A Man from Nowhere

A Man from Nowhere is about a quiet, pawnshop broker with a mysterious past must take on a group of drug and organ dealers to save a little girl--who is his only friend.

Cha Tae-Sik (played by Bin Won of MOTHER) is living his life as a simple pawnshop broker in a quiet part of town. He wants to be left alone but this adorable little girl, So-Mi (played by Sae-Ron Kim from Can you Hear My Heart ), who's mother is a stripper and drug addict who by the way started this whole train going to hell to begin with by ripping off a drug drop. So-mi spends her time hiding from her abusive mother at Cha's place and painting his nail while he's asleep. She is so adorable.

Needless to say Cha goes on a rampage to find his little angel after she's taken by the drug dealers. He's calculated and methodical. He doesn't speak much with his lips but he has a way about him that makes the badguys quiver--not enough from stopping them from trying to kill him or pissing him off. They always end up paying for it in the end. This character is fabulous. His a mixture of Neo from the Matrix with kick ass martial arts abilities and the precision of trained killer. Then he looks at little So-mi and you can see his heart melts and something forms in his eyes and you melt right along with him. This movie was the first Korea movie I've seen so far that I have given five stars on Netflix. Why? I love it that much.  For those who love a good love story - this isn't that kind of movie. If you love blood and gore, knife wielding, gun brandishing, heads blowing off, blood spewing from amputation - then this movie is for you. If you're a girlie girl you may wanna go watch something else--something a little cutsie.

Bottom line, this movie is for all those action movie lovers with just the right hint of heart to make it sizzle and draw a few tears.

Bin Won

Sae-ron Kim

Hugs,

Kato

Leave It On the Floor

When his homophobic mother kicks him out of the house, Bradley (played by Ephraim Sykes of Dance Flick, SMASH, 30 Rock ) falls in with the House of Eminence trying desperately to fit in and make the most of a bad situation. This movie started out breaking my heart. It had me wondering how a mother could treat her son so unfairly and full of hate. She called him a loser, and that was the last thing she said to him before he left the house with his things to live in his car.

Leave It On the Floor is an amazing movie full of music, heart break, love and so much soul. If you're not tapping your foot to the beat or wanting to get up and run-way walk through your room/house then you have no pulse. There is just something so catchy and endearing and just so spectacular about this movie and I don't precisely know what is it. It touched on the reality of some thugs who are out there, gay but has this reputation to uphold so they are on the down-low. It shows what happen when people lack respect for those around them and the repercussions of being young and foolish at times.

 This movie shows the ignorance that's in the world of people who can't put their hatred aside, even through loss and hardships. It's a sad narrative on the way most of us are; we see "gay" before "human."

 All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Leave It On the Floor. I would highly recommend it. Oh and have a box of kleenex handy because you're going to cry, laugh, sing, dance--it's an amazing roller-coaster ride.

Hugs,
Kato

A Company Man

As you can see I found the foreign film section of Netflix and I've fallen heedlessly in love with the Korean movies.  All week I've been eyeing the poster on Netflix for A Company Man and with my schedule I just didn't have time to look at the movie much less watch the whole thing. But I've decided to start treating myself to some good views. I do pay for Netflix so I might as well make good use of it until GRUDGE MATCH comes out along with the new Riddick.

So, A Company Man stars So Ji-sub, Lee Mi-yeon, Kwak Do-won and Kim Dong-jun. When his new trainee gets killed on the job, an ambitious corporate assassin feels an obligation to take care of the kids family--but he takes his eyes off the ball and all hell is about to break lose.  

OMG! Where do I start!? There are so many deliciously good things about this movie I have no clue how to break it all down.

Oh first thing's first, this movie is IN Korean so you must be okay with reading subs to enjoy it.  But even having to read the subs did not take away from this movie. 

So this movie started out in a way that Hollywood movies wouldn't. We already know they'd start out in someone crap blowing up. But this is NOT a Hollywood movie--this was filmed in Korea. So their styles of making movies and writing is WAY different than ours. With that said, this movie blew me away at how intricate the story line is.  This company basically kills people, that's what they do undercover but above ground they're just a metal company. When Hyeong Do (played by Ji-Seob So) begins having second thought about his job and wants to get out of it, the people he's gotten close to are now in danger, right after they ordered him dead.  This movie doesn't have any high flying graphics but the action was amazing! Ji-Seob's character was so good. He plays the character perfectly--It was like Jason Statham meets Jackie Chan meets Rain meets Bad Ass and I loved it. 


The dead look in his eyes as he realized what he's been doing was wrong and the way it seems his soul was lost just broke my heart. Everything he did after that killed a little more of him, breaking him to the point where he just focused on his goal and kick some serious tail!

There were a few parts that had me blinking and going, "erm." But other than that I appreciate the closeness to real life. There were parts that made me cry and other parts had me giggling and going "awww."  The ending I appreciate though I would have liked to have seen a romantic connection but you will enjoy this movie.





hugs,
Kato

Tidal Wave [Haeundae]

Professor Kim, a marine geologist, recognizes the impending danger of a mega tsunami headed straight for Haeundae, a popular vacation spot on the south coast of Korea. He desperately attempts to warn authorities and alert the unknowing vacationers of the 500 MPH destructive force of nature headed their direction

This movie was getting some pretty bad reviews on Netflix but I generally watch them stuff and make up my own mind about them.  This movie wasn't as bad as everyone else was saying. One moron gave it a one start review because he didn't "like reading the subtitles because then couldn't focus on the movie." That review doesn't exist to me because if they tell you the movie is in a different language, going in you should expect subtitles. I really don't understand people who watch foreign films then their biggest issue with the movie is the fact it is not voiced over in English.

So here's my take on this movie.

A South Korean scientist kept trying to warn everyone he could about what would happen if a piece of an island breaks off during seismic activities in Japan. He told them it could cause mega tsunami but no one would listen - not his colleagues or his ex-wife (mother to his daughter who didn't tell his daughter she had a father).  They

didn't declare a disaster in time and soon it was too late. A giant tsunami - I'm talking massive is bearing down on Korea and the town of Haeundae is right in its path.

To make matters worst, the characters are going through all manner of issues from one brother falling in love with a wealthy man's daughter and having Hench-men beat him up, to another who manages to cause this elder man to die and now must take care of the man's daughter and his son (who by the way the mother walked out of his life and left him to be a single father) and his mother is a certifiably nutso. Then he had to deal with his uncle, who's trying to buy him out so they can build some state of the art condo/mall thing on their land--their private lives were hell.

This movie doesn't deserve a one star rating.  Sure, its not perfect and not a five start but its a three star at best. The emotional journey these characters went on just broke my heart. It was written in a way that was so real. If someone got hurt too bad they died and some characters were created just to die - there was no other possible outcome if the story was to work. It was raw and scary and after a while I kept thinking "OMG these writers are trying to kill me!"

There was some laughter and a lot of tears but all in all it was a pretty decent movie.  There was a strange humanity about this piece that shocked me. The way it ended wasn't all nice and sweet. It was a sort of happy ending but not the kind you'd think. If you like disaster movies - not MILLION dollar movies but a good disaster movie with great acting and raw emotion then watch this.  You might just enjoy it.

Kato

Bridesmaids

Competition between the maid of honor and a bridesmaid, over who is the bride's best friend, threatens to upend the life of an out-of-work pastry chef - IMBD

I know, this movie came out in 2011 starring Melissa McCartney, Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rebel Wilson, but I didn't believe in the hype of it. I mean gimme a break. I often times never watch these popular movies until long after the crazy behind the whole thing dies down. This movie was no different. Anyways, so I went in being highly skeptical about the whole thing and while I enjoyed it immensely, I didn't see what was such a huge deal about it. Sure, Melissa McCartney (Mike & Molly and The Heat) was hilarious and just priceless, and the storyline was somewhat original, but I'm not sure how Rebel Wilson's career took off after it for you barely saw her in the movie.

It was good for some laughs, of course, and some tears which brings me to the bit where Maya's character was supposed to be serious for a bit. I just...I don't know...I think the casting was a lil wonky there. I think Maya and Kristin should have switched characters. For some STRANGE reason, I cannot take Maya seriously at all. I am so used to seeing her in comedies.

But bottom line, would I watch this movie with a bunch of my girls while drinking wine and eat junk? Hell to the yes! It is just that funny.

Kato