“Country Chick” - My Tutor Friend Review

Originalname:	동갑내기 과외하기 | Donggabnaegi Gwawoehagi
Also known as:	-
Release Date:	7. February 2003
Director:	Kim Kyeong Hyeong
Writer:	Choi Soo Wan, Park Yeon Sun
Producer:	Jang Yeong Kwon

Cast:

Kim Ha Neul, Kwon Sang Woo

Plot

Su Wan’s broke so she has to tutor a high school student called Ji Hoon, who ‘s 21 years old. (Is that even possible? Can you fail that many times?)

He’s a difficult student and he’d rather have fights than study. (I know how you feel, buddy…)

Su Wan ignores that and just sits down to fill the hours (that’s the business spirit, go for it!) All that changes when Ji Hoon suddenly appears in his room bleeding from a fight he had before. She fixes him up but the police arrive anyway and his rich father has to get him out. His dad wants him to study abroad but he doesn’t want to and says that he’ll raise his mark above 50 in the next midterm test.

Which he does. And Su Wan has to dance on her school festival, since that was her promise if he gets above 50 points. But Ji Hoon isn’t pleased at all. (Since he was jealous of all the male attention she got)

He asks her for a date on Sunday, but she’s already going to an orphanage with her study group and her boyfriend.

Ji Hoon cockblocks them, but doesn’t succeed full through. But Soo Wan gets dumped anyway, so it doesn’t matter. So she calls Ji Hoon to talk about her broken heart and he gets her home. And there’s this kind of beautiful scene… O my god, Korea you’re disgusting!!

Well the last day of the tutor lessons arrives and they go parasailing, Ji Hoon tells her he likes her and she crash-lands because of that. She pretends she didn’t hear it. On the evening they both go to an amusement park and meets up with her friend and highschoolzones Ji Hoon (That’s enough, no more tumblr for you Demochild!)

In the end it all resolves in an utterly weird kidnapping/chasing-scene, which ends rather surpsingly…

Conclusion

It’s an average comedy romance. I mean, after the first few minutes you know the whole story. But it was really funny. I mean when she just thinks he bluffs and acts the stubborn rebellious kid and then she finds out that’s his real self and she acts all “please don’t kill me”-nice.

The main actors were good. They were funny to watch and they did a good job. Kwon Sang Woo was good but Demochild and I have to say he hadn’t to do much. I mean, he had only to look great into the camera and to act like a brat. And afterwards.. yeah, it’s like he grew up (finally agelike).

Kim Ha Neul was also good. She was the typical feisty lady and that’s what she acted like.But the supporting roles weren’t that good, but they did their jobs. Don’t understand me wrong, half of the funny jokes came from those guys!

Overall, it was a nice comedy romance, so if you have time why not check it out.

“Gay Power Vol. 4” - A The Love of Siam Review

Originalname:	Rak haeng Siam
Also known as:	Love in Siam
Release Date:	22. November 2007
Director:	Chukiat Sakveerakul
Writer:	Chukiat Sakveerakul
Producer:	Somsak Taecharatanaprasert, Sukanya Vongsthapat

Cast:

Witwisit Hirunwongkul, Mario Maurer, Laila Boonyasak, Sinjai Plengpanit, Songsit Rungnopakunsri, Kanya Rattanapetch,

Plot

So the real story starts after Tongs sister, Tang, disappears and his family decides to move away, leaving his best friend Mew behind. (I’m not reviewing a Pokémon movie…)

After some years they meet again; Mew is the lead singer and songwriter of “August”, a band with his fellow school friends, who just got taken by a label and Tong’s family is a mess with a drinking father and an overly protective mother.

So Mew and Tong start to see each other again and, over time, develop feelings for each other. This resolves with those two kissing after Tangs Welcome Back Party, in which a friend of Mew, June, who looks exactly like Tongs missing sister, pretends to be Tang for the drinking father. The mother sees this and isn’t pleased with it at all (She’s Christian, if you’re wondering)

So she tells Mew to leave Tong for the sake of his happiness and he does.

Tong is of course suffering, but finds a true friend in Ying, who loved Mew before she found out he was gay.

Mew on the other hand can’t find a reason to sing anymore and the group has to get him to give up the rights of his song. His best friend talks to him, and says, that Mew doesn’t have to think he’s alone in this.

After Tongs fathers liver collapses, June decides to leave the family and go somewhere far away.

And it all comes to an end at Christmas Eve: Mew returns to the band and they’re having their first stage performance. Tong has a date with Donut (his girlfriend; she isn’t that important), but dumps her and runs to the concert, where he listens to Augusts performance with Ying. He afterwards tells Mew, that he can’t be his boyfriend but it doesn’t mean he’s not loving him. (ARE. YOU. SERIOUS? Damn it, just because you’re half German, doesn’t mean you have to be an asshole!)

We end with Mew crying in his room afterwards, starring at his now completed toy which he received from Tong when they were children.

Conclusion

(Sorry for the sentence in the title I needed something funny.)

Sooo, where do we want to start? Generally, Demochild and I liked the movie. The different love forms are really good shown. But what we don’t like was the fact that they didn’t end up together. I mean the whole movie was about the two finding out they love each other and then? “I can’t be your boyfriend but it doesn’t mean I don’t love you.” I mean, hello? It’s courageous that you make a movie about gay love but you should go the whole way and not: “Well, we went far enough. Let’s stop it here and we talk about the side story.” Don’t understand me wrong. I don’t want to see how two guys make love to each other (if I want to see that I’ll go and see Brokeback Mountain for the 3^rd time) but it would be enough for them to end up together. It would be a nice reward for them after all they’ve been through. (Why does it feel like this is getting in the same direction as my Tumbling Review?)

But let’s save this for another study…

The cast was good. They played it well. Especially, Kanya Rattanapetch who played Ying. I liked her. She was cute. But I was still frightened by her.

What we also liked about the movie were the sets. It really looked authentically like someone was actually living there. The pictures looked like they were taken by normal non-professionals.

So, I think, that’s it. The story is really cute and if you’re not too homophobic, I would recommend it.

„I want you to become a butterfly“ - A Paradise Kiss Review

Originalname:	パラダイス・キス | Paradaisu Kisu
Also known as:	-
Release Date:	4. June 2011
Director:	Takehiko Shinjo
Writer:	Ai Yazawa (Manga), Kenji Bando
Producer:	Takero Hisamatsu, Toshiaki Muramatsu, Takeshi Onoda, Hiroaki Kitano, Toshiya Nomura

Cast:

Keiko Kitagawa, Osamu Mukai, Yusuke Yamamoto, Shunji Igarashi, Kento Kaku, Aya Omasa

Plot

So we start with a... HOLY SHIT, IS THAT WARNER BROS.?!

Anyway, Yukari is a girl that tried to please her mother her whole life and doesn’t have any self-confidence. She has a love interest, Hiroyuki Takumori, played by Yusuke Yamamoto (He is our new sweetheart get used to him)

Well, destiny strikes as she’s being stalked by a punk called Arashi (No. Not the band.) She faints and wakes up in a room with Arashi, a cute girl, Miwako, and a transvestite, Isabella, who ask if she could be a model for their graduation fashion show. But she doesn’t have any interest since she has to study for the finals. When George, the designer, arrives, she takes her leave.

George shows up in her school the next morning and make her skip class because he wants her to get a new haircut as an “apology”.

Well, at least Hiroyuki likes the new haircut, as he states in the next morning, when Isabella appears and takes her away to take her measurements. Which are not needed because Yukari turns out to be his muse.

Yukari decides to move out because she can’t cope with her mother anymore and moves in with George.

He shows her his “special room” (Why are you laughing? It’s just a room with clothes he sewed himself...)

One day Yukari discovers that this project will be  their last as “Paradise Kiss” as George will go to Paris after that, and so the day of the fashion show arrives.

There are some problems and Yukari decides that she wants to give hundred percent for George on the catwalk which she does and ends up getting a lot applause for it. And George kisses her.

So he leaves for Paris without saying goodbye and some time after he sends a package with a key and an address.

She goes there and finds  all those clothes which were in his precious room and cries.

THE END. I would’ve loved to see the 3 years after, but o well... you shouldn’t force your luck! 

... Yeah okay, it isn’t finished! Well, Yukari is angry and wants to see him and in NY she finds out he has designed clothes for a musical and they end up meeting his apartment and kiss. SCREW THIS!

Conclusion

I love this movie (not like my sister). I think the ending was great and the whole plot was well paced. I mean everything went so smoothly. In other asian movies there were many dialogue scenes and things felt rushed. Not with this one. Okay, some things were cut out like the conflict with the mother. Demochild was really disappointed because in the Manga and the Anime this was very important. But for me, for the fact that it’s a movie, it wasn’t such a waste. And of course there is the thing with the ending. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I thought it was deserved. But Demochild hated it. For her the Anime Ending was the best. No pairing, just pure loneliness and an open ending. Yeah, it would be interesting but it’s such a shoujo/women movie. It’s a must to have a happy ending. Okay, it would be refreshing. But I have to say, that moment which Demochild chose for the ending (it’s the crying in the clothes room) would also have been a great ending.

I loved the cast, too. They played really good. But I was surprised the most about Shunji Igarashi, our Nyah-chan from Rookies. I didn't recognize him xD
Ah, and not to forget Aya Omasa, who play the main role in Perfect Girl Evolution. Here she played a bright, naive, with a high voiced girl.

And one thing, totally out off plot: What’s wrong with the kissing in this movie? After the runway she looks like she is being raped. And then The Aragorn Kiss at the end xD For all who know LOTR Trilogy. Watch the last movie again and focus on how Aragorn prepares to kiss Arwen. It’s really funny. And this last kiss in this movie reminded somehow of it. How George takes a deep breath and... yeah. You know what follows ^^

Finally, I would like to say one of our personal favourites and we totally recommend it. We even recommend to buy it. It’s really worth its money.