DVD Collectors Online

A Millionaire's First Love, a review by Tom

A Millionaire's First Love (2006/South Korea) IMDb | Wikipedia Universe Laser & Video (Hong Kong) Director: Tae-Gyun Kim Writing: Tae-Gyun Kim (Writer) Length: 113 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Korean: Dolby Digital 5.1, Cantonese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Chinese, English

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Stars:
Yong-joon Cho as Goo-ho
Bin Hyeon as Kang Jae-kyung
Do-hyeon Lee
Han-sol Lee as Myungshik
Yeon-hee Lee as Choi Eun-hwan

Plot:
An arrogant high school student who stands to inherit a fortune when he is 18 suddenly discovers the clause in his grandfather's will that he must graduate from a small high school in rural Kangwon Province. In this new school life, he finally meets a girl that he will love to...

Extras:

• Photo Gallery
• Scene Access

Seems to be the current trend of the South Korean movie I am currently watching: Another movie which starts more as a comedy and gets tragic by the end. The female lead is just adorable. Another movie I have enjoyed watching.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on November 6th, 2010)

Mahiha ashegh mishavand, a review by Danae Cassandra

Mahiha ashegh mishavand  (The Fish Fall in Love)  
2005, Iran

Aziz returns to his hometown after 22 years away.  He finds that the house he owns has been turned into a restaurant by his former fiance, Atieh.  She and her friends believe he has returned to sell the house.  To convince him to stay, she prepares his favorite dishes and serves them to him each day.  However, their inability to communicate may stand in the way of the love they are rediscovering in each other.

This is the third Iranian film I've seen, the others being Baran and Tam'e guilass (Taste of Cherry), and all of them have had a few things in common:  a slow pace, character driven story, ambiguous ending.  Oh, and all the people look like real people, not like they've all had plastic surgery and the latest Photoshop tricks.  

They're also all ... I guess you'd say "clean" .... they lack the gratuitous sex and violence of Hollywood films.  Yes, I know a lot of people would cry censorship, because I know Iran has codes about what can and can't be made, but I miss the kinds of films where you had a real love story, not just a story about unnaturally pretty people in lust with each other.  Sex and violence have their place in things, but sometimes I want a story without them too.

In case you couldn't tell, I enjoyed this film quite a bit.  It's very low budget, it's slow paced, there's no quick cut camera work or anything fancy.  It's just a nice little slice-of-life story about two middle aged people reconnecting with each other and finding love in their hearts again.  Not for everyone though - the ending is one that you decide for yourself.  I have a friend I could never show this to, because the ending (or lack thereof) would upset her too much.

Oh, and finally ... Atieh's food looks absolutely delicious.  I would eat at her restaurant any time.

Overall: 3/5

(From Danae's reviews on March 24th, 2011)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

GTO: 1st Semester (1999/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia (United States) Length: 0 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

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Plot:
Meet Eikichi Onizuka, a 22-year-old virgin and ex-biker. He's crude, foul-mouthed, and has a hair-trigger temper. His goal: to be the Greatest High School Teacher in the World! Wait, what?!? GTO is the fan-favorite story of Onizuka, a former motorcycle gang member whose goal is to become a teacher to make a difference. Once he's got his foot in the school door...can he squeeze his big head through it?

Watch in awe as Onizuka pummels through his teacher training only to be faced with the mammoth task of actually landing a teaching position. With unusual circumstances on his side, he just might pull it off. Using his street smarts to deal with colleagues, students, and troublemakers, Onizuka finds that he has too many lessons to learn!


Great Teacher Onizuka
1.01 GTO - The Legend Begins
Writer: Tohru Fujisawa (Original Material By), Masashi Sogo (Writer)
Director: Noriyuki Abe, Naoyasu Hanyu
Cast: Japanese Voice Cast), Wataru Takagi (Eikichi Onizuka (voice)), Isshin Chiba (Ryuji Danma (voice)), Yuko Miyamura (Nanako Mizuki (voice)), Shinichiro Miki (Hidero Ohsawa (voice)), Kiyoyuki Yanada (Nanako's Father (voice)), Astuko Tanaka (Nanako's Mother (voice)), Emi Kobayashi (Takahama (voice)), Haruhi Terada (Momoi (voice)), Tomiko Orikasa (Mikan (voice)), Satohiko Nakajima (Homeroom Teacher (voice)), Kazuhiro Oguro (Punk in Class O (voice)), Kosuke Okano (Punk in Class O (voice)), Hisao Egawa (Punk in Class O (voice)), Kenji Hamada (Street Punk (voice)), Tomoki Yanagi (Student (voice)), Ayako Kawasumi (Young Wife (voice)), English Voice Cast), David Lucas (Eikichi Onizuka (voice)), Ron Allen (Ryuji Danma (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Nanako Mizuki (voice)), Ron Allen (Hidero Ohsawa (voice)), John Smallberries (Nanako's Father (voice)), Wendee Lee (Nanako's Mother (voice)), Wendee Lee (Takahama (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Momoi (voice)), Midge Mayes (Mikan (voice)), David Lucas (Homeroom Teacher (voice)), John Smallberries (Punk in Class O (voice)), David Lucas (Punk in Class O (voice)), Ron Allen (Punk in Class O (voice)), John Smallberries (Street Punk (voice)), Ron Allen (Student (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Young Wife (voice))

This anime is good. Though I prefer the live-action series. The anime follows the manga more closely though. Funnily it incoporates a few ideas the live-action series came up with.
The pilot episode is a double-length episode. It covers about the same story as the first live-action episode. Only here Onizuka starts out as a student teacher at another school which he finishes successfully in this episode. This means that the student that he helps here will not be part of the series after this episode. In the live-action version she was. She was his biggest supporter there.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 28th, 2011)