apennyformythoughts91

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[Review]

I've always found Murakami's characters to be so fascinating and after reading this book, I finally realized why: they turn the most awkward and bizarre conversations into casual interactions between ordinary people.

Norwegian Wood might be Haruki Murakami's most grounded story, but its protagonists are as eccentric as ever, and that's the secret to not falling victim to the plot's heaviness. The nostalgia transforms into a warm feeling in the heart and what seems like an overly depressing story turns into refreshing conversations and the promise of a better future for those still alive.

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[Review]

Seulgi is a self-proclaimed pink-blooded (in allusion to her company's logo color) who has finally decided to impose her artistisity and Accidentally on Purpose perfectly displays the confrontation of both sides: old-fashioned mentality vs a sensitive artist trying to break free from stereotypes and her comfort zone. The result? an album lacking cohesiveness and the quality of her first mini-album, but a necessary first step towards the real version Seulgi envisions for her idol persona.

Seulgi's a hard-worker who likes to trust the process, and on Accidentally on Purpose she exudes confidence only achieved by experience and patience. Her delivery in the lead single, Baby Not Baby, is her best one yet. The lyrics, the choreography's difficulty, and her overall performance are what all-time fans have been asking for her. The song might not be an instant hit for casual listeners, but judging the entire project on the likebility of the single misses the point completely.

Aside from Whatever and Rollin (With My Hommies), there is a palpable growth and depth in the album, and a honest desire to show a more vulnerable and rebellious side, the way only a true artist knows how to.

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[Review]

Like most Eastern Asian thrillers I've watched, there's a dose of ambiguity that's both confusing and exciting. Sometimes I attribute this ambiguity to cultural differences with Western countries, which make it difficult to distinguish between normal behavior and bad acting or poor storytelling, and other times I blame the subtitles for what I perceive as an unnatural translation that fails to properly adapt cultural nuances. Nevertheless, all these movies have managed to awaken my inner detective/film critic, and I find myself overanalyzing every little aspect of the story as well as trying to find connections with everyday society.

Burning is a slow-paced movie, sometimes too slow for my liking, that shows the reality of social inequities and what happens when the lower class grows tired of the arrogance and fakeness of its counterpart. As with Parasite, the main characters' charisma is key to favoring the bad guys over the victims, and Yoo Ah-in's performance hits the nail on the head.

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Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

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[Review]

The movie tells the story of an incredibly shy and introverted girl whose parents have no patience for her condition, so they send her to some distant relatives for the summer. Here, the little girl will see the power of actions speaking louder than words and the beauty of the unspoken ways to show how much you love: someone: a warm breakfast, a hug, or a goodbye kiss before going to bed.

She'll learn not only that words are powerful, so we must choose them carefully, but also that there's nothing wrong with being quiet. After all, "Many people missed the opportunity to not say anything and lost much by it."

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[Review]

Kar-Wai is an expert at saying a lot with few words. The music, the scenery, and the unspoken truths between the protagonists transform In The Mood For Love into a true representation of fake it until you make it. What starts as two spouses trying to find comfort in each other after discovering their respective partners are having an affair develops into one of the most tragic love stories in cinema.

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[Review]

Sarcasm, irony, and dry humor dominate this otherwise simple history. It's the kind of history where you have no choice but to laugh instead of cry, but as it moves forward, it leaves a warm feeling in your heart.

Also, shout-out to my fellow moviegoers for making the movie an even more enjoyable experience. Their laughs, sighs, ohs, and aws, were the perfect soundtrack for a film that sometimes can turn a bit slow.

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[Review]

If someone ever asks you what patriarchy is, you can show them this movie.

The Seed of a Sacred Fig tells the all-too-familiar story to women around the world about man's systematic power and the perpetuation of traditions, no matter how dated or out of touch they may be.

Women can't go against traditions, question a man's authority, or think for themselves because that's not how the rules were written. Friendship and family ties mean nothing when patriarchy is a danger, even if it means killing the ones you're supposed to cherish.

Perhaps I got distracted, but the mood changed drastically during the last scenes. The mom and her daughters were caught in a Tom-and-Jerry-silly-dynamic with her husband, and considering the rest of the movie wasn't quite theatrical, it left me a bit confused. Nevertheless, it's a great depiction of the current confrontation between systematic and old-fashioned traditions and women's emancipation.

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BatSeulgi is here to save us!

Few K-pop artists excited me more than Red Velvet's Seulgi. Her artistic flair is so strong and raw that you can count on her to deliver on any project. She did it with her first mini-album 28 Reasons, with her first performance as a solo artist at Mexico's Kamp Fest, with her refreshing photo exhibition Nothing Special But Special, and she's already bringing the hype for her second mini-album Accidentally On Purpose with the promo roll-out before the official announcement (turning the album cover's cover upside down and adding the glitch on her videos was a smart move from her and her team to engage fans and casual listeners).

Even though SM likes to handle its releases classically with the promotion and schedules, you can expect Seulgi's input to add that badly needed extra flavor to the project -something we can only hope more companies take notes from.

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[Review]

Don't we all have a Benji in our lives? A temperamental, rude, clearly-suffering-from-anger-issues friend/relative whose charms are so powerful that people tend to ignore all the red flags and only see his nice dude persona? Someone with many acquaintances but no one to run to at the end of the day?

Benji's character might get on your nerves a few times, and that's okay because we're seeing his two versions from afar. If anything, Jesse's character (or maybe his performance) makes the movie hard to endure in its entirety.

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[Review]

No one can't describe dictatorship better than those who have lived it. From that point of view, all auto or semi-autobiographical histories will have a rawness impossible to critique. However, half of One Man's Bible is about the main's character extreme sexual frustration and his lack of touch with the female characters, especially his take on the potential raping of one of them.

When the main character wasn't fantasizing about the same sexual fetishes, I found the story interesting, not only the description of his everyday life in communist China but also the internal dilemma he was going through between moving on by forgetting and moving on by sharing his experiences with the world.

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