Soar into the Sun Movie Review

Title:  Soar into the Sun

AKA:  R2B: Return to base

Genre: Action, Drama

Origin: Korea

Release date:  15 August 2012

Cast: Rain, Shin Se Kyung, Yoo Jun Sang and Lee Jong Suk

After being transferred from the Black Eagles Air Force, elite pilot Captain Jung Tae Yoon (Rain) meets Major Yi Cheol Hee (Yoo Jung Sang) unit’s top gun (ace), the unit he’s transferred to. Tae Yoon was transferred because of his recklessness, so meeting a ‘by the book’ guy like Cheol Hee, the two bud heads. While at the unit, he gets introduced to the mechanic ace, Technical Sergeant Yoo Se Young (Shin Se Kyung), whom he instantly is attracted to, but it doesn’t seem to be mutual - she seems to dislike pilots. But somehow the two become closer, as they spend more time together, and they find out that the both share the same love for flying.

When a competition, an air-to-surface match between Eagle and Falcon squads, is around the corner, Tae Yoon gets the chance to get re-transferred to the Black Eagles, if he wins, but decides to stay.

Everything collides, when suddenly a threat from the enemy closes on.

Okay I kind of wrote this review plainly, but it is actually better in real life. The movie is good, but it has many flaws especially when you grew up with American action movies (which this is trying to copy in a way) like I did. There are many small things that bugged me, like nothing was really “intimate”, except for a couple of situations: by intimate I mean full hearted. The lead couple doesn’t have enough scenes, the major also needs a bit more heartbreaking scenes considering his past, and more than 30 min for the climax. I felt that the air force used too much of the movies time, WITHOUT being a part of the movie. On the other hand, very good made, like really quality movie! Acting wise, nothing I dislike.

Lastly, the recommendation is for people who like just the different kind of Korean action movie :D

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½/ 3½ out of 5 hearts

A Love To Kill Review

Title: A Love To Kill

AKA: This love I want to kill / The love of death / Knock out by love

Genre: Romance, Melodrama

Episodes:  16

Broadcast period: 2005-Oct to 2005-Dec

Cast: Rain, Shin Min Ah, Kim Sa Rang and Lee Ki Woo.

Cha Eun Seok (Shin Min Ah) is a rising superstar with a sad past and dominant family. She had fallen in love with Kang Min Goo (Kim Young Jae) a poor mechanic, who one day suddenly disappeared. After she gets drunk one night and son of a chairman Kim Joon Sung (Lee Ki Woo) tries to help her, a misunderstanding occurs and the two are filmed and gone viral. In order to save her image and his reputation, Joon Sung announces that they are getting engaged, even though Eun Seok refuses, her family pressures her to.

Kang Bok Goo (Rain) a poor kick-boxer, and also Min Goo’s younger brother, lives together with his trainer and his mother in a small house. Also livening there is Han Da Jung (Kim Sa Rang) his “girlfriend” who once before in order to save Bok Goo threw herself in front of a burning log - leaving her scarred with burns. Feeling guilty and responsible, he has sworn to take care of her. After not seeing his brother for 10 years because of a fall out, they finally meet again, only for Bok Goo to see his brother jump from a building, and end in an vegetable state.

Looking through Min Goo’s things, Bok Goo realizes that Min Goo and Eun Seok had a past together, which infuriates him thinking his brother would try killing himself for a ‘bitch’. Seeing that she is living as if nothing is wrong, he decides to take revenge on her - if she can’t be with her brother, she is going to be like him - so he becomes her bodyguard. The two spend time together, and the two slowly fall in love with each other…

The beginning was good, but somehow it just became bad and long, not to mention the bad ending. I have to admit that I liked Rain and Shin Min Ah, but the drama is just too heavy for my taste. Too many things at once, too much crying, too much sworn vengeance... Too much of everything, just not enough love. It’s funny because I like the writer (Sorry I Love You, Thank You, Nice Guy), but then again, heavy dramas with shitty ends. Okay… I don’t know whether or not I recommend it, but it has Rain in it, one of his good dramas (not a fan of Fugitive honestly), but still heavy.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts