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We’ll just ignore that that review was late

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Innocent Steps (2005)

Plot: Former acclaimed dancer Na Young-sae attempts to make a comeback after his opponent, Hyun-soo, purposely injures him at a dance competition. At the suggestion of his dance studio manager Ma Sang-doo , Young-sae then brings to Korea Jang Chae-ryn, an ethnic Korean from China whom he presumes is a renowned, talented dancer. To his surprise, Young-sae learns Chae-ryn knows nothing about dancing and her soon-to-be married, older sister, Jang Chae-min, is the talented dancer. With only three months until the national dance championship, Young-sae trains Chae-ryn, vowing to turn her into a world-class dancer.

Rating: 5/5

Damn. Just. Damn. No one does a movie like South Korea. I can’t remember the last time I cried at a film. Innocent Steps had me snivelling like a newborn. I have points in my notes that just says “Oh shit. Its sad” and “Why AM I CRYING?!”. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much. It certainly didn’t seem like my cup of tea, but I shrugged off my doubts, and rightfully so because I do not regret watching this one. Although slow paced it drew me in from the very beginning. As someone who isn’t a mushy, lovey-dovey sorta gal, this film was perfect for me with a sweet, innocent, slow burn love. 

It was harsh in places, especially where Hyun-soo (Yoon Chan) purposely injures Na Young-sae (Park Gun-hyung), not once but twice. Like, it ain’t that serious bub. There was also a part where Young-sae’s dance studio manager, Ma Sang-doo (Park Won-sang) beats Jang Chae-ryn (Moon Geun-young) for not being who she says she was and my jaw dropped. From the very begging I thought that Ma Sang-doo was shady and I was right (More on that later).

There are some comedic elements like the two inspectors who lowkey stalk the main couple in the dumbest yet most hilarious ways. They had me wheezing occasionally which wasn’t great since we all know my dumbass decided to watch this film at like 4am. 

The two leads had great chemistry and I found myself believing their relationship even before they fell in love which, like, A+ for achieving that. The female lead  Jang Chae-ryn  is like super adorable in this and one thing I did notice about   Na Young-sae is that he had one nice butt and overall the film was cheesy but in a cute and endearing way.

BACK TO MA SANG-DOO, I said he was shady and I was right, he’s a money-grabbing greedy shit in this and i don’t like him. Like he practically sells Jang Chae-ryn to Hyun-soo and I almost rioted.. Until i remembered I was watching a film that is.

Because Na Young-sae is injured once more, Jang Chae-ryn has no choice but to dance with Hyun-soo at the dance competition but its all good cause she fuckin nails it lads. AND NA YOUNG-SAE WATCHED and I cried, cause I’m a pussy. And then my wifi cut out like a lil bitch, BUT I GOT IT BACK and saw the end but I won’t spoil it cause you need to watch it.

Watch it

Im begging you

Watch this film

W A T C H  I T!!!!

Thats all. Until next time. 

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YIKES

So i lost the password to this. And couldn’t remember the password to the email I used either. So thats why it seems like ive been IMA. I also took a bit of a mental health break. BUT IM BACK NOW ALL IS FINE

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My lack of updates

Oh wow who knew I’d be striking a dry patch this soon. The reason I haven’t posted any reviews lately is cause quite frankly it’s difficult filding older films that aren’t utterly, soul crushingly shit. Hopefully I’ll be able to find something to review soon and am considering adding tv series to my review schedule too. We’ll cross that bridge when or if we get to it though

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CJ’s woes of finding a film (lol) (Friday 8th Feb)

There will be a review up tonight. Im just struggling to find a film to watch and review. I started on ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’ but I knew right from the beginning that i wouldn’t understand it enough to review it so I gave up on it. I will continue to look for a film though.

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Me watching films that were released 14 years before I was born

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Sleep deprived me cause of films and college

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Me searching for older films

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Easy A (2010)

Rating: 4/5

Wowie. That was a wild ride. I just wanna say that I adore comedy. I love to laugh and although this film was funny, it did fall a little on the short side in terms of comedy in my opinion (although nowhere near as unfunny as Bad Teacher. I watched that and didn’t want to waste my time reviewing it). But I’m a sucker for a film that uses cliche’s and acknowledges that fact. And this one does exactly that. I’ll be completely honest with you, I didn’t even know this film existed until a few days ago and I’m so glad I found it. 

I was also glad that they had a little LGBTQ+ representation in there as I myself am a member of the LGBTQ+ community (Hi to all my fellow pansexuals). Although it could've been handled way better I am conscious of the fact that stuff like that does happen so I could understand why it was done in such a way (I realise I’m making no sense but not everyone would’ve seen this movie and I ain’t one to give out spoilers).

Although a comedy film, I do believe that this film is teaching a valuable lesson and that’s people are too quick to judge. Every high school has their mandatory rumour mill churning out that gossip whenever something even remotely note worthy happens. It deals with not only slut shaming but sexuality, weight, religion, nationality and morals. All done in a pretty humorous way. 

I again had a problem with infidelity (COME ON IS IT REALLY THAT DIFFICULT TO JUST STAY LOYAL!) But thankfully it was only a minor point in the plot. 

Olive (Emma Stone) was a very relatable character. Not overly popular, a little nerdy with a good sense of humour. I had a bit of a problem with something that happened near the end but its a bit of a spoiler so I won’t share. 

Overall it was a good, enjoyable film. I do recommend.

(As you can probably tell by the short length of this review, I’m honestly exhausted. I’m taking Saturday film time off the schedule and having Monday and Saturday as rest days. College is proving to be more difficult to juggle with these reviews than I thought it would and I’m also ill on top of that so I need my rest. I hope you understand)

Thats all. Until next time.

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Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Rating: 4/5

Ok wow. This was better than I expected to be. I’ll be very honest, I never really had much interest in this film. I mean it came out when I was 12 and even at that age, I never truly enjoyed watching films (which btw is the whole reason I started this blog. I want to learn how to enjoy films). Although fast paced it worked for this film. I’ve never been much of a mushy romantic, but even I can admit that this was done in a very classy way. They didn’t hyper-focus on the romance nor did they shove it down your throat and force it on you. 

The one problem I had with it was that some scenes are very choppy and done way too fast but I also understand that it was to show either Pat (Bradley Cooper) or Tiffany’s (Jennifer Lawrence) frame of mind in those situations. Lets be honest, both of them were mentally ill. I don’t exactly agree with how their mental health issues were portrayed, but I’m also aware of the huge stigma that surrounds illnesses such as bipolar disorder and DID, so it didn’t exactly come as a shock.

I’m not entirely sure why but the whole dance competition scene was incredibly anxiety inducing. I found my heart beating painfully in my chest and I was violently shaking. Whether or not that was me having a panic attack out of the blue or they played the characters so well that I felt their nerves, I don’t know but I did find myself very impressed with the camera work during that scene. 

As for plot, I found myself invested in it. I found myself wanting to know what put Pat in the mental institution, why he lost his job etc. (I was a bit pissed when I learned it was mainly because Nikki (Brea Bee) was cheating on him amongst other problems he was having with himself. Like why can’t there be one loyal marriage? Why is someone always cheating?) and why Tiffany was having problems herself. 

Some parts were a bit predictable like the parts with the letters but what’s a film without a bit of predictability? Boring, that’s what. The parlay was actually ridiculous as was the illegal bookmaking (now remember kids, if your friend enables your gambling habit, he ain’t a friend) but overall I found myself to be very taken by and impressed with this film. I would recommend it to people who haven’t seen it before. 

Thats all. Until next time. 

[imlatetothemovies]

Madame Bovary (2014)

Rating: 2/5

Ok so don’t get me wrong, it was an ok film but it could’ve been way better. I think for the lack of time he spent in the film, Ezra Miller played a brilliant role (then again I am rather whipped™️ for him). It was very, for lack of a better word, lacklustre in terms of plot. To me it felt like they were trying too hard to make us sympathise with Emma (Mia Wasikowska) which in all honesty pushed me to do the opposite. It was also extremely fast paced which made everything feel like it happened over a matter of days instead of over a matter of months which in some cases works. But for me it didn’t this time.

Moving on to the characterisation. Like I said, we were being pushed too much into sympathising with Emma that it was rather off-putting at times. It felt like I was being pushed into completely opposing my own moral compass. I found the character of Emma to be impossibly selfish in many cases, even going as far as completely ruining a stranger’s life simply for her own materialistic wants. And when it all came crashing down on her, she lies and when that doesn’t work yeets tf out by drinking some poison (although that left me wondering why a doctor carries poison in his medical bag. Desperate times?).

And that’s not even mentioning her infidelity. Being completely unloyal to a loyal husband with not one but two of his friends (and an attempted third if we’re counting the  dry-goods dealer) simply because she’s bored (personally, I’d prefer knitting). Then there’s her husband Charles (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) who quite honestly didn’t get the credit he deserved in this film. But due to a lack of screen-time all I can say is that I wish they’d expanded on his character more but that he deserved a lot better than what he got. Sure he was rather inattentive and didn’t pick up on the atmosphere around him (i.e Emma’s facial expressions cause good lord they were THERE) but that doesn’t mean he deserved to be cheated on by a woman he was loyal to and may of even loved. And now the man of the hour. Leon (my man Ezra Miller).

Oof what a look. But no in all seriousness again, LACK OF SCREEN-TIME. But from what I could gather from while he was on screen was that the character had stepped right out of a Gothic romance novel. He was very romantic, the type to want to marry for love instead of business opportunities like the rest, who enjoyed the simple things in life. I’m biased but I can’t blame Emma for falling for his charm. Then again, I also know that it was opportunity she saw and not a person that loved her (*shakes fist in anger*). And last but not least Marquis (Logan Marshall-Green). No offence to Logan but I found this character rather forgettable. Perhaps because we saw him for all of about fifteen minuets. Blink and you’d miss him. But yet another man Emma tried to seduce of material things (I’m sensing a pattern). 

Looking back on the film, a lot of it is very easy to forget and I think that’s because it felt very rushed, It felt as if the creators had run out of time and just threw what they could at it, crossed their fingers and hoped for the best. I don’t know. Maybe its because I watched it five years after it was released and the film just hasn’t aged well but it fell short for me. I could sense the potential for what could’ve been a very good film and it just didn’t happen.

(Loved seeing Ezra in a historical piece though. He looked like a young Severus Snape. But again, I’m whipped™️)

Thats all. Until next time.