Seoul Vibe

 

tags: action, comedy, Korean movie, Netflix

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From Netflix

Worldwide excitement is escalating in Seoul in the days leading up to the opening of the 1988 Summer Olympics. The fashion is old school, the music is sentimental and the racing is the best in the world. The drivers of the Sanggye-dong Supreme Team receive an offer they can’t refuse and become mired in a VIP slush fund investigation.

I love this movie 💗💗💗because I love movies set in the 80s. What's not to love? 1988 Seoul, the clothes, music, the actors.

I remember when I went to Seoul a few months before the 1988 Olympics and everything was Olympics Olympics Olympics. I even bought a hand fan with the swirly logo. I think it's kept somewhere in the basement. LOL 

American brands, culture, clothing, and food were very popular at the time, specially Pizza Hut and McD's. Koreans were obsessed with anything American. In the movie Park Yoon-Hee wore a jacket with Washington Redskins and her brother Park Dong-Wook, played by Yoo Ah-In was wearing a jacket with Oakland Raiders at the end of the movie. The pair of Nike shoes offered to a rival is so spot on. 

Most of my favorite Korean actors are in the movie but I specially love Lee Kyu-Hyung and his 80s clothes. He is one of the more versatile Korean actors in Korean dramas and movies.

Highly recommended for fans of Korean movies and set in the 80s.

 

Uncharted

 

tags: action, adventure, based on video game, Magellan's lost treasure, Netflix streaming

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A very short synopsis from IMDB

Street-smart Nathan Drake is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan, and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada.

I love it! 'Nuff said. Can't wait for the sequel.

Carter

tags: Korean movie, mutant virus, Netflix tudum, nonstop action

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From Netflix

A man wakes up missing his memories. Directed by a mysterious voice from a device in his ear, he sets off on a hostage rescue mission rife with danger.

Joo Won loses his boyish image and he bulked up adding more than 14 pounds in muscles, has buzz cut hair and tattoos. He is naked wearing only a thong in the opening scenes which includes a bloody seemingly endless knife fight inside a bath house full of yakuza and one naked lady with a gun. I have never seen so many naked butts in a movie in all my life. 😆

The action is dizzying and really nonstop. I like it regardless of the CGI and story. Netflix needs more entertaining action movies like this.

Valley of the Dead: MalnaZidos

tags: movie, Netflix streaming. Spanish, zombies

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Valley of the Dead is a Spanish zombie movie set during the Spanish Civil War. Two opposing sides agree to a temporary alliance to deal with an army of the dead created by the Nazis. It uses a historical setting and I like it for its combination of zombies and smart comedic dialog but tells a good story. My only complaint is the English subtitles. Why are the names of people translated into English. Example: one guy named Mecha is translated to Fuse. It's a nickname like the female Matacuras (priest killer) but still. Just leave the Spanish names, not the English translated.

Recommended for zombie movie fans.

Bad And Crazy

Wookie (Lee Dong-Wook) is back in Bad And Crazy 

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. 😁

Jirisan

Jirisan

16 90+ minute episodes

Saturdays and Sundays starting on October 23, 2021

with Gianna Jun and Ju Ji-Hoon

tags: action, drama, fantasy, folklore, Korean, mystery, supernatural

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. 

Xtremo

Spanish movie Xtremo streaming on Netflix

118 minutes

European Spanish with English subtitles 

tags: action, crime family, revenge

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Maximo and Maria are the adopted children and Lucero is the real son of a crime family head. The father favors Max to lead his crime family and naturally Lucero is jealous just like in the movie Gladiator. Maximo and Maximus. Probably an homage to the movie. Max’s brother Lucero betrayed their family, killing their father and Max's son and leaving Max for dead. Two years later Max is retired but itching for revenge and is teaming up with his sister Maria to take down Lucero and his operation. 

Max trains in martial arts in a car shop garage, he even has a Wushu wooden dummy. One day he helped teenager Leo, a small time drug seller in his school. Leo is being used by one of Lucero's men to lure the rival criminal Russians. After Lucero's men brutally killed Leo's family, Max begins a killing spree of Lucero's men.

The bloody mash-up of Asian and European crime family action movie is IMHO better than John Wick although the story, dialog, and acting are on par with John Wick - mediocre. 

Watch it for the action alone. And clever use of garage tools.

Recommended: Korean revenge drama with similar theme also streaming on Netflix - Night In Paradise - has the best bloody ending and a little better than Xtremo.

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First Love

tags: action, comedy, Chinese triad, Japanese, Takashi Miike, yakuza

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Leo is an orphan and a boxer. He works in a Chinese restaurant in Kabuchiko, Tokyo. When he was knocked down by a weaker opponent, he went to have a scan and was told he has a brain tumor. A young girl, Yuri, is a drug addict and working as a prostitute to pay for her abusive father's debts. She hallucinates seeing her father wearing only his underwear and a blanket over his head when the drug effects wear off. She is being held by a demented yakuza couple, Yasu and Julie. Julie, played by the lovely Japanese tarento, Becky, went crazy and made me laugh when she jumps on the hood of the car shouting "Kase!" wanting to kill him with a crowbar and later with a katana because Kase "accidentally" killed a lot of people, the first one was Julie's man, Yasu. The young couple, Leo and Yuri, are caught in the middle of the fight between yakuza, triad, and the corrupt policeman. 

Takashi Miike threw in all the crazies in this hilarious action comedy - yakuza, corrupt cop, Chinese triad, old man dancing on a train in his tighty whiteys, one-armed triad wielding a sword - in a drug deal gone wrong that all happened in one night. The opening scene has a newly severed head of a Filipino thug, still twitching, which reminds me of freshly chopped fish heads and headless chicken running around. LOL. Miike was asked about the title and he answered, "to make money" which is vague on purpose. Miike never disappoints. 

Recommended for Takashi Miike fans.   

Unknown Origins

tags: action, comedy, Netflix streaming, parody, Spanish movie, superheroes

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from IMDB

Heroes do not exist. David, a young policeman who has recently moved to Madrid, is forced to collaborate with Jorge Elías - an endearing freak and owner of a comic book shop - in order to solve a series of atrocious murders that recreate the secret origins of the classic superheroes. Each grotesque murder is a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that has the streets of Madrid as a backdrop, but whose complete image they are unable to distinguish. Jorge's encyclopedic knowledge about the comic world and the unexpected discovery of David's dark past will be fundamental in helping them solve the enigma hidden behind the awful crimes. The clues will guide them through the Spanish capital, along a labyrinth designed by a disturbed criminal mind and the only person who knows how to find the exit. Will they be able to unravel the tangled mess of clues and win the game against the troubled criminal that tries to manipulate them? They say that, sometimes, it is necessary to put on a suit and get out ...

If you see it with very low expectations like I did, you'll probably enjoy this 96 minute action comedy from Spain, Origenes Secretos. It won't win any awards but it made me laugh a little. I got maybe almost all of the comic book, movie, and TV characters mentioned including some Japanese anime like Gantz:O and Berserk. It's easy to guess who the villain is.

This movie is not serious at all although not slapstick either. Watch it in the original European Spanish language with English subtitles.