Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 220

Hecate’s Will #4 – Comic Book Review

Going by the cover art, a reader might expect some stage action in Hecate’s Will, but while that is not exactly the case with issue #4 of the comic series by Iolanda Zanfardino, there’s enough drama to keep it entertaining.

The issue begins with protagonist Hecate at Naomi’s door, requesting to be heard out before having the door slammed on her face. Those who’d been rooting for a romance to brew between the two are going to be thrilled, because Hecate ends up spending the night at Naomi’s. But does this mean the two could be more or are things going to get more complicated? Straight or LGBTQIA, relationships are never easy.

Art continues to be a dominant theme in the series, it’s music that brings Hecate and Naomi closer; then there’s the play they are all working together on, where each participant is grappling with their own personal struggles. And while Hecate’s primary goal remains wanting to quit street art after she finishes a graffiti series, best-friend Mateo convinces her to go paint a mural with him. Their friendship is sweet and I love how they look out for each other all the time.

Iolanda Zanfardino strikes an interesting balance between Hecate’s romantic life and the other issues she’s dealing with. The artwork perfectly blends with the mood of the panels. Intimate scenes are drawn in pleasing peachy tones, capturing the playful-excitement of the characters. However, after a few fun pages, things get serious and the climax ends on an unexpected tragic note.

It’s hard to say where the plot is heading from here, but considering there are a bunch of interesting characters and a lot of potential for flashback stories, there’s enough to keep expecting more from the next issue!

It’s a 4/5 from me.

Larva Pendant – Quick Review

The 2022 animated Netflix film “Larva Pendant” is a sequel to another movie called “Larva Island” – a fact I wasn’t aware of. So if you are a fan, then maybe you’d like this too. It follows the tale of two bug-like friends Red and Yellow, who are constantly making gross sounds and doing things that make little sense.

Despite being only 30 minutes long, the film is insufferable and heavily realise on exaggerated slapstick humour. Half the time, Red and Yellow are fighting a giant ugly cat the other half they are getting into trouble and acting like super annoying bugs. Apparently it’s meant for kids, but I cannot imagine recommending it any child.

The animation isn’t engaging, the character designs are on the uglier side. There’s just something so disturbing about the way Yellow flares up his nostrils and breathes heavily, makes you wonder if there’s more to what’s happening on the screen. The climax had a weird little twist that supposed to funny, but was just tiresome.

Honestly, this movie was just not for me… so not going to rate it.

Modern Love Mumbai Review – Mixed Hotpot

The always buzzing streets of Mumbai have been witness to millions of love stories and maybe even more heartbreak. So could there be a better canvass for an Indian take on the famous New York Based anthology ‘Modern Love’? Six different directors bring to us the 2022 Amazon Prime series ‘Modern Love: Mumbai’, starring a lot of familiar faces. However, not very unfamiliar tales.

Raat Raani – Directed by Shonali Bose, ‘Raat Raani’ follows the tale of Laali – a Kashmiri living in Mumbai, who wakes up one day to find her husband Lufti missing, leaving behind only a rusty cycle and a crumbling house. For those expecting a romantic start, ‘Raat Raani’ might come as a disappointment, since it delves into heartbreak and the importance of ‘self love’. Fatima Sana Sheikh is quite endearing as Laali, the lively protagonist who likes to have the same flavor of ice-cream every day, but her husband gets tired of marital monotony.

It’s the landscape of Mumbai that’s been captured with a lot of love, even as Laali often dreams of the home she left behind in Kashmir. Slightly slow in its pace, the film celebrates the spirit of working class women, of those who carry on despite devastating losses in their personal lives, but do stop to celebrate every little victory that comes their way.

Baai – Directed by Hansal Mehta, Baai is a coming-out-story of a young gay man. Pratik Gandhi plays Manzu, who is out to everyone in the family, except to his grandmother (baai). When he falls in love with a chef (Ranvir Brar), he is emotionally torn about whether he should disclose the truth to the ailing matriarch. For some reason, this film felt stuck in some time warp, and while it’s unfair to make comparisons, I couldn’t help recall how great Rajkummar Rao and Gulshan Devaiah were in the film ‘Badhaai Do’ as middle-aged gay men…. because there is zero chemistry between the male leads in this short. The pace is painstakingly slow and there’s an unnecessary flashback/sub-plot about Manzu’s baai dealing with a mob during a riot like situation. Ranvir Brar plays pretty much himself, a chef, who delights in talking and serving food. Overall it’s a mundane tale and the makers could have gone for something either more bold or more fun.

Mumbai Dragon – This was easily the BEST of the lot! Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, the short focuses on familial love. Sui (Yann Yann Yeo) is a Indian-Chinese living in Mumbai, who is fiercely protective about her only son Ming (Meiyang Chan), an aspiring singer who abandoned dental studies to pursue music. Things get chaotic when Sui finds out Ming probably has a Gujarati girlfriend and has no interest in marrying someone within their community. Despite a typical plot, Yann Yann Yeo breathes fire into ‘Mumbai Dragon’ with her performance, holding her own against veteran actor Naseerudin Shah, who plays her friend. And Meiyang Chan is absolutely convincing as a young man caught between his mother’s love and his own aspirations. Food plays a significant role in this story and will make you want to order your own plate of dimsums from Sui’s kitchen. Bhardwaj and team get all the ingredients just right for this flick. Makes you wonder why we don’t see more of the talented Meiyang Chan in Bollywood.

My Beautiful Wrinkles – This one stars veteran actor Sarika as Dilbar Sodhi, a grandmother carrying emotional baggage, who coaches a young man (Danesh Razvi) for interviews in her free-time. Dilbar is left shocked and embarrassed when he expresses a more than platonic interest in her. At that point, it’s hard not to suffer second-hand embarrassment as a viewer too, and wonder with worry where the makers are going to take the plot. However, we get a level-headed climax, even though Dilbar is forced to process too many things in too short a period. This short captures the theme of ‘modern love’ quite well, where the protagonists are honest about their feelings, discomfort, desires and fears. There are no dramatic flourishes or overtly sentimental preaching, just a calm closure to things.

I Love Thane – I’ll make this quicker than the others, because it was super slow, pretentious and felt preachy, even though it doesn’t really lecture viewers on anything. Masaba Gupta plays a landscape designer in her late 30s, who is pretty active on the online-dating scene, but finds it pretty hard to land a decent guy her age. Interestingly, she meets an audit officer while on a project, and even though he isn’t the kind of guy she would’ve swapped right on an app, sparks fly between the two. This would’ve been a lot more entertaining as a 15 minute film than the draggy stuff we get.

Cutting Chai – It’s ironic that this short is both directed by (Nupur Asthana) and written by (Devika Bhagat) women, because it seems to applaud men for just showing up. Chitrangda Singh plays Latika, an aspiring writer in her 40s, who claims to have had no time to finish her first novel, thanks to two kids and a not very supportive husband, or at least that’s her excuse. So she gets upset when her husband Daniel (Arshad Warsi) comments “if you wanted to write a book, you’d have written one by now”. The same evening, as she waits for her husband to go to a movie together, she reviews her life and romantic partners.

“Cutting Chai” is a good example in how women are gaslit into believing that just having a faithful male partner is more than enough. “At least he doesn’t beat you”/”At least he is not cheating”/”At least he comes back at the end of the night”… the bar for men in a relationship is set pretty low. Have a great actor like Arshad Warsi, who perfectly portrays the jovial Daniel, who is never on time for anything, you’d forgive his trespasses too. So “Cutting Chai” feels like a “feel-good” film on the surface, but is too superficial and maybe even problematic in its portrayal of marital life.

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Ep 73 – Cobalt Blue, A Book Vs Film Review

Vampire in the Garden Series Review

Set in a dystopian fictional world, the 2022 animated Japanese series ‘Vampire in the Garden’ is an emotionally charged yet action packed story. It has an ‘Romeo Juliet’ like tragic plot at the heart of it – two girls from warring sides are tired of the violence ravaging their lives and strike an unlikely friendship. The two run away together to find a corner where they can live in harmony, but are constantly chased by those after their heads.

Fine is vampire royalty, expected to take over the throne and lead her kingdom against their war against ‘warms’, the term they use for ordinary humans. Momo on the other hand is the daughter of the woman leading the warms against vampires. Yes, the series has a lot of powerful women characters. So brownie points for that. The show is a interesting blend of dystopian drama and vampire fiction, dark in its themes and completely Gothic in atmosphere. There’s ample blood, violence and deaths.

The animation isn’t great, the character art is on the simpler side. Momo and Fine look like draft sketches out of an amateur artist’s book, the animators do a far better job with the background designs and detailing. Music is an integral theme of the plot, it’s a source of solace and shelter for tired/broken souls, and it’s a song that brings the two protagonists together. There’s a classical old-world charm to the background tunes in the series and helps in keeping the plot engaging.

For a 5-episode series, ‘Vampire in the Garden’ feels more like a film than a show, and the pace is quite fast. There are quick consecutive twists, lots of chasing and killing… Fine and Momo barely get time to catch their breath. Some support characters are intriguing, but they don’t enough screen-space, like the impish but fiercely loyal Allegro, a vampire who vows to protect Fine. We don’t know why Momo’s mom is such a cold woman hellbent on annihilating the blood-suckers either. Some might hope for a back-story that never comes.

The climax brims with angst, despair and sentimental moments. There could’ve been time and space for another episode or two, because things get over before you realize. A clever little mid-credit scene leaves hope for a sequel.

It’s a 7/10 from me. You can stream it on Netflix.

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Ep 52- Book Vs Series – The Haunting of Hill House (20 Differences)

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 – Book Review

New mom Kim Jiyoung begins to behave strangely -she has episodes where she pretends to be different women… but her unnerved husband suspects it’s probably not an act. Is is possessed? Or are those signs of a deeper mental health crisis? ‘Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982’ by Cho Nam-Joo starts off strong, with an intriguing plot that makes one wonder “what the heck is going on with the protagonist?”. The author then begins to explore the root of the problem by going back in time, giving readers glimpses of different ages and phases of Jiyoung’s life.

Too soon, the pace slows down, the book begins to read like the author found a research article with a some statistics related to gender discrimination in Korea and decided to weave a story around it. Not sure if things were lost in translation, but the storytelling is awkward and dry in large parts. For example, let’s say a chapter is about Jiyoung’s work place – “Jiyoung slogged day and night to make her report perfect. She outperformed all the men in her team, but when the time came for promotions, she was denied one, yet again. A study in XYZ year found that women take thrice the time to climb the career ladder in Korea versus the rest of the world”. These are just made up sentences and not actually from the book, but I am just trying to explain how awkward the blending of real life facts felt against the fictional plot.

Everything is seen through Jiyoung’s lens, despite that, it feels like we don’t know enough about the protagonist, except for a string of unfortunate experiences she faces. No other character in the novel is memorable either. Cho Nam-Joo does a laudable job of describing just how crushingly demotivating life can be for women who grow up in a patriarchal society. A lot of women readers will be able to relate to a lot of incidents, and one can only hope it could make the other sex understand what it means to be constantly boxed into limited roles on the basis of gender.

I was expecting a deeper plot and was thrown off by the very random and rushed climax. It’s like you are given a slow build-up to something, but that ‘something’ never shows up. The ending isn’t bad, it’s actually a pretty decent way to wrap up, except it doesn’t fit with the tone of the rest of the novel. Overall, ‘Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 – Book Review’ is an interesting look at how deeply entrenched gender discrimination is in Korea. Although, for many readers (women to be specific), it’s all a part of our daily life anyway, so it can quickly become a mundane read.

It’s a 3/5 for me.

A Perfect Pairing Quick Review – Basic Really

Big city girl who is a successful Wine Executive quits her job and flies off to an Australian farm to win over her first big client. Then in a bizarre plot-wist, she agrees to become a farm-hand instead of chilling in her fancy Airbnb booking, hoping it would help her win the contract. Set mostly outdoors, the 2022 Netflix romance ‘A Perfect Pairing’ does look very dreamy, almost perfect even, but the old romantic plot about ‘big city chick trying to get used to farm life’ is just so predictable, mundane and snooze-y.

Victoria Justice plays Lola, who looks fine for the part, in her high-heeled boots on a sheep farm, a little lost but full of optimism and energy. The rugged handsome Max (Adam Demos) who is the ‘bossman’ at the huge farm shows her the ropes to do some grunt work and be useful to his team. Samantha Cain plays Hazel, the multi-millionaire who runs the wine business Lola wants to win over. Some of the support characters are just stock fillers with no depth. Whoever wrote the dialogues should’ve put in a little more effort and maybe things would’ve been more interesting.

Directed by Stuart McDonald, this film is just your very basic romance, with mediocre writing, close to no jokes (yeah, this is definitely not a romcom, just a rom) and average acting. The twist and the conflict at the end was so shallow, it would’ve worked if this was a teenage love story, but for two grown-ass adults to fight over something petty is just silly. The climax is cliched and the runtime too long. The rural Australian scenery is the nicest thing about ‘Perfect Pairing’.

It’s a 5/10 from me.

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Ep 75 – Girl A by Abigail Dean Explained

Spy X Family Episode 7 Review

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

‘Target: The Second Son’ screams the title of ‘Spy X Family’ Episode 7, where Anya tries to make amends with Desmond’s son Damian on Loid Forger’s order. However, another student who befriends Anya doesn’t think there’s any need to apologize to the rich brat, thus complicating our hero’s mission.

(Read Spy x Family Episode 1 Review if you have no clue what the show is about)

The series has definitely slowed down a little since episode six on but it’s at a casual pace that will continue to be entertaining for fans who’ve grown fond of the characters. The first half unfolds at Anya’s school, where Loid goes undercover, to ensure she apologizes to Damian so the two can become friends. It’s endearing how hard the little girl tries to please her foster-father; Loid on the other-hand is a blend of creepy/funny, as he goes undercover on campus to guide her.

While the episode doesn’t help advance the plot much, the second-half serves an interesting picture of domestic life, where the Forgers try to understand what it means to be a family. Loid realizes he is putting too much pressure on Anya and figures he needs to be a better father-figure to her in order for his mission to succeed. From the ‘spy mission’, the focus shifts to an emotional realm and how these three strangers are invariably becoming a real family of their own. Yor doesn’t get a lot of screen-space, but she is turning out to be a thoughtful balanced young woman, who tries to make Loid see things through Anya’s perspective. The slow but steady relationship development between Loid and Yor is executed smoothly.

Overall, this was a good filler episode which ends with a little twist, setting ground for the introduction of a new character.

Secret Crush On You Quick Review – Campy RomCom

How far would you go to keep memories of your crush fresh in your life? Would you collect the dust they walk on? Or the trash they throw in a bin? Save up a piece of crab-leg just because they served it t you? Or drops of alcohol they mixed for you? If these ideas feel stalker-ish and borderline crazy – welcome to the world of 2022 Thai series ‘Secret Crush On You’. Where the protagonist is so obsessed with a dude, it’s more on the creepy side than comedic. Maybe ‘Cringe-but-entertaining-comedy’ should be a genre, because even though this series has a lot of cringe content, it also serves up some relatable teen romance moments through its main protagonists and well there are enough people with unique obsessions in the world after all.

Seng Wichai Saefant plays protagonist Toh, and needs to be awarded for pulling off the weird teen boy role mooning over a hot senior. The best bit about this series is hilariously cute gang of close friends Toh constantly hangs out with – Khojao (Surprise Pittikorn Siripornsawan), Daisy (Nutt Witsarut Khakham) and Som (Looknam Orntara Poolsak) – who love him despite all his bizarre activities. The four of them do everything together and are some of the most supportive onscreen friends you’ll find. Billy Patchanon Ounsa-ard plays the other protagonist Nuea, who happens to be the object of Toh’s excessive affection. However, Toh does keep his distant and believes Nuea is way out of his league for anything concrete to happen between the two. How these two end up together forms the plot.

There aren’t any villains as such and the plot focuses on the insecurities and emotions of its primary protagonists. Nutt Witsarut’s Daisy was a nice change from the effeminate characters used in other dramas for plain humor. While there are a lot of exaggerations in the show, I liked how Nutt Witsarut’s Daisy is sensitively portrayed as a kind friend, who isn’t just a random side-kick who shows up now and then to serve a quick laugh.

Spread over 14 long episodes, ‘Secret Crush On You’ is a little too long for the cringe-comedy genre, but it’s just the kind of mindless teen romance series that you could watch without investing too much of your mental facilities in it. After a few episodes, I thought I might lose interest in the show, but watched it till the end.

It’s a 6/10 from me.

‘Love, Death + Robots’ Vol 3 Review

The trailer for Netflix’s animated anthology ‘Love, Death + Robots’ volume 3 looked so freaking good, it automatically makes fans hope for an installation that will blow their minds away. First off, they should probably start calling it ‘Sex, Death + Robots’, because there’s no romance at all in any of the stories in this edition, and not like anybody is asking for it, but the sheer scale of depressing dystopian drama served makes one want to have something fluffy as a break.

The first short film titled ‘3 Robots: Exit Strategies’ starring familiar characters from the first two season sets a deceptively fun pace for the series. Directed by Patrick Osborne, the 15-minute short has a trio of droids studying the survival strategies of human beings, before they became extinct. This one was enjoyable, witty, breezy and with an end that will leave you with a smile. It’s a biting satire, a subtle entertaining lesson in ‘things not do if humans don’t want to go extinct’, which touches briefly upon a lot of global issues plaguing the world today.

Next up is ‘Bad Traveling’, where a giant monstrous man-eating crab terrorizes a boat, then strikes a deal with a member of the crew – to take it to an island where it can feast on humans. Dark, terrifying, with a ‘holier than thou’ protagonist, this short makes for an interesting watch and is reminiscent of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ due to its setting.

Episode/Short-film 3 ‘The Very Pulse of the Machine’ has some great animated artwork. Directed by Emily Dean and based on a story by Michael Swanwick, the story follows an astronaut’s battle for survival during an expedition gone fatally wrong. She is on the surface of an unexplored moon, running out of oxygen and has to get back to her rover. It’s hard to understand why she insists on dragging the body of her dead co-pilot, but well, that little oversight helps in pushing the plot forward. If not for the gorgeous animation, this short felt a little pointless.

As a horror fan, I was super hyped to watch short-film number 4 titled ‘Night of the Mini Dead’, which turned out to be a mildly hilarious parody of the Zombie genre. It all starts with some wild sex at a cemetery, in a strange turn of events, the pointless copulation leads to the planet’s destruction. Less than seven minutes short, this stop-motion-work captures the madness and mayhem of a zombie apocalypse and the makers of ‘The Walking Dead’ series should take notes on how to make their episodes shorter from this one.

Episode 5 ‘Kill Team Kill’ turned out to be my favorite short in volume three, like the title suggests, the story is packed with action, blood, gore and deaths. What kind of animation fan doesn’t dig that? Okay, fine, no generalizations. Anyway… a group of U.S soldiers are faced with a killing-bear gone rogue, made by the CIA to be practically unbeatable, it’s a gory clash of man vs man-made bear. The animation has a very American comic-book vibe to it, and the story-telling is crisp.

In a completely change of pace and mood, the next short titled ‘Swarm’ is a bit of a mind-bending space-dystopian-fantasy which is just gloomy as hell. “Human beings are assholes” is the overarching theme of the series, and in ‘Swarm’ too – a certain doctor is studying an alien species which has achieved perfect synchronization in their functioning and he hopes to use them to benefit his own species. Will he be successful forms the rest of the plot? It feels like ‘Avatar’ meets ‘Star Wars’, but the end result is a quick mundane chapter of human betrayal.

Episode 7 focuses on a ‘Ratpocalypse!’, titled ‘Mason’s Rats’ it tells the bizarre tale of Mason who owns a giant farm that’s infested with armed rats who are trying to take over his land. The artwork on this one is distinctly different from the others, it has a more Disney/Pixar style, with old man Mason weirdly reminding me of the grandfather from ‘Up’, even though they look nothing alike. This one too had a surprising amount of gore and a generous dose of dark humor. It’s probably the only short that doesn’t end with a tragic overtone, although the climax isn’t a typical happy ending either, but at least it’s fun.

‘In Vaulted Halls Entombed’ was a mixed bag, it starts off on an intriguing note, then comes the familiar twist of alien creatures and you are just not surprised anymore. An armed squad is on a hostage rescue mission that requires them to enter a cave, which is filled with flesh-eating creatures that are guarding a bigger threat. The action in this one wasn’t engaging, nor were the characters and an abrupt climax meant to maybe shock the viewers will only elicit an ‘eh’ from seasoned action/animation enthusiasts.

The last short called ‘Jibaro’ was extremely disappointing, despite some fantastic visual elements. From the trailer, it promised to be a story that would combine history, folklore and mystical ingredients, instead we get a fleeting meaningless dance face-off, where the steps might give you a headache. The camera movements were jarring, making the viewing experience annoying. By this short, the ‘nature versus mankind/greed’ gets too repetitive and mind-numbingly boring. A slight diversion into other themes or at least a little more storytelling than just a massive abstract art overdose would’ve been nice.

Overall, volume three of ‘Love, Death + Robots’ felt like a rehash of second season in parts. It’s a 6.5/10 from me. It would probably be best not to binge-watch all the short films, due to the dark themes, so it will feel like an overkill if you stream all nine of them together.

Love Class Review – Packs Too Many Subjects

The teaser for 2022 Korean mini-series ‘Love Class’ leads you into believing it’s going to be a fluffy college romance, and then comes drama, because damn, the lead hero is a little too intense.

There isn’t a lot of story going on in the series – cute but shy communications student Han Hyun Jun (Cha Ji Woo) signs up for a popular subject dubbed as ‘Love Class’ on campus, because the pretty Yu Na (Ryu In Ah), a girl he is crushing on is also taking it. His hopes of bonding with Yu Na are dashed, when he is paired up with senior Lee Ro-A (Kim Tae Hwan) for doing assignments that involve going on dates and spending a lot of time together. While Hyun Jun continues his attempts to get close to Yu Na, Ro-A seems to have a more than platonic interest in Hyun Jun. Who’s going to end up with who?

‘Love Class’ obviously has romance as its main theme, but with just 6 episodes each, the makers pack in more subjects than they can handle, so we get very superficial glimpses of each theme. For example, Yu Na has a creepy stalker, who seems to be aware of her every move and has enough information to cause her some serious harm, but the kids don’t report it to the police, not until things get out of hand. There’s also a completely unnecessary sub-plot about a secondary character who has the hots for her professor. And it felt like her story was used more for comic relief than to explore the slippery subject of student-teacher relationship.

Cha Ji Woo as lead Han Hyun Jun is adorable, but the character doesn’t get any space for growth, it’s a flat ‘cute puppy’ kind of role. Kim Tae Hwan on the other hand channels classic smouldering hero energy as Ro-A, as if he is in a some romantic-tragedy instead of the light campus romance. Doesn’t help that his character isn’t written consistently, while for most of the series Ro-A is a straightforward serious guy who doesn’t mask his feelings, but in the end he does a complete dramatic out-of-character U-turn for a forced climactic plot twist. We get a brief dive into the struggles of being gay in the conservative Koren, but with so much going on, everything is hastily wrapped in a rushed ‘feel good’ ending. On the bright side, since the scripting is mediocre, the almost movie-sized (about 120 minutes in total) series doesn’t make you feel like you’ve invested too much time and makes a decent watch for the weekend.

Kim Tae Hwan and Cha Ji Woo do have some chemistry, perhaps a stronger script/direction would’ve pushed them to do better. They do make a great looking pair and most viewers would perhaps like to see them paired again in a series with more concrete story.

It’s a 6/10 from me.

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Listen to – Heartstopper The Netflix Series Is As Adorable As The Comics