"아가씨 (The Handmaiden)" Movie Screening

Amazon Prime Videos occasionally hosts premier movie screenings of upcoming films that Amazon Studios has purchased the U.S. rights to display. I was lucky to be invited by a friend this past Thursday, October 13th, to see the screening of the 2016 Korean movie "아가씨 (The Handmaiden)" (the literal translation is "Lady"), set to release on Friday, October 14th. Pictured above is one of the posters in the theater.

This was the voucher I received as I entered the theater.

And here is one of the official posters of the movie. "The Handmaiden" is one of the most suspenseful thriller movies I've ever seen. It's very complex and very well done,but is definitely not for the faint of heart and not for a younger audience. The story is set in Japanese-controlling Korea where a Korean conman and thief plot to deceive a wealthy Japanese maiden of her money. I won't say any more about the plot! Overall, it's definitely a very complex movie that is full of twists and turns. But it's too tough of a movie to watch over and over again; once was enough^^

"Somewhere Only We Know" Bluray Movie Review

Chinese movie "Somewhere Only We Know" was released in theaters around the world in February 2015, and has finally been released on DVD and bluray in September! I first saw the movie in theater, and blogged about the storyline and my love for everything about the movie here. In this post, I'll just be doing a quick unboxing of the bluray version.

I pre-ordered the bluray Region A version on YesAsia.com for roughly $22USD from this webpage. I ordered a few other items to reach past $39USD, which is when YesAsia offers free shipping with tracking. I had received damaged goods from YesAsia before due to poor packaging, so I specified to be especially careful this time, which they were. My packaged shipped 2.5 days after I placed the order, and arrived about 13 days later, all in perfect condition.

There is an exterior slipcase that is the exact same as the bluray case cover, excepted printed in low quality (as in, the backside is a bit fuzzy to read).

Here is the backside of the bluray case cover, which is much clearer to read.

Here is a closeup of the backside, which is probably too small to read. The backside has the summary in both Chinese and in pretty good English. The movie is in Mandarin (and some lines in English), and has subtitles in Chinese (both traditional and simplified) and in English. The movie is 110 minutes long. A warning about playing this disc, I believe you need to have the most updated system for your bluray player or PS4. The disc itself only contains the movie, no special features.

The inside is very simple, with just the disc and two stills from the movie.

Here are both images.

Overall, because I love this movie, I also love this bluray. It would be nice if there was more thought put into the packaging and if there were included special features, but I'm still quite happy with this.

"Somewhere Only We Know" Movie Review

Leaving Exo behind, Kris has gone on and done great things, one of them being the main actor of the Chinese movie, "Somewhere Only We Know." This movie was released a week or so early in China, but luckily has also been released in main cities around the US on February 13th, 2015. I'm so happy that this movie is being shown in downtown Seattle as well! Nothing is more amazing than seeing an Asian movie starring an idol in your own, non-Asian country.

"Somewhere Only We Know" is currently playing at Regal Meridian 16 in downtown Seattle from (technically) Thursday night, February 12th to Thursday, February 19th, with four showings a day and is an hour and 49 minutes long, Here is the poster for it! Though Kris is the main image on the poster, his character really wasn't overly dominating and all the main characters had lots of screen time.

This movie is a mix of romance and drama that pulls at your heartstrings (or at least for those easily emotional and sensitive like me, you'll get teary-eyed) and is like every school girl's fantasy while studying abroad. Let me clear things up by giving the summary: There are two to three stories intertwined together, but the main story is about a woman in her late 20s who studies abroad in Prague for the summer. She meets a man, Kris, who lives in Prague and they develop a relationship (this is the fantasy part I was talking about^^) though of course there are complications with them being together (like a typical Korean drama). The parallel story is the woman's only family she's known is her grandmother, who recently passed away and was always single, until the woman (I'm sorry I forgot her name) learns of her grandmother's love in Prague. The woman then decides to search about her grandmother's past in Prague. All that isn't as important as this third story, which includes long flashbacks of the grandmother's time in Prague with the man she fell in love with there.

The first part of the movie is more about the woman's new life abroad and developing the love story between her and Kris. This part really felt like a typical but well-done Korean romantic drama that tugs at your heartstrings. Then it focuses more on her finding more about her grandmother's past and even more on the flashbacks to her grandmother's story. All of this is the deep part that sets this movie apart from typical romantic comedies. It goes back and forth between the two time periods, but it transitions well and all the stories flow well together. Overall, I absolutely love this movie because it really gave me a rush of emotions and it's just one of those movies I can't shut up about because it's the only thing on my mind. The movie was really well done, and I always thought Asian productions have a hard time filming in a western country and then everyone's speaking a certain Asian language like that's everyone's native language, but this movie does it well where they do have Mandarin, English, and Czech where it needs to be. One last note that no one cares about, they also had the "Gwiyomi Song" and Kris sang "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" by Franki Valli, my most favorite American singer; this movie basically brought together everything I love in one. Now, I cannot get over Kris and I can't wait to see his upcoming productions, and I hope they'll be just as big and will be released in the US!

A Werewolf Boy Movie Review

The 2012 Korean movie "A Werewolf Boy" received many praises, awards and high hopes and even broke the Korean box office record for number of tickets sold to a romantic movie.  This piece is Song Joong Ki's last starring role (along with drama Nice Guy) before he left for his military duties in August of this year. With all the hype going around, and to have Song Joong Ki's latest work to last me the two years while he's away, I had to have a copy for myself!

I bought the English version of this movie on DVD through Amazon.com directly.  It arrived safely just 5 days after I had ordered it!  Here is the front cover of the English version DVD.  Other countries' versions have different images.  This version comes with pretty good English subtitles (though I found one grammatical mistake).

The casing itself is very simple, providing a cover design but no paper excerpt inside the case.

Here is the back, with the summary, list of special features, and credits.  This movie is classified as a fantasy romance, but it's more of a coming-of-age story that does a the fantasy aspect of a human befriending a wolf-like man.  I suggest not reading the summary because it kind of gives the entire storyline away.  For a quick overview, it's about a teenage girl  (Park Bo Young) and her family living in the countryside when they encounter and adopt a feral boy (Song Joong Ki).

Here is a close up of the special features.  This DVD comes with seven different features (and a trailer for SM's I Am...)!  These features were all worth watching, because you get to experience various aspects used in the film as well as the process of making the film and all the dedication put into it.  "The Language of Cheol-Su" was especially intriguing, showing the viewer how Song Joong Ki learned to take on the characteristics of a wolf.  "Beautiful Wolf" was also interesting, demonstrating the involvement in physically transforming Song Joong Ki from a human to a wolf.  The "Making of A WEREWOLF BOY" was the most elaborate special feature, lasting 55 minutes long.  This segment shows clips of the main cast and director speaking about various aspects including their roles, concerns about specific scenes and working in the harsh, cold weather.  This behind-the-scenes footage also revealed the mechanics of the wolf's actions with the use of wires, as well as the filming of certain scenes and the interactions between co-stars off screen.

Here are my thoughts on this movie: "A Werewolf Boy" definitely lives up to its hype, and then some!  The storyline is very intricate and is intriguing and suspenseful throughout the entire movie.  All of the actors did a tremendously well done job portraying their roles.  I really commend Song Joong Ki for portraying a character with wolf-like characteristics.  Because of his very limited speaking role, Song Joong Ki's outstanding acting really stood out.  Park Bo Young also acted well and her character really came to life.  I instantly gained an emotional attachment to both of these characters and because of their wonderful acting, I cried so much in sympathy of these characters.  I've honestly never cried so much from a movie before; this is a serious tear jerker!  Overall, it's such a conceptual and well made movie, with a strong and well chosen cast and crew.  Even hours after watching the movie, I still get pangs in my stomach from missing the characters and longing for a sequel.

Jakarta's Grand Indonesia Shopping Town: Korean Shopping

The center of Jakarta has many complex, high end malls connected or adjacent of each other.  Though many stores are of western brands, I did find a few Korean related shops within the maze-like malls.  The two malls I visited were Grand Indonesian Shopping Town and Plaza Indonesia, both within a few minutes' walking distance.

Disc Tarra
Grand Indonesian Shopping Town: Jalan Teluk Betung, Central Jakarta City, Jakarta

The first store I saw was a small entertainment shop located next to one of the many escalators.  Here, there was a small selection of mainstream Kpop albums like Jay Park, SNSD, SHINee, Super Junior and BtoB. There were at least five copies of SNSD's The Boys album, which surprised me since most of the stores I've visited only have one or two copies of the same album in stock.

There were also drama sets like Lie to Me, King 2 Hearts, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop and The Moon that Embraces the Sun.  I didn't expect to find Kpop or Kdramas in Indonesia, so seeing this collection was a pleasant surprise.

Infinite (Apple Store)
Grand Indonesian Shopping Town

If there were actually a shop only selling Infinite merchandise, I'd be in heaven.  Sadly this store, titled Infinite with Apple Store in parentheses on the directory, only carries Apple products.  Bus seeing the name of the store and the First Invasion-esque logo put a huge smile to my face.

Blitzmegaplex 4DX
Unknown Mall (one of the two I visited)
This movie theater has hopped on the thrilling 4D trend by opening Indonesia's first 4DX movie theater earlier this year.  I saw the theater's second 4DX movie, Planes.  The opening short film aired, showing action scenes to illustrate all the effects of the 4D screening.  And this film used none other than Korean Hollywood actor Lee Byung Hun!  I was just as thrilled to see a Korean actor of all people advertising a theater in Indonesia as I was to experience a 4D movie.  After doing a little research, I found out that CJ Group of South Korea (of which CJ E&M is a part of) created 4DX, which explains why Lee Byung Hun is the star of the short film.

Nature Republic
Plaza Indonesia: Central Jakarta City, Jakarta 10350
Nature Republic is a Korean beauty store carrying its own brand.  Sadly the mall map was too confusing so I  couldn't actually find this store.  That's okay though, since I was never much of a fan of endorser Jang Geun Suk.

Books Kinokuniya
Unknown Mall (one of the two I visited)
This branch of Japanese bookstore chain Kinokuniya was a disappointment, carrying no Korean related products.  They did carry the magazine CanCam (which Infinite has had a none front cover spread), but that's about it.

Overall, there are a few places to get a splice of Korean pop culture within these megamalls of Jakarta.

The Thieves Movie Review (and Running Man Ep 102)

I pre-ordered the highly anticipated Korean blockbuster, The Thieves, from Amazon (it was directly from Amazon, so it was very trustworthy and arrived the day of the release date, February 12th) over a month ago and it has finally arrived!  I first had my eyes on this movie when the trailer just came out last year, and was so bummed that there would be no way for me to actually watch the movie.  But The Thieves has been brought to the US in select theaters in October 2012 (when I say select, I mean obscure theaters too far to drive to from the city), and finally has been released on DVD.

Out of the entire cast, why must Kim Soo Hyun be cut?  (referring to top right)

The DVD box itself is very minimal, only containing the DVD.

After being completely awestruck by Kim Soo Hyun's brilliant performance as the lead in The Moon that Embraces the Sun, I couldn't wait for his next move.  Soo Hyun has been evolving exponentially as an actor, as seen from his role in Dream High to his role in Moon Embracing Sun.  I started researching Soo Hyun's role in The Thieves and though he isn't one of the main thieves in this film, he did have some screenshots captured from the trailer that were very noteworthy.  Here's the trailer, with English subtitles:


Throughout watching this movie, I could not stop getting emotionally involved with the characters, because they were all so moving!  The movie opens with a thrilling scene that already puts you in an action mood.  In order to steal a precious diamond, a group of Korean thieves teams up with a group of Chinese thieves (mainland and Hong Kong), combining multiple cultures.  I love how there is communication in Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and a little English, yet it still works really well.  There a flashbacks that offer background stories for some characters, which create depth and give each thief their own personal motive for stealing the diamond.  The one downfall about this movie is after the actual heist, it dragged on for quite some time and started to lose the thrill and momentum that the movie had otherwise.  I did like how the storyline was continuously unpredictable and had many unexpected twists.  Because the movie did escalate so brilliantly, I am very satisfied with the exciting ending.  Overall, I was very entertained by this movie and will definitely watch it again soon!

As I've said before, I purchased The Thieves purely because of Kim Soo Hyun, and he definitely did not disappoint!  I was quickly shocked when Soo Hyun began speaking in Mandarin, showing off his many skills.  His character is much more mature than his country bumpkin Dream High role of Song Sam Dong, and is equally high caliber to his role in Moon Embracing Sun.  Soo Hyun has showed so much growth as a mature, adult actor, and this movie has showcased his skills.  Overall, if you're a fan of Kim Soo Hyun or like heist movies, I definitely recommend you to check out The Thieves!

On a related note, Kim Soo Hyun guest starred on the variety show Running Man's 102nd episode that aired on July 8, 2012, with that episode's theme based on The Thieves and referencing Moon Embracing Sun. This episode's mission is a bit different from other Running Man missions, because Kim Soo Hyun is on a secret mission to oust the Running Man team, who has set out to steal golden turtles, which is mimicking The Thieves plot. Even the opening scene appears like a robbery movie, with Boss Soo Hyun answering an important call And receiving his secretive mission and "weapon." If you're a fan of Kim Soo Hyun, want to see his personality outside of dramas and movies, are a fan of The Thieves or other robbery movies, or just like interesting Running Man missions, check out this episode!