Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Start Sonic Frontiers, and I'm actually enjoying it a lot.

[Postmania]

When watching serious South Korean action/dramas, I'm often left considering them as having some similarities to watching Danish stuff. There Will Not Be A Happy Ending™.

The ending might have some positive notes, some good might come of it, but it's rarely 'happy'. ^_^

True, I feel like it's rare I run into them in my experience where things go lightly. Even the one that I remember having a happy ending swerved you and tried to make you think the main character died before giving it to you.

Come to think of it, The Killer is probably a rare exception for the most part.

Seen it. It's based on the (much longer and certainly different) manga series. I liked the movie, though obviously it's not the manga.

I appreciated that the main character at least in the movie wasn't really unstoppable. He just had a chance to keep learning from his mistakes bc he can't die.

Good to hear, I've been considering watching this one.

I think some folks weren't fond of it bc of relatively less action in its pacing, but I think if the character stuff works on the viewer like it did for me the movie works.

I remember that one. Dude was pretty evil.

Normally I'm not fond of endings going the way this one was, but it was fitting for this character.

[Postmania]

Warriors of the Future (2022) - This felt like a videogame, but in a bad way. It was like watching someone play a Free to Play MMO side quest. Generic setting, characters, plot, worldbuilding, technology, antagonist mindless aliens which are never explained, etc. There's a traversal sequence where characters run through a collapsing building that feels like a scripted setpiece from a game too, and like with games like this it's much more fun to actually play it then watch it. It's also too long. Not good.

Vikram (2022) - Fun idea for a movie, but not as fun on screen oddly. Centers initially around a relatively grounded setting with driven team of special police/contractor folks working to solve a crime with 3 high profile murders killed by masked men, and a high profile gang which is also involved, but quickly spirals into something else with the introduction of the titular Vikram, a former top secret black ops man with a larger than life presence and personality who's on his own side. It's basically like if The Departed suddenly introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing one of his known characters. From what I understand the actor in question is equally a presence in Indian cinema to some extent and the movie 100% treats him like a star. Despite this though, the movie overall stays too grounded and restrained for my taste actually, and is overlong and the pacing suffers. Still, there are fun things like the introduction of a literal medieval cannon into an action scene, with appropriate explosions, and a drug lord who gains super strength through drugs.

Sanak (2021) - Indian Die Hard in a Hospital with more MMA. Concept is definitely seen before but despite that I think this worked more than I expected. Part of it is the fight scenes, which just have a flair to them. The fights seem largely scrubbed from youtube but I did find part of one below. Aside from that, I think the actor works well as the everyman in this situation (in this case he's literally just an MMA coach who stumbles into this) and the others actors do well as the intrepid hostage, scenery chewing villain, and determined cop respectively. Unfortunate then, that this one also has pacing problems/is overlong. I think that this is a good movie, but the ingredients are there for it to have been a low-key classic if it had cut some of the extraneous scenes with unimportant characters, shortened some of the romance scenes (although the actors connect well they go on for too long), and maybe found ways to heighten the best qualities of protagonists and antagonists. But it's still a fun time. This one, unlike Warriors of the Future, feels like a videogame in a good way at times as the protagonist is basically able to find allies and set up a mini base of operations at certain points to plan out his next moves too.

[Sharpandpointies]

Vikram (2022) - Fun idea for a movie, but not as fun on screen oddly. Centers initially around a relatively grounded setting with driven team of special police/contractor folks working to solve a crime with 3 high profile murders killed by masked men, and a high profile gang which is also involved, but quickly spirals into something else with the introduction of the titular Vikram, a former top secret black ops man with a larger than life presence and personality who's on his own side. It's basically like if The Departed suddenly introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing one of his known characters. From what I understand the actor in question is equally a presence in Indian cinema to some extent and the movie 100% treats him like a star. Despite this though, the movie overall stays too grounded and restrained for my taste actually, and is overlong and the pacing suffers. Still, there are fun things like the introduction of a literal medieval cannon into an action scene, with appropriate explosions, and a drug lord who gains super strength through drugs.

Snowflame is in this?

Anyway, I recall watching an Indian movie some years ago about two warring families, both of whom were involved in crime, but the central character - scion of one of the families - was some tremendously built dude who had become a lawyer. He only gets caught up in the crime again when the other family takes out most of his family, or something. Classic revenge story.

Then half-way through this movie, this super-cop character (like, bullet-timing, throwing people hundreds of feet, etc) comes in out of nowhere, and it's just like you say - it's almost as if this guy is a well-known guy with a bunch of movies under his belt (the character) who just pops in because. And proceeds to basically break the plot.

Was very odd, and I'm fascinated to see it has happened in other movies.

Sanak (2021) - Indian Die Hard in a Hospital with more MMA. Concept is definitely seen before but despite that I think this worked more than I expected. Part of it is the fight scenes, which just have a flair to them. The fights seem largely scrubbed from youtube but I did find part of one below. Aside from that, I think the actor works well as the everyman in this situation (in this case he's literally just an MMA coach who stumbles into this) and the others actors do well as the intrepid hostage, scenery chewing villain, and determined cop respectively. Unfortunate then, that this one also has pacing problems/is overlong. I think that this is a good movie, but the ingredients are there for it to have been a low-key classic if it had cut some of the extraneous scenes with unimportant characters, shortened some of the romance scenes (although the actors connect well they go on for too long), and maybe found ways to heighten the best qualities of protagonists and antagonists. But it's still a fun time. This one, unlike Warriors of the Future, feels like a videogame in a good way at times as the protagonist is basically able to find allies and set up a mini base of operations at certain points to plan out his next moves too.

Based on the video, guy seems to be trying to be Jackie Chan (in terms of his fight choreography).

[Postmania]

Snowflame is in this?

Not precisely, but there is indeed silliness like where the drug lord runs into two masked minions, fights them and seems like a very average although tough dude in middle age who's carrying a bit too much weight to move as he should, gets knocked down and nearly out, pulls out an unknown substance from his pocket in a bag, chews it, then stands up none the worse for wear and casually slams one of the minions into the ground so hard his neck goes through it. I liked that, but as mentioned the movie strangely does not do feats like that as often as I wanted.

Anyway, I recall watching an Indian movie some years ago about two warring families, both of whom were involved in crime, but the central character - scion of one of the families - was some tremendously built dude who had become a lawyer. He only gets caught up in the crime again when the other family takes out most of his family, or something. Classic revenge story.

Then half-way through this movie, this super-cop character (like, bullet-timing, throwing people hundreds of feet, etc) comes in out of nowhere, and it's just like you say - it's almost as if this guy is a well-known guy with a bunch of movies under his belt (the character) who just pops in because. And proceeds to basically break the plot.

Was very odd, and I'm fascinated to see it has happened in other movies.

Wow. That is over the top. Gotta say though, I'm definitely getting a taste for movies that do things like that lately. What tvtropes likes to call Outside context problem
, which I first really got into with The Witch Part 1.

Based on the video, guy seems to be trying to be Jackie Chan (in terms of his fight choreography).

Yep, definitely an influence in the choreo at least. I can't say how "real" any of stuff like this



is but I do know it was surprisingly fun/funny for me lol.

[Sharpandpointies]

Yep, definitely an influence in the choreo at least. I can't say how "real" any of stuff like this



is but I do know it was surprisingly fun/funny for me lol.

It's not REAL (the stuff in My Name is far more real, as an example from Korea, even if the actress has issues with telegraphing...not uncommon), but I've seen worse. And right, definitely entertaining. ^_^

[Dark Soul # 7]

Hajime no Ippo: Wally is running on fumes and knows he can't win this. But he's giving it everything he's got. Given that Sendo is Ricardo's next opponent and I doubt he'll do much better, I wonder how much longer it'll be until Miyata takes on this challenge? Because we obviously have to go through all the featherweight fighters against Ricardo before Ippo steps up again me thinks.

Four Knights of the Apocalypse: Neat little before the storm chapter. I'm finding Tristan more and more endearing. Dude just wants to have fun with his friends on this adventure.

[Nik Hasta]

Hajime no Ippo: Wally is running on fumes and knows he can't win this. But he's giving it everything he's got. Given that Sendo is Ricardo's next opponent and I doubt he'll do much better, I wonder how much longer it'll be until Miyata takes on this challenge? Because we obviously have to go through all the featherweight fighters against Ricardo before Ippo steps up again me thinks.

Given how lukewarm I was on this fight as a story beat, I'm impressed by how invested in it I've become. Ricardo seems incredibly strong but not like in a cheap way, which is good.

[grampagen]

Hajime no Ippo: Wally is running on fumes and knows he can't win this. But he's giving it everything he's got. Given that Sendo is Ricardo's next opponent and I doubt he'll do much better, I wonder how much longer it'll be until Miyata takes on this challenge? Because we obviously have to go through all the featherweight fighters against Ricardo before Ippo steps up again me thinks.

Ippo probably needs to get back in the game before Miyata ever gets over his ennui. Where we last left him he was letting his opponents hit him just so he could feel something before phoning in the finish.

Personally I'm kinda apathetic whether Ippo and Miyata ever settle their rivalry. As much as I thought Randy Boy Jr was interesting in terms of his skillset, in terms of writing stakes for that match it was kind of empty, and having this being the reason why the Miyata camp flaked out on the match, then moving up a weight class later to cement it, it's a storyline that I feel has resolved itself well enough, if not exactly in an exciting manner.

...I suppose if we had to bring him back into the Featherweight fold, Miyata could be the wall that keeps Itagaki and Imai from becoming world rankers or something. Fighting one or even both of them could also send a message to Ippo, but who knows.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Ippo probably needs to get back in the game before Miyata ever gets over his ennui. Where we last left him he was letting his opponents hit him just so he could feel something before phoning in the finish.

Personally I'm kinda apathetic whether Ippo and Miyata ever settle their rivalry. As much as I thought Randy Boy Jr was interesting in terms of his skillset, in terms of writing stakes for that match it was kind of empty, and having this being the reason why the Miyata camp flaked out on the match, then moving up a weight class later to cement it, it's a storyline that I feel has resolved itself well enough, if not exactly in an exciting manner.

...I suppose if we had to bring him back into the Featherweight fold, Miyata could be the wall that keeps Itagaki and Imai from becoming world rankers or something. Fighting one or even both of them could also send a message to Ippo, but who knows.

...did Miyata go up a weight class?

I was certain that he was still hanging out in Featherweight despite it being a sub-optimal weight class for him since he's still holding on hope that Ippo will come back to the ring.

When did he officially leave Featherweight?

[Postmania]

It's not REAL (the stuff in My Name is far more real, as an example from Korea, even if the actress has issues with telegraphing...not uncommon), but I've seen worse. And right, definitely entertaining. ^_^

Oh I enjoyed that show and character. Although the ending was a bit lackluster for me

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[grampagen]

...did Miyata go up a weight class?

I was certain that he was still hanging out in Featherweight despite it being a sub-optimal weight class for him since he's still holding on hope that Ippo will come back to the ring.

When did he officially leave Featherweight?

Ah, no I was mistaken after all. What separates them is which World Title they were after, with Ippo and Sendo climbing the ladder for Martinez in WBC, while Miyata and I think Mashiba are pursuing OPBF.

It was a bit of a plot element way early that people took Miyata for granted as a genius with natural talent when he had to make weight cuts which stuck in my head for some reason.

[Nik Hasta]

Baki-Dou:

Sukune definitely confirmed as this series' Muhammed Ali Jr.

spoilers:

Despite getting squashed and maimed at the start of this arc, Oliva is now effortlessly handling Sukune because "This is a real fight,"

end of spoilers

There's something oddly comforting about the consistency of strange and confusing booking in Baki as a series. Like this was easy to see coming, as this is like the fourth time this exact sequence of events has happened, but you're also like "but why tho," every time.

[Sharpandpointies]

Baki-Dou:

Sukune definitely confirmed as this series' Muhammed Ali Jr.

spoilers:

Despite getting squashed and maimed at the start of this arc, Oliva is now effortlessly handling Sukune because "This is a real fight,"

end of spoilers

There's something oddly comforting about the consistency of strange and confusing booking in Baki as a series. Like this was easy to see coming, as this is like the fourth time this exact sequence of events has happened, but you're also like "but why tho," every time.

Read it, and it's all exactly as you're describing. Go figure.