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AKB48Fan rated Terra Formars

 Terra Formars 5/10

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan rated Rambo: Last Blood

 Rambo: Last Blood 6/10

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 5 items to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 3 items to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

aka Lady Godiva Rides Again. A small-town English girl Marjorie who wins a local beauty contest by appearing as Lady Godiva, then decides to pursue greater fame in a national beauty pageant and as an actress. This is a simple story with a multitude of locations and characters which result in a surprisingly complex narrative. The story follows Marjorie's misfortune as she is entangled by the trappings of success in the male dominated glamour industry, continually forced to compromise her ideals. The movie isn't particularly funny even though it's been classed as a comedy. Diana Dors might be the woman on the poster of the movie but she isn't the main lead - that went to Pauline Stroud. The main attraction of this movie is the number of cameos with Alistair Sim, Joan Collins, Sid James, Dora Bryant and George Cole appearing amongst others. It also has the reputation of having Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain as one of the beauty queen contestants. In the end, I can only say this is an average movie and not really worth seeking out.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

This Australian documentary tries to chart the history of martial arts movies in Hong Kong from the 60's onwards. There is a lot to enjoy in this documentary and the interviews are entertaining but it does feel a little over the place in terms of what it’s trying to say, going back and forth with some odd editing choices. It covers the Shaw Brothers, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee eras of kung fu as well as the influence on American audiences especially the African American community. However, it does gloss over a lot and there's nothing on female action stars such as Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima. Stars such as Donnie Yen and Jet Li are barely mentioned which was disappointing. You do get clips from many classic martial arts/action movies with some I haven't even seen yet. Overall, it's an entertaining and informative documentary but it could have been so much better.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

When salaryman Jun gets home, he finds his wife Chie bleeding from her mouth and lying on the floor. He is shocked by the scene, but it turns out the blood is just ketchup and she is pretending to be dead. Without telling him why, Chie pretends to be dead everyday. Jun is dumbfounded by his wife's behaviour, and he begins to feel uneasy with her. Most romantic comedy stories have marriage as a goal but I wonder how those characters do after they actually get married. This movie is about a married couple so we pass through the chasing phase and cut to how they interact when the initial fierce burn of romance has died down. It approaches different aspect of a marriage and the importance of communication and understanding. I loved Nana Eikura's character and the various imaginative deaths she comes up with in her home. Ken Yasuda handles the role of her husband well and the two display plenty of on-screen chemistry. All in all, this movie is really about the difficulties of modern marriage and how to make it work.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

One day, Haruna Wakakusa sets out to look for Ichiro Yamada, a student who is bullied. She ultimately finds him naked and tied up in an abandoned school building. The person responsible for this cruel act is no one other than her boyfriend Kannonzaki. After another rescue by Haruna, Ichiro invites her to share two secrets with her, he’s actually gay, even though he has a girlfriend, Kanna, and a year ago he found a dead body along the edge of the river. The only other person who knows of this body is Kozue Yoshikawa, a bulimic model. This is a fascinating period piece set in Tokyo during the mid 1990's about the inner turmoil of a group of characters. Kannonzaki can’t express himself short of sex or violence, Kozue binge-eats and then vomits it all back up and Yamada hides who he really is, stringing along the poor Kanna who really gets the short straw during this entire movie. The story goes deep into looking at the coping methods the characters adopt, and what happens when things are taken too far. Everyone has something they’re keeping secret. I'm not sure if the occasional interviews when the characters talk to an unknown person off-screen really works. It just seems odd and distracting from the actual story. This movie isn't your typical teen drama. There's solid acting from the whole cast. Despite the dark storyline, I really liked this movie.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

As the aging Ching Emperor approaches death, his will that names his successor lies hidden in a special room full of deadly traps and even deadlier guards. To gain the throne, Wang, the Emperor's fourth son, must learn Shaolin kung fu from the monks so he can conquer the guards, who want the crown for themselves. This is a cheap Taiwanese kung fu effort that nonetheless gets by thanks to the predominance of plotting and lavish attention to period detail. Like many Taiwanese kung fu movies, this one amasses a cast of Shaw Brothers veterans to give it some credibility. The movie is dominated by story rather than by action, with the requisite comedy scenes and goofy supporting characters to see it through, although the action when it does occur is fine. It's watchable enough but don't expect it to be a classic martial arts flick.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

The shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large in the small town of Mill Valley for generations. It's in a mansion that young Sarah Bellows turns her tortured life and horrible secrets into a series of scary stories. These terrifying tales soon have a way of becoming all too real for a group of unsuspecting teens who stumble inside Sarah's spooky home. As a kind of anthology sort of feature, Scary Stories wasn't actually a bad movie but it didn't fulfill my expectations, specially in terms of scare factors. I expected it bit more twisted and eerily creepy particularly around the different monster/entity encounters at different segments. Among the ghostly entities, The Jangly Man and The Pale Lady were the most interesting. The movie benefits from an efficient Halloween atmosphere, excellent photography, the nostalgic 60's dress code, impressive old cars and talented young actors. However, it had the potential to be more darker and scarier. Still, it was entertaining enough.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

In Tokyo, a young man named Ryo is lamenting the apparent suicide of his beautiful girlfriend Yuri. She left behind a memory box of former possessions which includes an audiotape. The familiar recorded voice reveals the existence of a woman who looks exactly like Yuri in another part of the country. Ryo follows the clues in the tape and travels to Hokkaido where he meets Aya and she does indeed look like Yuri. Unless you're a person that likes seeing magic tricks or an old fashioned romantic, this movie will not really appeal to you. The story tries to say in it's own unique way that love is like a magic trick but in reality it's more about a pair of mourning lovers seeking solace in the arms of strangers who resemble their lost partners. There's a bizarre extended homage to Luc Besson’s classic movie Leon as well. I found the movie to be boring despite the great magic tricks shown by Ryo's doppelganger Ryu who has disappeared after a dangerous stunt. The performances from the two main leads didn't do anything for me either. I found them to be bland, cold with little chemistry. I expected better things from the Korean director Jae-young Kwak seeing as he did the excellent My Sassy Girl many years ago.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

A fashion model dies during a botched abortion, and the people closely connected to her are murdered one by one. The title of this movie sounded promising enough. And so did its concept but the movie just didn't deliver. It's an Italian giallo yet it just doesn't feel like a traditional one to me. It takes some wrong approaches and at times this can be a clumsy looking movie. All I can say is that director Andrea Bianchi ain't no Dario Argento. It's basically an excuse to show nude females and it has an awful lot of nudity as well. Blood, gore and violence is present in this movie but it just never felt like the main ingredient of the story. It will disappoint fans of the giallo genre and it tends to drag at times. Not the worst giallo I've seen but not that good either.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

Tadashi Usobuki wears a black suit and he is a contract killer. Nobody knows about his past. He receives requests from clients who are filled with desire or hate. He carries out his work using the power of suggestion which makes the killings nearly impossible to trace. A female police detective is charged with bringing him to justice. This great Japanese movie has some similarities to Death Note. The lead villain is somebody with a special ability, to induce hallucinations that can kill and only a few people are immune to his power. There's a sub-plot to the main storyline about a person that's setting off bombs around Tokyo which was completely unnecessary in my opinion. The good vs evil story was fine without adding it in. There's enough thrills and at times some gore to satisfy most people. I liked the atmosphere of the movie - really dark and mysterious. The final scene was a bit of a cop out as it didn't really give insight on the main character. Is he a demon, an avenging angel or the devil? Tori Matsuzaka is menacing as the man in black and he is probably the best actor in the movie. Erika Sawajiri plays the light to Matsuzaka's dark as Inspector Toda. I can't say she's a brilliant actress to watch. Even though Toda is supposed to be the 'good guy', I couldn't feel any warmth towards her at all. All in all, I liked the movie.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

Nothing seems to go right for young Kate, a frustrated Londoner who works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. But things soon take a turn for the better when she meets Tom, a handsome charmer who seems too good to be true. As the city transforms into the most wonderful time of the year, Tom and Kate's growing attraction turns into the best gift of all - a Yuletide romance. This Christmas feel-good movie was slated by the critics but they've been proved wrong by how popular it has been with cinema-goers. It's definitely was nowhere near as bad as I expected, in fact it was really enjoyable. Emilia Clarke as Kate is wonderful and likable, the story is somewhat endearing, feels current and has it's heart in the right place. However, this movie has the worst plot twist I have seen in quite some time. It just didn't work at all. Other than that, it was great. I loved the cast which includes Michelle Yeoh and Emma Thompson as Kate's batty mother. There are plenty of jokes (some of them miss their mark) but this movie will make you laugh and smile. The addition of so many George Michael songs that are featured will appeal to his fans as well. Overall, if you're after a movie to get you into the festive spirit then this one gets the job done.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan rated Shodô gâruzu!!: Watashitachi no kôshien

 Shodô gâruzu!!: Watashitachi no kôshien 7/10

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

Satoko leads her high-school calligraphy club, but struggles to keep the numbers of people up. Their little world is rocked when a new substitute teacher, Ikezawa, arrives and brings a fresh new approach to calligraphy. With a full complement at the club after some trials and tribulations, the girls enter themselves in the “Shodo Girls Koshien”, in which they must make calligraphy on giant sheets of paper to music. I wasn't sure what I was letting myself in for when I started to watch this movie as I was sure this was going to be boring and shodo doesn't really interest me but how wrong I was. This is an inspirational movie and based on a true story. There's a clash between the modern and the traditional as a theme running throughout with the adults telling the kids to stop doing shodo and concentrate instead on passing their college entrance exams in order to get a good job at a big company. There's nothing new in the storyline that you haven't seen before: that of a small team of misfits overcoming great odds at competition level and how each member of the team goes on a gentle journey through their own personal development. The young cast are a joy to watch and you will them on to success in the competition. It's a thoroughly enjoyable character-driven piece that's well worth watching.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan rated The Black Torment

 The Black Torment 6/10

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

A young wench is raped and left for dead but not before she says the name of her murderer. Sir Richard Fordyke returns to the vast Fordyke Estate with his lovely bride and second wife, Elizabeth and is met with disdain by his staff as he has been accused of the wench's murder even though he was miles away in London at the time. There is also talk that the ghost of Sir Richard's 1st wife appears on the estate's lawn. When more sinister things start happening, Sir Richard is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. While this movie is hardly a great horror masterpiece, or even one of the best British horrors of the 60's; it's certainly a good yarn. The story focuses more on its atmosphere, and director Robert Hartford-Davis ensures that the themes of murder and insanity are always bubbling on the surface of the movie. It has a slow start but things gradually improve with the first half of the movie merely sets up the basics of the story. The characters are nothing to write home about, and the script doesn't do a very good job of balancing them with the plot. The mystery comes about through several small threads, and although the climax is easy to guess; it's fun getting there. The gothic themes provide the movie with a dark horror atmosphere and are sure to appeal to fans of gloomy horror. Worth watching if you enjoy gothic 60's horror movies.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

Takada receives a request to find a missing woman. The missing woman is university student Reiko. While tracking Reiko down, Private Detective and Takada meet Mari, the owner of a model agency. They trio get involved in a big incident. This is the third of The Detective Is In The Bar trilogy and I haven't seen the other two so I thought perhaps I would be lost with the main two characters already having been developed in the previous movies but it made no difference as this is a stand alone movie. The story is set in the snowy region of Hokkaido and it involves a nameless private eye who uses a bar called Keller Ohata in Sapporo as his base of operation along with his university technician friend Takada. This is a comedy drama which freely mixes humour and violence. It shouldn't really work but bizarrely it does. The duo of Yo Oizumi and Ryuhei Matsuda work well together and the beautiful Keiko Kitagawa performs solidly as the mysterious Mari. I'm sure at some point I'll see the other two movies. If they're just as entertaining as this one I'm sure I'll enjoy them too.

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 2 items to their collection

5 years, 4 months ago

AKB48Fan added 1 item to Hit Or Miss? Good Or Bad? 2019 Movies Watched list

Emperor Palpatine is back and the surviving Resistance faces the First Order once more as Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron's journey continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle commences. So it's come down to this - the final movie in the 9 episode saga of the Skywalker clan. Quite a tragic end I have to say. The original trilogy was superb and even the prequels were sorta OK but I'm afraid this new trilogy has been awful. This movie is basically damage control by director JJ Abrams after the outcry from The Last Jedi which is the worst Star Wars movie ever in my opinion. The plot is nonsensical and everything's shoehorned to fit the roughly 2:30 hours of the movie, characters with no payoff, no development having laughable dialog with each other. The original trilogy built iconic imagery and characters in the context of them doing things and bonding and building. This was not always perfectly done, but it was done well enough to feel meaningful. You get none of that in this trilogy. This movie and the other two feels hollow, unnecessary hectic, without soul and the good old Star Wars magic. I put the blame squarely on Disney. They have wrecked what was a brilliant franchise. I wonder if George Lucas would have done it differently? I'm sure there will be plenty of people that will enjoy this movie. A very disappointing end to what has been a terrible trilogy.

5 years, 4 months ago