Blue Seagull

In the era of Chosun Dynasty (Old Korea), a Sword (Royal Gift) was lost. The Sword was taken to Japan by a grave robber. A brave young man goes to fight a host of international criminal organizations to get the Sword back. One day in Japan, Yakuza boss Ohmikkami is cruelly killed by the Mafia, and they take the Royal Sword. The young man is informed that the Sword is in the hands of the Mafia. The young and courageous Korean man (Hail) visits Japan and New York to try and take the Sword back. His girlfriend (Chaerin) is a car engineer who is in New York to participate in a car show. Hail finds out the location of the Sword in New York through his beautiful American assistant Josie. The mafia, worried about the safety of the Sword, kidnaps Josie. Hail is forced to confront them to get her and the Sword back. Will he win and get the Sword and Josie back?

(Source: Korean Movie Database)

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Dec 18, 2017

Sidewinder51

Mixed Feelings

Rate a 5
English Subtitled

Warnings: some animal violence, disorientating scenes. Whether it was the translator or the actual story’s plot there is a racist remark or word depending on view.

Plot
Introduction was kind of cheap and pointless. Went with the old saying, ‘all revved up and nowhere to go’. Which perfectly documents its stature to the film. Its design was to influence an ecchi appease but only really captured you in if you were either a rookie to ecchi/hentai or an auto fan. In terms of its connection to the main story was nothing. A complete sex appeal that would have been better cutout and used as ... a bonus feature.

Aside from the ecchi start out the movie had a nice little start out feature as well as for the ending. Each one was different. As for the start out it showed the transformation between the character in the film to the person providing the voice. If that wasn't cool for you maybe you will enjoy the behind the scenes of the studio in mid production of the film?

Art

I am appalled and shocked. The show has two features part of the story that is hand drawn and those fill-ins that are computer generated. I am not sure if computer generated art for this film was cheaper at the time but completely throws off the authenticity of the film. Not to neglect to mention would have worked without it.

The idea of the red headed stripper may not have been the best choice, ‘period’. Aside from my joking message the same scene with its use of cartoonist comedy/appearance reminds me of a certain American cartoon movie involving a certain white rabbit. So, can’t say this wasn’t original.

While I can see the use of having cartoonist use in films I vote against it. Sure, it can derive a comical response but this is also an action film that involves blood and such that isn’t portrayed in a cartoonist presentation. Therefore the line of any future actions lays unmarked on the porter of reality and fiction.

Gee, I wonder which company paid more to fund this anime. Hmm… I have no idea(it is pretty clear who by the amount of moments they have in the film).

Sound

English subtitle translation was that of a middle school student. It works but reorganization is needed for most sentences used.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 9, 2024

watashiwared

Mixed Feelings

Blue Seagull is a collection of things that happen in sequence, and I'm pretty sure that some of them are connected to each other.

This is a movie that is bad. On basically every level it is bad. The best part of the movie is probably the animation, which I would describe as "charmingly primitive." Characters are semi-competently designed, in that they are very distinguishable, and while the whole thing is rife with awkward stilted action, it's not that much worse than a lot of shows it was contemporary with. On regular occasions, the program switches to the kind of CGI that wouldn't look out of ... place as a tech demo for the Sega Saturn. Not only are these scenes incredibly dated and ugly, they often serve no point to the story other than to communicate things like "this girl drives her car to work" and "the police exist" and "the animators aren't really sure what the difference is between New York City and Las Vegas."

The story is very unfocused. Nothing ever really feels like it connects to anything that came before it. Ha-il just sort of meanders his way from place to place, until it's time for the Die-Hard style siege on a mafia stronghold. It's a very "and now for something completely different" style of storytelling. Not helping is the fact that the only version of this movie I could find had possibly the worst subtitles I'd ever seen. Half the time, they didn't even form a coherent sentence, let alone tell me anything about what was happening. They were so bad they actually wrapped around to being funny, at points.

Despite all its flaws, I found myself kind of low-key enjoying this movie. There's a sort of doofy earnestness to the whole production. The CGI sequences, as laughably bad as they seem in the modern day, are lavishly presented, as if the people who made them were just so proud of what they could do with their computers. The end credits are full of B-roll footage of all the people who worked on the film, being the very hardest workers, in their cramped little studio full of posters they made of the movie they were currently working on. The film is loaded with product placement for Korean brands like Daewoo and Samsung, which makes me think that there's an undercurrent of patriotism. As if this movie about a handsome, hyper-competent Korean stud travelling to America to recover the sacred treasure of Korea from the American Mafia *might* have been trying to play to its audience, just a tad.

Overall, I would say Blue Seagull is bad, but it's not irredemably bad. It's boring and incoherent at times, but it has a certain charm about it. I give it a Daewoo out of ten.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Nov 18, 2021

TheAngryNerd

Not Recommended

Well, that was surely an experience.
Review:
Story/Plot/Writing: It revolves around the protagonist trying to get back a sword from his great grandfather or something and later on he also has to save this one chick. For some reason this action film also has numerous sex scenes throughout it and in my opinion I think they were really pointless and contributed nothing of value to the narrative, they were just there. The dialogue is very boring as well.
Characters: Nothing notable about them. Their only purpose was to progress whatever story this film had forward. They aren't deep enough to get the viewer to root for them, or ... care for them either.
Art/Animation: The art looks mediocre, and the animation is really lacking. Loops are often used in many scenes throughout the film and it can be a bit jarring at times. Another weird thing to take note of are the few moments where the people switch to a western cartoony art style, like the men in the stripper scene. It makes this film inconsistent and feels unnecessary, especially considering that this is supposed to be an action film, one with sex scenes at that! But do you want to know what's truly jarring? The CGI in this film! It looks terrible, and completely threw me off-guard and ruined my immersion! Combine this with the agitating, bizarre camera movements and you get CG scenes that are very disorienting. Why did they do this? The film could have worked well without it! What were they thinking?
Sound/Music: The voice acting was really bad, and the music is nothing special.

Overall: I was bored out of my mind watching this film, the credits showing the behind the scenes was way more interesting than the plot! I swear I was about to fall asleep at one point. Blue Seagull is a strange piece of Korean media, one that has faded into obscurity, and deservingly so (no offense to the production team). 1.7/10 Rounded to 2/10 for MAL score.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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Recommendations

Poll: Blue Seagull Episode 1 Discussion Punkero - Dec 27, 2017

2 replies

by HentaiList10 »» Dec 26, 2020 4:57 PM