Very loosely inspired but in the mood of the book.

I'm writing this review having watched 7 of the 8 episodes and having already read the book that this drama is based on.

I will start my review by mentioning some things about the book that is a fantastic read and I recommend to read it. Jake Adelstein is the only American journalist ever hired at one of the most prestigious Japanese newspapers as a crime reporter, something that is of course an achievement by itself. Through his work as a reporter he had to deal with the whole spectrum of Japanese underworld, the Japanese mafia ( Yakuza- that it is worst as it seems than the Italian one! ) and of course with the police and all the people, the press and all other institutions, involved in this world.

In his book he mentions the most notorious of the cases that he covered as a journalist, and of course he gives a first hand account about how intertwined are the Police and the Press with the Japanese underworld.

And that is exactly what this drama is all about. It is not that much about the characters that are just some examples of the persons that Adelstein encountered in the 12 years that he worked as a journalist in Japan, but mostly a very good and accurate depiction of the attitudes, the dealings and the doings of all these people that live and operate in this particular world.

The story plot and the characters are original - inspired by the book or picked up from the book, but not so well developed in the book- but the mood is there intact. Where the book is full of information and facts as a reporter would have written them the drama is full of character development and a solid plot. So 10/10 from me for the fantastic and original in a manner of speaking writing of this script.

The production is great with the touch of Michael Mann ( the guy who produced the legendary Miami Vice and directed Collateral ). Don't ask me who is Michael Mann. Go a check out the films and dramas he has produced and directed.

I'm also impressed by the cast and all the actors participating in this drama as half of them had to learn how to speak Japanese and the rest of them to learn how deliver fluently their lines in English! They all deserve credits for their work, as we all know how difficult it is for westerners to learn Japanese and for Japanese to speak English.

So - in order to conclude without any spoilers- this is a fantastic drama with a very solid plot, great character development that you will not find in the book, and very good - and difficult due to the bilingual nature of this drama - acting.

If you haven't read the book yet do read it.
If you haven't watched this drama yet do watch it as it will put you in the mood of the book but with an original and different some how story plot.

10/10 from me for the writing and they way that the source material was used, the character development and the very good production and direction.

P.S After watching the final episode I have to say that the second season will be welcomed.

Leia Mais

All about appearance ( production) but with the ultimate ( plot ) disappearance.

This is another super expensive and excellently executed production of a time travel drama that fails due to its plot inconsistency. It suffers from unnumbered time paradoxes that end up to look like continuity errors.
There is not a single episode that doesn't cancel what you've watched on the previous ones and doesn't raise more questions than those that is supposed to answer.

The characters cancel continuously their own actions and on top of that they look like they are amnesiacs, unable to remember what they did themselves not even in the same time line.

The production, the music the special effects etc will blow out your mind, but that's just all there is. Don't expect to understand anything and don't bother to explain the end because there is no point on doing so. It is another time travel drama ( along with Signal and Kairos ) that its plot doesn't make sense.

3/10 from me just for the sake of the expensive production.

Leia Mais

A tricky to follow plot with a finale that justifies the actions of the culprit

My review will be short and it will start with the following warnings: Don't watch this drama if you don't have the time the energy and the intention to watch it carefully. Avoid also to watch this drama if you expect a romance, or you expect to see two dimensional characters that are either good or bad .

It's plot is tricky to follow with countless twists and characters who all serve their own agendas, have their own motives, and are in a constant fight the one with the other. It is quite hard to follow who is against who and what is the reason of their actions. And that is what distinguishes The Veil from all other similar action thriller dramas. Its excellent plot that makes the viewers think... a lot.

I will not get into more details because it is a drama that deserves your attention.

I have only to say that the end made me feel about the culprit while the whole theme of this drama reminded me an old movie, Jacob's Ladder from 1990 ( watch this if you haven't watch it yet).
Both the drama and the movie have the same final message. That when you get involved into dirty wars, of all kind, you end up either dead or insane. There is no middle ground on this.

9,5 out of 10 from me.

Leia Mais

The most underrated crime/investigation drama out there.

This must have been the most underrated investigation drama I've ever watched and I can't figure out why this fantastic drama passed undetected by the fans of the genre.

This drama has two distinctive 12 episodes parts and each part covers the investigation of a different case. I have the notion that the producers intended to release this drama in two different seasons but they ended up merge it into one.

The investigations of these two crime cases, that look quite unremarkable at the beginning, literally unfold in each and every episode with countless twists and revelations that drive the plot into some very dark pathways. Don't get fooled by the lukewarm start of each case. Keep on watching because each of these cases starts to become very interesting after its first two episodes.

The cast is very good as well, with the actor Dong Chang giving the performance of his life on the second part of the series. This guy is a fantastic actor, and obviously underrated too as I had not heard of him up until now. In this particular drama he is literally living into his role, giving a heartbreaking performance as a person forced by the social circumstances to become a criminal, deep into depression, self-pity and self destruction. He plays a very intelligent and very self aware criminal into the second part/second case of the series.
But the rest of the cast is great too, doing their best to depict the very realistic and solid characters that look real because they are not strictly either very "good" or very "bad". All characters have a background that is shown by their actions and not with countless irritating and garrulous flashbacks. ( that drive me mad most of the times! lol)

Don't expect way too much action, as this is an investigation drama after all, but get ready to see some very realistic action scenes that are not over the top. No acrobatics, martial arts or exaggerations and such things at the action scenes.

Overall this is a surprisingly good drama that I definitely recommend you to watch, and rewatch, as it has high rewatching value as a case study of how a well written and well directed plot ought to be. Do watch it and don't skip any scenes as it worths your time and your attention.

10 out of 10 from me.

Edit to Add: It is available at YoYo English Channel on Youtube subbed in English.

Leia Mais

Dropped on episode 8!

I'll be brief as there is not reason to over analyze the complete and utter inability of this drama's writer to conclude the plot in a reasonable manner.

As many others mentioned in their reviews and on the comments this drama started with a very promising and interesting mystery sci-fi plot to end up in a mess that made me for the fist time in my life to put on hold and then drop a drama two episodes before the finale.

And that because the plot kept on raising more questions than giving answers. By the end of 8th episode there were so many plot holes and paradoxes, incomprehensible scenes and events that I found myself losing all kind of interest about the fate of the characters but also not even interested to keep watching it as nothing up to this point made any sense.

If you plan to watch it, avoid it even if the first episodes look promising. You are going to waste your time.

3 out of 10 from me

Leia Mais

Uncle Vanya after a nuclear disaster.....!

That must have been the most overrated, over hyped, unjustifiably long and pretentious film I've ever seen. I don't know and I can't even imagine why this film got so many awards.
For me at least was an unsuccessful attempt to convey with some beautiful cinematography and pretentious moody acting some very questionable ideas.

BE AWARE SPOILERS AHEAD




Fukaku Yusuke a stage actor and director, who is repeatedly cheated by his wife Oto , feels cheated. ( how original!!)
The messed up by the death of their child wife Oto, cheats on him and has sex with her lovers even in their own home . Having sex with her husband and other men is a very inspiring process for her though, because it makes her create stories that made her a famous screenwriter. Fukaku Yusuke's wife dies at some point from natural causes and he feels, - on top of being cheated- guilty because he wasn't able to save her.

Two years later, Misaki becomes Yusuke's driver for the duration of his stay at Hiroshima, where he is assigned to direct a stage play, ( Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov), In the process we learn that she feels anger and hate for her psycho mother who brutally abused her when she was a child. Her mother dies in a natural disaster accident and Misaki feels guilty too because she didn't want and probably wasn't able to save her.

Takatsuki Koshi a young idol actor and one of Yusuke's wife's lovers is cast to play Uncle Vanya in the stage play that Yusuke is directing, a multilingual adaptation of this stage play where all the actors and the actresses of the cast speak a different language. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and even sign language ( I don't know what could have been the purpose of such an adaptation. If the concept after all was to make the audience of the play read over titles then it should have been a more valid option to play Uncle Vanya in Russian!!).
Takatsuki's career is messed up too after being caught up to have an affair with a minor.
During the rehearsals of the play, assaults a guy who photographed him without his consent and afterwards he is lecturing Yusuke about how truthful in her ideal was his wife, how much she loved her husband ( !!) and how inspirational and deep was for her to f@ck with other men (including himself of course!) The guy he assaulted dies after a while at the hospital.


And then we get to the point ( at last). And the point is that Yusuke shouldn't feel angry and he shouldn't feel wronged because his wife was after all true to herself, ( even though she wasn't true to him) that Misaki shouldn't feel this way about her mother, because her mother was also true to herself (even though she had a multiple personality disorder !).

But the same absolution doesn't apply in the case of Takatsuki who ends up being arrested even though he was probably equally true to himself and his intentions when he assaulted and eventually killed the guy who took the photo.

And that's what the movie is all about. Almost three hours of beautifully filmed but completely pretentiously acted attempt to persuade us that everything is fine as long as we take other people's shit as they are, hoping perhaps that things will get better in the ... afterlife... ( ??) ha ha haaa

4 out of 10 from me just for the sake of the cinematography.
The plot sucks and it's intentions are at least questionable.

Leia Mais

The Epitome of Psychological Abuse and Domestic Violence

This drama legalizes and gives excuses with the most sneaky and underground way, psychological abuse, domestic violence and cruelty towards the most vulnerable people. I know that my opinion is not going to be popular but here it is.

It was one of the worst dramas I've ever watched. Not for its production, costumes, music, sets or acting that they were decent but because of its plot.

Most of the viewers of this drama didn't probably notice/realize that behind the fairy tale like story with the nice sets and costumes and the poetic dialogues, was an unashamed and blatant promotion of the worst kind of violence.
I don't even know where to start from as there is not a single character in this drama that is not abusing people or is abused.

The Emperor f.e of the Celestial Tribe abused his children, their wives, their wannabe wives and his grandson to the extremes.

The deity prince ( Ye Hua ) who is handsome and lives in his palaces that fly on pink clouds, is a case study of egotistical and narcissistic personality that abused horribly his wife ( Bai Qian), his concubine ( Su Jin), his own mother and his child plus all the female deities that approached him. Women and children seem to be his specialty.

The concubine in her turn abused and manipulated everyone around her, from the blind wife to the unrelated fox, the servants, her maid, the other princesses and so on.

The wife ( Bai Qian) behaves awfully to all around her I assume due to the superiority of her status as a deity.

On the Ghost Tribe, The ghost lord who was abused by his father, abused in his turn his wife, and his brother.

I wasn't able to find in this drama any lead character that didn't show incredible amounts of cruelty with the one or the other way towards the other characters, and TBH I don't understand why this drama got such stellar reviews and why most of its viewers were unable to detect behind the fairy tale set up that this drama blatantly promotes Violence in all forms and ways.

I find unacceptable that such kind of productions find their way to the public and that the younger viewers, particularly young women consider the behavior of Ye Hua as an example on how men should behave to women.

1.5 out of 10 from me

Leia Mais

So so....

This is a good live action series of the well known One Piece manga and animation saga. The sets and the costumes are very well done, it is obvious that this is a very expensive production, but the plot and the characters are not that well done. There are countless flash backs which are a not so successful attempt to show some how the background of the characters who end up though, being extremely two dimensional. Their appearance is there but their motives dialogues, aims etc aren't. The characters seem like a fraction of what they are in the manga and the anime series. Same applies to the plot that it has been adapted to fit in a 8 episode series missing this way a lot of the side characters, plots, dialogues. I found the dialogues quite boring. The plot is a mush up of bits and pieces of the original plot that are not put together that well.
Over all this series looks like an half cooked introduction into the One Piece world. If you have read the manga and watched the anime series you are going to find it incomplete. If you have no idea about what One Piece, is you are not going to get engaged unless you are under 12 years old and you don't mind as long as the whole thing is colorful.

6,5 -7 /10

Leia Mais

Another time travel drama with a messed up plot ( and with an out of context/wrong title).

Let's start with the title.
Kairos ( it is read as keros) translates in Modern Greek language as weather and in Ancient Greek language as a time period / a frame of time. It is meant to be used for something longer than one minute. Two months, three months, the Summer, the Winter etc.

By the time that the plot of this series is based on the protagonists' communication that takes place in one minute's time frame, it would have been better to be used as a title the word Stigmi which means Moment, or Hronos that means Time and not the word Kairos in its ancient meaning. It is not considered as Kairos that one minute between 10:33 and 10:34 that they are able to communicate.

Stigmi now comes from the word Stigma which means spot. Stigmi is a spot in Time, a moment in time, a minute for example .
Hronos is also a very valid word, and translates as Time.

As a Greek language speaker the first thing that I thought when I saw the title was that this is some sort of environmental disaster drama. lol Then after watching the first episode I realized that this was an alternative time drama but the title didn't make sense to me either way as one minute is not such a long time to be considered as kairos.

As I predicted, very early on and after watching this drama up until its conclusion, the writers messed up completely the time lines. as they have done after all in many other time travel/alternative time line dramas including Signal, Tunnel, Sisyphus: The Myth, etc.

And that obviously happened because it is almost impossible not to have a "paradox" when you deal with time travel story plot, as any alterations on the past mean alterations on all possible alternative versions of the future which means in its turn, that the writers have to keep detailed notes and track of the story plot on multiple time lines.

Something that as we have realized by now THEY DON'T BOTHER TO DO! lol

As in many other time travel dramas, the writers of Kairos, lost completely the plot.
And I in my turn, lost completely my interest when the protagonists started to remember events that they had not actually taken place in the time line that they were actually living in.

( spoilers below)

How could Seo Jin f.e remember that he saw his wife with her lover and his child in the country villa by the time that at this time line he was killed? As a living person on an alternative time line, it was impossible to have any memory of this event, as some sort of deja vu because he himself was canceled in that time line.
It did make sense that he got some extra altered memories whenever he had already lived an event in the past, that was related with the time line he was living in in the present, but it was impossible to have any kind of memories in the present, if the time line that the past event occurred had been already canceled ( along with himself). lol
In other words the living Seo Jin wouldn't been able to remember his own murder!

Such kind of paradoxes and illogical plot twists were repeated again and again in this drama, creating a mess between the time lines and making the characters looking like they were either amnesiacs or like the had some sort of clairvoyance. And that because there were scenes that they didn't remember things that they should have remembered while on other scenes happened the exact opposite. There were events that they shouldn't know but they ended up knowing for unknown metaphysical reasons!


The acting was great, the production excellent but Kairos is another time travel drama with a messed -very messed up - plot.
6/10 of me just for the sake of the good acting and production.

Leia Mais

Great CGI, incomprehensible plot with no substance.

I will be brief in this review because there are not that many things to say about this movie. It's main problem is the lack of a comprehensible plot and not the lack of special effects that are top notch but they can't save the inconsistencies of the plot.

Here are some of the things that didn't make any sense in this story.

Why they kept for forty years the development of Jung_E by the time that they had already alternatives, well developed and combatable humanoids that not only did what they were ordered to do but also didn't hurt when they got injured and had complete lack of feelings? Why did they spend all these resources, time and effort and human work hours in order to develop this particular model with the conscience of Jung?
The project wasn't public to start with, in order to satisfy the public's feelings that considered Jung a hero, and trying to develop a humanoid that would work with Jung's conscience in combat conditions didn't serve any purpose because they already had such kind of humanoids. And the war was about to end either way and there was no point to repeat again and again in simulation the same old last Jung's combat that after forty years would have been out of date on regard of the technology used in it.

Also why Jung's daughter (Yoon Seo Hyun- that is the name of the daughter) released her mother into the body of another humanoid? To serve what purpose? If she wanted to save her from this thing, she should have deleted her completely.
And what about the other versions of her mother's conscience and the backups?
Her mother's conscience was in a digital form so there should have been copies of her brain mapping all over!

And how did it happen and she didn't know what were the terms and conditions of using someone's conscience in type C contracts? How did it happen and she wasn't aware of the terms of these contracts by the time that she was so deep into R&D of this technology and she used it without any moral doubts at her own mother's conscience?

Anyway.. the whole plot doesn't make any sense because it can't justify and explain the characters' actions in order to justify their feelings and reactions too. The melodramatic end is not justified by facts.

The characters are the only ones who know the true reason why they are crying their eyes out! We just don't!

The plot is hollow and without any substance and the CGI that were very good, simply can't save it...

2 out of 10 for the CGI ( I feel for the FX artists and the work they've put into it).
Skip the rest, because they don't make sense and they don't worth your watching time.

Leia Mais

A lot of potential, over the top execution, full of cliches...

This film had every potential to be interesting and suspenseful one mainly due to its main concept idea. Unfortunately it failed to engage me due to its over the top production and the countless cliches that we have already watch them multiple times in other disaster movies.

Spoilers below.

The idea of a biological terror attack during a flight has not been that much used ( the only other movie that had a similar concept was 12 Monkeys).
But unfortunately the director gave more attention to the "poor_passengers _who_ were infected_ and _are _in_ danger_ because_ the_ plane_ is_ not_ allowed_ to_ land _anywhere_ and_ the_ only_ one_ who_ can_ land_ it_ has _psychological_ problems", instead of focusing mainly on the ground operations, f.e how and why the company got the virus, how the terrorist ended up to be so revengeful, to emphasize in other words what was going on on the ground before and after the attack, instead of what was going on in the air that was the simplest and most boring concept of all as it was expected.. In other words to make the movie a bio hazard political thriller with social parameters instead of just a disaster one.

The cast and the acting was really good, the music was in some scenes over the top and loud and the production was great as always, but went in vain because it is not interesting to watch that all the passengers got eventually infected by a virus. The twist would have been to not get infected after all!

Anyway.. 6 out of 10 from me for the very good production.
The plot was one of the same.. Air flight disaster adventure vol. 9.387.938.775!
Same old stuff, same old story.

Leia Mais

One of the most consistent dramas. Watch it till its final episode and don't read the spoilers.

This is one of the best dramas you can watch ( and not only among the S. Korean ones).
I will not spoil a single detail as this drama is so well written that you'll have to watch itup to its final episode in order to figure out who did what.

The credits should go of course to the writers who kept the plot consistent from the first to the very last episode without deviating from the theme, the mood and the atmosphere of the series and without finishing this drama with a hasty, or incomprehensible or disappointing end as so often we have seen them doing on other dramas.

The above along with the great performances from all the actors and particularly the child actors and actresses make "Children of Nobody" one of the best series I've ever watched.

10/10 from me.

Leia Mais

Surrealism at its best!

If this drama worth for something it's for its surrealism.
The plot was weak, the characters inconsistent, the FL had a completely childish behavior, the Goblin's character is weak and immature and the end was horrible as the Goblin didn't manage to get what he wished for.
The clever trick of this drama is that we watch the story from the Goblin's point of view though the actual protagonist and the character that leads the plot is the Reaper.
Anyway...
The plot is inconsistent and boring but interaction between the actors who were improvising and had fun while they were filming ( probably due to the lack of a solid script!! lol ) along with the cinematography and the music make an unbeatable combination.
It is the kind of series that you would expect to see if Pedro Almodovar , Guillermo Del Toro and Tim Burton joined their powers to make a festive ( Christmas or similar ) series.

9,5 out of 10 from me for the surrealism and fun factor.

Leia Mais

A fantastic and well made prequel of the original 1954 film.

I never really liked or bothered to watch the countless films that followed the first Godzilla film because most of these sequels exploited the " bad monster destroys cities" theme again and again and again without having any serious plot or character development. Where the first film was all about how human actions affect our environment, the sequels were all about disaster entertainment based solely on the special effects and the scary monster that in the process wasn' t that scary after all.

I'm glad though that I've gave a chance and watched this prequel that has all the things that I enjoy watching. It is focusing on the characters, and it is a great commentary on the consequences of war and disasters on people and society, the survivors' guilt syndrome and the honnorable suicide that was and still is used as an "excuse" for the most horrendous crimes or the most stupid actions.

This prequel makes Godzilla a support character. The monster is still there but in the background and it is the actions and the reactions of the characters that make the monster actions get some meaningful and realistic impact.

The production is great, the special effects very realistic, the depiction of the era accurate and the music compliments nicely the scenes.
Overall is a great film to watch after watching the original 1954 one in order to get in the mood and see what Godzilla was actually all about. Kudos to the producers of this film that they managed to make Godzilla relevant again.

9.5 out of 10 from me as I reserve the perfect 10 for the original first film.

Leia Mais