[LGBT] Undertow

**May contain spoilers**

An unusual ghost story set on the Peruvian seaside; a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town's rigid traditions.

Miguel (Played by Bolivian actor Christian Mercado) is a fisherman living in a small village where he has a pregnant wife and a family. His community of friends and family is what keeps him going and he thinks life is perfect - That is until Santiago (played by Manolo Cardona) comes visiting the small town and Miguel's perfect life goes spiralling out of control. 

Where to start with this movie. You know when television stations have this thing where they give you a free preview for a month so you can check out some of their stations and after the month if you don't sign up they take the station away? I was lucky enough to have OUT TV for a little while at my place and one night I scrolling through the channel and noticed a movie was starting. I left it where it was on the channel and tuned in to this movie. I didn't know the actors and the movie was in Spanish. Even though I do speak some Spanish I was thankful the movie had subtitles. The moment the movie began I was sucked in. It started out giving a view of life in a small village and everything (the good and the bad) that comes with it.  Miguel seems happy at first but as you pay closer attention you see just how miserable he is and when he and Santiago get together, it just proves to him and the viewers what happiness is for he

Christian Mercado

laughs more.  But the truth of the matter is, in small towns or villages, secrets come out faster than usual and when they do, someone almost always winds up dead or in big, big trouble.

Even though life sucks, Miguel manages to carve out a routine - he'd spend some time with Santiago, basking in real love with this man, laughing and critiquing Santiago's art. Then he'd go home and cater to his wife who soon becomes pregnant.  He fights to be a family man, to hide his gay secret from the people he surrounds himself with and to be happy. Then Santiago dies and Miguel suddenly have the perfect boyfriend--well aside from the death bit. He can walk down the street with Santiago and hold hands with him for only he can see Santiago. But Santiago's death doesn't make life any easier for their love. If anything, death merely complicates it.  To make matters worse, they enter Santiago's place and found naked artwork of Miguel littering the place.

Manolo Cardona

This movie was heartbreaking. It shows what happens when you want to be true to who you are and what you are but life just doesn't want to corporate.  When you force someone to play inside a box that doesn't fit them it can lead to madness and when the smoke clears everyone and everything would be destroyed.  There is such a poignant love story in this movie, a love that transcends death and mortality. It didn't matter that the true love was between two men your heart will just sob for them. There is such misery in losing a life you believe is yours and no one else's. 

And when the person you love isn't the person society thinks you should love, what happens when the love Society endorses find out about the other? Do you fight for what society wants or what you want? Do you fight to save face and break your own heart or fight to do what's right for someone who, at least for a moment--however fleeting, gave you the best moments of your life and loved you more than you ever thought possible or could ever understand?

Undertow is a brilliantly written, wonderfully acted and the music--perfection. If you're looking to a movie that rewards you for watching and feeds you in ways you've given  up on movie ever doing in these days of remakes and superhero fluff, this movie will do it. 

Oh and have a box of kleenex or two handy, you are SO going to need it.

Hugs,
Kato

GODZILLA ***Small Spoilers*

The world's most famous monster is pitted against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity's scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence (Imbd).

When I first heard they were going to make a new Godzilla, I thought here we go again. I mean, I don`t trust these remakes as far as I can throw them because most often than not, they screw it up. So let's break it down, shall we?

The movie begins with some 'historical' footage of people nuking things - am talking mushroom cloud kind of nuking. Fast forward years later to  1999 where Dr. Serizawa and his team are flown into the Philippines because a mine they were digging at caved in and they found some fossils and a weird looking cocoon thing hanging from the ceiling of the cave.  Around that same time, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston - Walter from Breaking Bad) his wife and son live in Japan--a place called Janjira. He has a job like Homer Simpson at a nuclear power plant in Japan - and incidentally he works there with his wife and he's been picking up some strange readings--sorta like aftershocks from earthquakes and they're getting bigger, more forceful--to make matters worse, they're picking up major EMP interference.  All hell breaks lose when something cause the power plant to be destroyed, killing Joe's wife and most of the people working at the plant. 

Now skip ahead fifteen years, Joe's son Ford is all grown up (played by Aaron Johnson - Kick-Ass from Kick-Ass), a high ranking soldier in the army with a wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen - yes she's sisters with the twins). He just gets home when he gets a call telling him his father was arrested for trespassing in the quarantined zone - Janjira. Now Ford has to go back to Japan to save his father and somehow gets talked into going back to the quarantined zone. Soon, the two are caught up in a game of cat and mouse with two large cockroaches looking monsters and a Godzilla on the hunt.

For the beginning of the new Godzilla was slow. While I understood why it was like that, I couldn't help sitting there thinking, wow--it needs to move on already. About forty five minutes in, things picks up. Though it leaves some confusion as to where they're going with the story. While there are some things, militarily that would never go over well with the real military and the soldiers never once saluted or stood at attention when their superiors entered a space - that I found a little problematic. Why? Whoever research military procedures really screwed up on that end.  There were a few times when I thought someone didn't fact-check a few things and other times when I wondered what the point of a scene was for they carried the story to a certain point then merely let it go and you're left wondering.  There were a few times I found I was laughing with my friend because of something that probably wasn't meant to be funny. A few times everyone one else in the theatre erupted in laughter as well.

The movie was great - if you look past the typical nit-picking that I'm doing with this movie.  I mean what movie doesn't have some continuity/scripting issues? The graphics were stellar, the monsters, the crushed buildings--it was so real. The acting was amazing. I was very happy to see Bryan Cranston playing the role of Joe Brody. The new spin of the Godzilla monster was something I welcomed, even found myself cheering for the him. Aside from a few Godzilla fat jokes but that as it. Sitting there, watching the newly designed model tear ass from Japan to San Francisco, I was positively giddy. 

All in all I had a great time with this movie aside from the typical.  If you want a good, kinda scary, plenty of eye-candy movie with monsters galore, then check this movie out. If you're obsessive compulsive about military procedures then you may want to skip it but everyone else - you will enjoy GODZILLA!

Hugs,
Kato

Gang Related - New Series on FOX

So, for a few weeks now I've been seeing ads for this new show coming to FOX called GANG RELATED and I figured, wow, okay, this looks promising. Then again I try not to get attached to shows on FOX because we all know what happens - They get canned like FIREFLY and ALMOST HUMAN - yes my friend, ALMOST HUMAN went the way of the dinosaurs. 

Anyway, I watched GANG RELATED what a load of bullshit! (pardon my French) but come on. Who writes this stuff? It's the same racist crap they've been trying to shove down our throats since forever. Well I guess Racist is such a strong word let's downgrade that to stereotypes--and not in the best of ways either. The question now becomes -  Why is it that this show has a visible minority cast and they are ALL dirty? Think I'm overreacting? Let's break it down-- oh and Bee-Tee-Dub, if you're going to watch this piece of crap, you may not want to read the following because there WILL be some spoilers.

1. The Korean cop has links to the Korean Mafia. The only saving grace is I LOVE Sung Kang (From the Fast and Furious movies - he plays Han)
2. The Hispanic cop (that dude from HOSTEL that got his fingers cut off) who should be the lead good guy turns out he's a dirty cop who is just on the force since his "adopted" father is the head of a Mexican mafia and his primary job is to find out when the cops are gonna go busting the others so he can go report it to his mafia 'father' - and this guy is also in love with his brother's girlfriend--oh wait, scratch that, fiancée 
3. The ONLY African American's in the first episode are a bunch of uzi totting, crack smoking bad guys
4. The Caucasian male - (That old dude from LOST and 5-0 - Terry Quinn I think his name is) is the head of a group of good cops on a task force .
5. A Caucasian ADA (that chick who played Quinn in One Tree Hill - come now ladies I know our eyes were somewhere else but she was in there, I promise- who incidentally is the daughter of the head of the task force *eye roll*
6. Another blond guy who is a part of Internal Affairs
7 Rza - he's in it and is a cop on the task force - I think- but you see him like twice in the whole episode but apparently he's in 10 episodes so far.

What makes me really upset? The in your face stereotypes in this television show. Trust me, you are not doing us any favours by putting on a television show with the main cast being visible minorities and still making them gun-crazed, disloyal, dishonest, egotistic assholes that no one can like.  

I think this television show is a load of crap. The acting is shitty, the writing is boring and it is the SAME old the Mexican has to be Mafia, the Korean has to be in a gang, the black has to carry around guns blowing crap to kingdom-come and the white guy always does the right thing and saves us all *eye roll* how predictable? The only thing missing from this barage of crappy stereotype is the black guy dying first!

Don't waste your time  (it's horrible) and don't get attached (it's on FOX). Go watch LONGMIRE over on A&E, it's better writing, better characters and a better soundtrack.

Kato

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