Hell Dogs: In The House of Bamboo - Gritty Japanese Thriller Based on Novel by Akio Fukamachi

Of all the new releases in Netflix yesterday, this one caught my attention as it seemed like a gritty movie with an interesting plot. Plus I was also familiar the main stars of this Japanese movie. So I decided to watch this one ahead of other options. OK let us get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Goko Idezuki (Junichi Okada - The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill, Memory etc), was a former police officer who was assigned to work undercover in the Yakuza. In order to infiltrate, he had to approach one of the Yakuza member Muro (Kentaro Sakaguchi - Signal: Long-Term Unsolved Case Investigation Team, The Last 10 Years etc) who was said to be compatible with Goro and part of an elite group called Hell Dogs. 

(TV SERIES) Big Sky Season 1 (Part 1) - Fast Paced, Intense and Suspenseful Series Adapted from Best Selling Novel Series by C. J. Box

As I said in one of my earlier post, last week was full of new movies and series that were available on various platforms. This interesting series was actually released on Disney+ more than a month ago. But it was customary for them to release only few episodes first and the rest were released once a week which finally completed last weekend. So without further ado, let's get into it.

Brief Story Line

Set in Helena County, Montana, private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury - Brave New World TV series etc) was having strained relationship with her friend Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick - The Dark Tower, Wu Assassins TV series etc) due to some problem relating to Jenny's husband and Dewell's partner Cody (Ryan Phillippe - I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions etc). However, when the girlfriend of Hoyt's son, Danielle (Natalie Alyn Lind - The Gifted TV series etc) and her younger sister Grace (Jade Pettyjohn - School of Rock TV series etc) were missing, they all set aside their differences and worked together to try and find them. 

(TV SERIES) The Head - Absolutely Brilliant and One of the Best I Have Seen in Years

Last weekend, after watching a new movie on HBO (will write about that later), I caught a glimpse of this new series which seemed really interesting and I really could not wait to write about it. It was a mystery thriller and only consisted of 6 episodes. Now why don't I just get into it.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the Antarctic where due to its location on earth, half of the year was filled with darkness. A group of scientists were working in Polaris VI station during this period where they would be cut off from the civilization until the summer arrived. The group consisted of 10 people with their leader Arthur (John Lynch - In the Name of the Father etc), his partner Annika (Laura Bach), Erik (Richard Sammel - 3 Days to Kill etc) who was in charge of security, the cook Ramón (Álvaro Morte - Money Heist series etc), the doctor Maggie (Katharine O'Donnelly), the new guy Aki (Tomohisa Yamashita - Kurosagi, Code Blue the Movie etc) and few others.

(TV SERIES) Manifest Season 1 - A Unique and Quite Intriguing Mystery Drama Series

This was quite a new series that immediately caught my attention when I read the synopsis. It had a really intriguing premise and a unique mystery that I was really interested in finding out. So when I finished catching up with other series on my list, I went ahead and started to watch this from early last week. OK, we shall go on now.

Brief Story Line

An Airplane of Montego airlines with flight number 828 was experiencing a heavy turbulence and finally reached their destination, only to find out that the plane had actually been missing for more than 5 years. Among the passengers were a police detective Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh - Star Trek Beyond, Valor TV series etc), her older brother Ben (Josh Dallas - Once Upon a Time TV series etc), Ben's son Cal (Jack Messina) and many others, including a medical researcher Saanvi (Parveen Kaur).

The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang - A Jackie Chan's Fantasy Movie

I was not aware of this movie existence till a day before Chinese New Year when I saw its poster in the "coming soon" section. As it premiered on the holiday itself, my wife and I were unable to see it due to our tradition of reuniting with our families the whole day. Anyway, we did see it on its second day, which was last night. So let's get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Pu Songling (Jackie Chan - The Foreigner, Kungfu Yoga etc) was a demon/monster hunter who lived near Pi Huan city and befriended with some of the demons/monsters he caught previously. Meanwhile in the city, an assistant to the local sheriff named Yan Fei (Austin Lin - At Cafe 6 etc) was investigating petty theft cases when he bumped into Songling and immediately decided to become his apprentice, despite the reluctance of Songling. 

The Titan - A Science Fiction Thriller Movie Without the Thrills

There was no major Hollywood movie playing in Indonesian theaters this week, as Deadpool 2 looming to premiere next week. But there was a new movie shown only in Cinema 21 chain which started since yesterday. Not a lot of theaters playing it, but at least the movie did play in 2 of my favorite theaters. I saw this one by myself as my wife was doubtful about the quality of it. So let's see if her doubt was justified, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Movie was set in the year 2048 where it was revealed that due to over population, the earth would not be humanely inhabitable in the near future. And the idea to resolve this was to move the people to the biggest moon of Saturn planet, called Titan. However, since the planet's atmosphere and condition was impossible to live, a group of scientists under NATO, led by Professor Martin (Tom Wilkinson - In the Bedroom, Michael Clayton etc) and his assistant Dr. Freya (Agyness Deyn) wanted to enhance the people's body to adapt to Titan's condition. They experimented on several candidates who volunteered for this project.

Pengabdi Setan - A Scary Horror Movie from Joko Anwar

After weeks and weeks being "tortured" by the trailer to this movie, finally it played in the cinemas from yesterday. As I was having some work schedule out of the country, I could only see the film today. I chose to see this in a cinema not too far away from home and managed to get 1 seat at the last row in the middle of lots of audience (which was my intention since I would rather not see this alone and sitting by myself). Yes I mentioned in my other posts earlier that my wife would rather not see a horror movie, especially when it was a supernatural horror movie from Indonesia. Anyway, let us get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

It was the year 1981 when handphone and internet was not available yet. Bahri Suwono (Bront Palarae - Halfworld TV series, Anak Jantan etc) was a father of four who had to endure financial difficulty due to his wife's continuous illness for 2 years. His eldest child was Rini (Tara Basro - 3 Srikandi, A Copy of My Mind etc) who Bahri could rely on to take care of the mother (Ayu Laksmi - Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka). The second child was a 16 yeard old high school student named Toni (Endy Arfian - Brandal Brandal Ciliwung) who loved his mother very much and was willing to put the family's welfare first. The third child was a 10 year old primary student named Bondi (Nasar Annuz) and very close with the youngest one, Ian (played nicely by newcomer Muhamad Adhiyat).

Mr. Pride vs Miss Prejudice - A Chinese Romantic Comedy Heavy on Comedy Side

As I was waiting for my wife to complete her food tasting event, I had some spare time to use and thought of watching some random movie which might not be available in cable TV. So I did some browsing through the internet and looked for something via online streaming, where I stumbled across this movie. Once I saw the title, I was intrigued and was even more interested to see when I read the very brief synopsis which hinted that it was a romantic comedy and the genre that I have not watched for quite some time. So I decided to see this one.

Brief Story Line

After an incident in a crowded mall, Zhu Hou (Leon Zhang - Fall In Love Like a Star) who was a spoiled rich kid & whose mother was the owner of a very successful lingerie business, accidentally met with Tang Nan Nan (Dilraba Dilmurat - Hot Girl TV series, and cast member of Running Man China). Nan Nan was a struggling online writer who was having a bit of cash flow problem. Due to the incident, she demanded that Zhu Hou be responsible and compensate her. Nan Nan was able to acquire what she wanted through some hilarious moments and soon they parted ways. 

Resident Evil: Vendetta - A Very Cool CG Animated Movie Based on the Popular Video Game

I was intrigued about this movie when I saw the poster in the coming soon section of 2 cinema websites in Indonesia. At first I thought it was another sequel to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, but when I read it a bit more, I realized it had got nothing to do with that movie. Anyway the movie premiered in some Indonesian cinemas starting from Saturday. As I was having another weekend staycation with my wife on Saturday, I only went to the cinema today after we checked out from the hotel. My wife was having various things to do at the time, and hence I watched this movie by myself in Plaza FX. Ok, I will proceed to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Chris Redfield (voiced by Kevin Dorman) was a member of BSAA, an elite unit specializing in killing the undead/zombies. He was given the task along with special forces from another unit to capture the notorious weapons dealer named Glenn Arias (voiced by Alexander Polinsky - Charles in Charge TV series). Though the mission was not successful, Chris did manage to find out that Arias was working on a new kind of virus to create the undeads.

Hacker (aka Anonymous) - A Hackers Movie Without A Lot of Hacking

UPDATE on 29 May 2026 for post published on 22 January 2017:

Someone claimed that he was the right owner of this content which is ridiculous. My post was very specific related to my experience and I even took out the picture in case it was the part he was referring to. But somehow I still got same response and this post was put in Draft again by Google. This is a very strange decision and no one would be willing to write in personal blog if anybody can just easily claim that he/she is the rightful owner without providing any evidence. Anyway, I am going to repost this again, but if it is taken off again, I will just take put this forever in my draft.

This week, it was quite surprising that only 1 major movie premiered in Indonesia which was xXx: Return of Xander Cage and I already saw and reviewed it earlier. There were actually 2 or 3 other movies that premiered on Friday in Jakarta but I decided to watch this one on my Saturday. I went to Cinemaxx Plaza Semanggi around 11.30AM and just I predicted, the cinema was packed with a lot of people. Reason was Cinemaxx theater was having free tickets giveaway unconditionally to audience only for the shows before 3 PM. I was actually waiting for my wife to complete her food tasting event but she told me she would not be able to make it for the 2.30PM show. So I took 1 free ticket for myself and I was really grateful for Cinemaxx for having this wonderful giveaway. 

Fallen - Everlasting Love of An Angel Who Had Fallen to Earth

I saw the posters of this movie for quite some time in the website of Cinema 21 in the "coming soon" part and when I read the synopsis about love between a person an angel, I thought the premise seemed interesting. However, I did have doubts as there was no familiar names playing in this film. Nevertheless, as I plan to watch another movie that only played at 4.30 PM in another theater, I had some time to kill before I plan to go to that mall. So since this was the only movie that I had not watched, I decided to go and see this one at 1.15 PM at Setiabudi. I would have enough time to leave the place by 3 PM and see the other film in different location. Well what is the story all about?

Brief Story Line

Movie started with the narrative of the story of angels of heaven who had to take sides when Lucifer, the most loved angel by God was fighting with God. There were some angels who did not want to choose either side, but instead they stayed among the humans and choose the side of love. Later scene moved to Lucinda Price (Addison Timlin - The Town that Dreaded Sundown etc) being driven by her parents to a private school named Swords and Crosses. Just like any other private schools, there were a lot of activities that could be attended by Luce as mentioned by the headmaster. However, apparently the school is not just a normal private schools as it was revealed later that the students there were mostly having some personal troubles or when parents did not have any idea on how to handle their children.