Tag: Action

Review: Taxi Driver

Posted July 8, 2021 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments

Taxi Driver (2021)

Starring: Lee Je Hoon, Pyo Ye Jin, Esom
Year Released: 2021
Number of Episodes: 16
Genre: , Action, Crime, Suspense, Thriller
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Viki
Recommended By: Lee Je Hoon
Who I Watched It For: Lee Je Hoon

Do Ki has lived more honestly than anyone else as an officer in the Special Forces. Yet, when a serial killer murders his mother, he spends his days in agony. While feeling wronged and broken, Do Ki meets Jang Sung Chul, who recruits Do Ki to work for his company, Rainbow Taxi.

Far from an ordinary taxi service, Rainbow Taxi is a secret organization that avenges victims whom the law didn’t protect. Here, Do Ki becomes a star driver who delivers satisfying revenge. Meanwhile, Ha Na is a prosecutor who investigates Rainbow Taxi. She is furious with their lawless behavior, but at the same time, she feels confused to see them solve cases that the law cannot.

Between those who believe that revenge embodies true justice and those who pursue the outlaws, Do Ki seeks what justice truly means.

I came across this drama when I was searching for something new to watch. This show hadn’t come out yet so I had a little bit of a wait but I enjoyed the heck out of this one. Every single week, I was glued to my seat the minute that subtitles were released in English. I watched a couple of things that Lee Je Hoon was in but I never paid super close attention to him…I’m paying hella attention now.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty stuff, shall we?

Main Male Lead: Kim Dogi

Lee Je Hoon
InstaGram | Facebook

Kim Dogi was played by Lee Je Hoon and I was a big fan of this casting. He’s my latest k-drama actor crush so Park Seo Joon better come out with something soon or he’ll be de-throned as my top k-drama crush.

Anyway, Lee Je Hoon has been killing it in everything that he’s starred in and this role was no different. I really enjoyed seeing him bring Kim Dogi’s character to life. I enjoyed his portrayal so much that I went searching for the webtoon so that I can read it at the same time that I was watching the show but I could only find it in Korean so I ended up just watching the show.

Kim Dogi was my favorite part of this show. He transitioned from one person to another person every episode and sold each performance, doing whatever was necessary to avenge his clients. You could tell that he cared about each client and their stories and I seriously loved that. He came off as a very reserved and cold person but he put his life on the line for every case and he was just so stinkin’ good at what he did that he made tuning in every week worth the wait. I don’t care what anyone says, he loved him some Ahn Goeun. The lengths he went to protect and avenge her??? Yeah, you can’t tell anything else. If this show had a romance, it was between Dogi and Goeun. Sorry, prosecutor.

Main Female Lead: Ahn Goeun

Pyo Ye Jin
InstaGram


My girl Ahn Goeun was my second favorite person in this entire show. She was a fully fleshed-out character that hit me with so many different emotions. She had a strong sense of purpose and of doing right by those that can’t fight the system themselves. Her story hit me hard and I cried hella while watching her struggle with feelings of letting her sister down. I also adored her obvious crush on Kim Dogi and totally think he reciprocated her feelings back. He went above and beyond for her, and the way that she clung to his present to her when she needed someone but was too prideful to reach out a hand had me ugly crying in my room.

Pyo Ye Jin really owned this role and she won me over right from the beginning, in episode 1. I loved how everyone on the team was scared of her and I loved when she would jump into action when the case called for her involvement and I love how smart, charming and just overall great her character was. She was the perfect partner for Kim Dogi and his ass knew it. They were definitely meant to be together.

Second Lead: Kang Hana

Esom
InstaGram | Twitter


Esom played the character of Kang Hana, the prosecutor who was all about the work and getting the bad guys by the letter of the law and anyone who did otherwise were no better than the criminals she put behind bars. She had a know-it-all attitude that rubbed me the wrong way for most of the show and even in the end, I wasn’t completely invested in her character. She spent the first part of the show, thinking the worst of Dogi and she had this superior attitude that her way was the best way and she looked down on everything that the Rainbow Taxi crew were trying to do and she does all of this until she’s affected by the system falling down on her case and then….all of a sudden, what the Rainbow Taxi crew was doing was okay. Because she needed them, they were okay. She really could have missed me with all of that BS. I wasn’t a big fan of the way that Dogi came around with her character.

I really wish that there was someone else on the police force or prosecutor’s office that could have worked with our favorite deluxe taxi service instead of her. Esom’s acting is great because I want to see her in other dramas where her character doesn’t piss me off so much. I liked her, just not in this show, and for damn sure not with Dogi. LOL.

The Cast

I really enjoyed getting to know everyone else on the Rainbow Taxi team. I loved how everyone had a role and everyone played their roles exceptionally well. The engineers, the CEO, the muscle, and the hacker all played critical roles in bringing the bad guys down and though I didn’t like every single thing they did, the driving force behind the idea of what they do really stuck with me and I loved the reasons that they did all that they did and I really loved the people they were.

I’ve taken note of all of them and will start looking for more of their work to watch because I liked seeing them every week on my little screen. Lots of great actors and actresses in this bunch.

The Story

This show is about a deluxe taxi service that seeks revenge for those that can’t avenge themselves. People who have been failed by the system that is supposed to protect and serve. I’m a bloodthirsty bitch so when I read the summary of this show, I was all the way in. The show starts off strong and I was heavily invested in what was going down. I enjoyed the darker tone of the show and seeing the Rainbow Taxi team seek their own justice for the wrongs done to their clients. Every case made me cry and the lengths that the Rainbow Taxi team went to, to make sure that their clients got the justice that they deserved made me happy.

The acting is pretty top-notch and every actor really brought a different aspect to the show that made the show that much better in my eyes. There was a writer switch-up about halfway through the show and I noticed it. I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the second half but the second half didn’t turn me off the show completely or anything like this. The ending was a little disappointing but that was because it ended with an addition that I didn’t care about for the entire season and didn’t want in the end but it is what it is.

Overall, this one is probably my favorite drama of the year so far. I highly recommend this show if you’re looking for a good vs. evil drama with lots of action, a team of do gooders with a dark side. This was a definite treat and I’ve already watched it all the way through twice.

Final Rating

4.5 out of 5

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Review: The Witch: Part 1, The Subversion

Posted October 6, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

The Witch: Part 1, The Subversion

Starring: Kim Da Mi, Choi Woo Shik, Go Min Si, Jo Min Soo, Park Hee Soon, Kim Byeong Ok, Choi Jeong Wook, Jung Da Eun, Jeong Ye Jin, Tae Won Kwon
Year Released: 2018
Genre: Action, Mystery
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Netflix
Watched It For: Kim Da Mi

When she was young, Ja-yoon escaped from a government facility, but lost all her memory. 10 years later, when she appears on a nationally televised competition to win money for her family, her life is turned upside down by faces from her past.

I watched this movie when I saw that my girl Kim Da Mi from Itaewon Class starred in it. I’m super glad that I did watch this movie because Yi Seo was badass in this. She played this part so well that I was super impressed throughout the entire movie. From beginning to end, she just flat out rocked. When she shows up at that farm, all bloodied and scared til the end, when she’s sitting in that house and with no kind of expression, threatening the girl that steps up to kill her, I was impressed.

So this movie is about a young girl named Ja Yoon who was taken in by an older couple when she shows up on their farm, bloodied and bruised and scared out of her pants. Out of the kindness of their hearts, they take her in and they raise as their own. Ten years later, she in high school, and in order to help her parents with their failing farm, she enters a singing contest that the winner will win 500 million won. Once she starts singing on the show, weird things start happening. Weird things like strange guys showing up on the train and scaring the pants off her friend and asking her the weirdest questions, and a group of people including the guy from the train, showing up in her town and telling her to run home to her parents and making her do just that. Then there were the thug-like men who showed up and tried to take her from the singing competition and when she wakes up in the middle of the night to a house full of people that are trying to harm her family, her internal instincts kick in and she turns into freaking Black Widow on crack…and better.

The movie just kept getting better and better with all of these twists and turns and I thought that Kim Da Mi was the bomb in this. I loved her as Yi Seo in Itaewon Class because I thought that she was a total bad-ass but she’s just as bad-ass in this movie so I really think that she plays these bad-ass characters really well. I’m a great big fan of her so far and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her stuff.

I also liked seeing Choi Woo Shik as the villain in this one. I became a fan of his while watching Parasite and really enjoyed seeing him be a bad guy in this movie. He really played that part well because I wanted to kick his nuts every time that he came onto the screen and that fight scene between him and my girl Da Mi was bloody fantastic. The ending to this movie was pretty abrupt and I’m wondering if there’s more to this story that we have yet to see and I hope that’s the case because I’m interested in seeing that. All in all, this was a pretty fab action movie that I enjoyed a great deal. I recommend it for sure.

Final Rating

4.25 out of 5

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Review: The Man from Nowhere

Posted September 15, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

The Man from Nowhere

Male Lead: Won Bin
Also Starring: Kim Sae Ron, Kim Hee Won, Kim Tae Hoon
Year Released: 2010
Genre: Action, Crime, Mystery
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Viki
Watched It For: Won Bin

A former Army Intelligence spy is forced to give up his quiet existence to save the life of a little girl.

Cha Tae Sik (Won Bin) owns a run-down pawn shop in a sketchy neighborhood. Known as “ajusshi” to everyone in the neighborhood, Tae Sik mostly keeps to himself and only befriends a young girl named So Mi (Kim Sae Ron), who comes to hang out at his shop when her drug-addicted mom, Hyo Jung (Kim Hyo Seo), is entertaining men.

When Hyo Jung steals heroine from a dangerous crime organization, crime lord Oh Myung Gyu (Song Young Chang) sends his subordinates, brothers Man Seok (Kim Hee Won) and Jong Seok (Kim Sung Oh) and their henchman Lum Ramrowa (Thanayong Wongtrakul), after Hyo Jung. When the gangsters come to Tae Sik’s pawn shop looking for Hyo Jong, Jong Seok and his men end up taking Hyo Jung and So Mi captive.

The gangsters soon learn that they messed with the wrong guy, as it turns out that Tae Sik is a former covert operative for the South Korean Army Intelligence. Tae Sik goes after the dangerous gangsters to try to save So Mi’s life, but can he get to her in time?

“The Man From Nowhere” is a 2010 South Korean film written and directed by Lee Jeong Beom. It was the highest-grossing film of 2010.

I came across this movie while browsing the movie selection on Viki. I was in the mood for something with action and something with suspense and thrills and this one fit the bill. This movie is about a man from nowhere who owns a pawn shop and lives a quiet life. He keeps to himself and has exactly one friend. A young girl named So Mi. Even though he’s a solitary man, Cha Tae Sik has become fond of his young friend who has a Mom that doesn’t care enough about her and no friends of her own so when she’s kidnapped because of her mother’s poor choices, Tae Sik’s former army intelligence spy ass wakes the fuck up and goes to save his little friend.

This was another entertaining watch. The thrills, the suspense, and the action are all packed up nicely in this one and I was completely absorbed in the story. The actors did their jobs well and I wasn’t taken out of the action once because someone lacked in any scene. Even the young girl who played So Mi acted her little heart out and I was here for it all. Even though the movie itself is a little on the dark side, So Mi brings a heartwarming character that really shines in this movie. When she was hurt and scared, I felt that but on the flip side, when she was happy and bubbly, I felt that as well.

This was a great introduction to these actors and I’m looking forward to seeing more of both Won Bin and Kim Sae Ron’s work. They were a great pair and I really liked seeing them become friends and seeing them care for the other, even though they were nowhere near the same age. Every time So Mi called Tae Sik “Ajusshi” I smiled because her tone was never the same and yet it was endearing every single time she said it. She knew that she got on his nerves and she knew that she was a little pest but she also knew that he would take care of her when her Mom wouldn’t.

Overall, the movie is a good one and I really think if you’re in the mood for some action, a charming little character then this is the movie to try out. I definitely recommend it.

Final Rating

4.25 out of 5

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Review: Midnight Runners

Posted September 8, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Midnight Runners

Male Lead: Park Seo Jun, Kang Ha Neul
Also Starring: Sung Dong Il, Park Ha Sun, Go Joon, Lee Ho Jung
Year Released: 2017
Genre: Comedy, Action, Crime, Mystery
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Viki

Students at the Korean National Police University, Ki Joon (Park Seo Joon) and Kee Yeol (Kang Ha Neul) have a long way to go before they become official officers of the law but that doesn’t stop them from dreaming. One their way back from a club one night, they happen to witness a kidnapping and immediately jump into action, alerting the local officers of what just happened. However, swamped with other cases, the local police station has no time to take on the case. Knowing the critical hours are quickly dwindling, Ki Joon and Kee Yeol jump into action.

Tracking down the kidnappers, the pair of cadets find that the kidnappers are part of a gang running an egg harvesting ring. With dozens of girls locked up for harvesting, Ki Joon and Kee Yeol break into the gang’s hideout, determined to rescue the girls. However, the thugs prove too much for the amateur cops. Beaten down and locked up themselves, the pair are embarrassed by their own inadequacies.

After finding a way to escape, the two harden their resolve, knowing they may be those girls’ only chance of rescue. Despite being advised to let the professionals handle the case, Ki Joon and Ki Yeol continue with their investigation, determined to find the criminals and bring them to justice. Can a pair of police academy cadets really take down one of the country’s most sinister crime organizations?

An action-packed romp with lots of laughs, “Midnight Runners” is a 2017 action comedy film directed by Jason Kim.

This freaking movie had me laughing so much. It’s part of Park Seo Jun’s movie list so I knew that I was going to watch it and I knew that I was going to like it because hello, I’m biased to anything Park Seo Jun but I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. I laughed so much and so loud throughout this entire movie that I thought I was going to wake up the neighbors. Park Seo Jun and Kang Ha Neul were an absolutely delightful pair. I thought they played really well off of each other and the chemistry between the two of them is unmistakable. They made this movie-watching experience a wild and crazy ride and I enjoyed every single minute.

What made this movie completely watchable is that though this movie is a comedy, there’s a surprisingly darker themed story going on throughout that captivated me from the jump. So this movie follows two young men, Park Ki Joon and Kang Hee Yeol, who joined the Korean National Police University to study to become cops. They meet pretty early on and aren’t real big fans of the other but after Ki Joon helps Hee Yeol to safety after a jogging injury, Hee Yeol promises Ki Joon the best pork belly and perfectly marbleized steak that he’ll ever eat and Ki Joon happily carries Hee Yeol to safety with a smile on his face. And just like that, they’re best friends.

On their first night off, the boys head to the club and while they get ready, they freaking used Febreze for their cologne, hahaha. So they head to the club to pick up some girls and I’m really surprised that they didn’t get any. Both Park Seo Jun and Kang Ha Neul are good looking guys and yet they struck out at every turn in the club. So after the night is done, they’re making their way back to school when they see a girl that is their type and stare at her, hoping she’ll turn around and notice them because then it would be a sign from God but instead of turning around, the boys witness her being abducted and they give chase.

They’re pretty young and still hopeful of their future as cops so when they lose the van that took the girl in pink, they run to the nearest police station for help. Only there’s not much the cops can do because they don’t have a name for the girl and the girl hasn’t been reported as missing. Not wanting to give up, the boys decide that they’re going to find the girl on their own. They can’t wait for the cops because it’s the critical hour and they have to work fast if they have any chance of finding the girl and saving her. Hee Yeol is the brains of this operation and Ki Joon is the brawn. Together they make the funniest and the most endearing crime-fighting duo. Over the course of their investigation, they uncover a human trafficking ring and know that they’re in way over their heads and need help but at every turn, they are rejected but they’re determined to find the girls and help free them so they get to work.

And by get to work, I mean…

Haha, my guys were fantastic in this movie. Both Park Seo Jun and Kang Ha Neul really shined in this movie. The humor, the action, the heartwarming ending all made for a wonderfully entertaining and charming watch. The eye candy is through the roof as well so ladies and interested gents would definitely be happy with that. 🙂 This was a flat out great movie and I highly recommend it.

Final Rating

5 out of 5

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Review: The Suspect

Posted September 1, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

The Suspect

Male Lead: Gong Yoo
Also Starring: Park Hee Soon, Jo Sung Ha, Yoo Da In, Kim Sung Kyun, Jo Jae Yoon, Park Ji Il, Kim Min Jae
Year Released: 2013
Genre: Contemporary, Action, Suspense, Thriller
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Viki
Watched It For: Gong Yoo

Once one of the top special forces agents in North Korea, Ji Dong Chul (Gong Yoo) never thought he’d see the day when he was betrayed and hunted by his own country. But when his government abandoned him in the middle of a mission, that’s exactly what happened. Suddenly forced to run for his life, Dong Chul has no choice but to abandon his position but he refuses to flee without his family. Desperate to find his wife and daughter before it’s too late, Dong Chul tracks them down, only to find they’ve been sold as slaves to China.

Following their trail to its bloody end, Dong Chul soon learns that one of his ex-colleagues is responsible for the death of his wife and daughter. Vowing revenge, Dong Chul defects to South Korea, the pursuit of his family’s killer, his only objective.

Settling into a life of anonymity, Dong Chul spends his days searching for his nemesis while he spends his nights working as the personal chauffeur of a business executive with ties to the North. When the chairman is attacked by an unknown assassin, he passes a pair of particularly special glasses on to Dong Chul, leaving his chauffeur with a mission to recover top-secret materials, with his dying breath. Now framed for murder and hunted once again, Dong Chul must find a way to prove his innocence or die trying.

A non-stop thrill ride, “The Suspect” is a 2013 action thriller film directed by Won Shin Yun.

This was the action thriller that I was hoping The Gangster, The Cop, and The Devil was going to be. I’m not sure if it’s because of my personal bias because the main character in this movie is my #2 boo thang, Gong Yoo, or what but I was heavily invested in this movie from beginning to end.

I won’t get into a rundown of the movie since the summary provided above does the job for me. So Ji Dong Chul is searching for the people that killed his wife and daughter and he’s doing all of that while based in South Korea. He defected from North Korea after he was abandoned by his government while on an active military mission. He lives a solitary life in South Korea, keeping his head down because he’s a wanted man. Not that he cares. All he cares about is avenging his family so when his boss is attacked and he’s given a mission to recover some top secret materials, he’s got no choice but to accept the mission because now he’s running from every damn body and my guy is just trying to stay alive because he’s still got his family to avenge.

This movie was the kind of thriller that had me at the edge of my seat, trying to figure out what Dong Chul was going to do next. The fighting scenes were fantastic and the action was pretty dope too. I really enjoyed the adventure that Gong Yoo took us on during this movie and I’m super glad that I watched it. Gong Yoo is a fantastic actor and he is sooo easy on the eyes that it’s really not hard to watch the stuff that he’s in. Luckily for us, this was a great action story, filled with lots of thrills, some heartwarming moments and a really satisfying ending. So all in all, you can’t go wrong with this movie. The romantic in me wanted Gong Yoo to have a love interest in this movie so while I was watching it, I was trying to pair him up with every damn body but in the end, I was like duh….my guy was hella in love with his wife that he dedicated his life to avenging her…a love interest wouldn’t have made sense for this movie. So yeah, while that was a bummer for my romance-loving heart, I still definitely recommend it.

Final Rating

4.5 out of 5

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