Tom's Reviews

The Drug King is familiar and this is both a blessing and a problem. It borrows from other films by the likes of Martin Scorsese, and in doing so shows us an insight into a Korean gangster story; but by borrowing from those films it also just shows us yet again another Martin Scorsese story. Let me elaborate. The Drug King by Min-ho Woo ( Inside Men ) is a film about Lee Dom-sam (portrayed excellently by Kang-ho Song, Snowpiercer ) a low-life thug who ends up growing an empire distributing crank to Japan in the 70s. It's your typical from rags to riches to paranoia storyline that we've seen so many times before (Martin Scorsese has copied himself so many times its hard to find a good one these days). If you've seen Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas then you've probably seen The Drug King. Story is important (hot take right there). It's the reason, for the most part, we watch a movie, and like watching a murder mystery for the second time, watching the same f

What did I just watch? No seriously, can anyone tell me who has seen this mess of a film? What did I just watch? I so don't want to review this because I know I'll be overly critical, but I have to get something from this unenjoyable, utterly confusing movie. Right? It'll all be worth it? Right? Okay, here goes. Tik Tok is a Chinese film that I believe is set in Korea. Part of me is reluctant to look it up, because knowing wouldn't solve half of the issues I have with this film. I'll touch briefly on the story here, but know that later I'm going into full spoiler territory. I don't much here for a reason; I'm either trying to entice you to watch something so therefore spoiling it would only ruin it for you, or I'm warning you away from something so you don't really need to know the itty bitty details. But this is a special case. Honestly I don't know why it's rattled me so much. But this isn't my diary, so lets get to it. Tik Tok

There's something great about watching a good film; there's something even better about watching a feel good film. Our Shining Days is the second diamond-in-the-rough Chinese film I've had the pleasure of watching ( Animal World being the first, read my review here ) and it's a film I can't recommend enough. Frankly I'd just go watch it now, don't even finish this, just go watch it without any foreknowledge and I have a feeling you'll appreciate it later. But if you're here having watched it, or don't care either way, here's the review. Our Shining Days can best be surmised as Chinese Folk School of Rock . If you took a vague version of the plot of School of Rock (Richard Linklater), threw in some good ol' fashioned Chinese Folk music, and a nice helping of Anime appreciation, you have Our Shining Days . This film is what I'd call a feel good film; it has a simple plot, that being a bunch of reject folk music students want to comp

I haven't seen a film in a long time. For weeks I gave up the usual Netflix binge of strange Korean movies and low budget sci-fi films I've built these reviews around. So, going back into watching films I had to do it right; I had to watch something good. High Society by Hyuk Byun ( The Scarlet Letter ) was precisely that film. High Society is a film about people who let their ambition get the better of them. It's about all I want to say in terms of plot, because this rollercoaster of a film has so many twists and turns that it's best viewed without any prior knowledge. That's certainly how I saw it, having only seen the brief vague trailer that Netflix put out. It's a film that rewards you for your patience, and helps you along with its fast pacing and incredible plot development. Each twist leads to another fantastic moment for our two protagonists, and watching them suffer made me feel some genuine emotions; I felt a pang of pain as they went through some