It doesn't succeed much as a racing movie, the beginning and last race contains the most heart pumping moments. The rest are so blah that you don't care that a girl is his mechanic and he seemingly has no day job besides brooding over his vengeance. Slightly more believable than gangsters playing soccer as an alternative to fighting in “Mongkok Story.”

Watching the races got as boring as “Grenadier” eventually became. Worst part about a straight to DVD movie about racing is when the racing is bad, as is the case here. It seems like they only filmed on one S curve, so each time the cars are side by the side, the road looks awfully familiar. It doesn't help the cause when the races are sped up, like the way "Just Follow Law" sped up its scenes for comedic value.

There are a couple of cool shots such as when the Silvia is punking a Civic in front of him so hard that he drifts around the Civic to pass him up and the Civic spins out. That also happens to a Skyline R32. The other cruising scenes where it is not sped up gives a good shine to the cars. But my favorite scene is when the Camaro driver unloads his Camaro and it shows him going through all the steps: hitting a lever, unhooking a latch and watching the car be lowered. All of this takes five minutes and you are thinking, why are you wasting my time? In fact, this scene pretty much sums up the entire movie.

Most of this takes place in a summer school or a boarding camp for athletes who are skilled in aquatic sports. So you have an nice mix of swimmers and divers. Plus the fact that they are all teenagers and it is a coed dorm, it gives an excuse for the cast to be in swimming attire most of the time.

A girl passes a guy after swimming practice and she calls him a murderer. We are stunned and can't wait to find out more to this story. It turns out that their grandparents ran competing candy shops and her grandfather died as result of losing his business; in high school reasoning, this makes her grandson responsible. This all does not matter really because they go on dates and both are smitten with each other; until another guy shows up. He is everything that candy shop guy isn't: older, richer, drives a BMW, holds the country's (not just region or state’s) current swimming record and the girl has had a crush on him longer. What is candy shop guy to do but to attempt to break rich guy's record to prove to the girl that he is the better guy.

But not before rich guy gets into a car accident and it is unlikely he will walk much less swim. Don't be sad because he does become well again and it is only a matter of time until the ultimate showdown match with the prize being the record, a magazine feature article and possibly helping the girl narrow down her choice of suitors. The story sounds shallow and it is throughout but something about the J-pop tunes and the way the characters throw themselves into their roles makes this as much fun as watching Ashley Tisdale ham it up in "High School Musical."

This is not helped by the fact that this is not a good movie. A depressing movie can be effective if you care about the characters, but the people presented are very dislikeable. Ha Ji-Won as a boxer who saw her daddy get beat down as a little girl and now wants to be a professional boxer, not as hot as two girls fighting might suggest. The dorky guy is a gangster sent to punk out the poor villagers out of their homes; he is as pathetic as the suits he wears. There are also the poor siblings who have to collect cardboard at the market so that their roofs won't leak onto their heads. This is some heartbreaking subject matter which doesn't lend itself to be something enjoyed. Even people who read tabloids just to revel in other people's misery will not feel this. Briefly it tries to have gangster guy and boxer girl have some romance comedy feelings going on, but it is quickly dashed away when gangster guy's mob family comes by and literally steps on people's fingers just so that they will sign over their property. The depression never ends when this is a story about poor people and their daily struggles to survive. There are some comedic bits about being in the country and trying to adjust when you are from the city (no internet, sharing one toilet with the neighborhood, no gas stations). But mostly it fails.

So the main chick is a manga artist who had only one hit series and it concerned a guy on a motorcycle. However her following creations were not on the same level of awesomeness, consequently her near bankrupt book publisher asks her to write a sequel to her hit from 12 years ago. She believes that she can not because the guy who was the basis of the story died a few weeks after the last issue hit. While this is happening she leaves a party and gets struck by a truck while crossing the street. The manga chick wakes up as if she has been transported to a real-life sequel of her series where the motorcycle guy is living and takes care of her. We are not sure if it is a dream or if it is a ghost world. It's reminiscent of the moment right after the baby is born in "Rosemary's Baby" or the scene where the girl revisits the boardwalk in "Carnival of Souls." After three days spent on the beach with motorcycle guy she wakes up in a hospital matching the three days which has eclipsed since she was hit by the truck.

What exactly it all means is left up to the viewer. If you want it to be a ghost movie or some delusional coma dream, then that is what it means. It stops being interesting after she wakes up and tries to deal with the real world. At any point you expect her to go Eric Stoltz in "Some Kind of Wonderful" crazy and commit suicide to rejoin him. But the movie never capitalizes on her three day excursion and it is as unused as a plot device as Bae Doo-Na in "Tube." There are a few arty scenes which will stay with you because of the way it is framed: when her autograph to an enthusiastic fan is left used as a coaster, the overturned motorcycle on the road with its wheels still spinning and when manga chick picks up her giant manga brush because it just reminds me of an episode of "School Rumble" too much. This movie is a very esoteric movie that might reach people who have love and lost and don't believe that they can recapture that moment again. But for people who know how to move on, it does not reach its goal of being a pure love drama.

What sets off the naughty meter is when he fantasizes about her playing the drums. It starts off innocently with her banging the drums in her room, and then it slowly becomes a strip tease where seemingly with each hit of the drums, some article of clothing comes off until it is just some stickers covering her parts. Which is all the nudity you get to see in the whole movie except for another pre-shower scene where her bare behind is on display. Even more weird is when you consider that all the times the guy sees the girl, she is wearing a lot of clothing; in the cafe, her maid uniform has a mile's worth of ribbon and on their fishing date she has an anorak like the guy from "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

In-between there is a story about the guy awkwardly asking the waitress he gets massages from in the backroom out on a date. She goes on one date with him; however there is another patron at the cafe who is jealous of the time he spends with her. Not surprisingly, stalker look-a-like dude actually is a stalker and it is up to nerd number one to save her when he goes berserk after nerd guy posts details of their date on an internet forum. The plot is simple and there is enough talking to move the story. The perverts did not seem ashamed to be seen at the cafe and the waitresses acted as if their jobs were normal. Your total enjoyment depends on how cute you find the main actress.

Until the middle part when the guy finally meets Seka at her house and all the fantasies are dashed much like in "Maid in Manhatten" when the rich guy finds out Jennifer Lopez was just pretending to be rich. That part was such a let down compared to the previous nostalgic view of the adult industry and how it was all better in the golden age. The narrator seemed to like the fantasy Seka more than the actual Seka, much like in "American Psycho" where Christian Bale flexed his muscles in front of a mirror for his own entertainment even when he was with those two hookers. That part is rather apparent when he visits Seka and the rooms are dim and she talks about her rather normal life after leaving the scene and the usual cases of what caused her departure. It is anti-climatic but it does tell the story of the industry through the journey of a search. There are some rather hardcore nudity scenes which are brief but are very telling.

Slowly the stories of why each guy is there unfold, much like "Clue." However "Clue" had more actresses while the only girl in this movie is the comic book store owner. Eventually she dates "wanted for murder" guy and tries to make the store more prosperous. However the main point of the store film-speaking wise is to gather a group of people who have wronged the government by speaking their minds and to vocalize why their arrest warrants would be fruitless if they had true freedom of speech. Their stories are heartfelt because they were doing what would be considered just but are singled out by the government so that they could be made an example for others. But the way it is presented is rather dull and you hope for a police raid or two to kick it up a notch.

This is a love story about a girl torn between her boyfriend and her brother she hasn't seen since she was a child. Crackles with more incestuous heat than Spike Lee filming his sister's love scene in "Mo' Better Blues." The boyfriend is envious of the time she spends with her brother, while the brother doesn't think he is a good match. Who would be a better guy for her, he never says. Feelings get dragged and left hanging. Both guys are from opposing schools or gangs or maybe it is all the same. Tempers and cell phone misunderstandings arise.

After everything, it is surprisingly involving to the very clichéd end. You wonder who she will spend more time with and how it can possibly end after everything it has thrown at you. For that it works. There are some memorable scenes: the kiss in the cafe where a J song suddenly plays and everything is in slow motion, the beginning fight scene in the tunnel where school kids do jump kicks off walls and a rain scene which rivals the scene in “Degrassi TNG” season 2 where Sean waits for Emma under a tree after her mom’s wedding. Just don't expect a whole lot of fighting scenes.

The funniest movies always have the simplest; some might call it the dumbest premise. Here, a sci-fi club wants to go back in time to find a remote control to fix the AC. One little action like that has so many unpredictable consequences. The first ten minutes has a sloppier editing job than "All I Wanna Do" but then it corrects itself by showing that this was a result of a lot of time travel within the same place and time. A ton of side characters and places brought up for no reason are also explained in this manner; people disappear and reappear and it all makes sense due to this excuse crazily enough. This movie ties up more loose ends than a sandwich shop which wraps it's goodies in ribbons.

Halfway through, the movie starts questioning fate, predetermination and "A Brief History of Time," but it is done so effectively you will not end up dazed. There is even an in-class discussion about the possibilities about time travel, but surprisingly that does not stop the movie in its track the way Halle Berry's pool scene did in "Swordfish." The characters play wonderfully off each other because you can believe their motives for going back in time and that they are friends with each other.

Just like in "Seven Samurai," there should be an intermission. The perfect place is right near the one hour mark where all three of the main characters talk about the future when the udon craze dies down. This is where a dramatic shift occurs. You can tell because reporter girl stops wearing her glasses. The lightheartedness of the previous section stops although the montages never end and the real point of the film is presented. The first half will have you craving udon the way "Grosse Point" craved viewership. By the imaginary intermission time you will more stuffed from imaginary udon than the “The Bourne Ultimatum” was stuffed with unnecessary cuts.

In a way udon is given more credit than it deserves, but that seems to be the film’s mission. It is amazing the different types of udon there is and the way people eat it. The people gazing aspect of eating at restaurants is intensified by how freakish some people are and the quirky restaurants which serve them. The main characters are fun too; they are as joyful as Gap commercials in their pursuit of udon. It seemed like no one ate anything other than that in the whole movie.

It is hard to say who started the cheating premise. Obviously the guy and girl are wrong, but which one is more at fault? Along the way you get to see a lot of some-what boring getting it on scenes in different locations. What is weird is that only one of them has Um Jung-Hwa showing some flesh, as if to assert authority to the audience that she is calling the shots. Along the way Um takes photos of them together in imaginary husband and wife type of settings which the guy doesn't like at all. They even go shopping and take trips together. All of her actions make it seem like she wants to get caught, while at the same time not hoping for it. She is crazy enough to handle two relationships.

In the end there is a throwaway line where you realize the girl's lies might be bigger than the affair itself. Everyone has a point in their relationship where they go, "What if" and some might have even taken it further. This movie makes you believe that it can work while scaring you away from it at the same time.

There is a housewife's first time searching for an online hook up and another chick who probably had a few already. They see each other from time to time exiting their motel rooms with guys who are definitely not their husbands and eventually come to bond after a too close call of almost being caught in the motel. The beginning contains a lot of getting it on scenes and the awkwardness of meeting people online for the sole purpose of dirtying sheets. After a mad-cap chase scene away from one girl's husband, it becomes a comedy of sorts where the cheating couples continuingly try to elude capture and the husbands attempting to forgive while playing dumb to the past.

The short haired chick captures the screen as much as she did in "The War of Flowers." My favorite scene is when she is running away from the motel and doesn't know what to do or where to go. It is not at all like the scene where the Xavier talks about the perfect woman in "Les Poupees Russes," but it gets my vote. Her voice is deep but she speaks in the high pitched Korean way, so it gets really conflicting at times.

In a way you see why the wives would cheat and continue to cheat while their husbands proceed as if everything is fine, but the film does not delve further than that. All that could be forgiven if more of the movie was focused on the comedy aspects of trying to cheat on the sly, but instead it tries to have a serious beginning and end and that is where it’s not really successful. A better movie about affairs would be "Marriage is a Crazy Thing."

There is a plot about finding a girl who is the supposed heir to a fortune, but the bad guys want the girl to sign away those fortunes to them. However in order for that to happen they have to find the chick. But let us forget about that and talk about the musical performance. So the chick is found and she takes her boyfriend of sorts to a club. Usually when a club scene happens, a fight breaks out or some meaningful dialogue is exchanged inside or outside. Instead, they pop inside, hear J perform "Timeout" then he drops her home. The whole purpose then of the club scene was to see J sing and do that weird punching hands dance. Which is enough for me.

There are some fights involving killing the rich guy, rescuing girls and having the girls snatched away again. It seems interesting at first but gets dragged down by lack of emotion from the fighters. Sure someone falls off a car but no one is having fun and the story line has a few holes or two, so it is like "China Strike Force." However things end on a bright note when another song by J is played in the credits.

It is now a year's anniversary after "one-sided love" guy's death, now the people involved in the tragedy see ghosts, not his ghost, but spooky things happen to them. The guy used to write stories leave them in places where the hot chick can read them. It is barely one step up from leaving crumpled messages in someone's locker. Ultimately the stories are fantasies of him and her doing anything together besides reading and writing but she doesn't find it disturbing the least but rather cute. Because she has a boyfriend and waves to geeky guy from time to time. The movie would be better if more ghosts or scares popped up. Instead, it is a normal teenage movie where they go to class and worry about upcoming entrance exams but adding to that stress worries about seeing ghosts in mirrors or picking up haunted cell phones. There is even a few musical asides where we find hot chick fronting a band that is as out of place as Andrew Shue on "Melrose Place." Weird flashbacks of the dead guy and hot girl's times together keeps the movie flowing, although most of those moments involve guy telling girl where the story he just wrote is hidden and the girl reading it. Much like "Happy Ghost," the guy seems like such a loser when living and as a ghost. There is one out of the blue joke where a porn movie gets played in front of hundreds of stunned students in an auditorium that is absolutely out of place and brilliantly setup. Other than that, this is a teen movie hiding out as a ghost movie. "Whispering Corridors" this is not. But the lead actresses are pretty and fun to look at.

Events unfold when the school teacher can't stop moping from accidentally killing a guy on a rugby field while the school girl comes around his apartment and they have a make believe husband/wife life together on an abandoned boat. Then the chick goes crazy not to "Bittersweet Life" proportions but which almost makes up for its lack of excitement during the first half of the movie. The twist at the end is nice and explains why she is so distant and guarded about her home life. But you have to waddle through a lot of boring seduction scenes and wanting to tell the school teacher to get over killing that one guy years ago and to quit hiding out at a private school.

Overall this is a move that is based on lies and secrets to hides its basic flaw of not having a noteworthy story to tell. The teacher/student relationship angle is taboo in a way but it feels like that they deserve each other due to how they behave.

The plot does have two guys picking up a briefcase filled with a fancy self-contained computer that is capable of world domination or something to that effect. Figuring out how to break into the suitcase is how they meet the chick because all pretty girls have a hidden talent in the movies that is never immediately obvious. There is a loan shark collecting payment on the guy from "My Sassy Girl" and they hate each other in the "Another 48 Hrs" way. They come upon a briefcase held by a dead foreigner; afterwards neither wants to part with it before they know how much they can pawn it for. So it is a series of escapes, deaths and wondering where else they can hide from the real bad guys. This movie is sort of fun, but really rambles on from one scene to another in the "Barbershop" sort of way with the only focal point being the briefcase and the mutual hate between the two main guys.

It becomes serious later on when one cop dabbles in drugs that are above the tiny crimes that they are "allowed" to commit while on duty. This could bring up a set of ethics questions about how much of the unwritten rules apply to one person while not to another. Instead this movie turns everything into comedy. Criminals beaten up during interrogations is as naturally funny as sitcom jokes about mother-in-laws because it is so easily relatable. Everyone has a story where they felt powerless by a cop exercising their will, not in the Matt Dillon "Crash" way, but in general instances where the cop overstepped their boundaries. This movie lets the audience watch the cops do it while not feeling guilty. After a while the continual law breaking becomes tiring and not funny, but when they work, they are give off a nice giggle.

Not for the squeamish. You get to see the different fetishes of people in Japan, besides the whole underage girl sex services aspect. My favorite would have to be the guy who got off on pre-chewed schoolgirl gum. This also shows the normal plotting of an AV actress. When she is younger, she is in demand and can choose whatever role. When she is older she gets the less favorable roles which also happen to pay less. There is one scene before the shooting is about to commence that shows the first-time actress upbeat about the whole deal, but starts crying before they get it on. Watching this movie makes you review your feelings about viewing smut after seeing everyone involved in the creation it. From the talent scouts to the casting director who thinks the casting couch is a prerequisite, to the AV girls working at brothels to pad their income.

For people who work in sales, you get to see the ultimate sales pitch when the talent scouts hustle on the busy Tokyo streets; when one girl says no, they quickly hone onto the next potential commission until one says yes. Surprisingly some girls fall for this because of the excitement and quick cash. The guys feel guilty but after a while they get over it because it is just a job and they are only providing a service. The girls get over this by shopping and having more sex. At the end there is the ultimate taboo you see coming half-way that will stop the whole movie; it made me feel like the time I yelled at Brad Pitt not to do it at the end of "Se7en." This movie is so depressing but interesting at the same time. Plenty of nudity, but it is of the vulnerable kind if you are into that.

Those moments are fleeting but its spontaneity is what makes Muay Thai so exciting to watch. The last match is sort of a let down, but seeing all the takedowns and knockouts is more exciting than in "Porky's" when the kids are crawling through the ventilation pipes. There is some dancing by some girls during a break that is as pointless as Puff Daddy speaking at the end of Notorious Big's "Big Poppa" song, but that is not really a flaw to some people because you also see girls in bikinis between matches. Not a lot of matches take place, maybe 6 or 8 with three rounds each but every one has some special moments, much like in "Stand by Me" where the kids sit around the campfire to hear the barfing story.

The event is held in Hong Kong, so all the commentary is spoken in Cantonese and the only time English subtitles pop up is during the recap of previous fights and the fighter's pre-interviews. The music is of the tradition Muay Thai kind and it only gets annoying and repetitive during the slow parts of a fight.

You get to learn the many different punches and kicks and how timing can turn their uses from evasion, to setup and attack. I never knew there were so many different ways an elbow can be used. Either through a backward swinging way, to the back of the head or through a frontal assault. Besides evading a knife attack, the real world demos include how to disarm a gun while delivering an elbow/ punch/ kick and the right times to use a flying kick. The recaps are great because it shows how certain moves just taught leads to a knockout and those matches look pretty brutal; they contain more blood than the beginning of "Carrie."

This movie does for saran wrap and fried food what "Sex is Zero" did for egg sandwiches. Or what Kevin Smith did for trench coats and what "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" did for Windex. The main girl is kind of boring, but her cast of friends work; including the guy who can't get it on, the guy who wants to get it on, the bartender who always has a bowl of soup or concert tickets handy and the room-mate who acts like she is inexperienced in the "Marrying the Mafia" handclaps way. The end is pretty forced, but this is not so bad considering all the failed hookups and jokes preceeding it.

There wasn't much violence, but watching the growth of a nobody to somebody is worth the ride. Of course all the violence is shown in the trailer. An easy comparison would be to "Scarface" but there isn't an equivalent of exciting monologues or scenes that can be restaged without losing its efficiency. One thing that bugged me is how they were able to reap so much profit. I can see how since they were the first ones slanging that they would be getting a heftier cut than the ones down the line, but El Rey seems so middle management to be affording his lifestyle.

As the main poo, he does not move so he has to wait for events to happen to him instead of creating chances. The resulting lessons about sacrifice and accepting who you are is more schmaltzy than the ending of "In and Out." There are some inadvertent chuckles, and a lot where nothing happens due to the poo complaining about not having an agenda or a day planner like those kids profiled in "Born Rich."

Good if you like your girls as sad looking as the chick from "1 Litre of Tears" but with more makeup. Through it all there is some guidance if you are looking to pimp out a troubled girl, not a lot, but some that "Lilya-4-Ever" glanced over. This is easy to accomplish because the girls are morally lost and will take any advice, even if it comes in the form of a slick producer, mark, trick, supposed friend or co-worker. For a movie about an AV star, there is no nudity, just some implied sex. There is not much of an AV life to speak of. She is on two video covers, goes shopping a lot and is recognized inside the bar she works at, but ignored elsewhere. Those film credits do not boost her clientele since every other girl working there apparently has a film record. A couple of lessons to be learned here: Don't sign contracts without a lawyer or really thinking through them. Don't believe the guy with a big man-purse, even if it is filled with money. And if you are alone and your guy friends try to get you inside a van containing two other guys, run.

Some relationships do contain a lot of bad jokes and awkward situations no one but the couple could understand why they cannot move past. Often those make for good movies. Not here. Here it felt like they just needed to throw in problems to see how the characters would react. No one grows from the previous mistake or shows anything worth identifying with. You never get anxious over what is going to happen because you realize that the director isn't crazy enough to do something drastic to change the character's lives, so you know that eventually the kids will end up all right.

This is where the possible entertainment grinds to a halt. Unlike other similar movies with dead bodies as supporting characters, ("Little Miss Sunshine" or "Weekend at Bernie’s"--actually, anything starring Andrew McCarthy), there are not many laugh out loud hijinks involving the body or anyone in the car. Everyone doesn't act the least bit freaked out by the corpse. Mika actually starts to bond with it, she picks out her coffin dress and does her makeup. There is a long scene involving running out of money and trying to rob people. It gets boring and dragged out, these things happen. Sometimes the assistant director takes over or the director loses enthusiasm for filming. All Mika Nakashima fans should be happy because she looks prettier here than in "Nana." She is still very goth and skinny looking, but better than the drag queen makeup "Nana" had her in. A tradeoff would be that she is not in as many tank tops and short shorts. As a real kicker you get a sense of how short she is. Not just to her co-stars, but also to the extras and possibly those five pound bags of tortilla chips from Costco.

The creators do not know how to keep the sickos from watching it solely for the death scenes because their movies were meant to be artistic pieces with some violence thrown in to show that the world is not a happy place. What is weird is how they don't seem shaken by what they have witnessed years ago, they are more bothered by the censorship, alterations of their films, and the slew of awful cannibal and Mondo everything else that came afterwards.

This movie is borderline passable. The English spoken by Iron Palm will bother you like Sarah Jessica Parker's constant narration in "Sex and the City." We don't really get why the girl would even think that it's a hard decision between those two guys unless she was about to flip her current boyfriend and was looking for an excuse to do it. Iron Palm's devotion for the chick is as unrelenting as Emilio Estevez's character in "St. Elmo's Fire." It is like every other Korean romance movie ever except that the setting is in America. Unlike "Rush Hour" there some but no constant comic misgivings about clashing cultures. Everything is pretty much the same as if it was set in Korea. A lot more English is spoken and more foreign extras, but that's about it. There aren’t any big racist showdowns like in "Pedicab Driver" or "Better Luck Tomorrow." If you like your romance movies tepid with pleasant surprises that will please but won't fulfill you, then here you go.

No one is normal in this movie. Everyone has so many flaws that they seem normal in comparison. Funny scenes involve the initial cosplaying episode in her apartment; the anime convention and the final scene in the convention center that will equal parts break your heart and make you laugh. This movie is as colorful as "Nana" but with an actual story and characters that are fun to watch onscreen.

This movie is so depressing and boring that afterwards you'll feel like selling your Morning Musume and Ayupan figures because you don't want to end up like them. It is not "The Amazing Race" where he dashes from one clue to another. It's a slow scavenger hunt for hints. During that journey we get to meet other collectors such as the guy who is so devoted to Sci-Fi that he buys a Delorean. Or the guy who collects rare items just to destroy them. In the end it tries to speak its peace about materialism but gets nowhere. The collectors aren't happy when they get the items, the movie watchers are sad that there’s no payoff, the writers felt like the director could have done better, the director hopes that it can find a cult following on video. It is a series of setbacks.