After a fight, a husband and wife decide to take a break from their relationship and try to find out if this is the end.

Elskling, aka Loveable, is an interesting movie in which we follow a woman who falls in love with a man. They get married, have some kids, and are happy for around seven years. But the husband works a lot, so he’s not spending much time at home. The wife gets frustrated, and after a big fight, she moves out. They seek counseling, but it doesn’t look good because it turns out the wife has a lot of issues that need to be resolved, and that will take some time because she doesn’t understand it at first.

I enjoyed this movie and found it especially interesting to follow the wife, who is pretty messed up. She pushes people away because she’s afraid of love and being abandoned. She needs to have control over everything, and that’s something she doesn’t see herself. She doesn’t question why so many people don’t like her—especially her daughter, who hates her. She’s a messed-up character, and the person who really loves her is her husband, but he’s had enough of her behavior and dominance.

This is a well-acted movie, especially by the actress who plays the protagonist—she’s really good. For the most part, it’s she who must carry the movie on her shoulders, but she has great chemistry with the actor who plays her husband. I also liked the scenes with the wife and the counselor—especially their last scene, which is pretty emotional.

If you like relationship dramas, then Elskling, aka Loveable, is a movie you should watch. It never gets boring, and the protagonist will frustrate you because of her behavior, but in the end, I felt sorry for her. If she wakes up, it’s not too late for her—before she’s all alone in the world. But she needs to woman up and become a more confident person who finds her place in the world.

Rating: 8/10

Innlegget Elskling aka Loveable (2024) – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

A creepy man who teaches cooking starts losing it after he witnesses one of the students kill himself in front of him. Is his cooking that bad?

Chime is a short movie directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It’s a movie with a lot of atmosphere, and it’s short, you know, with a runtime of around 45 minutes. When I was watching it, I think I dug too deep into the story and the points the director was trying to make, because, in the end, I didn’t understand everything. But then I thought more about it, and I think I got it. It’s about the protagonist starting to lose control over himself, and he’s one creepy man, I think because he walks like a woman and dresses like a woman.

So the guy is disturbing and disgusting—I hated this character. But the point is that his life sucks, he’s mentally ill, and there are quite a few mentally ill characters in this short movie.
He lives with his wife and son, and they don’t seem to have much contact. The wife must have some OCD, while the son is just your average loser who’s also crazy, with his maniacal laugh from hell.

The protagonist is also trying to get a job as a chef at a restaurant, but because of his illness, he ruins his job interview in a funny scene that confirms how hateable his character is. What a stupid loser! It’s all about him the whole time. It’s such a funny and disgusting scene. God, I hated the protagonist!

My favorite scene is the one with the poor, whining woman who feels the pain in an uncomfortable moment that really left an impression. It’s so cold and harsh, and it completely changes the movie—both positively and negatively—since that’s where the plot takes a U-turn and turns into your generic “going crazy” story.

If you enjoy the director’s movies, then Chime is worth watching for the atmosphere and if you like trying to piece together the puzzle. My problem with the movie was that I was thinking too deeply instead of seeing what was right in front of me. The movie is actually pretty simple. But, you know, this director can sometimes make you overthink, so I guess I was trying to get a few steps ahead, and then it turned out the plot is pretty straightforward. So I understood what was going on with the protagonist and the people around him, but of course, some social commentary and stuff you usually find in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s movies drifted past me.

Rating: 6/10

Innlegget Chime (2024) – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

A young girl kills a classmate at school. She is the daughter of a politician, and the deceased boy is the son of another rival politician. What happened that day, and could someone have prevented the death of the young boy?

For the most part, this is an interesting movie with a lot of different themes. When a young boy dies at school after a girl hits him, you feel sorry for the father and especially the girl since I got the impression that this was an accident. This could have happened to anybody, and it’s sad that she has to live with it for the rest of her life. You also feel sorry for the father of the deceased boy.

What I didn’t like about the movie was the political aspect. The father of the girl is a member of a political party that is a sort of nemesis to the father of the deceased boy’s political party. If you know something about Norwegian politics, the way the movie portrays people who vote for the deceased boy’s father’s political party is too simplistic. I don’t know if the movie is trying to be satirical, but there’s not much humor here.

This is a serious movie, and the characters talk about different topics that are quite interesting, such as school dynamics. And who you can and can’t associate with if you don’t agree with their politics, and so on. But when the characters discuss politics, it feels simple-minded and stupid. In fact, it was disgusting, and I feel ashamed of being Norwegian. I can’t stand politicians in real life. I rank them lower than sick rats.

But if we set aside the stupid politics, this is a solid movie with solid actors, and I really loved the scenes with the teacher and the young girl who killed her classmate. The young girl doesn’t say much, but you feel that something has died inside of her. There’s a scene towards the end of the movie that is brutal and intense when she is sitting in the car, and a man walks up to the car. I’m not saying anything more.

If you like heavy drama movies and don’t mind reading subtitles, this is an interesting movie with a lot of interesting dialogue, except for the political discussions.

Rating: 8/10

Innlegget Barn aka Beware of Children (2019) – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

A couple are about to get married, but then one day the woman just disappears, and the man doesn’t know what’s going on. Will he find her, or is she dead?

April, Come She Will is a moving drama that feels like a generic Japanese movie about first love, remembering the past, and three confused characters trying to find themselves. The protagonist, who is a psychiatrist, meets a woman who is a veterinarian, and they fall in love. But is it true love, or do they just need someone to talk to and listen to them?

Then one day, the psychiatrist’s first love starts writing to him, and we visit his past and see what happened to the psychiatrist’s first love and what broke them apart. After that, right before he’s going to get married, the woman disappears without leaving a trace, and he walks around like a zombie, thinking about the past and what he may have done wrong to the woman he was supposed to marry.

The psychiatrist is a pretty boring character who walks around like a zombie, and he’s not a likable character. He’s an enclosed character who doesn’t say much. He’s played by Takeru Satoh, the actor who played the protagonist in the live-action movies of Rurouni Kenshin. The most interesting character is the veterinarian, played by the excellent Masami Nagasawa. Luckily for us, she takes over in the last half hour of the movie, where we see what her story is.

There is a lot of dialogue between the characters as they try to tell us what their problems are, what they are afraid of, and the connection they are looking for in their partner. They are looking for their soulmates, but the psychiatrist is so broken after he broke up with his first love, who he believed was the woman in his life. And he hasn’t forgotten her, and that doesn’t help when the woman he is supposed to marry finds out. So she just disappears, and the psychiatrist must find people to talk to and try to figure out what he’s going to do since he must be the worst psychiatrist in the world, who is a selfish fool.

The problem with Japanese romantic drama movies is that most of them feel the same. The quality is decent, but if you have watched a lot of these movies, there’s nothing that sticks out to make you need to watch April, Come She Will. I watched the movie because I’m a big fan of Masami Nagasawa, and she is always good. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get much help from Takeru Satoh, who creates no believable chemistry to make you believe they really care about each other. It’s Masami Nagasawa and Nana Mori, who play the psychiatrist’s first love, that carry this movie on their womanly shoulders. They show us what emotions truly are, and Nana Mori exudes a special aura when she smiles and laughs. Shame on you, Takeru Satoh, for sleepwalking through the role of the world’s worst and most boring psychiatrist!

Rating: 6/10

Innlegget April, Come She Will (2024) – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

After serving a 15-year prison sentence, a serial killer is set free, and a young woman is waiting for him—she wants revenge after he killed her father, who was a cop.

Missing You is directed by the director who made Our Town, a decent serial killer movie from 2007. He has only directed three movies; his first two are about serial killers. I like Missing You more than Our Town.

This is a really entertaining thriller where the young woman is mentally destroyed after losing her father at a young age because of the serial killer. But the serial killer denies that he has killed a lot of people, so since the evidence is weak against him, he is released after spending 15 years in prison. That makes it interesting, because you know there’s something wrong with him after he killed his girlfriend, but is he really a serial killer, and did he kill the girl’s father or not? Because in the dark, another person is lurking, and this person isn’t an angel. That grabs your attention, and it’s also interesting to follow the girl, who is messed up and seems like she could also become a serial killer.

This isn’t a movie for people who need logic when they watch movies like Missing You. This is an entertaining, stupid, and pretty well-acted movie where Kim Sung-oh steals the show. He is so good in this movie. He looks unhealthy, and the way he killed his girlfriend and his perverted side was pretty funny. He is so crazy good in Missing You, and this man is born to play serial killers. He is absolutely one of the best actors I have ever seen as a serial killer because of his looks and intensity.

Shim Eun-kyung is also excellent as the mentally broken girl. She is a strange character, and at the start, I was a little unsure if she was slow or just mentally broken. She and Kim Sung-oh have excellent chemistry when they first stand face to face.

The only thing I didn’t quite like was the last scene that took place in court, which was pretty cheesy. The ending, which I guess is supposed to be shocking, was the right choice because of how the character was written. It couldn’t have ended any other way.

If you like dark but entertaining South Korean serial killer movies, then you should watch Missing You. There’s not much hope in Missing You, and this feels like one of the last real South Korean serial killer movies they made before they sold their soul to the West and lost their identity again.

Innlegget Missing You (2016) – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

A strange-looking woman meets a strange-looking man, and they feel they have something in common. Feel is the wrong word because they are two ugly so-called humans.

Border is directed by Ali Abbasi, the director behind movies such as Holy Spider (2022) and The Apprentice (2024). He is an interesting director, and I did not expect him to create such a Scandinavian movie, considering he comes from Iran. And yes, I know his backstory, so shut the fish up!

When I sat down to watch Border, I knew nothing about it, and I recommend that you do the same. If you watch it without knowing anything, the movie will take you to unexpected places. It’s really challenging not to spoil anything while reviewing this movie, but I will do my best.

The protagonist works as a customs officer, and one day, a man who resembles her shows up, sparking their interest in each other. They are two ugly bastards! The protagonist inhabits a sort of superpower with her strong sense of smell, allowing her to feel people’s emotions simply by inhaling and taking a good sniff. She is the country’s best sniffer, but she’s not my cup of tea. I prefer hotties from South Korea and cuties from Japan.

She lives with a man who cares more about his dogs than her, which makes her feel lonely and sad. I don’t blame him though—she’s not exactly a pinup model, and you have to be pretty kinky to get turned on while looking at her. She should move to Japan!

Her father is sick, and it becomes evident that she is happier when she meets the man who resembles her, believing they share a genetic disorder.

The acting in the movie is excellent, and it features a mind-bending sex scene that will stay with me forever. It’s not every day that we witness a sex scene like the one in Border. It is disgusting! I loved it! Or maybe not. I need to puke. But Japanese men will love it!

This is a dark movie with a somber atmosphere and a dose of mystery surrounding the man the protagonist meets. It explores the themes of being an outcast. However, trust me when I say that the movie undergoes a complete transformation, and it’s pretty bizarre watching a Scandinavian production directed by an Iranian since it feels so Scandinavian at heart. It’s an unusual combination, but he has also created perhaps the best and most intriguing movie in this genre. I won’t say anything more about the movie, as I am satisfied that I haven’t spoiled anything in this review. Good job, man! I am giving myself a high five!

Rating: 8/10

Innlegget Grensen (2018) aka Border – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

The Shu Qi movie we all needed.

A father who has a stupid son and a daughter who wants to get smarter finds a beautiful woman for his son, and they get married. But shortly after, the father’s concubines die one after the other, and he falls in love with his son’s beautiful wife. Oh Shu Qi, you are a dangerous woman! The daughter in the family tries to find out what’s going on with the help of Officer Iron Man. Yes, he’s the original Iron Man! The Chinese didn’t steal him. They are not thieves! Are you a racist or what?

This is another rewatch, and I didn’t like the movie the first time I watched it. So did a rewatch make this movie better? I gave it a 1 out of 10 in my first review, so the chance of giving it a higher score is much greater than it is going lower. I’m feeling clever today!

But again, I was disappointed with this movie. The problem is that the movie is too dark, with a demon who kills hot women, and the characters are boring and irritating. The freshness and sort of joy we found in the first movie aren’t here. Don’t kill hotties; that’s way too dark! Just let them do their stuff without wearing any clothes, and we, the real men, are satisfied. We’re simple that way.

Shu Qi is beautiful and the highlight of the movie. She says some crazy things, according to the subtitles. And even if I’m not a fan of her being a demon, the scenes where she transforms into a man are funny. Especially the scene with the stupid scholar man, who I hope felt some pain in his dark tunnel.

I also love the long scene towards the end. It’s a boring scene, but it’s not boring when Shu Qi speaks. What comes out of her mouth are some crazy lines! That makes it entertaining! Oh, Shu Qi, you have such a dirty mouth and beautiful lips. How can such dirty words come out of your beautiful mouth? Oh, Shu Qi!

There’s also a half-funny scene when the students are having a sort of manly spitting contest. But they don’t spit if you catch my drift! Well, that scene is pretty funny because the protagonist’s friend isn’t much of a man. He needs to fill up his juice cup and use a compressor to pump that shit out!

The sex scenes are boring as hell. There’s nothing exciting to see here, except for the stupid and long scene towards the end with a talkative Shu Qi. She also dominates the bad man himself, Elvis Tsui, in a brief scene where Shu Qi shows us that she’s the boss—and what a nice boss she is! And we all love that, don’t we? Oh, Elvis Tsui, you’re a lucky man! Oh, Shu Qi! He is indeed a lucky man!

But the protagonist, the woman who wants to become a scholar, is boring. The actress is boring, and I can say the same thing about her love interest. He turns into Inspector Gadget after a horrible accident—slipping on a carrot and losing the manly part that makes him a real man! Poor, boring man! He isn’t a real man anymore! Bugs Bunny ate his carrot, you know.

The movie is also ugly to look at compared to the first movie. The camera angles are so strange in several scenes. It’s not a beautiful movie to watch, but we’ve got a young Shu Qi to watch. Oh, Shu Qi, you and your beautiful eyes and lips. Oh, Shu Qi!

Except for the beautiful Shu Qi—oh Shu Qi—I can’t find a reason for you to watch this boring movie. Watch the first movie instead, even though it has Amy Yip in it. She’s no, oh, Shu Qi!

Rating: 1/10

Innlegget Rewatch: Sex and Zen II (1996) – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

Innlegget Movie Highlight Reel: Daughter of Darkness 2 (1994) dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

Tom Hardy, a REAL MAN!

A corrupt cop must try to survive because the whole world is after him. Danger lurks everywhere, and his only way out is to find the mayor’s son, but he’s not the only one searching for him.

So while I was watching Havoc, I thought to myself that it reminded me of a classic Hong Kong action movie and some of the classic Indonesian action movies, especially the energy from The Raid movies and The Night Comes for Us. I watched the movie because Tom Hardy is one of my favorite actors.

I should have known, but I’m pretty lazy when it comes to checking out names before I watch a movie. When the movie was finished, I discovered that it was Gareth Evans who had directed it. So shame on me.

When you know Gareth Evans directed the movie, you already know it’s going to be hard-hitting and packed with crazy action scenes that will put a smile on your sad face. And two long action sequences did exactly that: the nightclub fight and the showdown at the cabin. My favorite of the two was the nightclub sequence — it felt like a crazy cartoon. The energy is insane, the pacing is fast, and you get pumped up while watching it. It’s rare to experience action scenes like the ones in Havoc, so appreciate them.

The story, of course, is something you won’t care about. The characters are just there to kill people, and they don’t give you a chance to like them. They’re selfish, cold, and a bunch of assholes. And speaking of assholes — when you see Timothy Olyphant in one of the roles, you know he’s going to be a villain. That man was born to play a sleazy snake of an asshole.

It was fun to see one of my favorite actors finally kicking ass again. Tom Hardy needs to do more of these crazy, hard-hitting action movies because he’s born for them — his charisma and aura are unmatched. He’s the alpha, and that will never change. He tells you without saying a word that you should leave him and his dog alone! It also helps that he’s the last real man in Hollywood. He fits this role perfectly because he’s so believable — all thanks to his manliness. And no, I’m not gay. I just like real men like Tom Hardy.

If you like hard-hitting action movies that stand out despite having an awful story, then you’ll be in heaven watching this stupid and dumb action movie. I’m not going to waste time telling you much about the story because no one cares about the plot in movies like Havoc. Just watch it if you like Gareth Evans and his crazy style. But he really should’ve ditched that stupid CGI blood and some of the CGI effects — some of the car chase scenes look awful. Still, the crazy energy saves the insane action scenes, so I’ll excuse him.

Rating: 7/10

Innlegget Havoc (2025) – English Review dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.

Red skin.

Innlegget Sweet Whip (2013) – Full-length movie commentary and movie review in English dukket først opp på Not Only Hollywood.