Spot Reviews 07/18/25
Jul 18 2025
While You Were Sleeping (2017) [+] South Korean romance drama of 16 episodes. Reporter Nam Hong-joo (Bae Suzy) has dreams about the future which she meticulously writes down in post it notes. She and her boyfriend are saved by junior prosecutor Jung Jae-chan (Lee Jong-suk) who turns out can also dream the future. And then police officer Han Woo-tak (Jung Have-in) also starts having prophetic dreams. What do they have in common? They become friends and solve crimes together while Hong-joo and Jae-chan start falling in love (with Woo-tak maybe being in the running)… It’s a nice series not particularly moving — the first half is pretty good but then it starts tailing down. Could be because I watched half then took a month off to watch Netflix (and if you come back and don't really remember the first half maybe it wasn't that interesting). And I still give it a + because Bae Suzy is so cute.
Fountain of Youth (2025) [/] Apple TV+ adventure movie. Treasure hunter Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) drags his sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman) and her son around the world following clues looking for the Fountain of Youth, meanwhile being chased by Inspector Jamal Abbas (Arian Moayed) who wants to arrest the art thief and Esme (Elza González) who wants to protect the very powerful artifact that Man is not ready for. Also Luke’s famously wealthy patron Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson) wants to find the Fountain to cure himself, or that’s what he claims… It’s a lackluster film with ok action scenes but no romantic subplot since the two leads are siblings.
Fall in Love Like a Star (2015) [-] Junior talent manager Tian Xin (Yang Mi, The Interpreter) has to team up with her ex — whom she broke up with five years ago — the now famous singer/songwriter Su Xingyu (Li Yifeng). They both still love each other so their relationship is rekindled but it has to be kept secret since it would ruin his heartthrob image… I’m starting to feel that Asian cinema cannot do romance movies well or maybe their romance tv series are so good that their movies can’t compete. Anyway I didn’t feel any romance nor any stakes.
Battleheart: Legacy+ (2022) [/] Apple Arcade isometric RPG game. Played for about an hour. Six ability stats; 12 classes each with several skills. You can gain a skill form any class (though advanced skills require beginner skills) and the gate is your ability stat which you increase using points you earn each level so to be really good in a class you'll need to concentrate on its two or three ability stats and multi classing is simply putting points in the relevant ability stats (and it helps if both classes have overlapping primary ability stats). Combat is action oriented (with automatic basic attacks if you want) and you have to spam the special abilities to do big attacks (then wait for skill cooldowns and trigger again). Eight equipment slots and various equipment to buy and find… I guess my big problem is there is no engaging story, at least at first, so not much motivation in continuing.
Trader Joe’s Baingan Bharta [/] This is roasted eggplant curry and takes about 5 minutes to heat up. Onions, mashed eggplant, tomato stuff. Does have an eggplant taste though not that strong. I eat it with rice and it tastes fine. A little meat helps more but not needed and if you’re vegetarian this with rice is a fine meal.
Fountain of Youth (2025) [/] Apple TV+ adventure movie. Treasure hunter Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) drags his sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman) and her son around the world following clues looking for the Fountain of Youth, meanwhile being chased by Inspector Jamal Abbas (Arian Moayed) who wants to arrest the art thief and Esme (Elza González) who wants to protect the very powerful artifact that Man is not ready for. Also Luke’s famously wealthy patron Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson) wants to find the Fountain to cure himself, or that’s what he claims… It’s a lackluster film with ok action scenes but no romantic subplot since the two leads are siblings.
Fall in Love Like a Star (2015) [-] Junior talent manager Tian Xin (Yang Mi, The Interpreter) has to team up with her ex — whom she broke up with five years ago — the now famous singer/songwriter Su Xingyu (Li Yifeng). They both still love each other so their relationship is rekindled but it has to be kept secret since it would ruin his heartthrob image… I’m starting to feel that Asian cinema cannot do romance movies well or maybe their romance tv series are so good that their movies can’t compete. Anyway I didn’t feel any romance nor any stakes.
Battleheart: Legacy+ (2022) [/] Apple Arcade isometric RPG game. Played for about an hour. Six ability stats; 12 classes each with several skills. You can gain a skill form any class (though advanced skills require beginner skills) and the gate is your ability stat which you increase using points you earn each level so to be really good in a class you'll need to concentrate on its two or three ability stats and multi classing is simply putting points in the relevant ability stats (and it helps if both classes have overlapping primary ability stats). Combat is action oriented (with automatic basic attacks if you want) and you have to spam the special abilities to do big attacks (then wait for skill cooldowns and trigger again). Eight equipment slots and various equipment to buy and find… I guess my big problem is there is no engaging story, at least at first, so not much motivation in continuing.
Trader Joe’s Baingan Bharta [/] This is roasted eggplant curry and takes about 5 minutes to heat up. Onions, mashed eggplant, tomato stuff. Does have an eggplant taste though not that strong. I eat it with rice and it tastes fine. A little meat helps more but not needed and if you’re vegetarian this with rice is a fine meal.