What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

Movies

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney’s latest feature, boasted a lot of potential. The first film featuring the Southeast Asian region (or at least a fictional version of it), a largely female cast, and rich universe to explore. However, I found myself constantly wanting for more from the film: A uniqueness to the animation style, one that featured the regional artistic style; More dimension to the characters; A slightly less predictable plot.

While the film did have moments that made me genuinely laugh, I found the plot to be a bit meandering most of the time. Conflicts were resolved a little too easily, travel seemed to happen too conveniently and everything was wrapped up in a neat bow at the end. Yes, this is a Disney film, and that sounds like par for the course by their standards, but it’s been a while since one of their films actually grabbed my attention. It felt a lot like they had a checklist of requisite components and were just going down the list and ticking all the boxes.

Tangled was probably the last time they made large strides in changing up their animation style, and that film came out over a decade ago. While the animation of the dragons was interesting, it wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, since we have seen similar things in Frozen, Tangled, Moana and a number of other features before this one.

The one thing I did enjoy about this film is how they showed the history of Kumandra and each of its regions. Each had a unique identity, and even if it may not have been explicitly featured, I could tell that someone on the research team had made the effort to show the diversity of each land by showing how its people lived. Whether it was the floating houses of Talon or the frozen wastelands of Spine, there was detail in the outfits and houses to show how people adapted to their unique environment.

Ultimately though, that isn’t enough to build an entire film around. Perhaps they were trying to do too much, and ended up sacrificing depth for breadth in the story. Or maybe they were trying to keep it simple and ended up with too little to make the film substantial. Either way, Raya felt like a bit flat, and left a lot to be desired.

TV

Hello? It’s Me! (2021) – Ep 1-8

Hello? It’s Me! has almost all the same issue as Raya, but strangely enough I’m actually compelled to keep watching it. I was initially drawn to the show for its sci-fi plot elements. A 37-year-old woman who has fallen a long way from the confident, beautiful popular girl she was 20 years ago, suddenly encounter that very same 17-year-old version herself. In practice, the show is filled with all the tropes they could possibly cram into an episode.

As annoying as the young Bahn Ha-ni is, Lee Re is so fun to watch. Seeing her take childish glee from pulling pranks and long for her family feel so real that she seems like the character come to life. And she’s also the driving force of the show. I find it funny that she actively frustrates all the people around her, from her (older) self to the guys that supposedly fell in love with that exact version of her. The older Ha-ni (Choi Gang-hee), however seems to be attracting those same people back into her life as the new and reformed version of herself. By working together, they seem to find the best traits to bring out in one another, both the ones that existed in past Ha-ni’s idyllic world and the ones that the current Ha-ni learnt through the tough life she’s had to lead so far.

While the the younger Ha-ni is focused primarily on returning to her past glory, her older counterpart admitted to liking having her around. I think the more time they spend together the harder the separation is ultimately going to be, but it’s going to be even more difficult when Ha-ni ultimately tells her past self about what happened to her father on the night that she came to the future.

There are a lot of additional plot elements, from the mystery figure that’s haunting the Ha-nis’ house to Anthony (Eum Moon-Suk) and his team’s mission to get his top star status restored. But the ones that are drawing me in are Han Yu-hyeon (Kim Young-kwang) and his father’s (Yun Ju-Sang) petty back and forth (which seems to be fueled by his father’s desire to train him to take his place, since he seems to be ill) and the strained relationship between Oh Ji-eun (Kim Yu-mi) and her mother-in-law (Baek Hyun-Joo).

I’m hoping the show doesn’t drag out the reveals for too long, since I find the show does best when the characters get to put their heads together to problem-solve. The second half of the show doesn’t promise anything extraordinary or groundbreaking, but I hope that the performances continue to stay true to character, and hopefully they don’t get too bogged down in extraneous plot elements.