Spot Reviews 03/21/25
Mar 21 2025
Wonderland (2024) [/] Ensemble film centered on Wonderland service which digitizes your mind and creates an avatar that thinks it's you and interacts with loved ones via video calls. Three plot lines: Bai Li (Tang Wei) is on an infinite archaeological dig while her grandmother and daughter interact with the avatar because grandma doesn't want daughter to know her mom is dead although later Bai Li avatar realizes what she is; Jeong-in (Bae Suzy) has digitized her boyfriend who is in a coma and when her real boyfriend wakes up but is a bit mentally damaged she continues to use the avatar for emotional comfort and then her boyfriend finds out; there's also a plot about how the developers are using the service and thinking about the ethical implications… I like the concept and the cinematography is good. But the intertwining stories made everything short and confusing for half the film. Making it just one storyline would have been better I think.
Wylde Flowers (2022) [/] "Wylde Flowers is a cozy life and farming sim with a witchy twist!" on Apple Arcade and other platforms. You (playing Tara) maintain a garden, interact with town citizens, become a witch and do quests. Has good voice acting. I find the characters slightly disturbing because their heads are slightly too big for their bodies.
Gibbon: Beyond the Trees (2022) [/] Apple Arcade game where you are a gibbon making your way (always going to the right) along a forest. You swing automatically and tap at the end of a limb to jump to the next limb. You can double hold down to slide or ambulate (never quite figured out what it did). Very few obstacles to stop you and as you go along a story unfolds about man encroaching on your home. I did find it a bit boring though it's a novel concept for a game.
Pho Nam Restaurant, Sunnyvale [/] $18 combo is large pho + a drink. I had some sort of beef strips pho and iced milk coffee and it was perfectly good. Place is in a small rundown corner mall and the inside is definitely down-scale. Staff is friendly and people didn't mind screaming from our table (kids).
Wylde Flowers (2022) [/] "Wylde Flowers is a cozy life and farming sim with a witchy twist!" on Apple Arcade and other platforms. You (playing Tara) maintain a garden, interact with town citizens, become a witch and do quests. Has good voice acting. I find the characters slightly disturbing because their heads are slightly too big for their bodies.
Gibbon: Beyond the Trees (2022) [/] Apple Arcade game where you are a gibbon making your way (always going to the right) along a forest. You swing automatically and tap at the end of a limb to jump to the next limb. You can double hold down to slide or ambulate (never quite figured out what it did). Very few obstacles to stop you and as you go along a story unfolds about man encroaching on your home. I did find it a bit boring though it's a novel concept for a game.
Pho Nam Restaurant, Sunnyvale [/] $18 combo is large pho + a drink. I had some sort of beef strips pho and iced milk coffee and it was perfectly good. Place is in a small rundown corner mall and the inside is definitely down-scale. Staff is friendly and people didn't mind screaming from our table (kids).