For Aeryeon (played by veteran actress Lee Miyeon), a video shop owner, her only friends are movies and a couple of tropical fish she raises in the shop. The other joy of hers is to select quality videos for her customers, which is interpreted as part of her effort to overcome solitude. Then one day comes attractive and handsome Dongseok, a lover of French movies and music. From that time on, she waits for him every day. She hears from him that he composes music and prepares to release an album in order to make a debut as a singer, but has been rejected many times by producers. Although she confesses her love to him, he says he has a girlfriend to marry. Aeryeon meets Dongseok’s girlfriend and tells her, “You can meet other boyfriends than Dongseok. But for me, Dongseok is the only lover. Please leave him.”
Pisces is the 12th sign of the zodiac, represented by two fish, and believed to affect the character and life of people born between Feb. 21 and March 20. For the people of Pieces, love never stops, even at the face of rejection. If it stops, it is not love. The color of blue and yellow appears alternately in this film, with jazz music as the backdrop. The film has something that touches viewers’ heartstring, more so than other films of its kind. Newcomer director Kim Hyeongtae superbly portrays the psychology of a female character abandoned by her love.
Ahh, the movie that started it all. Normally, I probably would have been blown away by the unique and awesome-ness of this movie... but seeing as how I watched this entire series backwards, I was less impressed with this one as I was with most of the sequels it spawned.
The power of this particular horror movie, however, is the fact that it eventually ends up making sense. So often, in these type of movies, the ending is ambiguous or confusing, or just plain stupid. Here it is neither. The twist is actually pretty creative, and hard to figure out... especially since the director tries a lot of different things in order to make sure it comes off as a surprise. And there are enough moments (though there could always be more) that had me jumping in my seat. The girls at this school (as opposed to, say, Memento Mori) are actually interesting and broad enough to keep the viewers interest. None of them come off as carbon copies of the others, and seem very... normal. Typical high schoolers you could find in just about any school.
And again, we are shown very evil, almost sadistic teachers, which almost seems to be a theme in this particular series. If this is the way Korean schools were/are run, then something definitely needs to be done... no wonder so many dead-students come back as ghosts... heck, I'd be pissed too!
And yet... I still wasn't overly impressed with it. I had very high expectations going in which may have ruined it for me... and some of the effects were cheesy and overly-common by today's horror-movie standards. But if you normally get scared easily, and go into this one not expecting much, then you may actually end up liking it a lot. It's a decent horror movie (and not just because of the ghost-killings) so I can see why it inspired many others of this genre... but in the end, it's semi-forgettable, and has trouble measuring up to its sequels. At least in my opinion... which, again, doesn't say much.
Well, I finally finished one of several dramas I was watching!
Again, the primary draw was the main couple, Soo Ha and Dong Gyu. I loved both the actor and actress, and thought they did wonderfully with what they had to work with (Lee Da Hae will forever be awesome since she was in My Girl; and Lee Ji Hoon is so cute, I really hope he shows up in more dramas). The story, however, left much to be desired. It was interesting seeing a main character who is tied so closely to Korean history, culture, and tradition... but it also made the story somewhat slow and dry.
The entire plot revolves around Aegisshi (Soo ha) who is trying to keep her ancestral home from being sold to an ex-servant of the estate who has grown rich and influential. Problems arise as she slowly (and I mean veryslowly) starts to fall for his oldest grandson, Dong Gyu. All of the characters are tied to the estate in one way or another... and the story very rarely diverges from it. I think I would have liked it better if the series had been shorter. Towards the end, the episodes really started to drag, and I only kept watching to see what would happen between Soo ha and Dong Gyu. I'm evil, lol. I really couldn't care less what happened to the house.
There were a couple unresolved parts though, that left me a little confused/annoyed:
SPOILERS 1. In one scene, they show a flashback of Hwang Man Bok before he'd stolen the cow. It makes it look like his "girlfriend" is cheating on him or something; thus prompting his theft and departure during the night. Yet, every time the "jilted lovers" meet, they make it seem like it's all a big misunderstanding that will be cleared up at the end. After all, why would she constantly accuse him of leaving her behind, if she had truly cheated on him and loved someone else? Yet despite all this, the big confrontation/resolution never comes. So what was the point of all those flashbacks and accusations anyway...?
2. I couldn't stand the sudden change in Man Bok's attitude towards Soo Ha. First, he tells his grandsons that whoever marries her will get to inherit the business--the next, he's accusing the "favorite" grandson of choosing Aegisshi over him and the company, and forbids him from ever seeing her again. It just seemed like a convenient plot devise to keep them apart... one that didn't make a lot of sense, considering all the dialogs/actions that came before. Besides, Chan Min still continues his pursuit of her, so why can't Dong Gyu? If Man Bok's going to constantly change the rules of the game, he should at least notify all the players! Plus, what should he be angrier about: that his youngest grandson lied straight to his face and betrayed him, or that his eldest went to his "girlfriend's" after getting kicked out of the house? Seems like a no-brainer to me... so why was I wrong?
3. This complaint is more of a pet-peeve than anything else: Why were the elders and Soo Ha so willing to allow TOP group to take their dumpling recipe and market it? They're so protective of anything having to do with their estate, so why are the family recipes any different? If it was any other company offering to market it, I could see it maybe being possible... but they're supposed to hate TOP group, so why was this any different? Again, this seemed like another convenient plot device; not to mention, forced and unnecessary. And honestly, it's something I've seen again and again in other dramas... so what's the point?
SPOILERS
In the end, I thought it was fun and cute, but ultimately forgettable. I really do hope to see the main actor and actress in more dramas though--especially Lee Ji Hoon, since I think he has a lot of potential--all he needs is a strong script to work with. Unfortunately, a strong script was not one of Hello Miss's strong-points.
Wang Bo (Andy Lau) and Wang Li (Rene Liu) should have made the perfect Bonnie and Clyde: the former a seasoned con man and master pickpocket from Hong Kong, the latter a grifter femme fatale from Taiwan. Partners in crime and passion, the couple swindle their way across China, until one fine day Li suddenly decides to call it quits, both to her egregious lifestyle and to her entanglement with Bo. It is at this crossroad in their lives and relationships that they run into Fu Gen in a train station, an encounter that will alter their fate forever.
Young-goon thinks that she is a cyborg, and is admitted to a mental institution. She refuses to eat food, and for sustenance, she electro-charges herself with a transistor radio. Despite her stay at the mental institution, her condition does not improve. While wearing her grandmother’s dentures, she continues to talk to electric appliances ranging from vending machines to lamps.
An assortment of odd characters surrounds Young-goon at the mental institution. Sol-mi receives electrotherapy to cure her depression and keeps losing her memory. Dae-pyung is scared of his wife and has turned impotent. Gyu-suk suffers from a severe case of Oedipus Complex. Duk-chun thinks that he is the cause of all bad things and always seeks forgiveness. Eun-young is delusional and has conversations with imaginary people. And Soo-jin is addicted to plastic surgery. Then there is Il-soon. His mother has left him, leaving him deeply wounded, and like others at the mental institution, he has become anti-social. Il-soon believes and demonstrates to others at the hospital that he has the power to steal such intangible personal traits as character, attitude and habits from them. When Young-goon sees Il-soon playing ping-pong wearing a funny mask, she is readily taken with him. Despite the mask, Il-soon has good looks, and Young-goon finds his awkward ways charming. Il-soon, too, takes to Young-goon immediately and finds most beautiful her big, white front teeth. In a group session where patients give each other gifts, Young-goon asks Il-soon to steal her sympathy.
Dang. I didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would. My main problem, surpringly enough, was the main character: I never realized it before, but it looks like I prefer strong protagonists, over weak, passive resistent ones. Hyun Soo wasn't exactly weak in all honesty... but for a majority of this film, he was a giant pushover. It made most of the film uncomfortable to watch, and he made me want to bang my head against a wall many times.
I've also discovered that I'm not a huge fan of Han Ga In, the girl that plays Hyun Soo's love interest. I've seen her in Super Rookie, and in a drama I've been help sub, Doctor Kkaeng... something about her just rubs me the wrong way. Of course, the character she played in this movie didn't help her case at all: I couldn't stand the character, and didn't understand what Hyun Soo saw in her! Thankfully Kwon Sang Woo is an amazing actor, and he made watching the movie more than worthwhile. ^_^
As for story and pacing... it was good. I must admit though, that by half-way through the movie I was tired of watching, and just wanted the story to end. It had a very strong beginning, and if the main character had been an easier character for me to root for, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I think it just overshadowed the rest of the movie, and made it hard for me to enjoy it to its full potential. With every twist, I just wanted to scream, or shake one of the characters. I loved Hamburger though. He was a great, fun character. And the depiction of the school was really brutal. I can't believe how horrible teachers were allowed to treat students back then! I really couldn't blame Hyun Soo for finally snapping. It's just too bad it came so late...
In the beginning, I thought Bruce Lee would have a much bigger impact on Hyun Soo... instead, his influence didn't have any impact until the last 10 minutes of the movie. The main character seemed more moved by music, and 'turning the other cheek', than fighting. And the fight scenes weren't even that great. I've seen some great fight scenes in movies, and these just paled in comparison to all of those. These were more realistic, with lots of flailing, and head butts to stomachs.
Overall, it was a powerful film, though the moral came off a little ambiguous to me. But for some reason, I just couldn't enjoy into this movie the way I wanted to...
Having replied to a wicked post on her school website, Ye-won keeps getting a threatening call from a boy named Ji Eun-sung. Having heard about him from her friend, she keeps running away from him. But they kissed accidentally when Ye-won was trying to escape from him. Having his lips stolen by Ye-won, Eun-sung threatens her to marry him, adding that no other girl has ever kissed him before. The only thing Ye-won can do is to obey for whatever Eun-sung said. At first, Ye-won just hate him the most for his self-righteousness and unreasonableness. But she gradually finds herself is starting to fall for him…
