消失的她 Lost in the Stars (2022)

Starring: Janice Man, Ni Ni, and Zhu Yilong.

Psychological thriller/action movie set in, uh, "Barlandia", a fictional and vaguely Southeast Asian country. The other SEA countries are simply "a Southeast Asian country" and "another Southeast Asian country", which I guess was somewhat prudent...? It's partially based on the film/play Trap for a Lonely Man (which I haven't seen/read), and partially based on a real case involving a Chinese couple in Thailand.

General thoughts:
The best part (and the part I would recommend, even though they are, in the grand scheme of things, just crumbs) is in the last twenty minutes, but it takes way too long to get there because it's framed in the least enjoyable POV for me. I was NOT interested in the mystery, or the mental/emotional state of Zhu Yilong's character, or the conspiracy. The longer they prolonged the reveal, the less satisfying it became because the tension felt too forced and the "twists" weren't even particularly creative or surprising ones. The experience was, to me, a lot of fake suspense and too much suspension of disbelief. And it was generally just very extra about everything–—I personally loved the insert songs/mini-music videos and the ending theme, but some of the musical and cinematic choices tried too hard without really putting together a cohesive experience. The rest of it is pretty, though.

( more personal thoughts )

That said, I really like the English title of this movie!


tl;dr
This movie would have been 100x better if it was in the point-of-view of Ni Ni's character (or in fact, just any other character) and if they’d shaved off around 15 minutes from it.

September media log

I thiiiink I spent more time subbing things + editing videos than watching things this month, and then got burned out of wanting to do/watch anything... I was probably also frustrated with my media rotation haha.

Finished

Keigo Higashino, "Salvation of a Saint" (English translation by Alexander O. Smith)
A really good murder mystery with satisfying answers, no notes.

Lost in the Stars (movie)
Dreamwidth entry.

DNF

I Am Nobody (cdrama)
Cdrama adaptation of a donghua? manhua? novel? starring Echizen from the Tenipuri cdrama, young Shen Siyi from Dear Missy, and uh... a couple of pretty boys. Directed by the director of Crossfire too. It's basically either a long martial arts movie or a shounen anime in live action form. If you like that kind of thing, this is very good at that! However, the main character is insufferable and the live action format magnifies everything I hate about anime and webnovels aimed at boys. Even when it "subverts" expectations, the humor is still really annoying, and has that harem anime/novel vibe? Also the scene where they give Baobao a makeover was too much of character disservice and skeeviness for me in spite of its fight scene payoffs. (I might come back for Baobao's fight scenes haha)

Horimiya (anime)
A very wholesome friends-to-lovers high school anime about a popular girl who's secretly a homebody, and a quiet and unpopular boy who secretly rocks piercings and tattoos + their friends. Somehow this was too wholesome and vanilla for even me...? In any case, I got bored and wasn't into the romance or the ~domesticity~. XD I do like how the FL is the popular and confident character for a change.

Parallel World (cdrama)
Adventure-romance with Bai Yu and Ni Ni. I might still continue this because I enjoyed Ni Ni's character + performance, and I heard that there might be more ensemble/group dynamics and a chicken later on... But my track record for finishing shows is... abysmal.

I Ship My Rival X Me manhua vol8
Vol8 ended last week, and I think vol9 is the last one! The recent chapters haven't been very interesting, but I'm going to miss my boys and Yanyan's colorful reactions.

Misc

I JUST found out that Yoruneko anime is now accessible outside of Japan, AND has English subs!!! It's a very cute and funny slice-of-life anime about living with a cat. :') Eps are just a minute each, perfect for when your soul needs a little bit of healing.

Here's a compilation of eps 1-40 (no English subs):

Watch on YouTube

And their episode playlist with English subs (though not all eps are accessible):

Watch on YouTube

Playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL21PGVTtHmxgpTZwSrn-1QMUcbaJdnxZM

Twitter finds

MorgansGoodTime: "Oh to be a rat enjoying some soft rain" (a very lovely and soothing 20-second animation)

caldatelier: Fingerseek pages (like crossword puzzles, but with fingerspellings)

caldatelier: A comic about Filipino Sign Language and regional/personal variations (Comic is in English. A short and interesting read with useful visuals!)

cioccolato_kun: What if there's a shounen anime for Laundry Washing?

Cat Cafe: c/o superborb; mostly including so I remember what it's called haha. I'm not a boardgame person and I don't really understand what anything is for and likely never will, but it's very chill and cute. I like that boardgamearena automatically tells me my options and allows me to easily scan the other players' boards, but in retrospect, I think it would be pretty cute to draw(??) your own cats for the pen-and-paper version. (The toys might not be as fun to draw.)

I'm also trying to reread and then continue Dungeon Meshi because I forgot where I left off years ago (not very far) and it's still as fun as the first time. I love how the licensed English translation has translation notes at the end. And,,, I love,,, Marcille,,,,


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