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Rachel Rising Volume 2 Review: Dead Girls, Demons & Dark Humor

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Listen, I wasn’t very prepared for things to get biblically weird in Terry Moore’s ‘Rachel Rising‘, with fallen angels, witches, and centuries’ worth of trauma. The story started off with a young, beautiful woman called Rachel rising from her grave, and now a few more women who should’ve been dead are walking around town like nothing happened.

Titled ‘Fear No Malus‘, volume two of ‘Rachel Rising‘ packs issues #7 to #12 of the horror comic-book series and gives readers some concrete answers about what really is happening with Rachel and the other walking-dead women. Volume one had ended with Rachel, her aunt Johnny, and best friend Jet getting into a car with a lost little girl called Zoey and meeting with a terrible accident.

Also Read: Rachel Rising Volume 1 Review: Black, White, and Weird All Over

Volume 2 thus kicks off ‘Rachel Rising‘ by quickly showing what is going on with some of the primary characters: Rachel once again survives the accident unscathed, Aunt Johnny is hospitalized with severe injuries, and Jet is pronounced dead on the spot. However, in a twist, Jet wakes up at the morgue; meanwhile, Rachel starts to look for the little girl, hoping she knows something about the mysterious blonde woman who has been popping up everywhere tragedy strikes. And if you remember, the little girl is a violent serial killer, under the influence of the sinister blonde.

The artwork by Terry Moore in ‘Rachel Rising‘ is the best part of this horror comic-book series. I absolutely love the black-and-white illustrations that eerily carry this supernatural story forward. Several pages have no dialogues at all, needing none, letting the pictures speak for themselves, establishing the landscape and settings of the story. With Jet dead too, and then alive, her character is given the same bloodshot eyes as Rachel, and the best friends almost look like identical twins in this volume. Thankfully, Moore makes it easy to distinguish between them. Rachel has light hair, while Jet is a brunette with freckles.

Issue #8 of ‘Rachel Rising‘ reveals the mysterious blonde woman to be Lilith, an ancient witch, who has been stalking Zoey because a demonic entity resides within the girl. Now, I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say the story gets a lot more ambitious and crazy in scale when Lilith’s true intentions are unmasked. But well, this is a horror tale, so crazy exaggerations are always welcome, especially when they combine ancient feuds, vengeance, angels, demons, witches, and mass graves.

These issues feature a few more gruesome deaths, violence, and an investigator trying to piece together all the strange accidents happening in the small town. Readers are explicitly told why Rachel, Jet, and the other woman who dies in volume one do not simply become decaying bodies like the natural order of the world dictates, but continue walking like animated anomalies.

At this point, I don’t think this is a spoiler, but Rachel dies again towards the end of volume 2. I mean, she already dies thrice in volume one, so it’s become like a morbid comedic gag in ‘Rachel Rising‘, because of course, she rises from her death for the fourth time, but with a clearer idea of what she wants. Vengeance. Sort of. Even though I feel like the creator is muddling the story with too many characters, it’s going to be interesting how all the oddball supporting characters fall into place in the next few volumes of this series.

If you’re a fan of supernatural horror comic-book fan and love good old black-and-white artwork, give this a shot.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Rachel Rising is also on Kindle Unlimited.

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Also Read: KPop Demon Hunters Review: Light Sticks Meet Dark Arts (Audio Version Below)

Revenged Love Episodes 5-6 Review: Chi Cheng Visits, Suo Wei Panics

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Episodes 5 & 6 of the Chinese series “Revenged Love” (逆爱) are already making fans glad the show is 24 episodes long. That’s a length that usually scares me in any genre, even horror (my favorite), although I’ve never seen a horror series that long. Wait, does The Untamed count? Anyway… back to “Revenged Love”. So far, the show is proving to be a total ‘guilty pleasure’ for BL fans. It’s hilariously wacky, following protagonist Wu Suo Wei (Zi Yu) attempts to make hot playboy Chi Cheng (Tian Xu Ning) fall for him. While another sub-plot follows potential romance between Chi Cheng’s friend Guo Cheng Yu (Zhan Xuan) and Suo Wei’s agony-aunt Jiang Xiao Shuai (Liu Xuan Cheng).

Quick Recap of Revenged Love Episodes 1–4: Suo Wei decides to get back at his selfish, greedy ex-girlfriend Yu-Yue by seducing her wealthy new boyfriend, Chi Cheng, a snake freak, after discovering that he usually dates men. What Suo Wei doesn’t know is that Chi Cheng is only dating his ex to appease his parents and because his dad hides all his pet snakes to manipulate him into coming to work.

To pull off his wild plan, Suo Wei teams up with the cute gay doctor Xiao Shuai, to teach him the art of attracting men. The chaotic duo hatch one hare-brained scheme after another, like starting a snake business, to get closer to their target. Comedy ensues when Chi Cheng misreads every move as genuine affection and cranks up the flirting with saucy texts. Desperate not to blow his cover, Suo Wei pretends to have feelings he hasn’t actually developed, only to panic when Chi Cheng corners him for a confession and seals it with a kiss. Episode 4 ends with Suo Wei bolting home to regroup, having let the fake-love lie spiral way out of control, but he is still intent on making Chi Cheng break up with his girlfriend.

Episodes 5 ‘Revenged Love’ begins with Chi Cheng taking his girlfriend Yu-Yue to meet his parents; however, he shows zero interest in her, his mind on Suo Wei. As soon as he can get away, Chi Cheng tracks Suo Wei down and thus begins their hilarious romantic push-and-pull. And this time, Suo Wei is getting confused for real, and might be falling for the rich brat. The onscreen chemistry between lead actors Zi Yu and Tian Xu Ning is comically cute so far.

Tian Xu Ning is confidently seductive as Chi Cheng, even though seduction is supposed to be Suo Wei’s job in the story. Used to having people fawning over him and being subservient, Cheng clearly finds the chaotic Suo Wei’s clownish antics endearing and attractive. Zi Yu’s comic timing as Suo Wei is hilarious: from the way he gets easily rattled to how his actions increasingly make little sense for someone trying to steal his ex’s current boyfriend, it’s all too funny.

This time, “Revenged Love” highlights the stark differences between the personalities of the rich Chi Cheng and Yu-Yue. While Yu-Yue was grossed out by the locality Suo Wei lives in and didn’t even bother to enter his house, Chi Cheng shows no signs of snobbery during his visit and is completely at ease with everything. In Episode 6, viewers finally get to hear about Chi Cheng’s last serious ex-boyfriend from the horse’s mouth, as he surprisingly shares his past with Suo Wei, displaying a rarely seen vulnerable side, making things more serious between them. Who is falling for whom? It’s becoming more of a two-way street in “Revenged Love” now.

Meanwhile, a little twist reveals that Cheng Yu figures out the connection between Yu-Yue and Suo Wei. However, he decides to use this information to his advantage later. Cheng Yu, instead, is more interested in making Doctor Xiao Shuai date him. Liu Xuan Cheng is also comically charming as the gossip-loving gay doctor with a weakness for hot men. But there isn’t much progress in their romance yet, which is fine, because the primary focus remains on the lead couple of “Revenged Love”, who are entertaining as hell.

Episode six of ‘Revenged Love’ ends with Suo Wei and Xiao Shuai hatching yet another hair-brained plan to push Chi Cheng into dumping Yu-Yue, which involves the snakes and will have animal activists turning in their graves. That scheming duo is bringing on the laughs in the series, even if half the time their ideas make little sense. It will be fun to see how their new plot unfolds in the next episode.

You can watch ‘Revenged Love’ on YouTube.

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Head Over Heels Episode 2 Review: Toilet Ghosts, Talismans & Tantrums

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

After a water ghost, it’s a fire ghost who’s out to get protagonist Park Seong-ah’s (Cho Yi-hyun) first love, Bae Gyeon-woo (Choo Young-woo), in the Korean drama ‘Head Over Heels!’ Can the teen shaman save her crush from the clutches of death, or will her first love die before he can even become her first boyfriend?

Recap of Head Over Heels Episode 1: It’s love at first sight for Seong-ah when she sees the handsome Gyeon-woo, who’s dragged to her shrine by his grandmother for some good luck talismans. Seong-ah immediately senses that Gyeon-woo is cursed, he attracts evil spirits and is fated to die soon, maybe in the next six days! She vows to protect him at all costs.

Coincidentally, Gyeon-woo turns up as a new transfer student in her class, giving Seong-ah more time to both save him and win him over. Episode 1 ended with Seong-ah saving Gyeon-woo and three other boys from a water demon in the boys’ toilet. She drives the spirit away using a water pipe charged with a talisman. Of course, to the boys, it looks like she’s just gone bonkers, bursting into their bathroom and soaking them all with water.

In Episode 2 of ‘Head Over Heels’, Seong-ah teams up with her only friend, Pyo Ji-ho (Cha Kang-yoon), to keep Gyeon-woo safe. Their mission? Sneak into his house and plant protective talismans everywhere. If you remember, these are special talismans made by a flower fairy to ward off evil spirits.

The episode opens with Seong-ah and the boys getting punished for the bathroom chaos. It also confirms that Gyeon-woo is your classic broody loner who wants zero attention, especially not from Seong-ah, whom he still doesn’t recognize as the shaman. Meanwhile, a fire-based demon starts lurking around the school, clearly targeting him next.

We also get glimpses into Gyeon-woo’s past in this edition of ‘Head Over Heels’: he’s a top archer but was expelled from his previous school for a misdemeanor. Rumors swirl that he might be an arsonist, but that doesn’t stop Seong-ah or Ji-ho from reaching out to him. However, the other students at school start seeing him differently, and their reactions is annoyingly exaggerated by the creators.

And maybe it’s too early to make final judgments about ‘Head Over Heels’, but I already find Ji-ho way more likable than Gyeon-woo. Actor Choo Young-woo nails the “handsome and emotionally unavailable” vibe as the hot Gyeon-woo, but the character itself is kind of dull next to Ji-ho. In Gen-Z speak? Ji-ho is a total green flag, cute, friendly, and supportive. Gyeon-woo on the other hand is an angst-y tantrum king right now.

Seong-ah can be adorably clueless, but it’s obvious Ji-ho has a crush on her. Still, instead of throwing jealous tantrums like other K-drama second leads might have, he helps her get closer to Gyeon-woo. He even distracts Gyeon-woo’s grandmother so Seong-ah can spend some alone time with her crush, even though the main goal is to plant talismans at his house. The nice guys never get the girl, huh? Let’s just hope the writers don’t pull the classic K-drama move and turn Ji-ho into a jerk just to make the lead couple click better.

Ji-ho even gets a heroic moment in this chapter of ‘Head Over Heels’, saving both Seong-ah and Gyeon-woo from a dangerous situation (see, I am trying my best to keep this spoiler-free). Sadly, his moment is brushed aside to spotlight the main pair’s chemistry. Also, the supernatural elements felt a bit toned down in this chapter, and the comedic moments weren’t as punchy either. What really keeps the show afloat is Cho Yi-hyun’s bubbly, earnest performance. Her attempts to flirt with Gyeon-woo are super cute and funny. Well, she is head over heels in love after all.

The episode ends on a slightly emotional note, with one character revealing some personal baggage, but the impact feels underwhelming. It’s only the second episode, and the twist already feels too soon, especially with ten episodes still to go. I’m starting to wonder if this supernatural romance even needed 12 episodes. But hey, we’ll have to watch and see how the rest of this teen-fantasy romance unfolds.

Watch ‘Head Over Heels’ on Prime Video.

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Loved K-Pop Demon Hunters? Check These 4 Titles Out

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If you just finished ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters‘, you’re probably still humming the songs, replaying those action scenes, and thinking about how much it packed into one punchy animated movie. Beyond the K-pop sparkle and demon-slaying fun, one of its strongest messages was about self-acceptance—owning all parts of yourself, even the messy, scary, or non-human ones. The main character, Hana, literally has demon blood, but it’s when she embraces that part of her identity that she becomes her most powerful self.

KPop Demon Hunters Review: Light Sticks Meet Dark Arts – with ‘Aegyo’

That mix of pop culture sparkle and monster-slaying action is addictive. Lucky for you, there are more animated adventures out there with equally fierce female leads, wild worlds, and just the right amount of sass and soul.

Here are 4 other animated titles (in random order) that also mix magic, mayhem, and personal transformation in fun ways like ‘K-pop Demon Hunters’.

1. Turning Red (Jio-Disney Hotstar)

Before K-Pop Demon Hunters brought idols and exorcism together, “Turning Red” gave us panda transformations and teen angst wrapped in glorious early-2000s nostalgia. Mei Lee is a 13-year-old girl who literally turns into a giant red panda when she gets emotional (which is, like, all the time). Lee’s giant red panda form isn’t just adorable chaos, it’s a metaphor for big feelings, cultural expectations, and growing up in a world where you’re told to “be good” even when your emotions scream otherwise. Like Hana in ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters‘, Mei has to stop fighting her nature and start owning it. Whether it’s summoning ancient spirits or freaking out over boy bands, Mei’s journey is all about saying: “This is me, deal with it.”

 2. Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld (Netflix)

Jentry Jentry is a teen in small-town Texas who discovers she’s the last in a line of demon hunters, because of course she is. With a haunted talking weapon and a best friend who’s ride-or-die, Jentry takes on monsters, ancient curses, and school drama in equal measure. It’s scrappy, smart, and full of girl power. Born into a legacy she didn’t ask for and living in a town where she already stands out, Jentry’s story mirrors Hana’s in how she learns to embrace the supernatural side of her identity. Her powers don’t make her weird, they make her hers. And once she stops trying to suppress them? Game on. This animated series is basically what you’d get if Buffy the Vampire Slayer met Kim Possible and added a Taiwanese-American twist.

3. Nimona (Netflix)

Out of all the characters on this list, Nimona might be the loudest when it comes to self-acceptance, and honestly, we love her for it. A shapeshifter feared by society, Nimona refuses to hide who she is, even when people label her a monster. Like Hana from ‘K-pop Demon Hunters’, her power lies in not conforming. Her story is messy, emotional, and beautifully rebellious. Sometimes, embracing who you are means setting the whole system on fire. She teams up with a misunderstood villain to take down a corrupt institution, and it’s all queer, punk, and unapologetically rebellious.

 4. Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (Netflix)

Ruby just wants to survive high school, but it turns out she’s part of a royal kraken bloodline, which is a lot to take in when you’re just trying to avoid gym class. Like Hana, Ruby has to accept that she’s not just “different”, she’s also powerful. Her journey is about realizing that your identity isn’t something to be hidden. Once she stops shrinking herself (literally and emotionally), she finds her voice, beneath the sea and above it.

This one’s for fans who enjoyed the school-setting drama and family secrets of ‘K-pop Demon Hunters’, but want to dive (pun intended) into something a little more oceanic. A little goofy, super colorful, and all about discovering your inner monster.

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Flow Review: Dreamy World, Clunky Cat

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

“Is my inner child dead?!”

‘Flow’ made me question myself for a while, especially since I watched it months after its release, knowing it received a lot of appreciation, and even an Oscar. On paper, it does sound like an animated I’d most definitely love – it follows a solitary cat trying to survive a great flood, sharing a boat with several other animals, while their homes and forests are inundated.

Created by Gints Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza, and Ron Dyens, the 2024 film ‘Flow’ is like re-imagining the biblical Noah’s Arc story, without humans. It’s got no dialogues, dreamy music, and lots of cuddly animals trying to make it alive through a terrible flood. However, the animation, which took the production years to complete, was surprisingly unimpressive when it came to the character designs of some of the animals. The background landscapes in the film are richer in details, but some of the animals looks like digital blobs of clay stretched to resemble cats and dogs.

The primary character, the cat, had the most unimpressive design in Flow, making me think how the hand-drawn cats of Studio Ghibli movies from the 1990s (Whisper of the Heart or The Cat Returns) were more engaging to watch on screen. Maybe I sound like a jilted cat fan now. But to the film’s credit, I’ve become a fan of a new animal: the ring-tailed lemur featured in ‘Flow‘. Its design is better than that of the cat; it’s a cute, curious creature who collects human objects like an old lady with a hoarding problem and joins the boat with a basket full of trinkets. This, despite the story featuring a freaking Golden Retriever – again, whose character design seemed straight out of an early 2000s video game. There’s no way I’d pick a Lemur over a Goldie in the real world.

Okay, honestly, I think as long as the digital animation style of ‘Flow’ doesn’t bother you in the first few minutes, you might enjoy it a lot more than I did. It’s a sweet, albeit slightly unrealistic tale of a bunch of animals forging a lasting friendship, as they navigate a natural disaster together on a tattered boat, fighting off predators (which include some beautifully designed birds), while finding new allies.

Rating: 5 on 10. Watch ‘Flow’ on Prime Video.

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‘We Were Liars’ Recapped, Ending Explained – Cady’s Summer 16 Revisited

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Adapted from a bestselling novel by E. Lockhart, “We Were Liars” is a drama series set on a private island owned by the wealthy Sinclair family, who gather there every summer. The story centers on Cadence, the eldest granddaughter, who returns to the island after a mysterious accident two summers prior left her with memory loss and debilitating migraines. As she reconnects with her cousins and family members, Cadence struggles to fill in the blanks about what happened the summer of her injury.

The narrative in “We Were Liars” unfolds through fragmented flashbacks and Cadence’s unreliable perspective, gradually revealing the dysfunction within the Sinclair family – particularly the toxic relationships between her mother and aunts, who compete for their father’s approval and inheritance. The story builds toward a twist meant to reframe everything Cadence and the viewer thought they understood about the events leading up to her accident.

We Were Liars Review: We Were Gratingly One-Dimensional

Despite its central mystery of ‘We Were Liars’, the series is slow-paced and leans heavily on melodrama, with much of the dialogue and character interaction revolving around privilege, family tension, and vague philosophical reflections. The overall tone is somber, and the payoff relies entirely on its final reveal. Which some of us thoughts was a total cheat code!

Here’s a recap on the primary characters of “We Were Liars”:  

Cadence Sinclair Eastman (Cady)

The protagonist. Intelligent, sensitive, and emotionally fragile, Cady is trying to recover from a traumatic accident and piece together the mystery of what happened one fateful summer. Her journey is about memory, guilt, and rediscovering truth.

Gat Patil

The outsider. Gat is the nephew of Cadence’s aunt’s boyfriend, not blood-related to the Sinclairs, but part of the “Liars” crew. Smart, thoughtful, politically aware, he challenges the Sinclair family’s privilege and Cady’s worldview. Also, he’s her love interest.

Mirren Sinclair

Cadence’s cousin. Sweet, stylish, and sensitive, Mirren plays the role of the “golden girl” but struggles under the weight of family expectations. She’s part of the Liars and shares a close bond with Cady.

Johnny Sinclair

Another cousin and Liar. Charismatic and fun-loving, Johnny brings humor and energy to the group. He’s loyal to the core, but like the others, he’s hiding something beneath his sunny exterior.

Harris Sinclair

Cady’s grandfather. Patriarch of the Sinclair family. He’s rich, controlling, and obsessed with the family legacy, often pitting his daughters against each other in twisted power plays.

Penny, Carrie & Bess

Harris’s three daughters (Cady’s mom and aunts). They’re constantly fighting over inheritance and family status, using their kids as pawns. Toxic AF and quite annoying in the series.

The eight episodes of “We Were Liars” alternate between past and present, easily distinguished by Cady’s hairstyle. In the flashbacks, she’s the golden Sinclair child with the family’s signature blonde hair. In the present, she’s dyed it black, part rebellion, part rejection of her racist grandfather. Every summer, Cady usually meets her cousins and Gat at her family’s private island. But after the accident in her “Summer 16,” she returns to the island hoping to reconnect and recover her lost memories.

Weirdly, her cousins Johnny and Mirren refuse to tell her anything about the accident, why she washed up on the shore alone or why they completely ghosted her for a year. Even Gat is frustratingly evasive. They all hint that Cady’s mother has instructed them not to trigger her and to let her piece things together on her own.

Oddly enough, we rarely see “The Liars” interact with any adults in the present timeline of “We Were Liars”. The flashbacks reveal how deeply smitten Cady was with Gat, and how he seemed to reciprocate. Johnny, noticing their growing closeness, subtly warns them not to mess up the group dynamic, hinting that a breakup could ruin things. But Cady and Gat don’t care. That is, until Gat starts acting hot and cold, and then Cady finds out he already has a girlfriend. He gives her a vague excuse about never being accepted by the Sinclair family because of his background. Sure, whatever.

As fragments of memory return, Cady recalls Johnny having issues at school, Mirren grappling with her mother’s affair, and all three mothers constantly fighting for their father Harris’s attention. Things spiral further after Cady’s grandmother dies, sparking a ridiculous fight over who will inherit her pearls. Then Johnny’s mother abruptly breaks up with her long-time boyfriend Ed (Gat’s uncle). Turns out, Harris made her choose between her inheritance and her Indian-origin partner. Charming. At the funeral, Cady tries giving Gat the cold shoulder, but they eventually reconcile. Still, Cady knows her grandfather will never approve of them being together.

Episode 7 of “We Were Liars” reaches a turning point: Cady argues with her grandfather, he falls and is rushed to the hospital. Everyone goes, except “The Liars”: Cady, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. Then, in an incredibly misguided move, Cady comes up with a plan to burn down her grandfather’s house, along with his will, so he’ll stop manipulating his daughters. Because, apparently, destroying property is the solution. Only a privileged, arrogant teen would think arson is a fix for generational trauma. But somehow, the others agree.

They set the house on fire. And in Episode 8 of “We Were Liars”, it’s revealed that everyone except Cady dies in the fire. Cady, Johnny, and Mirren were supposed to light the place, while Gat waited with a boat. But Johnny and Mirren don’t make it out. Cady tries to save the family’s golden retrievers, and then wastes precious time retrieving her grandmother’s pearls. Gat, seeing the fire spread and no one coming out, runs back into the house.

Cady finally understands why no one contacted her for a year: they were all dead. She has been hallucinating their presence, aided by the meds she’s been on. The adults never mention the truth, trying to shield her from more trauma. Maybe in the novel, this ending must have been a lot more emotional, but in the live-action adaptation, it feels more of a cheat-code, where viewers of “We Were Liars” are constantly deceived over some big mystery of might’ve happened to Cady, only to reveal that she is responsible for her own ordeal.

Although, sure, the climactic events of “We Were Liars” also makes sense. After all, who could’ve dared to hurt the wealthy, golden child of the Sinclair family? Not any outsider for sure.

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Shamanic Chaos Begins: Head Over Heels Episode 1 is All Cho Yi-hyun

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Park Seong-ah is a teenage shaman, busy juggling ghosts, demons, whiny customers in need of talismans, and high school exams. And just when she resolves to study harder, she falls head over heels in love with the handsome Bae Gyeon-woo, a client dragged by his grandmother to see the shaman because he is almost always in mortal danger.

Directed by Kim Yong-wan, the Korean series Head Over Heels is adapted from the webtoon Gyeonuwa Seonnyeo (견우와 선녀) by An Su Min. Actor Cho Yi-hyun (Hospital Playlist, All of Us Are Dead) plays lead protagonist Park Seong-ah, known as “Fairy Cheon Ji” to her shamanic clientele, to whom she appears in a veil.

Choo Young-woo plays the handsome new student Bae Gyeon-woo, who has no clue that his classmate Sung-a is the same shaman he visited with his grandmother. With ghosts and evil spirits constantly targeting him and his death predicted to be just days away, Sung-a does everything she can to protect Gyeon-woo – even if, to him, she comes off as an overly clingy, slightly unhinged class girl obsessed with him for no reason.

Episode one of ‘Head Over Heels’ opens with a colorful early morning shamanic exorcism-like ritual being performed by Seong-ah. It’s a colorful, comedic introductory scene, where a stubborn spirit refuses to leave the human realm, making poor Seong-ah late for school! Cha Kang-yoon plays Pyo Ji-ho, possibly the only friend Seong-ah has at school, and also, it’s clear he has a huge crush on her, but she isn’t interested. Instead, it’s love at first for her when she see the handsome Bae Gyeon-woo, clearly cursed to die too soon, but death will have to wait since Seong-ah wants him to be her boyfriend.

Cho Yi-hyun is endearingly cute as Seong-ah in the opening episode of ‘Head Over Heels’, her personality is established as a hard-working, cheerful girl, too busy with her shamanic duties to enjoy the life of a regular teen girl. She can see ghosts and misfortune from a mile away, and her love for new student Gyeon-woo is hilariously shallow at this point – only based on his great looks. Kim Mi-kyung portrays ‘Mother Sin’, Seong-ha’s spiritual mentor, who thinks she should leave Gyeon-woo alone to his fate.

Choo Young-woo does look dashingly handsome as Gyeon-woo; however, he sticks out a little amid the high-school cast of ‘Head over Heels’, seeming evidently too old to be a high school student. He has a more adult-like air to him than the rest of the cast playing teens, although his character is also a serious, moody, asocial young man. His character has no interest in making friends or getting a girlfriend at the new school, so it’s going to be a big challenge for the protagonist to have her crush reciprocated.

Going by the first episode, ‘Head Over Heels‘ promises to be an entertaining comedic-fantasy-romance, with at least three ghosts already making their appearance in the pilot edition. The supernatural element should excite horror fans, even though it’s more horror-comedy than spooky, eerie stuff. I am looking forward to Seong-ha fighting more evil spirits while she tries to save Gyeon-woo from dying.

The edition ends with a funny bathroom scene, where Seong-ha fights a water ghost but looks more like she has gone off the rocker. Can she explain her weird behavior to classmates—and more importantly, to her crush?

Watch ‘Head Over Heels’ on Prime Video.

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Dare to be Fabulous Review: Crime Meets Glam in Bold Little Film

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

“My dad… is a strong man. Best gangster in the city”

The short animated film ‘Dare to be Fabulous‘ starts off with a youthful narrator’s voice beaming with pride as he describes his gangster dad and how “he is the man I wanna be.”

Directed by João Buosi, Yangjia Chen, and Carla Sampaio Da Silva, the six-minute-long retro animated film follows Alessandro who teams up with a friend to rob a popular bar to impress his dad. Alessandro, however, isn’t prepared to see his idol’s new avatar as Lady Victoria, a fabulous drag queen.

‘Dare to be Fabulous’ is a genre-bending little animated film that mixes the dark world of crime and gangsters with the colorful, glossy lives of drag queens and music. It delivers tension, family drama, and a twisty, powerful climax. Alessandro is forced to redefine what it means to be “strong” and “powerful” – terms that don’t have to be synonymous with traditional definitions of a “man.”

The animation for ‘Dare to be Fabulous’ looks slightly old-school, like pen sketches brought to life, using warm tones that complement the themes and tone of the story. Alessandro’s dad as Lady Victoria stands out in stunning hues of red, with sprinklings of gold and silver. When the father and son are confronted with this new side of the gangster, the moment of truth is far too overwhelming for Alessandro, but in a flash, he is forced to realize what truly matters.

Overall, the little film about identity, family, and gender norms is quite fabulous.

Watch Dare to be Fabulous on YouTube. It’s also embedded below.

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‘Good Boy’ Episode 8 Review: Special Team vs. Bad Guys – Game On!

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‘Good Boy’ Dong-ju (Park Bo-Gum) isn’t ready to back down or give up anything, neither his professional mission to put the nefarious villain Min Joo-Yeong (Oh Jung-se) behind bars, nor his blossoming love story with crush Han-na (Kim So-hyun). However, arresting the customs officer is proving to be a herculean task for the cops, but at least there’s promising progress in his romantic life.

Recap of ‘Good Boy’ Episode 7: Dong-ju brutally beats up Joo-Yeong while the customs officer is at work for fatally shooting Jung Mi-ja, his dead’s friend mother. The incident is recorded on camera, and Dong-ju could be suspended or even lose his police job. His team leader Man-Sik (Heo Sung-tae), along with the rest of the special team – Jong-hyeon (Lee Sang-yi) and Jae-Hong (Tae Won-Seok) – work hard to gather solid evidence against Joo-Yeong and prevent their team from being disbanded.

Meanwhile, Joo-Yeong’s criminal associates increase pressure on him due to the slowdown of their activities caused by heightened police scrutiny on their operations. A flashback also reveals it was the Drug Demon (Lee Ho-jung) who saved Jung Mi-ja (Seo Jung-yeon) from dying.

Moved by the support he receives from the team, Dong-ju strikes a deal with the evil Joo-Yeong, asking him to beat him up as much as he wants, but to ensure the special team isn’t forced to quit. This deal is especially worrying, because unfortunately, the ending scare from Episode 5 of “Good Boy” wasn’t just a fake-out: Dong-ju is diagnosed with ‘Punch Drunk Syndrome’, a neurodegenerative condition. Although it’s not supposed to be fatal anytime soon. Dong-ju nearly resigns as a police officer, but in the end, he resolves to keep fighting. The episode ends with Dong-ju kissing Han-na at her house.

Titled “The Aimless Bullet”, episode 8 of “Good Boy” starts with a cold open featuring chaotic scenes of violence. Then the scene flips to the romantic night between Dong-ju and Han-na, with the latter letting him crash at her place. The next day, everyone is back to working on the Joo-Yeong case. The team figures out where his smuggling unit might be and comes up with a plan to infiltrate the customs office to uncover the drug stash. On the other hand, Joo-Yeong lays an elaborate trap for the cops who’ve been making his life hell.

Unlike the last episode, this edition of “Good Boy” is fast-paced and expertly balances both comedic and action elements. The comedic parts, as usual, come from the overdramatic Man-Sik’s shenanigans, but also from the rivalry between Jong-hyeon and Dong-ju over Han-na. Increasingly suspicious of the boxer’s growing proximity with his ex-girlfriend, Jong-hyeon practically drags Dong-ju to his flat so that he won’t spend too much time with Han-na.

Park Bo-gum really turns on the cute, pet-like charm in this chapter, especially when his character is flirting with Han-na at work. As Dong-ju spends some time with Jong-hyeon, he can’t help but admit that the former Olympian fencer is ‘cool’, despite his annoyance over Jong-hyeon being Han-na’s ex. Viewers also get flashbacks to Jong-hyeon’s time at the Olympics and why he failed to win gold.

While Park Bo-gum’s character gets the most screen time (and deservedly so, since he is the titular Good Boy) there are still eight more episodes to go in the series, and hopefully we’ll see other characters and sub-plots develop a bit more too. For instance, Lee Sang-yi has great screen presence as Jong-hyeon, a fantastic character so far, someone who is honest, hard-working, and a fighter, just like Dong-ju. But so far, the character feels slightly underutilized. Also, Han-na’s investigation into her cop father’s death hasn’t seen any updates in a while!

Regardless, this episode of “Good Boy” is very entertaining, and the second half delivers intense action, where the cops find themselves cornered and nearly overwhelmed by the bad guys. Will the evil Min Joo-Yeong once again get away with his dastardly plans and leave the cops frustrated?

Watch Good Boy on Prime Video.

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Sitaare Zameen Par Review: Sikandar Kaun? Aamir & Kids Win

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

“That was such a clean film with a good message, right?” my grandfather rhetorically told me as we exited the theatre after watching Sitaare Zameen Par. And well, that’s one way to sum up the Aamir Khan movie: an entertaining film you can watch with the entire family (I’d say the kids need to be over 10) without worrying about awkward or uncomfortable scenes and moments.

Directed by Prasanna RS and written by Divy Nidhi Sharma, “Sitaare Zameen Par” is an Indian adaptation of the Spanish hit film Campeones. The Bollywood remake stars Aamir Khan as Gulshan, a disgraced basketball coach ordered to train a group of special-needs children for three months. This is his “punishment” for driving under the influence of alcohol and hitting a police car.

“Sitaare Zameen Par” introduces Gulshan as the assistant coach of the Delhi basketball team, often mocked as ‘tingu’ (a Hindi slang that means ‘shorty’), due to his short height. After a fight with the head-coach, a drunk Gulshan comically hits a police car, while the song ‘Bhaag DK Bose’ plays in the background. You know, the iconic song from ‘Delhi Belly’, which was produced by Aamir Khan.

So, Aamir’s Gulshan starts off as a typical arrogant, egoistic, outspoken Delhi jerk who calls kids with Down syndrome or any other mental health problems “mental” or “mad.” Both his personal and professional lives are in shambles: he’s temporarily staying with his mother (Dolly Ahluwalia) while constantly clashing with his wife Suneeta (Genelia D’Souza), who runs a boutique.

But once Gulshan meets the team he is supposed to coach, it is Gulshan who gets schooled by the kids on compassion, love, empathy, and athletic spirit. Gulshan’s first instinct is to find a way out of the three-month ordeal, but once the kids are enrolled in a national basketball championship, Gulshan does his best to train them and finds himself often surprised by their spirit.

The “Sitaare Zameen Par” – aka the special kids – are:

Sunil (Ashish Pendse), who loves to track flights and works as a parking lot attendant.Guddu (Gopi Krishnan Varma), a smelly kid with an intense passion for pets and animals.Sharmaji (Rishi Shahani), a bespectacled old soul who works at a café.Kareem (Samvit Desai), slow and independent, living in a hostel, supporting himself by working at a hotel.Lotus (Aayush Bhansali), passionate about hair dyes and obsessed with his girlfriend.Satbir (Aroush Datta), whose mum cannot recognize him if he isn’t wearing red.Rishabh Jain, a Delhi boy who brings Goa vibes to the team.Bantu (Vedant Sharmaa), umm, he loves to dig his ears.Golu (Simran Mangeshkar), the only girl in the group who chooses violence to solve things.Hargovind (Naman Misra), the tallest in the team, who can play like a true champ.

Bollywood fans will find plenty of easter eggs referencing the actor’s old projects throughout the runtime of Sitaare Zameen Par. For instance, the song “Papa Kehte Hain Bada Naam Karega“, which remains a beloved Bollywood classic from Aamir’s debut film ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’, gets a modern comic twist in the new original track “Good for Nothing” by Amitabh Bhattacharya, whose lyrics go, “Papa kehte the aisa kaam karega, bada hoke mujhko tu badnaam karega.”

Much like Aamir’s 2007 hit Taare Zameen Par, this 2025 film tackles stereotypes and ignorance around children with special needs. “Everybody’s normal is different,” says Kartar Paaji (Gurpal Singh), the sports complex in-charge, when Gulshan questions the kids’ normalcy. The point lands comically when Kartar asks how much sugar Gulshan wants in his tea. “Normal amount,” he replies, only for Kartar to ask, “Your normal or mine?” Turns out, Gulshan’s “normal” is six spoons!

All the new actors in the basketball team are endearing, each getting a quick little intro to make their characters stick. Thankfully, except for one or two overstretched sequences here and there, “Sitaare Zameen Par” rarely get preachy, and maintains a comedic, light-hearted tone throughout its 2 hour 30 minute length. The film works due to Aamir’s willingness to be poked fun at and play second-fiddle to the younger cast. There are moments when his trademark stiffness creeps in, but he ultimately pulls it off, especially when it comes to the emotional climax. But the climax isn’t your regular tear-jerker, as one would expect from such a script, instead, it focuses on finding joys in small victories.

Aamir Khan’s Gulshan is ultimately humbled by his basketball squad, who teach him to love, laugh, and find joy in life’s simplest moments. “Sitaare Zameen Par” gently reminds us that Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar is just one way to look at life, sometimes, just showing up with heart is enough to win.

“Sitaare Zameen Par” is playing in theaters.

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