Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

darylmaya This story first seems to be a romantic comedy and throughout gives a light hearted treatment of 4 men working in a French pastry boutique and the relationships between them.The main character Jin-hyeok is a rich and seemingly spoiled heir who decides to throw away a conventional career path and opens a French pastry shop in an old antique store.His side kick Seun-woo is the best French baker in Korea, trained by a French master chef, and a super popular flaming gay and seemingly carefree guy. Joining the crew is a young delivery boy Gi-beom who is crazy about the pastry that is turned out by Seun-woo, and Soo-young.Throughout, we are exposed to these beautiful French pastry, to make us and those that are actually eating them melt with desire.Surprisingly, the store owner and boss Jin-hyeok actually gets physically ill every time he eats cakes. Surprisingly Seun-woo does not first recognize Jin-hyeok who reminds him that he had a crush on him in high school, confessed and got rejected by the manly acting Jin-Hyeok.Little by little we learn more about each man's past. Each has had a traumatic past that still interferes with their lives and none seem to be able to break free from it. Through their interactions however, their developing friendships and increasing fondness for each other the 4 are eventually able to overcome their trauma and start to heal. This process is also helped by the a seemingly side plot: the pursuit and eventual capture of a serial child killer and likely molester who attracts kids by offering them cake. The whole is given a cartoonish treatment, which seems befitting of the comic book origin of the story and helps incorporate the dark elements of the 4 men's pasts while maintaining the light tone of the movie.The execution is not flawless but overall it is still a very good movie. It is well worthy of watching and will appeal to a broad audience although it is often dubbed as a gay romantic comedy complete with a single men on men french kiss.**Spoiler alert from here on**Many reviewers seem to think that the dark pasts and subplots are poorly integrated distractions but they are clearly crucial elements to telling the story that is meant to be told.Jin-hyeok's inability to eat cake without getting sick dates back to his childhood when he was kidnapped and disappeared for two month. He was eventually found but could not remember that dark time albeit we know that he was fed cake by the kidnapper, who was possibly a child molester.Sean-Woo's seemingly carefree life is in fact his own way of emulating what he believes was the lose behavior of his mother, who in his mind deserved punishment for her actions. .. And if you watch carefully you will discover how the trauma of each men affects them and how eventually they all are healed.. The movie ends with the last of the two men overcoming their traumas. Jin-Hyeok is being hugged by a man without needing to freak out about it, and Seun-woo is finally able to address and talk to women. Enjoy the movie.

Lawson What a bizarre movie. It was adapted from a Jap yaoi (gay) comic so that probably accounts for why it's so fantastical in nature and why all too many things don't make sense. While they gave the four characters interesting back stories, their motivations were still often random and unexplained. The lead character is a rich kid who decides to open a patisserie to meet girls. He is determinedly straight but gives in a lot to his flaming chef (though resisting his advances). The chef, who's a "gay of demonic charm," lol, has an unrequited crush on the straight guy and a French ex-boyfriend who's trying to steal him away for his own patisserie. Then there is the apprentice chef, who's an ex-boxer of indeterminate sexuality and totally devoted to the chef. And the last guy is the straight guy's "bodyguard" and the most underdeveloped character. It seemed like he was crushing on the chef but that vanished and he didn't do all that much later in the movie.So the four of them run the place and cute hijinks ensue. This lighter half of the movie was all kinds of silly but frequently had me smiling and laughing. The cinematography made the movie look like a dream so it was easy to just let logic go and enjoy the comedy and the sight of the many lovely cakes they paraded. It's too bad Antique gets bogged down later with dark drama involving kidnappings and implied pedophilia that were quite discordant to the fluffy earlier half. These scenes are still punctuated with some humor but the movie just never quite recovers. If it had all been sunshine and rainbows, I would've given the movie a solid 10 and put it as a potential favorite but as it is, I'm still considering buying the DVD.

kigaiyuuto "Can anyone be unhappy while eating cake?" First of all this movie is hard to be "labelled" under a specific category. It's not really a fluffy comedy as the trailer might suggests as it has a thriller element, it's not really a gay movie as the main character is a straight male. Howeever what I do know is that Antique is surprisingly good and leaves a sweet aftertaste.The movie is pretty faithful to the Japanese manga/comic which it is based, and they try to cram as much content as possible into this 110+ minutes. The only drawback is that the dialogue is so fast (in the first half of the movie) sometimes it's hard to catch up and also that it might not have as much of an emotional impact compared to the pages of the comic book when it's being read slowly. That being said, this movie is the best adaptation out there. Yup, Antique bakery has been adapted into a Japanese TV series (the gay aspect was completely cut off), Japanese anime series (poorly directed mess), and a Chinese/Taiwan TV series.This movie has all the ingredients (comical moments, thriller, slice-of-life drama, romance) in different proportions and the director successfully turn them into a charming film with a lot of heart. And lastly....WHO COULD FORGET THOSE WONDERFUL CAKES. Trust me there are moments when I can't decide whether I should pick the cakes or the beautiful people. So the judgment: satisfied for now and will be back for more.

nekrobomb This is a frantically edited film with a lot going on. Personally it didn't bother me but I can see people getting lost. You're also dealing with a cake shop with guys kissing. But I'm sure you can see that on television nowadays.Why would you open a cake shop if you hate cake? That's just one of the mysteries in this twisting K-flick by Min Gyu-Dong, maker of the smash horror Memento Mori. I got a bit confused with one of the main actors and Lee Jun-ki. Both look like women. I mean, look at the poster. Korea is breeding androgyny! As strange as this movie is, it's entertaining and pretty fun. It's based on a comic, but you'd never know it. The characters are developed really well and the whole thing is sweet.