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[Vultural]

Angels Without Wings - 2006 - Japan

Angels Without Wings - 2006 - 6/10
AKA - Tsubasa no Oreta Tenshitachi // 翼の折れた天使たち

 
Late night J-dorama follows four different girls (one per episode) who have gotten lost in Tokyo.
One works as an escort so she can buy expensive fashions.  Another makes adult films.
One works a phone sex line, another is lucky with gambling, unlucky in love.
Each receive unexpected assistance, guidance, and there is something of a closing moral.
I imagine most of the females are idols, trying to break into film.
Watchable, neither cloying nor preachy.  Good stories for those about to fledge.
English subtitles = https://subscene.best/subscene/154050

[Vultural]

Madame Blanc Mysteries: S01 - 2021 - UK

Madame Blanc Mysteries: S01 - 2021 - 6/10 

 
After her husband dies, wife Sally (antiques dealer) goes to France to tidy affairs.
Where she learns he had been murdered by his “other” wife.
Whom no one ever describes, even though they all saw her.
Spotty local mysteries follow, with a weak, ongoing arc of the husband’s death.
While set in France, most of the cast are Brits in postcard series in the cozy world.
Alright if you curb your brain – I tagged the murderer by the first episode.

[Vultural]

Hotel Europa - 2021 - Germany

Hotel Europa - 2021 - 6/10
AKA - Das Weiße Haus am Rhein

 
Emil returns to Germany after World War I, carrying a dark secret.
The victorious French have requisitioned the family Dreesen Hotel, yet Emil is able to broker a deal allowing the family and staff to remain, giving the French commanders luxury service.
The hotel is struggling, although Emil has new ideas, bold concepts, at odds with traditions.
Two-part series goes from 1918-1938, an era of uneasy peace, building to war.
No dates are mentioned, so those with a knowledge of history and events might fare better.
Dignitaries include Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, both of whom actually stayed in the hotel.
The “events” are eerily accurate, family dramas – who knows.

[Vultural]

Crisis In Six Scenes - 2016 - USA

Crisis In Six Scenes - 2016 - 6/10 

 
Late 1960’s, a free-spirited radical invades the home of her quasi-aunt and husband, straitlaced middle-class types.
Lenny (a good Miley Cyrus in a one note role) is on the run following a bombing and shootouts.
She is opposed to all isms save for the utopian Communism.
Woody Allen’s foray into a series has its moments and gags, but often treads water.
Aside from fashion models, most 60’s agitators were more scruffy.  Lenny is Hollywood.
Best episodes are the first and last (homage to A Night At The Opera).
Historical references seem like cliches, plus a lot of characters for six half hour episodes.
Not as bad as the Allen or Cyrus hate legions decry.

[Vultural]

Kafka - 2024 - Germany

Kafka - 2024 - 7/10

 
Inspired construct / retelling of the writer’s personal life, work life, writing, outlook.
Kafka’s domineering family, his circle of friends, suffering women.
Then there are the ever-present men in dark suits or trench coats.
Major works are shown as daydreams or nightmares.
 

 
Visual style enhances the overall surreal outlook.
Tone at once paranoid, pointless, despairing, and painfully funny.
Kafka is among a select few who realize life is meaningless, with participants the butt of a cosmic joke.

[Vultural]

IXE-13 et la course à l'uranium - 2024 - Canada

IXE-13 et la course à l'uranium - 2024 - 6/10
 

 
1946, Canada, World War II is over and the special espionage team disbanded.
There are missing containers of uranium, however, so the team squares off
Against Soviet agents, against a clandestine Nazi group, against nervous politicians.
Follow the glowing vials and you will be fine.
Canadian series has too many characters, some barely utilized.
Motivations and alliances swivel often, as if they don’t know each other.
Narrative is intriguing, but sloppy.  Tries too hard.
In French, beware inept computer subtitles.

[Vultural]

Blood Free - 2024 - S Korea

Blood Free - 2024 - 7/10
AKA - Jibaejong  // 지배종
 

 
Chae-woon, ex-Naval officer, is recruited / assigned to bodyguard the CEO of BF.
Blood Free, synthetic meat, meant to end the era of human carnivores.
Ranchers don’t like it, nor do the processing plants, nor do self-righteous protestors.
Then there are business rivals, who will steal or murder to appropriate BF’s data.
Original series mixes speculation with espionage, along with fights and ballistics.
Final ending, while certainly bloody, will fizzle for many.
The conclusion leaves stray threads and questions.
Being a Western (Disney) financed series, difficult to foresee if there will be a S02.
If you are comfortable with uncertainty, this is a gripping, action-punctuated show.

[Vultural]

True Colors - 2022 - Australia

True Colors - 2022 - 7/10

 
The driver died, although everything about the death is mysterious.
Following a car accident on community lands, police assign the case to a detective who long left the community.
Even though she was born there, she is immediately stonewalled.
Relatives, local police, artists, along with well-meaning exploiters.
Excellent “outside looking in” series, lifting a curtain off a culture unknown to most.
Men and women, separate art, separate rules and taboos.
Inhabitants want the murder solved, without meddling outsiders.
Cultural side is compelling, while the police stuff is pretty slipshod.

[Vultural]

Kleo: S02 - 2024 - Germany

Kleo: S02 - 2024 - 7/10

 
The second season picks up with everyone’s favorite ex-Stasi assassin chasing the red suitcase.
As before, Kleo must navigate between police, KGB, CIA, treacherous colleagues and the worst – relatives.
And she is still saddled with space cadet Thilo, and incompetent lawman Sven.
This series is shorter and moves very fast, possibly because there is such a body count!
The spark of joy that informed the killings in S01 is replaced by blasé efficiency.
Kleo also learns how utilize Thilo and Sven, despite their deficiencies, since they seem the only two she can trust.
Characters come and go, yet there are enough of a core for viewers to stay oriented.
This DOES conclude, with a small side door at the end for a potential third season.

[Vultural]

Stop Nyqvist - 2022 - Finland

Stop Nyqvist - 2022 - 6/10
AKA - Pysäyttäkää Nyqvist

 
Heads at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs want a patsy to blame for their own blunders.
Foolish intern Nyqvist is pushed to the head a newly founded secret service.
Thing is, Nyqvist is motivated and earnest.  A go-getter.
Hoping to impress his Finnish bosses, he sinks a sub!
International crisis #1.  Then he realizes he has a highly proficient assassin on his team.
Later, two assassins!
A Swedish hitman arrives to whack our hero.
Eight part series spoofs espionage thrillers, though I confess some Finland references eluded me.

[Vultural]

Disappearing London - 2006 - UK

Disappearing London - 2006 - 6/10

 
Hosted by Suggs (frontman of Madness), this explores ordinary places, now slipping away.
The dogtracks, haberdasher, custom shoes.  The umbrella store, working class cafe.
The tram, bakery, the lido, the tobacco shop, the rivermen….
Suggs is charming throughout, never bemoaning, never complaining.
Many of these places are delightful reminders, yet Time and Progress steamrolls all in its path.
These episodes, I believe, are available on YouTube.  Two seasons.

[Vultural]

Murders In Sandhamn - 2010 - Sweden

Murders In Sandhamn - 2010 - 6/10
AKA - Morden I Sandhamn

 
A body is washed ashore.  Police arrive and – “Hey, didn’t we go to school together?”
Yes, amidst a couple of murders, the detective and married wife and mom of two feel the sparks.
The detective’s inexperienced underling does the field work while he lingers.
You want a cleverly constructed mystery, this ain’t it.
Devotees of soap opera TV that runs 45 installments, enter friends!
Thank God the first season ran for only three episodes.  I’m done.

[Vultural]

The Hunt For Salamander - 2020 - Bulgaria

The Hunt For Salamander - 2020 - 6/10
AKA - Otdel Izdirvane
 

 
Kamen leads the 4-man MWD team.  An
MWD is an elite, national Missing Persons unit.  It is an above the law, violent, crew.
After a morning jogger is murdered for no reason, they hone in on a recently released convict.
What follows are assassinations, frame-jobs, cover-ups, interference from politicos.
A trail begins to surface (feels improvised to me).
Late in the series, we hear about the Salamander organization – think SPECTRE.
Europol has been after Salamander, yet the organization is completely hidden.
Villains get shuffled, the narrative goes into a higher gear, and then … the show flat out ends!
Thirteen episodes, loose threads galore.  What happened?  They run outta money?

 

Edited December 31, 2024 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Forest Of The Missing - 2022 - France

Forest Of The Missing - 2022 - 6/10   
AKA - La Forêt des Disparus
 

 
A series of graves are discovered in the borderland between France and Germany.
All men, all murdered.  From recently to decades earlier.
Jurisdiction is murky, so both nations share in the investigation.
As does a judge currently on hiatus, suffering amnesia, though disturbed by flashbacks.
In and of itself, the plot is thin broth, although there are compelling side stories and detours.
The core is feminist empowerment, which I could never decide if it was preachy or mirrored today’s cultural zeitgeist.

 

Edited December 31, 2024 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Line Walker - 2014 - Hong Kong

Line Walker - 2014 - 6/10
AKA - Si Tou Hang Jeh // 使徒行者
 

 
Excess in every sense of the word.
Just before he is killed, the police handler deletes all files of his UCs (undercover agents).
The new handler has to find out who they are, what their assignments are.
Lengthy (30 episodes) HK-drama is long on action and melodrama.
Narratives build, partially conclude while gliding into a deadlier level.
Yes, and in many ways, this resembles a shooter game.
Cringe worthy comic relief, sexual frustration jokes, embarrassing romance elements, songs.
That’s why the remote has a fast-forward button.
Overlong, yet it does conclude.  No never-to-resolve cliffhanger.

 

Edited December 31, 2024 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Parasyte: The Grey - 2024 - S Korea

Parasyte: The Grey - 2024 - 7/10
AKA - 기생수: 더 그레이
 

 
Alien spores drop through our atmosphere.
Landing, sluglike entities seek human, enters, devouring brains and taking control.
Once in the new body, it’s hungry.  And its preferred meal?  Yeah, tastes like chicken!
Team Grey is the government agency, aware of the invasion, trying to quell.
Several narratives in this six-part K-drama.
Aliens carving territory, local cops dealing with Black Ops.
A cheap thug, an honorable cop, a girl where the possession failed.
Sidespin of the anime Parasyte Maxim (2019), itself derived from the 1989 manga.
In-between, a two-part film in 2014.
Near the end, I was highly doubtful, yet this DOES reach a conclusion.

 

[Vultural]

McCartney 3, 2,1 - 2021 - USA

McCartney 3, 2,1 - 2021 - 8/10
 

 
Documentary I had resisted for a long time.
Rick Rubin interviews Paul McCartney in a studio.
Thorny topics avoided, they discuss Beatles and Wings.
Predominantly, the songs, and the art of song craft.
How compositions came about, inspirations, learning curves.
Informative, with an easy tone, as Paul, growing comfortable, shares memories.
Those who worried about any sort of one-upsmanship, fear not.
Superb, inspired presentation of how an interview should be done.

 

Edited December 31, 2024 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Vernon Subutex - 2019 - France

Vernon Subutex - 2019 - 6/10  
 

 
Opening flash of his 90’s heyday, when Vernon ran Revolver, a trendy Parisian record shop,
Wild customers, camaraderie, sex, drugs, good times!
Bump a few decades, no more music store, broke, Vernon is evicted and out on the streets.
A chronic mooch, a list of Facebook “friends”, he possesses an easy charm despite the growing dishevelment.
Then there are the tapes, left to him by a deceased, fallen musician.
Nine half-hour episodes that, I gather, barely scratch the surface of an influential novel trilogy.
The framework resembles a quest, the grail a testament.
Lightweight adaptation.

 

Edited December 31, 2024 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Turkish Detective - 2024 - UK

Turkish Detective - 2024 - 7/10
 

 
Young detective Suleyman transfers from London to Istanbul.
Where he finds, police handle things differently.
Exotic police procedural.
Series of two-part mysteries, that are anything but routine.
Connecting the series is an arc of Suleyman’s girlfriend, violently attacked in Istanbul.
Domestic affairs I could take or leave, but they seem to be a fixture now.

 

Edited December 31, 2024 by Vultural