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Il Mare, a review by Tom

Il Mare (2000/South Korea) IMDb | Wikipedia (Korea) Director: Hyun-seung Lee Writing: Eun-Jeong Kim (Screenwriter), Ji-na Yeo (Screenwriter) Length: 96 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85 Audio: Korean: Dolby Digital 5.1, Korean: DTS 5.1 Subtitles: English, Korean

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Stars:
Jung-Jae Lee as Han Sung-hyun
Ji-hyun Jun as Kim Eun-ju
Mu-saeng Kim
Seung-Yeon Jo
Yun-jae Min

Plot:
A woman moves out of her beautiful seaside home named Il Mare. She leaves a letter in the mailbox, but somehow it is delivered back in time to Sang-hyun, the previous owner of the house. Upon receiving the letter, Sang-hyun, a gifted young architect, refuses to believe that the writer lives two years in the future. Nonetheless the two take up a written correspondence.

The woman asks Sang-hyun to recover a tape recorder which she lost in the subway station two years hence. As he arrives at the station, he sees a beautiful woman boarding the train, accidentally leaving her tape recorder behind...

Directed by Lee Hyun-seung, "A Love Story" (Il Mare) is one of the masterpieces of Korean romantic movies and is often compared to the Japanese great hit "Love Letter." The film also hit on Pusan International Film Festival in 2001.

Extras:

• Commentary
• Featurettes
• Includes OST CD + postcards Limited Edition
• Music Videos
• Photo Gallery
• Scene Access
• Trailers

Another movie the Americans had to remake because they do not like movies which they haven't done themselves
It is essentially the same movie as "The Lake House". I liked both. The only real difference is the ending. I prefer the "Lake House" ending but it could be a matter of what you have seen first. Both ending produce a time paradox but I feel that the one in the US version can be explained away whereas with the original Korean ending that is not possible.
I willl probably watch "The Lake House" again soon to refresh my memory and give a better opinion of which movie I find superior.

Rating:

(From Tom's Time-Travel Movie Reviews on January 23rd, 2008)

Singin' in the Rain, a review by Danae Cassandra

Singin' in the Rain
Year of Release: 1952
Directed By: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
Starring: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagan, Millard Mitchell
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Musical

Overview:Singin' in the Rain, in dazzling, restored high definition, featuring an all-new documentary special feature that salutes not just this all-time favorite but also the musical legacy of its producer, songwriter Arthur Freed.

My Thoughts:
This is a near perfect film.  It has a great story, great performances, a lot of chemistry between its characters, memorable songs and beautiful choreography.  It's also a lot of fun to watch.  There's nothing particularly serious here; it's light, romantic and amusing.  O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" is great, and Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" is classic Hollywood. 

An absolute must-see for fans of musicals, or American film; this is one of the best examples of a big-budget, classic Hollywood musical.  Highly recommended.

Bechdel Test: Fail
Mako Mori Test: Fail

Overall: 4.5/5

(From July Movie Marathon: Musicals (Yes... You read right!) on July 3rd, 2016)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

Dollhouse

1/ Ghost (apparently there was an unaired pilot prior to this)
Echo is one of the "Actives" in the elite and illegal Dollhouse. Through different personality downloads, she plays the role of a lovestruck girl on a romantic weekend, and then a ruthlessly efficient kidnapping negotiator.
Meanwhile, FBI Agent Paul Ballard is struggling with his assignment to uncover information on the Dollhouse. The chase has destroyed his marriage and is wrecking his career, and it doesn't seem that he'll stop until he uncovers the truth.



FROM JOSS WHEDON, CREATIVE MASTERMIND BEHIND Buffy the Vampire Slayer  and Angel, comes the provocative Dollhouse, a sexy, suspenseful thriller starring the stunningly talented Eliza Dushku.
As an "Active," the mysterious Echo (Dushku) serves as an unwitting agent of Dollhouse, an illegal undergroound organization that provides its elite clientele with programmable human beings.  Actives receivve persoonality imprints, allowing them to temporarily become anyone or anything - the perfect burglar, lover, spy, or assassin.  Now, with the FBI and her own shadowy past closing in, Echo must face a rogue Activve who will stop at nothing to bring Dollhouse down - forever.

As has been mentioned several times before, this series began very slowly and picked up around the 5th episode.
The first episode is quite confusing to follow and understand exactly what is going on, who is who, are the dolls victims or volunteers, what is what, why the Dollhouse, are they good or bad?? The idea of wiping a 'persons' mind and imprinting a new one, whether that be an assassin, lover, fighter etc, is quite novel and shows promise.
It is eye candy gone mad with a host of bronzed beauties to appeal to both sexes, but the majority unfortunately on first showing appearing rather lightweight in the acting skills. Adele DeWitt looks like she has secured a great role, and I am interested to see how this develops through the series.
Certainly a pilot that could put you off a series as it was just too confusing, but with the knowledge of how this improves and where it leads to I will be watching the remainder of series 1 very soon.
 


(From My PILOT Marathon on September 14th, 2009)