Latest news with #JuYoung
Hype Malaysia
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hype Malaysia
'Noise' Review: An Audio Sensory Fest Full Of Scares But Low Screams
The horror genre is not just about the jump scares and visual effects. Sounds play into the mix of creating ambience and atmosphere for the actors on screen to execute chilling scenarios. 'Noise' might just be one of those 'see less, listen more' films, but not without purpose. Directed by Kim Soo Jin, starring Lee Sun Bin, Han Soo A, Kim Minseok, Ryu Kyung Soo, Jeon Ik Ryeong and Baek Joo Hee, follow along Korea's upcoming horror hit. 'Noise' tells of two sisters, the hearing-impaired Ju Young (Lee Sun Bin/이진경) and her little sister, Ju Hee (Han Soo A/한수아), who finally achieved their dreams of owning their apartment after the death of their parents. However, with each passing day, Ju Hee begins to grow restless from a mysterious and unidentifiable noise coming from the unit above them. With Ju Hee going missing one day, Ju Young starts searching for her whereabouts in the house and starts to be haunted by sounds linked to her sister's disappearance and the presence of a malevolent spirit in the building As you can imagine from the title, the movie is based on auditory horror, where the visuals aren't its scare factor, rather, from the chilling sounds of teeth grinding or the ring of a phone cutting through the silence. Its protagonist, Ju Young, is hard of hearing, making sounds around her the focal point of each scene, where directors utilise her hearing aids as a way to create more tension with the ongoing horrors. The film starts by introducing viewers to the noise plaguing the two sisters, which takes a toll on both of them as the movie progresses. The film utilised audio sensory horror heavily, where each sound was seemingly amplified, adding rich environmental points for the movie. Each sentence and creak was heard clearly, and each passing second of silence had an immense effect in maximising the scares. Lee Sun Bin delivered a stellar performance in the movie, playing on the realistic horror of simply being unaware of the horrors surrounding her. Directors used her character's hearing aids as a way to shut off or turn on the audio, seemingly inviting viewers to join in on her experience as the film progresses, making it highly more immersive than your regular jump scare fest. She executed the role perfectly, working with grief and loss to her character, where she evolves to be almost manic in the search for her sister, as well as playing the role of the hearing impaired by actually learning sign language for the film. Besides its protagonist, the film also amplifies the scares with its lack of screams, seemingly working with the emotional turmoil that plagues the residents, as the case evolves into something far more sinister. Rather than throwing around screams to add to its horror points, the film uses how its characters deal with loss and revenge, losing their sense of reality and going into madness, taking paranormal horrors to the physical plane. Moreover, the film blurs the line between the supernatural and the material plane, where viewers could confuse the paranormal noises with those of mundane tasks, creating a far bigger mystery of discerning the source of each sound. Supporting characters played a big hand in adding to the plot, with writers angling the peer pressure of other tenants, adding tension and anxiety to an already stressful situation. Han Soo A was also one of the highlights as she portrays a young lady constantly perturbed by the noises around her. Her performance in the film added to the scare factor as she goes from baseless annoyance to downright madness. Despite its interesting build-up to its big unfolding, we believe the film to be lacking in its finale, as the many characters confused viewers about who the actual perpetrator was and the motive behind it. The linking of characters and their relationship with each other was not fully delved into in the film, leaving room for plot holes that were not explored. Where the plot remained interesting, elements of predictability were scattered in the second half of the film, where we wished it could have evolved into something more out of the ordinary. Overall, 'Noise' is a great start to a new era of Korean-produced horror films, where chills and thrills aren't always executed in the form of jump scares. Despite its predictability later in the film, the directors still managed to keep things fresh with its play on everyday sounds and immersiveness. The pacing of the film kept us sitting on the edge of our seats throughout the entirety of the movie, which gains a plus point for engagement from the audience. Watch the trailer here: 'Noise' premieres in cinemas nationwide on 17th July 2025 Alyssa Gabrielle contributed to this article.
The Review Geek
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Good Boy – K-drama Episode 10 Recap & Review
Time-Out Episode 10 of Good Boy starts with Jong-hyeon shot and falling in the water. Dong-ju dives in and brings his comrade to the surface, while the gangsters all race away at the sound of sirens. Jong-hyeon is rushed to hospital and the team are left with the obligatory waiting room scene, twiddling their thumbs and hoping for the best. Jong-hyeon is moved to intensive care and it appears he's going to pull through. Dong-ju though is still suffering from his neurological issues, but he hasn't told the rest of the team about this yet. Jong-hyeon does regain consciousness but it seems he's going to be out of commission for a while. Dong-ju also realizes when Jong-hyeon hurt his ankle and it seems his condition is even worse now. Ju-young rings the Mayor of Insung but he ignores the call. This obviously irks our antagonist, so he shows up at a big dinner meeting and spoils the party. Ju-young tortures the Mayor into submission, forcing him to send out the Customs department to the dock while also stuffing cash into his mouth. Man-sik is on the back foot too, regretting putting the team together and blaming himself for getting greedy. Unfortunately, their team is also under investigation and unfortunately their department is disbanded. Fast forward 3 months and Jong-hyeon is cleared to leave the hospital. He learns here that all of his colleagues had initially been suspended and now are off working separate gigs. Jae-hong is back working with the traffic police, while Man-sik is stuck dealing with domestic disputes. Han-na has a very unsatisfying records room gig while Dong-ju is on cleaning duty. He's staying with Man-sik for the time being though, and here we see why. Man-sik actually took pity on Dong-ju in the past and realized he didn't have much of a family growing up. After all those fights at school, Manp-ik is the one who encouraged him to get into boxing and channel his anger. Man-sik has always stood by this kid's side, offering up ways to help him when he's lost or fallen. Han-na arrives to see Jong-hyeon at hospital, bringing up what happened between them. He admits he probably should have told her how bad his ankle injury was at the time but would it have made a difference to their relationship? Either way, Jong-hyeon is clearly still pining over her and he gives no illusions that he wants her. Meanwhile, Yeon-ha shows up to see Ju-young. However, he has the upper-hand, given he knows about Yeon-ha's sister and promises that she'll see her very soon… when he last batch of Candy is done. There's a super awkward moment when Ju-young shows up to se Dong-ju next and decides the pair should share a meal together. What begins in jest ends up as a super awkward moment together. Ju-young encourages him to stop fighting as he'll just end up a punching bag forever, but we know that Dong-ju is not going down without a fight, and he'll continue to hit back every chance he has. As for Han-na, she continues to investigate the Black Cat links she heard Leo mention before. Now, the Black Cat Mob organization were operating in the Russian Far East with a famous smuggler who went by the name of Oh Dollar. The guy died 15 years ago though so it could be the Russian mobster killed. Working in the records room, Han-na looks through the Oh Dollar case file, listed as 'Smuggle Oh Bong-chan' and learns that the cause of death is presumed to be a gunshot to the head. As for Dong-ju, he does his best to take out Ju-young's goons, targeting them thanks to the watches and doing what he can to disrupt Ju-young's business. He targets each illegal business one by one, getting them shut down and the operations suspended. The other team members see the news reports and realize Dong-ju is back on the prowl. He's down but certainly not out, and as he heads to the next spot, he prepares to strike. The Episode Review So as we cross the halfway point of the show it's starting to become clear that the series is falling into a one-note stereotype, with the group being beaten up and knocked down with absolutely zero plot progression. In fact, episode 10 jumps forward several months and still nothing has changed. If anything, Ju-young is even more powerful than he was before and the rest of the group have been taken off the case, even though they seem to be the only ones who actually care about taking these criminals down. The action is definitely keeping this one watchable though and some of the cliffhangers have been genuinely impressive and well delivered. This, alongside the acting, are the two main drives to keep watching this one. It's still disappointing that Jae-hong hasn't had much development, while the antagonists have an overwhelming amount of plot armour. I'm hoping that now Dong-ju is taking out the 'watch goons', he'll slowly start to take out the gang leaders one by one, allowing Ju-young's empire to crumble. In some ways, this does feel a bit reminiscent to Itaewon Class, where the Chairman was just so powerful and the only way to stop him was for someone on the inside to make a last second babyface turn and join the good guys to take him down. Could we see this same plot point with Yeon-ha? Either way, Good Boy has been a solid watch but episodes like this, which feature barely any plot progression at all, definitely hold this back from being a better watch. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
The Review Geek
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Good Boy – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review
The Aimless Bullet Episode 8 of Good Boy begins with Han-na narrating how some days feel like a stray bullet. That stray bullet has well and truly pierced Han-na's heart though, as she and Dong-ju wind up kissing, which obviously is where the last episode closed out. Han-na lets Dong-ju stay the night but he winds up sleeping in while she heads out to work. Han-na has a big day ahead of her, given it's the community day with the police at the Insung Metropolitan Police Agency. The whole team are there, doing what they can to entertain the kids. The commissioner is still pissed though, but he's doing a little better thanks to Dong-ju giving him a massage. As a result he gets a 30 day suspension. In that time though, the team decide to take this one step at a time, rather than going right for the big players. Tio begin with, they're going to focus on the drugs and the supply route of materials seized from Bbong-pil. However, Yeon-ha and the others are starting to grow impatient with Ju-young. The ships leave in a week and they need their gear out on the streets but right now, there's a transport delay. Ju-young is arrogant and claims he likes seeing Dong-ju and the others squirm, but his cockiness could be his undoing. As he heads to Insung Port to oversee the ephedrine, the team figure out its location too. Now, Man-sik has been itching like crazy and they also figure out that he's been bitten by red fire ants. These ants were found at the port last year too. The ants came in with the cargo that passed through Russia, which is the same route the Ephedrine came in. Given the risk, they call in an extermination team to do a quarantine sweep. The team show up dressed as quarantine workers, but they're not alone. Yeon-ha is here too and the group quickly handcuff her. She tries to wind up Jong-hyeon and even begins seizing on the ground too. Yeon-ha manages to get away, while the group find the ephedrine in her absence. Unfortunately, Jong-hyeon winds up bitten but he's allergic to the bites. Jong-hyeon is crazed and begs them not to inject him (given he's scared of needles) so Dong-ju knocks him out and they inject him all the same, in a rather humorous turn of events. The team show up back at HQ with the drugs and get a celebratory meal out of it, but there's no after-party for Dong-ju. Jong-hyeon lets Dong-ju stay in his spare room, with boxes piled high. As he looks through the boxes though, Dong-ju finds old newspaper clippings of Jong-hyeon's career and how it ended thanks to an eye injury during fencing. The stick went right through his face and into his eye, which happens to be the same side that Dong-ju punched him on. Ju-young is pissed when he finds out what's gone down, and the group look to him for inspiration over what to do next. He decides to try and get it back, intercepting the drugs en-route to the secured facility. Meanwhile, we find out that Lee Gwang-se isn't actually dead. The hair transplant guy is still alive, given the shot missed him. Leo received a call from his mama at the time and promised her he wouldn't go against her wishes. Ju-young though is not so righteous as he tasks Gwang-se to tell the team exactly what's been said at this meeting. He does as instructed, and the team are now convinced that Min has a mole inside the agency so they need to figure out who that is. Unfortunately, Ju-young is playing 4D chess here. The Commissioner gave the order to pull the riot police away to city hall to quell a protest, leaving the transport severely under protected. With only a light team to protect it, the transport heads through Jungdong Tunnel, and is prompted ambushed. The group come under attack, one after another, and they all find themselves forced to fight. Jae-hong's car is flipped upside down, while the others all have their own battles to contend with. Although Dong-ju manages to come out on top VS a whole gang of motorcyclists, the fate for everybody else is still unclear, leaving everything on an agonizing cliffhanger. The Episode Review The fight at the end of Good Boy is easily one of the best moments of the whole K-drama. Seeing the team each fighting their own battles, with slightly different weapons or styles, works so well to show their own growth and how these misfits have come together. That is a brutal cliffhanger to end this week's double-bill of episodes on though and after yesterday's rather slow chapter, this one absolutely floors it with a pulsating episode of comedy shenanigans, plot progression and action. Seeing more context around Jong-hyeon's past is a nice touch too, while Ju-young's plan appears as if it's going to come off without a hitch… but things are a bit different this time. Not only has Dong-ju managed to come out of his fight on top, he looks ready to jump in and help the others too. However, I'm not sure if everybody will make it through to the other side. Maybe it's a bit of a wild prediction here but the show feels like it needs one of the team members to be killed off to really ratchet up the tension to the highest level possible. Whether the writers actually would go this far or not though, is debatable. However, even without that, Good Boy has been a super enjoyable watch and that ending makes next week's double-bill a must-watch. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
