Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 27

Cleopatra and Frankenstein Review: Monstrously Boring

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

There’s a dude called Frank, and a gorgeous greenish-eyed girl called Cleo, they meet at a New Year’s Eve party, joke about their names sounding like pop culture figures ‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’. Then they hook up, get married, sort of fall in love, run through some trouble. Because, boohoo, life sucks. And don’t be misled by the title, this is a straightforward, contemporary fiction romance.

Page 121, it was only until I got to page 121 of ‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’ that it finally got readable and interesting. That’s when author Coco Mellors finally introduces a new and realistic character in a world cluttered with unbearably pretentious ‘good looking’/’glittering’ people. Until then it took me 12 days to get to page 121, and only 1 day to finish the rest of the over 200 pages. Until then, I was softly crying inside, and loudly bitching to my friends in a group chat about how books like these slow down my reading pace and reading goals for the year. Until then, this book was barely one star out of five. Now I am settling for 2 stars, which by Goodreads standards is supposed to mean ‘it was okay’.

‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’ is simply about a stunningly beautiful, ‘Roman Goddess Level Gorgeous’ (the author repeats this fact several times through the book) Cleo, a 20-something art graduate, hooking up with 40-something Frank, a successful advertising executive, and them referring to each other as Cleopatra and Frankenstein maybe 4 times in the book. The two quickly get married for Cleo’s to extend her visa and stay on in New York. But as is with rushed marriages based on physical attraction, they realize their ‘love’ isn’t the lasting kind of love. And the book follows them being unbearably pretentious (I am aware I’ve already used this term, but well, the author keeps repeating stuff in the book too) and annoying.

Cleo becomes a bored, whiny, artsy brat who doesn’t even make art anymore, and that’s supposed to be her character arc, fine, but nothing about her is likable, except for her legendary looks. Meanwhile Frank drowns himself in work and alcohol and starts to fall for someone else. You know that character from page 121, she is a 30-something and joins Frank’s work-place as a temporary copywriter. Let’s just call her ‘Page 121’, to keep this review spoiler-free, in case you decide to read the novel, despite my criticism. And of course, there’s a high chance you may like it more than I did. Frank and Page 121 have an easy chemistry and their banter in the second-half of ‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’ is quite witty, funny, and entertaining.

Coco Mellors’ writing style for the novel is mostly reader-friendly. It’s not impressively literary, lucid, or characteristic, the sentences are well-woven, but without any striking details. Although, it does seem like ‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’ is laden with deliberate familiar philosophical musings meant to encourage readers to share as ‘quotes’. For instance, Page 121 has a lovely relationship with her mother, but her mum often talks like a ‘self-help book’ author, instead of a regular maternal human being.

Except for Page 121, and an obese chef trying to lose weight, everybody is exceedingly good-looking in the book, which is usually their defining characteristic. For instance, Frank’s young step-sister Zoey, is a drop-dead gorgeous aspiring actor, and unlike Frank, she is black-american. Zoey is essentially Cleo in a different skin color, and seems to exist in ‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’ only for token black representation. She is still in college, lives like a rich trust fund kid, and gets aggressively worked up over racial issues even though she never faces any sort of discrimination in the novel.

‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’ aspires to be a Jazz age literary novel for the 2020s: it’s all about sex, drugs, alcohol, money, parties, infidelity, and beautiful people doing annoying things. Thankfully, some of the primary characters do ‘grow up’ towards the climactic chapters, or at least pretend to, and Coco Mellors wraps the story in a conveniently closing chapter that doesn’t match with the rest of the tone, but will be satisfactory for many readers.

Rating: 2 stars on 5.

Read Next: Butter Book Review: Keeps You Hungry Yet Satiated

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

‘The Many Deaths of Nora Dalmasso’ Review

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

In November 2006, 51-year-old Nora Dalmasso was found murdered in her house in a gated community in Río Cuarto, an Argentinian city. Early reports revealed she was strangled to death with the belt of her bathrobe after consensual sex by an unknown perpetrator. At the time of her death, her doctor husband Marcelo Macarrón was out of town playing golf, their 20-year-old son Facundo Macarrón, a law student, was out partying with friends, and 16-year-old daughter Valentina Macarrón was studying in the United States. What followed her death was a media frenzy over the ‘crime of passion’, turning Dalmasso from victim into a target of rabid moral policing and sensationalist scrutiny.

The three-part Netflix true-crime documentary ‘The Many Deaths of Nora Dalmasso’ by Jamie Crawford follows how the murder case played out in the courts and media, where both the authorities and some section of the media seemed intent on pursuing convenient theories instead of looking for concrete clues and evidence to nab the killer. The title emphasizes the horrid fate for Nora Dalmasso, first murdered by an unknown person, and later by relentless character assassination in the media.

Nora’s family addressing the media (Netflix)

The documentary features detailed testimonies of Nora Dalmasso’s family, including husband Marcelo, Facundo, Valentina, along with interviews of journalists, lawyers, forensic experts, legal experts who worked on the case. The first episode of ‘The Many Deaths of Nora Dalmasso’ is titled ‘The Crime’, introducing viewers to what happened on the night of Nora’s death, while the next two titled ‘The Accused’ and ‘The Trial’ reveal who emerged as primary suspects in the case and how the law took its course in the case. Some of the twists in the case were no less than a Hollywood thriller, leaving the public often in shock.

There’s file footage from old TV news reports that show the media relentlessly hounding the Dalmasso family, following them to Nora Dalmasso’s grave when they were taking teen Valentina to see her mother, because she wasn’t able to make it back to Argentina in time for the funeral. Dozens of reporters follow the family right up to Nora’s grave, while the kids beg them to give them some privacy. That footage made me feel ashamed as a former television journalist (sure, it’s not the first time, but I am glad I haven’t become insensitive to these things yet), to see the family being hounded for quotes while they’re trying to grieve their mother.

Thanks to the relentless media coverage of the case, Jamie Crawford and his team had no shortage of archival footage for their documentary. The series places strong emphasis on how the media sensationalized the case, contrasted by interviews with Nora Dalmasso’s children, who speak candidly about the emotional toll the coverage took on their lives. However, the documentary offers little insight into how the investigators actually pursued leads or built the case. Strangely, it even mentions a new suspect who emerged much later, without ever naming them, leaving viewers to search online for more information. You can read this article on ‘People’ for more details on the latest suspect identified by the authorities in 2024.

Overall, as the narrator puts it, the three-part documentary serves as a mirror to the dysfunctional society and justice system we live in. Nearly two decades have passed since Nora Dalmasso was murdered in her own home, and the case still lacks a conviction. At one point, a local painter was arrested as a suspect, triggering spontaneous protests across the city, with citizens accusing the authorities of scapegoating a poor man to close the case. The Macarrón family, portrayed as wealthy and well-connected, appeared untouchable. Yet when the victim is a woman, class boundaries seem to vanish, and justice remains out of reach for Nora Dalmasso.

For international viewers unfamiliar with the case, this Netflix documentary offers an intriguing, even if incomplete, look at one of Argentina’s most scandalous crimes.

Watch ‘The Many Deaths of Nora Dalmasso’ on Netflix.

Read Next: ‘Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy’ – More Emotional Than Investigative

Also Read: Sirens Netflix Series Review (Short Audio Version below)

‘The First Time I Never Met You’ Short Film Review

Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

Time-travel films will always make viewers wonder, “If you could travel back in time, what would you change?” The sci-fi short film The First Time I Never Met You quickly explores the paradoxical problems of rewinding time: you might go back to fix a problem but end up creating a bigger one.

Written and directed by Eric Kole, the film follows a grieving scientist, John (also played by Kole), who is working hard to crack the key ingredient to time travel. He has lost his wife, Esme (Renee Bailey), and desperately wants to turn back the clock to change his family’s fate. But when he finds himself in the past, on their first date, things don’t work out the way he intends. While John is armed with the knowledge of their future, for Esme, he is a stranger, a first date that creepily knows too much.

The title ‘The First Time I Never Met You’ may give away a crucial twist, but at 13 minutes, it’s a swift, engrossing tale about love, loss, and accepting life as it is. Despite the limited screen time, Renee Bailey lights up the frame as Esme, and it’s easy to see why a workaholic scientist like John finds it difficult to survive the vagaries of life without her radiant presence. But by becoming obsessed with time travel, he misses out on father-daughter moments with his lovely kid, and going back in time only jeopardizes his future family further.

The cinematography is charmingly simple, the storytelling straightforward, and the lesson sharp: living in the present is better than exhausting yourself over ‘what might’ve been?’. If you’re a sci-fi fan and a fan of short films, check this out.

You can watch ‘The First Time I Never Met You’ on YouTube, it’s also embedded below.

‘Ball Boy Tactics’ Serves Soft Sports Romance With Few Fouls

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

A shy retired Olympic athlete falls for his university’s basketball star but struggles to act on his feelings, scared of the consequences if it became public knowledge in K-drama ‘Ball Boy Tactics‘.

Directed by Kim Eun Hye (Why R U?, Jun & Jun), the eight-episode show is adapted from the web novel Ball Boy Tactics (볼보이 택틱스) by Ji Seung Hyeon. It stars Yeom Min Hyeok as popular gymnast Han Ji-won, who quits at the height of his career to join a photography major, where he meets and falls for Kwon Jung-woo (Choi Jae Hyeok), the campus heartthrob. As if surviving campus life as a celebrity athlete wasn’t tough enough, Ji-won has a harder time navigating his feelings for Jung-woo, who seems cold and aloof at first, but surprisingly starts to reciprocate his romantic interest.

Actor Choi Jae Hyeok resembles a shiny, handsome manhwa prince, tall, striking, with sharp features, while Yeom Min Hyeok is short, cute, and petite as Ji-won. Due to the public scrutiny he constantly faces, Ji-won overthinks everything, has low self-esteem, and often projects his own insecurities onto others. Jung-woo, meanwhile, is the more confident, straightforward, assertive character in ‘Ball Boy Tactics’, with a promising basketball career.

The lead pair’s onscreen dynamic is reminiscent of the couple from the Korean romance ‘Cherry Blossoms After Winter’. While the stories are completely different, the protagonists share similar personalities. ‘Ball Boy Tactics‘ is almost as fluffy, largely remaining a not-too-serious campus romance, where most of the drama and heartache stems from Ji-won’s lack of social skills and romantic experience.

Comic relief in the series is provided by Jung-woo’s close basketball BFFs Seung Jin (Choi Rak Yeong) and Eun-oh (Kwak Gun‑hee). Choi Rak Yeong is the most animated character, a big fanboy of Ji-won, he is loud, mischievous, and super chatty. It’s hinted that Eun-oh has more than platonic interest in Seung Jin, however, this sub-plot isn’t fully explored, leaving plenty scope for a ‘Ball Boy Tactics’ season two, even though it’s rare to see shows in this genre get another installment. But then if ‘Color Rush’ could get a part 2, so can this.

With only eight episodes that are about 30 minutes long, ‘Ball Boy Tactics’ isn’t able to explore Ji-won’s social paranoia properly either, so his character feels quite overbearingly slow at points. It’s hard to tell if the creators specifically directed Yeom Min Hyeok to portray Ji-won this way, because his performance is almost sloth-like: the character is slow to react to everything, as if his brain is loading a page on Internet Explorer in 1999. His personality therefore fluctuates between endearing and annoying.

The cinematography is bright, with a breezy palette, although the background music is used quite sparingly, so a few scenes feel awkward without the usual K-drama tonal flourishes dictating the mood in the back. On the other hand, the minimal use of music also enhances some of the natural ‘first love’ awkwardness between the lead pair.

‘Ball Boy Tactics’ steers clear of overused BL tropes, there’s no clumsy stumbling into each other or exaggerated fanservice. Ji-won and Jung-woo’s connection feels deliberate, with their romance unfolding through mutual, conscious choices. There’s no dramatic villain here either; the real challenge lies in balancing public athletic careers with the desire for privacy. The series ends on a wholesome note, with just enough left open for a spinoff to explore more.

Overall, ‘Ball Boy Tactics’ is a cutesy campus romance, that could’ve benefited from tighter pacing and perhaps two more episodes to develop the lead pair’s love-story without rushing through it.

Watch ‘Ball Boy Tactics’ on iQIYI.

Read Next: Weak Hero Class 2 Review: New Friends, Bigger Fights

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

No Choice Review: Where Choosing ‘Life’ is a Terrifying Trap

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Amy is a hardworking young woman, doing two part-time jobs, looking after her ailing drug-addict mom, all while studying for a scholarship to secure her future. But an unexpected pregnancy threatens to jeopardize her dreams. She lives in an American state where abortions are illegal, leaving her with scarily limited options in ‘No Choice’, a psychological horror film which explores the ramifications of having little autonomy over your own body. A problem that’s magnified when you aren’t born with a silver spoon.

Directed and written by Nate Hilgartner, ‘No Choice’ stars Hannah Deale as primary protagonist Amy, who starts to have terrifying nightmares that she’ll die if she doesn’t get an abortion. These nightmares are a manifestation of her living conditions: she can barely pay all her bills, any little medical mishap is a body blow to her meagre savings, and now, with a baby on the way from a random hook-up, her future looks increasingly claustrophobic and bleak.

‘No Choice’ opens with a dream sequence, which almost looks like it could be out of an old Taylor Swift video. However, soon Amy wakes up to get into the daily grind of working at a soulless convenience store job with her colleague Lucas (Robert Denzel Edwards). The story largely unfolds at the store and Amy’s apartment, the limited settings becoming emblematic of her suffocating circumstances. The only escape from these spaces comes in the form of her eerie, ominous dreams, which make the plot work as a psychological horror film. The only thing that seemed slightly odd was Amy’s flat, which didn’t look like a ‘lived-in’ space shared by two people over time, instead seeming like a fresh rental hired for the film.

Hannah Deale portrays Amy with an open vulnerability, shouldering the emotional punches with ease, making the viewer root for her character in ‘No Choice’. She is an introverted girl, with no friends except for her colleague Lucas, who is too self-absorbed in his own world to give her any real support. So, in what could be relatable to many viewers, Amy heavily relies on the advice of online ‘influencers’ on crucial matters.

Jennifer Herzog plays Amy’s drug-addict mother Debra, ironically a devout Christian, completely dependent on her young daughter, yet has the gall to suggest she drop everything and have the baby. Debra, of course, is a strict anti-abortionist, which puts Amy in a moral quandary between choosing herself and an uncertain life with a baby she’d barely be able to provide for. The characters represent two clashing schools of thought… however there’s something amiss in the mother-daughter dynamic.

As an international viewer, a woman at that, I cannot count the times I’ve felt confounded watching American movies, where young female protagonists with bright futures are made to feel like they have ‘no choice’ but to keep a baby from an accidental-unwanted pregnancy, giving you the sense that either the creators are politically motivated, or playing it too safe so as to not upset a certain section of the audience. One of the few films I can immediately think of right now, where a female protagonist didn’t think twice before deciding to abort her baby was the horror film “Immaculate”, and that’s because the baby was literally Satan’s spawn (sorry for the spoiler if you haven’t seen the film). So, in that sense, Nate Hilgartner’s film is certainly a bold and assertive take on women’s reproductive rights, even though there’s considerable suspense over Amy’s eventual fate.

There’s a scene in ‘No Choice’ where Amy suffers a minor cut on her finger, which racks up a staggering over 500 USD bill, which to me was the most surreal part of the film. Treating a wound like that wouldn’t cost more than 50 USD in a swanky private hospital and would be less than 10 in a government hospital in my country. So, the film is a scathing criticism of both the American healthcare system and the alarming state of reproductive rights of women. Interestingly, the film refrains from vilifying men or assigning external blame, choosing to let Amy’s own perspective and resilience drive the story, allowing her internal struggle to take precedence.

As time ticks by, Amy gets increasingly desperate to take decisive action, increasingly like an animal trapped in a cage rigged with spiked walls that are constantly shrinking, meant to kill the captive in the end. Hannah Deale vividly acts out Amy’s despair, anxiety, and psychological breakdown in the second half. The climax is open-ended; it doesn’t offer a conclusive resolution to Amy’s dilemma, closing her story in a wicked twist that leaves both ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ viewers plenty of fodder to debate and rage about.

Just 95 minutes long, ‘No Choice’ ultimately is an unsettling look at the psychological toll unplanned pregnancy takes on young women in places where abortion is illegal and the moral stigma surrounding it even more terrifying.

Rating: 3.5 stars on 5.

Read Next: ‘Romcon: Who the F**k is Jason Porter?’ Review

Also Read: Sirens Netflix Series Review (Short Audio Version below)

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.

Read Next: Butter Book Review: Keeps You Hungry Yet Satiated

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

Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

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.

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

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.

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

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

Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

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.

Read Next: Lost in Starlight Review: BGs Outshine Characters (Audio Version Below)

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.

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