It's like a Christian version of Don Bluth's " A Troll in Central Park" but instead of obnoxious kids & filler of characters goofing off, you get bible quotes, & Stanly is Gnorga's son.
Reviews
9 Reviews
Seoul Station
(2016)
Up thete with Barefoot Gen & Grave of the Fireflies.
16 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
*Spoiler filled review* I watched this BEFORE watching Train to Budan, & after having watched both, I believe this to be the better movie. Despite being animated, it felt like one of if not the most realistic ways people would actually behave in a real zombie pandemic, rather than a popcorn flick where characters are either despicable fodder to feed our morbid sences, or tireless idealistic heroes who overcome all odds through a series of contrived conveniences. _______________________________________
Cons: The "animated" prequel to a live action movie. It's entirely rotoscoped over live action, which begs the question of why they bothered making it animatedin the first place. It reminds me of how nearly all Korean webtoons I've read since 2017 appear to be traced over stock images instead of drawn freehand. In the last stretch of the movie, Hye-Seon is running away from a hoard of zombies alone She has a good head run on them & could buy herself some time by closing just one door, but she leaves every single one of them open, & it's infuriating.
The animation is stilted & janky, like it's missing frames. Think of playng a video game with a framerate of about 10. The faces of living persons are expressive in a realistic capaciy, which by animstion standards is like almost not expressing emotion at all. There's a sceen where we hear Hye-Seon is screaming & wailing as a zombie nearly gets her, but her mouth is closed & she doesn't look panicked at all. _________________________________________
Pros: The uncanny valley quality of the rotoscoping makes the zombies look super, creepy, & they are far more expressive than their living counterparts. This is where the animation shines.
The story takes place among the homeless, which realistically is where pandemics tend to spread first. (That & elder care centers). It makes a statement on South Korea's homeless war veterans & runaways, & depics a problem of Korean police being extremely lazy, passionless, & dismissive, with extreme pregudice againt the homeless.
We get full introductions to the characters so we can actually come to care for them & want them to survive & have a happy ending. You feel bad for the mousey homeless man who only wanted to help someone stay alive, only to be ridiculed, rejected, harassed, & treated like an inconvenience by everyone. Then there's the old war veteran who had given up all hope in life, but still wanted to live.
The movie turns tragic, with both the Korean Military & the zombies attacking the remaining survivors. A man on the brink of escaping sacrifices himself to save hye-Seon, though he was not expecting to die in the process. No good deed goes unpunished. ________________________________________
The in-between: There's a totally unexpected twist at the end where one of the most & one of the least likable characters very quickly switch positions in likeability, as the dad was a lying criminal sociopath & abusive ex-boyfriend who kills the wimpy boyfriend in cold-blood. It feels like it could have been a last-minute change in the ending, as there was no foreshadowing. Maybe even a way to make the movie half an hour longer. At this point it feels like the world is dog-piling everything that could possibly go wrong on Hye-Seon. The movie ends tragically with no survivors, & I feel like this last stretch of the movie is where many viewers who would have rated the movie more positively stopped enjoying the movie. _________________________________________
Conclusion: It's an excelet social commentary tragedy. I'd buy it & put it on a shelf next to Barefoot Gen, Grave of the Fireflies, Perfect Blue, Shadow Star Narutaru, When the Wind Blows, Watership Down, Mary & Max, Isle of Dogs, Animal Farm, Plague Dogs, Felidae, & Animals of Farthing Wood.
Cons: The "animated" prequel to a live action movie. It's entirely rotoscoped over live action, which begs the question of why they bothered making it animatedin the first place. It reminds me of how nearly all Korean webtoons I've read since 2017 appear to be traced over stock images instead of drawn freehand. In the last stretch of the movie, Hye-Seon is running away from a hoard of zombies alone She has a good head run on them & could buy herself some time by closing just one door, but she leaves every single one of them open, & it's infuriating.
The animation is stilted & janky, like it's missing frames. Think of playng a video game with a framerate of about 10. The faces of living persons are expressive in a realistic capaciy, which by animstion standards is like almost not expressing emotion at all. There's a sceen where we hear Hye-Seon is screaming & wailing as a zombie nearly gets her, but her mouth is closed & she doesn't look panicked at all. _________________________________________
Pros: The uncanny valley quality of the rotoscoping makes the zombies look super, creepy, & they are far more expressive than their living counterparts. This is where the animation shines.
The story takes place among the homeless, which realistically is where pandemics tend to spread first. (That & elder care centers). It makes a statement on South Korea's homeless war veterans & runaways, & depics a problem of Korean police being extremely lazy, passionless, & dismissive, with extreme pregudice againt the homeless.
We get full introductions to the characters so we can actually come to care for them & want them to survive & have a happy ending. You feel bad for the mousey homeless man who only wanted to help someone stay alive, only to be ridiculed, rejected, harassed, & treated like an inconvenience by everyone. Then there's the old war veteran who had given up all hope in life, but still wanted to live.
The movie turns tragic, with both the Korean Military & the zombies attacking the remaining survivors. A man on the brink of escaping sacrifices himself to save hye-Seon, though he was not expecting to die in the process. No good deed goes unpunished. ________________________________________
The in-between: There's a totally unexpected twist at the end where one of the most & one of the least likable characters very quickly switch positions in likeability, as the dad was a lying criminal sociopath & abusive ex-boyfriend who kills the wimpy boyfriend in cold-blood. It feels like it could have been a last-minute change in the ending, as there was no foreshadowing. Maybe even a way to make the movie half an hour longer. At this point it feels like the world is dog-piling everything that could possibly go wrong on Hye-Seon. The movie ends tragically with no survivors, & I feel like this last stretch of the movie is where many viewers who would have rated the movie more positively stopped enjoying the movie. _________________________________________
Conclusion: It's an excelet social commentary tragedy. I'd buy it & put it on a shelf next to Barefoot Gen, Grave of the Fireflies, Perfect Blue, Shadow Star Narutaru, When the Wind Blows, Watership Down, Mary & Max, Isle of Dogs, Animal Farm, Plague Dogs, Felidae, & Animals of Farthing Wood.
Rocketman
(I) (2019)
Good.
28 June 2020
A nice musical, a documentary, & rehab recovery story. The actor may not pass for Elton on looks, but voice-wise he was a good choice. Wasn't expecting it to be a musical, but it totally worked. Recommend watching back-to-back with either Bohemian Rhapsody or either version of Hairspray (the original & remake are equally good).
I guess it's funny, if you're under 20 or over 60.
28 June 2020
For reasons I cannot fathom, my elderly mother & uncle find this show funny. 100% of the jokes are about genetalia or singing off-key. These are the kind of cringe jokes 13 year olds tell. A half hour of this is torture. I can't even claim that the costumes, setting, or editing are redeeming factors.
Runaway Bride
(1999)
Pretty bad.
28 May 2018
The cover music is seriously meh, the lines are forced & unnatural, the humor is what I 'd expect from a children's cartoon. When I think about the process of writing it, instead of a writer, I see a waiter endlessly grating cheese onto a salad while the the director insistd on "more cheese, much more."
Abandoned
(2016)
Show lacks focus.
17 February 2017
I initially started watching this, thinking that National Geographic's Abandoned series from 2012 was playing reruns. Turned out to be another pseudo-Urbex series by the same title.
The episode description for episode 1, Ghost Mall, stated that the focus of the episode was abandoned malls. What you actually got was pure ADHD, jumping back & forth between abandoned buildings & & people goofing off in skate parks, mostly it was just skate parks.
Urbex is supposed to be about things like the futility of man's desire to achieve immortality through architecture that doesn't stand the test of time, embracing the desolation of evacuated ruins, wondering what it held inside & who was in it, & about untouched time capsules that remind us of our past. This show throws all of that out the window & focuses on people going on with their daily lives & repurposing abandoned spaces; stuff no urbex fans want to see.
The episode description for episode 1, Ghost Mall, stated that the focus of the episode was abandoned malls. What you actually got was pure ADHD, jumping back & forth between abandoned buildings & & people goofing off in skate parks, mostly it was just skate parks.
Urbex is supposed to be about things like the futility of man's desire to achieve immortality through architecture that doesn't stand the test of time, embracing the desolation of evacuated ruins, wondering what it held inside & who was in it, & about untouched time capsules that remind us of our past. This show throws all of that out the window & focuses on people going on with their daily lives & repurposing abandoned spaces; stuff no urbex fans want to see.
No Men Beyond This Point
(2015)
Highly recommended.
18 July 2016
A lot of people are claiming that this movie is feminist propaganda that mocks MGTOW, but some of the biggest anti-SJW voices of Youtube have been promoting this as a mockbuster that makes fun of 3ed wave feminism. Some people are just so sensitive & easily triggered that they take it as a personal attack & fail to see that the satire pokes both sides, ultimately making a mockery of the gender war. & I have a hard time believing that the people who gave it a negative view watched it in its entirety.
The mocumentary is set in an alternate universe where the timeline diverges in the 1960s, & a strange phenomenon of immaculate births & no male babies. Women are encouraged to partner together to raise children, but still discouraged from partaking in lesbian sex, & men, like the native Americans hundreds of years ago, are rounded up & put on reservations. But one man & one woman won't take it anymore, & work to bring the sexes together, to encourage sex, & to try making traditional birth a thing again.
The mocumentary is set in an alternate universe where the timeline diverges in the 1960s, & a strange phenomenon of immaculate births & no male babies. Women are encouraged to partner together to raise children, but still discouraged from partaking in lesbian sex, & men, like the native Americans hundreds of years ago, are rounded up & put on reservations. But one man & one woman won't take it anymore, & work to bring the sexes together, to encourage sex, & to try making traditional birth a thing again.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
(1991)
Unintentionally hilarious
25 August 2011
Both Cinema Snob & Diamanda Hagen have review this movie, Hagen is the one that made me want to see the whole thing. You can't get it on DVD, or even buy a legal in-print copy, so don't be afraid to watch it online if you can't find a secondhand VHS.
This is a contender for king of "so bad it's good." The special effects are over-the-top, the dubbing is hilariously bad, & I challenge you to find an actually comedy funnier than this action movie. You get the feeling that the movie is not taking itself seriously, but the actors play it straight.
This is a great movie for an up-all-night party or a drinking game. Get a VHS copy & spread the gory bloody love.
This is a contender for king of "so bad it's good." The special effects are over-the-top, the dubbing is hilariously bad, & I challenge you to find an actually comedy funnier than this action movie. You get the feeling that the movie is not taking itself seriously, but the actors play it straight.
This is a great movie for an up-all-night party or a drinking game. Get a VHS copy & spread the gory bloody love.
Gerry
(2002)
Walking Through The Desert. & walking & walking & walking.
28 May 2011
I didn't think a movie could be more boring than 1981's "Night of Horror," but I was wrong. & the lack of soundtrack wasn't helping, nor was setting this movie in a hideous barren wasteland of endless sameness.
Anyone born & raised in a desert will immediately be able to tell that this was filmed in one than one desert. Jerry & Garry managed to walk from Death Valley to Argentina, to Jordan, & Utah. Perhaps if they'd filmed the whole thing in Utah & maybe Colorado, the visuals would have been a less boring distraction than sand dunes & endless fields of sage brush.
It was like a movie full of the pointless stuff edited out of other movies & nothing really happens. Even the ending will leave you scratching your head.
I really can't make this "10 lines long," there's not enough material to work off of. If ever there was a movie you couldn't possibly give spoilers to, this would be it.
Anyone born & raised in a desert will immediately be able to tell that this was filmed in one than one desert. Jerry & Garry managed to walk from Death Valley to Argentina, to Jordan, & Utah. Perhaps if they'd filmed the whole thing in Utah & maybe Colorado, the visuals would have been a less boring distraction than sand dunes & endless fields of sage brush.
It was like a movie full of the pointless stuff edited out of other movies & nothing really happens. Even the ending will leave you scratching your head.
I really can't make this "10 lines long," there's not enough material to work off of. If ever there was a movie you couldn't possibly give spoilers to, this would be it.
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