MMXVIII

wipers

moral of the story: even if you're almost blind, it never hurts to be above average looking.

tbc (movie)

I'm going to be a Jang Jin fingirl when I grow up.

I feel mildly traumatised.

Standard-maker. Taste-shifter (but I'd still argue it's not a melo).

III > IV > I > II

anti-V of shots through legs, a sense of failure.

+ Shuji Terayama's shorts.

Utena? << J.A. Seazer!

Ok, it's way better than 7.5, but I can't go with MC offstage persona & I have troubles just taking for granted how everyone was falling for him, given what a huge part of the plot it was. He chooses a type of drag that was he a woman, I wouldn't like her. I'm borderline offended with his idea of womanity. That's especially jarring compared with female characters, who aren't nowhere that hyperfeminine and manipulative. Something is off.

+ the music sounds like something from an Old Hollywood melo.

(It may or may not be a mothership of a certain trick in Handmaiden.)

and that's enough of Hong sisters for me.

/ I can't come to terms with it. It had moments of a pure genius, but I can't say I enjoyed it overall. Sometimes it was a chore to watch. So much potential wasted.

buahaha, why would you need a fog machine when you can have overlays! Watch and learn, Kim Sang Ho. (jk)

despite generic plot it's a beautiful piece of television. Lighting, editing, locations & props - outstandingly put together. It was so much fun to watch. That type of an OTT acting and characterisation that only jdramas can make work. I only wish that side characters were a bit more rounded up, because I couldn't completely get on board with their reasoning, motivations and Great Love TM.

Pros: some nice transitions. Cons: non-existent mystery telegraphed from the very beginning straight towards the cheap twist. Eye-rolling lines. Nah, not underrated.

The score will go up eventually. Just when I almost resolved to give it an 8.5 despite all flaws, around ep 53 they dragged overdramatic zoom-ins (complete with a swoosh sound) out of some cobbed attic and were too enchanted by that trick to let it lie rusting. I can see a drinking game material when I spot one.

And sorry, but death scene was just dumb.

And yet, soon I'll forget about actual watching experience and only remember QSD for what it was trying to convey. Production value - laughtable. Directing - 'functional'/'tasteless'. Writting - uneven. But when it goes right, it goes very very right. You need to see more of it to fully appreciate how thought through it is.

Yay: kind, hard working, poetry appreciating people getting together. Nay: the petulant brat, although not a 1st lead by outcome, still takes almost all screentime.

…and how do I even rate something I basically force-fed myself with? It was savory, it was nutritious, but damn if those 1 hr 20 episodes weren't a strain on my patience. The drama channelled the feeling of mundane anxiety all too well, with its slow pacing / never ceasing frantic montage combo. That's a first standard-maker I don't wish to see mimicked, ever. Once was plenty enough.

Keywords: support system. Damage control.

that was a crude trick for an illusionist.

Oh boy, what do I do with this one. It took its lesson from Nothing to Lose and avoided its mistakes, but the tone was wrenching my bones with high level of cringe. Justice porn is the word, indeed. And yet it got some points very right. *shrugs*

And the music! Why! Why so serious and pompatic and in-your-face-y! Just stick to Ravel, please.

The name is Greasy Melo, thankyuoverymuch.

Some dramas I just want to pat on their (figurative) heads and whisper 'if you don't have a plot for 16/20 hrs, that's alright, 12 or less is still a perfectly valid number for episode count'. But alas. It was charming though.

Poignant or pretentious? Beats me.

I'm afraid I'm too cynical for kdramas' take on the topic of resistance and losing independence. And when it comes to KES and her writing, I'm just hopelessly confused - is it deep, indeed? Why do I feel like there's this naivety and emptiness glaring as the story falls in its fabric? Can we get her a truly ruthless editor, please? There are moments of greatness in her, but my BS detector whoozes like crazy and there's nothing I can do make it silent.

She's great at writing lovable frenemies. She excels in banter. She sucks at making 3D antagonist. I'm thrilled that's she's given an oppurtunity to spread her legs in a longer format, that she can afford those long scenes of nothing much happening or people just being themselves. But there's not enough substance to it.

And yeah, I'm team 'cinematography assingment'. It's the opposite of QSD - great production value, no true substance / food for thought.

solid.

for a commercial standards, it was stylish, visionnary and up-to-the-point (namely, the third part of the seas can turn into an wormwood, but S*** will still hold strong in 50 years). For a sci-fi standards, it's a bit run-of-the-mill, but still coherent and oddly moving. (Just don't question things like where they take their food, water and energy from).

behind a cringy title and lazy poster, there's a stunningly coherent cinematography (despite very modest means!) and this deadpan weirdness. Think: Ghost World / A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night / The Vampire Lives Next Door perhaps.

different enough, similar enough.

I had a blast watching it, but whether it ever raises above the 'swoony things are bound to happen to the decidedly-above-the-average-looking people' is an entirely different matter.

not on MDL: Onibaba & Kuroneko's Shindo Kaneto's Hokusai Manga (1981) 8.5-9/10