Extremely disappointing fighting scenes

+ Good plot (clever schemes, a touch of mystery), a lot of outdoor scenes, good acting and NO obvious goosebumps-raising "pose"-acting or tropes that are so pervasive and cringey (e.g. hero catches a falling heroine, looks at each other in the eye, time pauses.....)

- Unrealistic martial journey from zilch (no foundation) to expert in a matter of weeks (months?) with few hints of practice (other than the very initiation to basic blade skills)

- Very, very, very crappy action pulls down the rating by at least 1 - 1.5 stars. I truly cringe every time it builds up to a fighting scene because more likely than not, it frizzles out or skipped completely!!! A lot of foreplay ..... and that's it! Totally unsatisfying.

Where there's fighting, there's so much slow-motion of v ordinary moves (eg just barely avoiding a blade) that it irritates. Maybe the actors and actresses are so rotten with action choreography that the only way to get away with it is to fill the scenes with close-up slow motion?

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Just a simple but beautiful love story

This is a simple, beautiful love story between two mature adults. When the final credits come on-screen, it leaves me with a warm, cosy feeling in my heart.

The pace of the film is good – the awkward initial meetings, growing closer, and the build-up to the twist at 2/3 mark of the film. This leaves the audience with a short period of uncertainty on the direction that the story will take, before the unravelling of the puzzle. Even after that, audience is kept wondering on how the love story will end until the last 15 minutes of the film.

I particularly like the camera work. Many scenes look v picturesque and well-composed. With beautiful background soundtracks, the whole film feels arty but without any pretentious vibes.

The acting is good. Both MC and ML characters shine through without feeling forced.

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Episodic with twists in each investigation

This drama serial is "bite-size" episodic with most cases lasting one or sometimes, two episodes. As a result, there is no "filler" (to take up screen time/stretch a series) and the investigation moves along quickly in each episode. The cases are easy to follow and there's at least one or two twists towards the end of each investigation. In retrospect and on further thinking after each episode, there are loopholes in each case but overall, the script-writing is good.

Japanese emphasises team-work and this shows up in most of the J-dramas involving police investigations. The Specialist is no exception. The coordination and cooperation between the team members are seamless and sufficient screen-time is given to supporting cast so that the audience does not feel that they are there just to make up the numbers.

Overall, I enjoy watching this serial.

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Good vibes but lacks bite

This fantasy movie is about closure for the deceased, and moving on for the living. It is also about a pianist who discovers his reason for living by the end of the movie. Romance is auxiliary.

MC was forcefully recruited to work in Heaven, a place where the dead were waiting for their rebirths. After settling in, he met a female pianist and learnt of her past. ML had a lingering regret after her death. As the two became friends, they worked to resolve this last regret of hers. The romance element in this movie was between the ML and her boyfriend who was still alive. Herein lay the problem!

The movie gave good vibes from start to finish. However, there wasn't any attempt to engage emotionally with the audience at any point in time. I was not emotionally invested throughout the movie. ML's love-story with her boyfriend was only sketched out in flashbacks and the boyfriend's character was not fleshed out. The romance element was only auxiliary in the plot and it seemed as if ML's love-story was recited out of necessity to explain her regret.

In my opinion, the plot would have been much better if ML and MC had a budding romance with the complete omission of the boyfriend character. The ending would still end with the same hope (but a lot more poignant) with the same final scene/act in the movie. This was a missed opportunity for a good romance movie!

Acting and the piano music in the movie were good.

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Promising story but writer tries too hard to give satisfying ending

The plot is that of a murder in a yakuza-related activity, and pressure from both the police and yakuza boss on two young men to clear their names. One is a low-level yakuza while the other a poor, aspiring author with the ability delve into the thinking and feelings of a writer when he imitates the writing. The two men from very different backgrounds have forged a deep-rooted relationship of brotherhood and trust since their high-school days.

Their characters and backgrounds were nicely fleshed out in a series of flashbacks sprinkled throughout the episodes. However, similar flashbacks on the antagonists in the last 2 episodes detracted the drama from a better ending as these flashbacks only serve to dilute the build-up to the climax, in my opinion.

I would hv given a higher rating if the writer does not try so hard to give satisfying endings to the antagonists as well. Instead, the unrelistic decisions in the end made me go “What the hell... that's totally unrealistic!”

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