Korean Movie Night: Socialphobia 소셜포비아 (2015) Korean

Byun Yo Han, Lee Joo Seung, Ha Yoon Kyung, Ryu Jun Yeol

Movie Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

We finally had another Korean Movie Night, and we were trying to decide what to watch.  We were thinking of watching Chingu, but weren't in the mood for sad, but somehow that message didn't get all the way through to Lizabreff who suggested Socialphobia.  I was thinking more on the lines of thriller so we all agreed, and then didn't consider that this was still going to mess with our heads.  It was a thriller, but more of a psychological one.  It was freaking messed up, and left us feeling weird.  That's not to say it wasn't good.  It was amazing, but that was because it was so real.  This is the world we live in.  A world where people troll people on the internet because it doesn't seem real, and they don't realize the consequences of what will happen.  People's lives are ruined.  People die.  It was an amazing show of the consequences of social media and cyber bullying.  It was sick.  It was also an interesting paced movie.  Since all the action was literally online, it had the effect of being both boring and stressful.  Curdy couldn't handle the stress part, but I was also having problems staying away.  It was a lot of reading, a lot of silence, and very tense all at once.  A very interesting movie, but not for the faint at heart, or the short attention span.  It probably messed me up more than Chingu would have, but I still loved it.  It's gritty and real, from the fact that no one is a good person, but no one is a bad person.  From the fact that this is how messy life is, and how all our actions have consequences.  It was brilliant and not a fun watch, but a good watch.

183. Nine Seconds - Eternal Time 9초-영원의 시간 (2015) Korean

Lee Joo Seung, Na Hae Ryeong, Lee Jae Hyeong, Mina Fujii, Park Lydia

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: A

I wanted this to be special, because I love Lee Joo Seung.  I literally only watched it to see what he would do with a lead role.  But this drama was blase at best.  So we've got a angry transplanted girl from Seoul who is now in the country, where her mom ignores her because of her new job.  Then you have a quirky boy next door photographer.  All good until you make that quirky photographer boy have an eye disease that is slowly making him go blind.  Boo.  Then you throw in every other trope, like the evil mom who is ignoring her one minute, and then telling her to never see that boy again, because you know, blind boys are bad boys.  Then you have car accidents, comas, and dreams.  And a magic camera which makes everything better... maybe?  All this in seven 15 minute episodes.  You can see why I'm not impressed.  I think I was playing games on my phone the whole time I watched it.  Things I actually liked: Lee Joo Seung's acting.  His easy-going, matter-of-fact, quirky character was likable.  I liked Na Hae Ryeong's character too.  She wasn't the typical Seoul brat.  She just had typical change issues.  I liked how their friendship and romance blossomed, even though it was pretty typical too, it was still nice and less forced.  It had it's cute moments.  The ending was weird though.  A little too opened ended, especially for a seven episoder.  Did they even try?  Did they try too hard?  Shrug.