Category: Reviews

Mickey Pearson, marijuana magnate, is looking to sell off his business and retire. But it’s not that straightforward in the criminal world and thus begins a web of favours called in and betrayals avenged…

Note: I am not very familiar with Guy Ritchie’s body of work apart from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (which I really enjoyed), Sherlock Holmes (2009 and 2011, both of which I thought were just ok), and Aladdin (also just ok).

Do I really need to summarise this? haha

Greta Gerwig’s take on Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women (and Good Wives) has gotten a lot of good press and some Oscar hype, and it did look nice in the trailer. But I don’t think I was nearly as impressed as many of the professional critics were.

Hello World is the story of high school boy, Katagaki Naomi, who lives in Kyoto in 2027. Naomi’s future self appears and reveals to him that he’s actually little more than a digital record of the real Katagaki Naomi. Future Naomi has developed an avatar self to go into the recorded past and help teenage Naomi save his soon-to-be girlfriend, Ruri.

This is going to be rather short as I find I don’t have much to say about it.

The Garden of Evening Mists is based on a book of the same name by Tan Twan Eng. Jumping back and forth between “present day” 1980s, the 1950s (where the primary story takes place) and the 1940s, it tells the story of Yun Ling, the sole survivor of a Japanese war camp called the Golden Lily. Post-war, Yun Ling seeks out former Japanese Imperial gardener Nakamura Aritomo and asks for his help in building a Japanese garden to fulfil her dead sister’s wish.

Based on Indonesian comics from the 1970s, Gundala is the story of how a kid named Sancaka learns to wield his mysterious lightning-based powers and becomes a costume-clad superhero…

Old Harlan Thrombey, crime novelist, is found dead, having apparently committed suicide after his birthday party. An unknown person hires Benoit Blanc, the “last gentleman detective”, to investigate this supposed suicide and it isn’t long before everyone in his household is a suspect, from the rebellious grandson to the sweet-natured caregiver.

I enjoyed this much more than I did Frozen 2 as it was a murder mystery very much in the veins of a Poirot story.

=== Spoiler warning after this ===

In Frozen 2, all starts off well, and then it is not. Elsa’s hearing a creepy voice, Olaf’s pondering life, Kristoff’s wanting to propose, and Anna… Has nothing in particular on her mind. Elsa accidentally wakes the spirits or something and the Frozen Company set off to find the Enchanted Forest wherein dwell the Northuldra, who used to be friends with Arendelle. This eventually leads to Elsa pursuing the voice and answers at the mysterious river Ahtohallan…

Overall rating:

Okay, let’s get this over with. (This alone probably indicates my overall feelings towards the movie.)

今夜、ロマンス劇場で or Tonight, at the Movies (a.k.a Color Me True, which I find to be a strange alternate title) by Takeuchi Hideki is the story of Kenji, an aspiring assistant director, who is thrilled and flustered by the entrance of his favourite movie character, Princess Miyuki, into the real world.

Tonight is clearly inspired by Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo. But the story flows quite differently. Both films are billed as romantic fantasies but where Rose is heavy on the aspect of fantasy (versus reality), Tonight is more focused on the romance and is thus more lighthearted in comparison.