Talkie Tuesay: Make Your Move

ALERT: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MAKE YOUR MOVE YET, READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

As promised, here is the first ever ACTUAL blog post from me, my first review! it's 'Make Your Move', an independent movie of South Korean-American origin. I watched it a little while ago but thought it would be a nice kick-start to my ramblings.

Originally, the movie was titled 'Cobu 3D', and Cobu apparently means something along the lines of 'drumming like dancing, dancing like drumming', if I caught the definition correctly when the lead female character explained it. Basically, in short, it's another modern-day version of Romeo and Juliet, set against the backdrop of New York City, and featuring some awesome dance moves.

Now, I won't lie: this movie came onto my radar purely for one reason, and that was the main male character, the 'Romeo', so to speak. The role was given to Derek Hough, who is widely known across America for his dancing in the hit series 'Dancing with the Stars'. According to an interview, Derek was actually scouted accidentally, while he was dancing with Nicole Scherzinger back in season ten. He's been my personal favourite ever since I randomly happened upon his lambada dance with Joanna Kruppa, so obviously, I was curious about this endeavour of his. I've seen other dance movies that have catapulted people into the film industry, like Step Up was for Channing Tatum, Take the Lead with Jenna Devan-Tatum, etc.

I was, however, apprehensive; I've seen all of Julianne Hough's movies since she's made the transition from dancer and singer to actress, and I wasn't that impressed. Considering Derek is her brother, you can imagine my trepidation about seeing him do with the same luke-warm reactions. And the reviews I did catch online were, contrary to what I'd seen in the trailer (which I liked), less than enthusiastic. Actually, they were downright bad. So I went into this with caution.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Oh, sure, it's another movie about dancing - but honestly, if they can make a fifth 'Step Up' movie, they can make another one about dancing too, and this one actually didn't have the dance duels and the stuff that I've gotten used to with every other dance movie I've seen to date. No competitions, no dueling, just straight-up two nightclubs fighting for territory and customers. And, in between that all, the love story of two younger siblings, obviously their older ones run the opposing clubs (duh), who don't want to just 'get with the programme'. I think someone once told me that every great story needs a speck of love in it somewhere to make it great. Definitely true for this one. 

I enjoyed the quips between the characters, the random humor, the realism of the scene set in the night time world of New York, but one of the things that pleased me most was the deviance from the typical American movie scheme; as in, it goes up, then plummets down into the very pits of hell before it can climb up again. This movie did have its down point, of course, and it obviously collided with the budding romance between the main characters, Donny and Aya, but what I loved about it was, despite my initial 'oh please no' reaction to Donny's 'It's complicated' when something of his gets outed in front of Aya, she, contrary to what the girl lead would usually do at this point (which is storm off in tears) takes it calmly and reasonably, and doesn't make a fuss. Bingo right there, because honestly, how many women throw tantrums with the force of a nuke in real life? Not as many as depicted in the movies, obviously, or maybe I'm just weird. 

The acting was so-so on some moments, and BoA didn't have as strong of a presence on screen as she might have had, or someone else might have, but she did well, considering everything. Derek was the one who surprised me; according to other reviews, his acting isn't good at all, but I enjoyed it. I loved that I could see how much of himself he gave into the character, how his devotion to the project was visible through everything he did on screen (it's something I've come to associate with him; he'll always give 200%, no matter what). Derek became Donny, and Donny was Derek. I think that was what did it for me, as a whole. It wasn't something that would make a big bang like American movies do with their storylines, particularly romantic ones, but it was just spicy enough to keep everything interesting. (I mean, hello!)

And of course, there was Will Yun Lee, playing the older brother to BoA's Aya. Don't get me wrong; he was great, and he did have roles in Elektra, Die Another Day, and the like. But to me, he will always be Sang Min from the Hawaii Five-0 remake. And that just made the movie that much better for me as a whole.

If any of you have seen this movie, what did YOU think?

Have a good one x