drama is kinda bildungsroman because she has autism and only becomes fully an adult towards the end of the first season. The writing is absolutely perfect. I love her immediate boss, Jung Myeong-Seok's admirable and warm personality, that I was rooting for him when he fell ill. I read there will be a second season because fans around the globe love the series. I'm looking forward to the second season.

Alchemy Of Souls

20 episodes, 62 - 70 minutes, Season 1 complete

tags: fantasy, mages, magic, romance, sageuk

The fate of these people become twisted due to "hwanhonsool" (the soul of the dead takes over the body of another living person).

In the country of Daeho, Jang Uk comes from the noble Jang family. He holds an unpleasant secret about his birth, which people all around the country talk about. He is a troublemaker. Jang Uk happens to meet Mu-Deok. She is an elite warrior, but her soul is trapped in a physically weak body. She becomes Jang Uk’s servant and secretly teaches him how to fight.

Seo Yul comes from the noble Seo family. He seems perfect with good appearance, intelligence, and strong martial arts skills.

Go Won is the crown prince of Daeho. He hopes to become a generous king.

A period drama, comedy, horror, shamans, mages, the baddest villains, romance, lots of sword fight, pretty and cute young leads, and the obligatory love triangle. Here the triangle becomes a polygon with 4 young men and 2 young women, it is dizzying at first but eventually settled to a rectangle, then a triangle. Whew! 😄Second season with 10 episodes will be aired in December, 2022.

The love polygon - Crown Prince, nobles and mages Jang-Uk and Seo Yul are all in love with maidservant Mu-Deok. Crown Prince calls her Filthy Mu-Deok because she used to wear tatty clothes.

Little Women

12 episodes, 60+ minutes, ongoing Saturday and Sunday

tags: 3 sisters, corruption, loosely based on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, mystery

Three sisters get involved in a case that leads them to fight against the richest and most influential family in South Korea. They grew up in a terribly poor environment with an inattentive mother and absent father who lives abroad.

Oh In-Joo is the oldest sister. Since she was a young child, she realized that money was the most important thing to protect herself and her family. Her dream is to live an ordinary life like other people. She gets involved in a case that could change her life.

Oh In-Kyung is the middle sister. She is an enthusiastic reporter at a news station. She believes in doing the right things. She believes money doesn't rule life. She now begins to dig into a mysterious case that she first faced when she first became a reporter.

Oh In-Hye is the youngest of the three sisters. She is a student at a prestigious arts high school and she has a natural talent for painting. She often feels her two older sisters' love for her is too much.

There are only 3 sisters, not 4. I'm guessing Beth is not included because nobody will want to watch if the middle sister dies. The story is a mystery involving an ambitious wealthy politician and his involvement in a series of deaths in the present and 4 years before. Interesting story line and the acting and script are really good.

I gave all 3 series 2 thumbs up on Netflix.

The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure

Today, March 2, 2022 on Netflix streaming - The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure

tags: comedy, historical fiction, Korean movie, Netflix streaming

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from AsianWiki

A search takes place over the ocean to find the lost treasure of the Goryeo royal family, which disappeared without a trace.

Kang Ha-Neul has frizzy wiry hair and he screams a lot. There's too much screaming in this movie but I still like it.

Kang Ha-Neul

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The 2014 The Pirates movie with Kim Nam-Gil and Son Ye-Jin is better IMHO. It is no longer streaming on Netflix.