Zíza

I don't know the source material, I haven't seen Kagerō no Tsuji, but it's pretty clear to me that although this film is very visually appealing, the acting juicy and the costumes brilliant, it lacks a connection with the viewer. Events move so fast and relationships change at such a rapid pace that you can't form a proper connection, the film fails to fully convey the depth of the pain the characters are experiencing. And so you just look sometimes at the shifting images and think that the characters are either very shallow or so complex that the film's brevity can't conceive of them. Yes, I liked the film, but I didn't come away from it excited. Just a visually pretty trip to the Edo era.

Honestly, for how long the movie is, I wasn't bored. I watched it with the fish and my mom and when I told them at the end that it was three hours long, they couldn't believe how fast it went by. Once again we have a Japanese Poirot, who we already met in Orient Express, so we already know what he's going to be like. He's still extravagant and more like the one in the book, or Finney, than the distant Suchet most Czech audiences are used to, so it's possible they won't feel any affection for him. At least that’s how it was in the Orient. It's just that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is not such a well-known and (cinematically) famous story that even a big Suchet fan will enjoy this TV movie. Because you'll forget about Suchet and just have the story retold as written by Agatha Christie. The acting, the costumes, the setting, the interiors... all of it was really precisely presented to the viewer; so if you like classic detective stories, you won't be disappointed. It's not about action and carnage, it's about the grey matter of the brain.

Basically a series crammed into four episodes that would normally have 16 episodes. That said, it packs in all the ills and even the bonuses. It's brisk, it doesn't get bogged down in the main character endlessly deciding who she should want. It has a lot of clichés, but you just expect that; it's set up that way from the start. Basically, you could say it's a nice little one-shot. Funny, sexy, unpretentious. But easily forgettable.

Honestly, I thought it was a little underdone... we got to see what Satoru's life was like, but it lacked a little more depth. And unfortunately, I still can't figure out Fukushi's acting skills. I still find him oddly stiff. Maybe it's because I don't trust his smiles? Fun, yes, but not a particularly kind smile. The film is sad, of course; after all, you're looking for a replacement master for the cat you love above all else. It doesn't thrill you, it doesn't bore you to death, it entertains you... Sad, slow, melancholic, maybe with the message that your life is not so bad. Or maybe it is, because you made it that way... depending on how you look at it and who you are. Honestly the book was better. Read it while it's out. This is more of a bonus.

As we get to know Shino, her idea of love or relationships that she has encountered so far is more in the sense of carnal pleasure. It's beautiful when someone touches you, wants you, caresses you, hugs you. You close your eyes and just let the other person touch you. It's better than being alone. So her knowledge was of something empty. Maybe smooth on the surface, but when you touch it, it bursts like a soap bubble. Shino realized this when one such burst turned out worse than usual. And so she wanted to fight back against the flesh, she wanted real feelings. She just wasn't sure she'd recognize them. The next thing she knows, she meets a neighbor who turns out to be her boss. Is it love? Is it the desire not to be alone? Is it a longing for understanding? This film can be seen as a probe into the soul of an empty woman who wants to be filled, or it can be seen as just another romantic comedy that isn't afraid of sex. With the former it has added value, with the latter it's just an ordinary mediocre film. I find myself in between. But that doesn't change the fact that it had interestingly written characters and great dialogue – it didn't feel forced, weird, or mechanical at all. A weaker 4 stars.

The main character seemed awfully smart at the beginning, she used her brain brilliantly, but then I thought she froze up at times. Too bad. The scenes from the past where Lee Yeon had long hair and was weirdly smiling made my teeth chatter. I wasn't impressed with the effects. The fights were boring. The chemistry between the main couple was almost nil, much more so with the supporting couple or even the good cook and the heroine's awkward boss... The Imugi had no rules. Or rather, his power; it was basically unlimited and then they remembered at the end that it shouldn't be, so they weakened it a bit. It was kind of hollow. I figured it out, then forgot I had it figured out for a few weeks and didn't miss it at all, didn't even care how it went on. But eventually I finished it and I have to say I wasn't surprised by the ending – it was stupid. Happy/unhappy, basically the last two episodes just illogically switched victims. Nobody kept their word here. What was said was only to be broken, twisted. For in the same way the heroine used logic, the hero and the villain basically used intellect against each other, it lacked logic, order... Lee Dong-wook's performance absolutely did not appeal to me. I was disappointing. I had been excited at the beginning, I had even liked Kim Bok's character a lot (the entire time, in fact), so I found it boring. The weird thing is that I thought the characters were well written, but that the rest of it was worthless. What can you do, the series left a rather strange taste in my mouth. Let's call it dissatisfaction.

The big positive is that the main character isn't stupid and doesn't get fooled in most cases. Plus, he's a pretty handsome guy portrayed by an actor who can act; let's not look for faults with him, it doesn't make much sense. He was well written and well acted. As for the heroine... she's not bad, she's not entirely the type to get on your nerves, but her actress. That's where I had a bit of a problem, because I felt like she didn't quite know how to conceptualize the heroine at times, and her fake smile annoyed me terribly. I rarely thought she smiled from the heart. The other characters were more like the sort of complementary character archetypes, you couldn't say that any of them stood out; they were simply there to complete the setting for the heroine and hero. The only one who stood out to me for his development and character was Pei Xi. You didn't really know what to expect from him at the beginning, but it became clearer as time went on so that by the finale he was just great. Unlike the villains, whose meanness was constantly reiterated, even though it was done by different characters. We basically had to go through the same pattern twice to finally get to something decent the third time (here I'm referring to their professional successes and failures). If I had anything to say about the relationship between the main characters, it was definitely nice how it came naturally; they basically hit it off, spent time together, and it just kind of happened. It's just that then the stakes... Fortunately, we didn't have a long struggle for it and the viewer at least got the picture pretty quickly, it just took a bit longer for the characters to say it to each other. Leaving aside the characters, the acting and the story, which is simply straightforward, even if it goes around the same circle twice, let's look at the editing, the editing. Excuse me, but it is disgusting! The way the scenes were edited at times... did they really not have more time to spend on that? The quality of the editing disturbed me terribly. The scenes strangely failed to follow each other at times, at one moment a character had A in his hand, then B, then A again... these details increase the quality of the work significantly if they are well done; if they are sloppy, they decrease it horribly. And this is not the first time I’ve seen this from a Chinese series. Do they really have that little time to do it properly? Enough complaints. To sum up, it was actually a watchable series, and it doesn't really matter if you play online games or if you're an esports fan, because this was ultimately about shifts in romance and work. Even despite the Chinese nationalism. A better 3 stars.

Apparently there's a script problem with this series. Karen wasn't in the 2nd episode and it immediately got an extra star! This episode, however, is so stupid and the characters are so interchangeable that maybe even a star is too much. What did I like about this episode? Probably nothing. But it wasn't a total disaster. Maybe. We can hope. I think. Bleh.

This is so stupid I have to watch the third episode. The corruption in giving away state money, the hacking of the state archives, the journalism, Sahid... it's all just so stupid it hurts. It's just... I think as time goes on, as I watch more and more of this Christmas TV garbage, I get more and more into it. :-D Otherwise, I'd give it one less star.

I've always wanted an exchange like this to be resolved by the two of them talking to each other and not having some dramatic outburst... here I sort of got my wish, but everyone was so sunny, no conversation was actually brought to fruition, such that nothing was shown except their side, which was beaming with a big plus and a smile. But what do you expect from a Christmas movie like this, right? Characters to have more than one character trait! A prince who can act?! To be less preachy and more story-driven?! No, we can't ask for that. A glittery Christmas washout.