Zíza

If you like to watch cooking shows and enjoy the outdoors, you've just found your soulmate. A movie that doesn't rush you, just shows you some pretty pictures and cooks some dishes you simply won't make at home. What surprised me was the amount of sugar used. While it's a pretty naive idea of farming, you can still see that it takes a tremendous amount of hard work to survive. Still, rather than a drama, it's just an ordinary film about a girl cooking various "organic foods".

Classic detective series. The protagonist is a weirdo and an outcast to most of the other investigators, but every time he sinks his teeth into something critical and solves the case. Not only does he find the culprit, he manages to calm the hearts of the bereaved, who can then only think the best of the dead. The series has pretty much the exact same pattern every episode, so I don't recommend watching it all at once; one episode a week is just about right. Kamikawa is a fine actor and his Itomura was top notch, he was enjoyable to watch and wasn't annoying to the viewer like he was to everyone around him. The series was quite popular in Japan, so it got more seasons. A repetitive classic where you know exactly how each episode will go, but that can be forgiven because there is something at least a little interesting in each episode.

There are no big dramatic twists in this series. Basically, for 19 episodes we just watch every move, all the bonding, conversations, smiles, and tears of the central couple in particular, but every now and then we get to deal with other characters as well. Given that this is a Taiwanese series, it does get a little more raucous here and there than I'd like, but there's no affected mom or bunch of elderly gossips – which is a big plus. They're all just people with their own dreams, pains, and joys. So it's a very slow series, it's not rushing anywhere. I'd say it has a lot of unnecessary scenes that the show could easily do without, but maybe some people will find be suited by the breadth of it. It only moves along because of clichés at times, and it's not the best the writers could have done with it. Fortunately, the central duo is rather endearing. It's pretty dialogue-driven, so again, if you want something different from what's going on in Korea (drama, drama, nothing but drama), this might be a nice relaxing choice. The big plus, I think, is in the main male character's decisions, because even though he learns certain things that would cause him to break up and shed gallons of tears elsewhere, he's not like that. A series for people who have quite a bit of free time and don't know what to do with it. It's long, rambling, with nice situations that are often a long time coming. A weaker 3 stars.

At first I couldn't stand the same "sorry, sorry, sorry", and then it went to hell, but with that came a new nuisance in an overly annoying and whiny heroine. Honestly, both of those things made it pretty uncomfortable to watch. Thankfully, though, it did have its enjoyable moments, especially as the relationship between the heroine(s) and the chef slowly developed. The story isn't very interesting, the acting isn't exactly dazzling either, but Park Bo-young definitely has an interesting career ahead of her. It had its cutely sweet moments, the guys in the kitchen were endearingly fierce, and in the end, even the heroine was bearable. In tense situations, though, I was most impressed with Kim Seul-gi – that girl really knows how to do it. And the rest... not so much. Out of all the ballast of Korean series, it didn't stand out. Except for the momentary sexiness of the ghost. A better 2 stars.

It's a little bit of Bond in Japan mixed with Lupin the Third. Kamenashi wasn't bad at all, let alone Isei. Fukada mediocre as always, but also gorgeous as always. I think if the Japanese work a little more on the action scenes, it'll be great. But at least you can see they're moving somewhere. It had some weaker scenes, but overall I rate it as one of the more successful fairy tale spy movies. Even despite the LOL ending. And I really liked the camera work.

In the end, it's not as bad as all the expert Japanese reviewers declare it to be. Just a dirty fantasy anti-utopian brawler with effects that a poor Japanese budget could manage. What I like about the film, compared to the manga and anime, is how beautifully all the squalor and filth comes through – literally. There's no point at all in comparing what's different from the subject matter and what's missing, because it's logical that it would be different; you just can't cram everything that all Titans fans love so much into two movies (hello Levi). Still, I felt like the story wasn't the strongest point in this first film. It seemed rather uneven to me, we'll see what the second installment brings. As for the acting, I basically have nothing to complain about except Haruma portraying Eren. His portrayal of certain emotions just doesn't sit well with me at all, and it's either me or he's just not a very good actor. On the other hand, I'd have to agree with everyone else – Ishihara Satomi was the best, she must have enjoyed the hell out of the role because she probably won't get a character like that again in her acting career; what a shame! Oh, and special praise from me goes to the ending song, which doesn't really fit the film, but I played it about ten times in a row. I'm curious to see how they handle what they've started in the second film. I hope to find out soon. Too bad it didn't run in theaters here, it deserves the silver screen.

This is certainly an interesting venture. Interesting cast, interesting characters, 16 episodes is just about right. I mostly enjoyed when the three leads went together and complemented each other. That was the best part. If the whole second half of the series was like that, I think I'd be squealing with delight. It was different, but it still wasn't bad. Honestly I didn't find the acting to be all that impressive, kind of a nice average that was fun to watch. After all, we've known for a long time that Koreans are great at handling emotionally tense scenes (sometimes they handle them so well that you can't even stand to watch them... fortunately that's not the case here). At times I felt that Lee Hyun knew the impossible, there wasn't much explanation of how he came by it, plus it just seemed like a hunch rather than him using that "scientific" head of his. And I thought that was a shame. Plus, towards the end, I was losing focus and I wasn't enjoying it as much again. However, it did have some nice scenes – I really liked the way Lee Hyun stroked Cha Ji-An's head, and overall their relationship was very nicely portrayed. I was originally going to give it 3 stars, but I'm giving it 4 stars for a fairly satisfying ending, just barely. P.S.: I couldn't be a cop because I sympathized too much with the serial killer; I thought he was a misunderstood sympathetic guy.

No romance, interesting characters (watchable tough guys), the search for the killer. I liked all that about it. The first few episodes had movement, but then it suddenly stopped having the right spark for me. Not to mention that I recognized the villain as soon as he came on the scene. The actor just has the face for it. So there couldn't even be any surprises. It's not bad; on the contrary, I think it's an above average crime drama in its own way (especially in Korea, because it didn't embarrassingly romanticize and endanger the life of this or that chosen one). It's just that the overall tone didn't impress me much. Still, I'd probably check out the second season if there was one.

I found it to be a very enjoyable show. It had a dynamic to it that kept us not going in circles all the time, but really moving somewhere with the characters. Not to mention that I was charmed by the two couples (I consider all four of them the main characters since they were given about equal screen time), though each in their own way. Of course, Ji-Yi and Chang-Soo are the cuter ones, the kind that you'll happily say to yourself that this couple is really, incredibly cute and I want more of them. Yoon Ha and Joon Ki, however, were also not the annoying couple who loving each other to death when one of the couple is a naive fool (heaven forbid both of them). They had their shining moments and what can you say, their conversations were great, especially towards the end. The songs didn't do much for me. The cinematography annoyed me at times, but nothing unforgivable. I liked the story; though built on certain stereotypes, it was very well delivered (which is great, that's what stereotypes are for, to be used WELL). The acting wasn't bad either. I was really satisfied. For the first time in a long time, a Korean romance that didn't let me down with stodgy characters. Plus all the relationships (not just the romantic ones) were multi-dimensional.

Beautiful costumes, even more beautiful sets. Those two things were really fancy. The acting was also very decent, but where I was surprised by the shoddy acting were the Canadians, because usually in Japanese affairs, foreigners are not well acted, portrayed. I can't complain here. Maybe only Kamenashi, he didn't impress me much. But the pace of the story... the 132 minutes felt more like a whole morning. At times there were such boring-slow-uninteresting passages that I had to go read what was going on in the world. I also felt that for how long the film was, there was little focus on the characters – and there were so many! I think it would have been better to give proper attention to one, Reggie (and his family), played by Tsumabuki Satoshi, or to divide the attention more between three players at most. But it just kind of weirdly jumped back and forth. I understand the intent, it was enough to hint at it and one immediately understood what was going on and why a character was, for example, acting or behaving the way they were, but it just wasn't enough for me. It could have used more depth. I didn't really enjoy the suspense of the fights either; not that I minded it in any extreme way, but if you're expecting a lot of thrilling fights, you'll be disappointed, this just isn't a sports movie. The sports here are just the lubricant to drive the film forward. Tsumabuki, however, always played perfectly when things went right. Proper shock and calm even though his heart was pounding with excitement. So I really liked how quietly the boys always took some success or failure. There’s always posing, but here... pleasantly refreshing. A Japanese suggestive film about the misery and brilliance of Japanese immigrants in Canada playing baseball. Despite the sometimes sleepy pace, just barely 4 stars.