Tom's Reviews

Reviewed on the Nintendo Switch I feel like reviewing Cave Story is like reviewing Citizen Kane: you're not allowed to hate it, and if you do, you hate any subsequent games inspired by it. That may be a little bit of an over-exaggeration, but in a world where opinion is becoming scarcer and scarcer in place of a unified "you're either with us or against us" mentality, I'm always weary of reviewing a popular product. Cave Story, as far as I'm aware, was one of the original Metroidvanias (outside of Castlevania and Metroid of course) and pioneered the absolute storm of unabashedly unoriginal Metroidvanias we see today littering the switch eshop (thanks Cave Story...). It's a game I've played about six times, and I want to go through those six times and explain my journey with Cave Story, in what will eventually (I hope) turn into a review. VIRGIN TO PRO-ISH My first time with Cave Story was way back when I was a little kid. My friend, who had a be...

Phew, after reviewing one non-Korean movie ( Time Share , a not so good Spanish film) I think I need to renew my avid, perhaps slightly unhealthy obsession with strange Korean movies no one else DARES to review. That's right, I'm a bit of a daredevil when it comes to reviewing films, only three critics reviews on IMDB, let me at 'em. Today's flick is The Chase , not to be mistaken with the British game show of the same name (which is pretty awesome by the way), a Korean action/comedy/thriller/mystery hybrid that's pretty good and offers some fresh insights into an overdone genre. The Chase, written and directed by Hong-seon Kim ( The Con Artists ), is a film about a landlord who's tenants are being murdered and he's having none of it. He teams up with an ex detective, and together the two gramps go for a romp around their town to find the killer. Me and my sister watched this one together, and before watching it we had a quick peek at the trailer. Oh boy i...

It may seem like I only watch Korean films, and you'd be almost correct if you assumed so. I actually watch more films than I review, and today's film was Time Share . I wasn't going to review Time Share , mainly because it's critic's review section on IMDB (which coincidentally seems to be where I get all my "clicks") is already pretty full. But, I figured my blog was too Korean orientated, so I thought I'd spice it up. Time Share it is. I am so mixed on Time Share it is honestly frustrating. The film, directed by  Sebastián Hofmann ( Halley ) and written by  Sebastián Hofmann  and  Julio Chavezmontes ( Halley ), has a really intriguing premise. The way it's described on IMDB is as follows: " Two haunted family men join forces in a destructive crusade to rescue their families from a tropical paradise, after becoming convinced that an American timeshare conglomerate has a sinister plan to take their loved ones away." Now you'd be ...

I forgot I owned an Amazon Prime account; I'm constantly on Netflix searching for obscure movies to review that I miss the Prime logo on my PS4 and never give it the time of day it deserves. So today, having really scoured the weird Korean titles Netflix has to offer, I went to Prime and got myself a weird Chinese title. The Laundryman , directed by Chung Lee and written by Chung Lee and Yu-Hsun Chen ( The Village of No Return) is not what I'd call a great film, not even what I'd call a good film. It's a film, it has all the components to make one, in fact it has all the components to make a great film, but it doesn't use them well, and to add insult to injury it feels like it's low budget. Let me explain. Here's the Amazon description of this film: "A hitman is quite literally haunted by the ghosts of his past in this unique blend of supernatural action-comedy set in the neon-lit world of cynical psychics, seductive mob bosses, and clever cops....

Forgotten is one of those films that I could criticise to the end of time, but actually love deep down. It's a flawed film for sure, but it has a lot of redeeming qualities that make it shine above the rest, and I think that's mostly down to it being Korean. I know I know. Tom likes another Korean movie! What a surprise! But in all seriousness, there's something about the way they make films that means they could take a crap idea and make it watchable at least. Forgotten , directed and written by Hang-jun Jang ( Spring Breeze ), is a thriller about a twenty-one year old who suspects not all is right in his family after his brother Yu-seok (Mu-Yeol Kim, The Gangster, The Cop and The Devil ) is abducted and mysteriously returns nineteen days later. Now you see Forgotten's plot is okay, and I mean that in the most neutral way. It's not great, it's not bad, it's just okay. For starters it's almost entirely predictable from the beginning, or at least it w...

I have to say I'm not too sure about this one. Usually when I come out of my dark cave to switch Netflix on I have a pretty clear idea about what it is I'm watching. I don't watch movies often, so when I do I am going to make damn sure I know what I'm spending my time on; I didn't with Svaha: The Sixth Finger . I think ultimately this may be the best way going into it, but may also lead to an unfortunately confusing and perhaps unrewarding experience. Svaha: The Sixth Finger is another Korean thriller-mystery Netflix Original with a bunch of people solving crimes. Only in Svaha: The Sixth Finger the mystery is surrounded by Buddhist culture and mythology to give it that extra boost of originality. And frankly I feel as if that is the films best selling point. This whole film is almost about cults, but is really about religion as a whole and that (for me) is a really interesting scenario for a detective film. But I'm not all that sure that Svaha: The Sixth ...

It's not often I'll watch a film and completely change my opinion half way through, but through masterful direction, great acting and a half decent story with a few twists and turns this film actually became one of my favourite films of this year. Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage is a ridiculous title that I refuse to write out more than once. So, from this point on, I'll refer to it as The Dawning Rage if at all. But, title aside, this film is an interesting one. As always Netflix give you a one or two sentence summary of this two hour film, and it sounded pretty lame. But I feel like Netflix didn't really have any other choice as to describe this film in one or two sentences would be nigh impossible. You see the plot of this film isn't necessarily complicated, and in fact follows the tried and tested South Korean thriller formula pretty well; the thing about this film's narrative is that it's so well told and so detailed that you feel its worth more than a...

I haven't watched a film in a while, in fact the last film I saw was Dot 2 Dot which I gave a scathing review for. I think it left a sour taste in my mouth. But I have been watching TV, and most notably Live staring Kwang-soo Lee. Kwang-soo Lee is quite a versatile actor. In Live he plays a serious policeman who struggles to prove his relevance in the world; in Busted he plays a comedic detective version of himself who's a bit goofy and silly; and in The Sound of Your Heart he plays a hopeless and slightly autistic webtoon artist. But perhaps his best performance yet is as a fish man in the film I'm reviewing today, the naffly named Collective Invention . It is true that I found out about this film by IMDBing Kwang-soo, but I watched it for the fish man. The conceit of this film is that a pretty average lowlife loser, Park Goo (Kwang-soo Lee, Live ), takes an experimental drug that turns him into a fish man. But what we get from there was not quite what I was expectin...

This film is the definition of a wasted opportunity. It's too short, it deals with too many different subject matter while never really meaningfully discussing any of them, and it's direction and cinematography at times are beautiful and at others fall short. This is not a good film, and that's a real shame because it could have been something special. Dot 2 Dot by Amos Why ( Napping Kid ) is a hit or miss film very much like the previous Chinese film I reviewed Tik Tok . It's a film about a woman who moves to Hong Kong to help teach language (I believe it's another form of Chinese although I could be wrong). When she moves there she feels alienated and grows obsessed with solving dot to dot puzzles left behind by a man obsessed with his childhood. That plot actually sounds really interesting, but this isn't really how it plays out; instead the film loosely follows that narrative while introducing other story beats that don't really amount to much. I th...

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...

I, like I assume many others, came across this film by pure chance, or more accurately midnight IMDB searching. This is a weird, inspirational and often saddening ride through the life of one man, Stephen Groo. This documentary on Groo feels really niche, and yet resonates with me on a deep level. The Insufferable Groo is a complex look into the life of a narcissistic, yet incredibly passionate man who's whole life revolves around making movies. And honestly, I can sympathise. My great passion is to direct, and I've shot some bad films myself. His dedication to his movies, the main focus of this documentary, is incredible. He shoots close to 150 shots a day, working 18 hour days, pushing everyone on his crew to do their best and all for no money. This man is crazy, and the documentary shows it, but often in an entirely endearing, or, if not then, sympathetic way. When I was fifteen/sixteen I wanted to be Groo. Of course I didn't know he existed, but the idea of making 2...

Context is everything when it comes to mockumentaries, and it's often something they seem to get fundamentally wrong. The Beyond is no exception; this boring, uninspired mockumentary prioritises special effects over an engaging narrative and seemingly only uses the mockumentary style to save money. I only love one thing more than a good sci-fi; a low budget one. There's something about the untapped potential in low budget sci-fi movies like Coherence and Circle . Sure their production value is low, but their narratives are often mind bending and intriguing, offering an enjoyable time. The Beyond , while trying to have an intriguing narrative, falls short due to its unimaginably slow pacing and uninteresting plot. The Beyond is about a mysterious "Void" that appears in space all of a sudden. It has claimed the life of one astronaut, and threatens (or so we believe) the lives of everyone else on earth. It is up to some brilliant scientists at Space Agency to figu...