This Siti Never Sleeps At Night

Up all night so you know what to watch, read, and hear

Category Archives: movie review


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🎬 Movie Review: Once We Were Us (2025) – 🥀

🍿 The Premise

Eun-ho met Jeong-won by chance while on his way to visit his father in his hometown. After losing touch following the trip, Eun-ho searched for her, and a close friendship grew between them. Though Eun-ho held feelings for Jeong-won, he didn’t act on them until the day she discovered her boyfriend was cheating on her. Afraid that dating might ruin their friendship if things went wrong, Jeong-won hesitated – until Eun-ho promised that would never happen. But as the years passed, life brought its own strain. Following a pivotal incident, Jeong-won left. Years later, their paths crossed once more.

💖 The Highlights

For me, this movie is a true slice-of-life. Someone enters your life right when you need them most, but as time moves on, a person who was once your entire world can become someone you no longer know – or need. Instead of desperately holding on, you learn to let go. That is what this film captures so well. It isn’t tragic; it’s just the bittersweet reality of life.

Another detail I loved was the visual color palette, which mirrored the video game Eun-ho developed: During Ian’s quest to find Kelly, his world is stark black and white, but the moment he finds her, it bursts into full color. At first, I was confused because films typically use monochrome for the past and color for the present. Flipping that convention felt refreshingly deliberate – a very good choice.

🪫 Low Points

If you are looking for pure comfort to unwind after a brutal week at work, school, or just life in general, this isn’t it. It isn’t outright doom and gloom, but it certainly isn’t lighthearted either. While it didn’t bring me to tears, it left me sitting with a quiet, heavy heart.

💤 Final Sleepy Rating

🥀 Bittersweet. The haunting “what-ifs” and the reluctance to release something so familiar feel painfully real.

👯‍♀️ Best Watched With

Your messiest hair, comfiest PJs, favorite comfort snack, and a plushie nearby – because you might just need a hug by the end.

Stay awake with me,
Siti


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🎬 Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) – ☕

🍿 The Premise

The fashion queen is back 20 years later and… things changed a lot. Andy was an award-winning journalist with The Vanguard but was unfortunately retrenched along with her other colleagues from the newsroom at an awards gala, no less. Miranda, in the meanwhile, was under fire due to an article that was released about a brand when she was due to be promoted by the boss, Irv. Andy’s brave remarks during her speech after getting retrenched via a text message got the attention of Irv, who then hired her to be the features editor, without Miranda’s consent nor knowledge. Andy had to, once again, proved her worth.

💖 The Highlights

The first movie was released when I graduated and first stepped into the corporate world and it’s back now that I’m much older and experienced, just like Andy. I feel like I grew up along with her and the other characters. It’s amazing that the movie was able to portray that. And those who watched the first one 20 years ago and watching it now, we will feel nostalgic. Other than that, and the fashion, of course, the music is so good. And having Lady Gaga guest-starring and performing on a fashion show, it’s so fitting. The movie also portrays realism with what’s happening in the working world right now. I’d have thought that what I’m experiencing would be restricted within my non-fashion, non-glamourous corporate world. But I guess, even the fashion world is feeling the pinch. And it makes absolute sense. 20 years ago, I was still purchasing and reading magazines – Her World, Cleo, Harper’s Bazaar. But now? I’m not sure if these magazines still exist. We consume things online – TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube. So, magazines like Her World and Harper’s Bazaar have to also pivot digitally to still be relevant. And I’m sure, due to that, some jobs are lost.

🪫 Low Points

The only thing that I would point out and this will be a bit of a stretch (because I almost have nothing negative to say about the movie) was the lack of Asian stars. Why I said this? We are talking 2026 here, not 2006. This is an era where BTS and Blackpink are global stars and leading the fashion world. It would be hard to not find K-pop stars being part of a fashion show. You can just name anyone – G-Dragon, the literal muse for Chanel, Lisa, Jennie, Jungkook, Mark Lee, Jeno, Felix, Soobin, Yeonjun, etc. These are the ones I can name at the top of my mind. You can just imagine how many of them. And it’s not just K-pop, even Chinese stars like Xiao Zhan, who’s the global ambassador for Tod’s. The lack of Asian stars in this movie is very obvious for someone like me.

💤 Final Sleepy Rating

☕ It’s a perfect movie to watch in your pajamas at home while drinking Milo on Disney+ and feeling nostalgic.

👯‍♀️ Best Watched With

A good cup of Milo or chocolate drink of your choice and popcorns or nachos or whatever chips you have at home in bed and being all comfy.

Stay awake with me,
Siti


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🎬 Movie Review: Michael (2026) – 🫸🏽

🍿 The Premise

Michael is a biopic about the early days of the greatest pop artist of all time, Michael Jackson. It follows during his time with The Jackson 5 till he branched out separately from his brothers as a solo artiste. It also showed how his love for the story of Peter Pan gave him the wings to build his own Neverland Ranch.

💖 The Highlights

Definitely the music. I’m pretty sure anyone who loves music as much as I do know the legendary Michael Jackson. You would have lived under the rock for you not to know him and his music. It’s extensive. But this movie just touches less than 30% of his music repertoire, sadly. Nonetheless, you will get a background of how Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, Beat It and Thriller, to name a few, were created. I would also like to commend Michael’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, for stepping up. I’m pretty sure it’s not easy to play someone as legendary as his uncle but he stepped up to the plate and did very well.

🪫 The Low Points

The movie focuses too much on his earlier life with The Jackson 5 and his family dynamics that I was wondering if this is about Michael Jackson or the Jackson family. Maybe it was harder for the family to talk about his later life after The Jackson 5, or maybe they know little of it. We will never know why the focus was so much on his family. If we are to compare with Bohemian Rhapsody where we get to see much more of Freddie Mercury’s life throughout, this movie seems to lack a lot, much less his music after The Jackson 5, like songs from HIStory and Dangerous. And while the movie focuses on his family, for whatever reason, Janet Jackson is not talked about. Apparently, she refused to be involved and the director and the rest of the family respected it.

💤 Final Sleepy Rating

🫸🏽 New, right? I would have to say that it’s not a snooze-fest. You would enjoy the earlier music of his but it’s not worth going to the cinema for it. You could wait for it to appear on a streaming platform and watch it in the comfort of your home.

👯 Best Watched With

Someone who likes Michael Jackson, like my cousin. She was singing along to the music next to me 😅

Stay awake with me,
Siti


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🎬 Movie Review: Even If This Love Disappears Tonight (2026) – 🥀

The Premise: Kim Jae Won is a quiet guy who spends his days minding his own business. That’s until he met the mysterious girl in school, Han Seo Yoon, due to a dare. They slowly fall in love but she has anterograde amnesia, which makes it difficult for her to form new memories.

The Highlights: Ah, the scenery is so beautiful throughout this movie. I’m in awe. I thought it was set in Busan but a quick Google search showed that it’s set in Yeosu. It is such a beautiful place and it helps with the whole setting of the movie – heartbreakingly beautiful. This is a Korean remake of a Japanese movie. However, I didn’t watch the Japanese original so nothing for me to compare. In terms of acting, can I just say that Choo Young Woo is doing wonders? I’ve seen him in multiple roles and he nailed them all really well, including this one. As for Shin Shi A, I’ve not seen her before. A quick search and she’s quite new actually. She did well for herself here as Han Seo Yoon. There is only a one-year gap between the two so there’s no awkwardness in terms of the chemistry. I’m not going to spoil anything but all I could say is that I sobbed. Truly sobbing. Tears running down like turning on the water tap. Eyes red, snots and all.

The Low Points: I wish the twist is not so abrupt. I know it’s trying to depict somewhat Seo Yoon’s amnesia. But as a viewer, I was confused. Maybe the move was deliberate – feeling a little bit like the female lead. The story did go back and told us what happened so it helped, which is when the sobbing starts for me.

Final Sleepy Rating: 🥀 (I was broken after this that I had to watch Chef & My Fridge to have a laugh)

Best Watched With: A box of Kleenex. Maybe a tub of ice cream. Suggested flavour: Salted caramel. When the tears fall into the ice cream, it wouldn’t taste any different – still salty.

Stay awake with me,
Siti


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Review of Netflix’s Our Little Secret: A Christmas Movie

Poster for Netflix‘s Our Little Secret

Another Sunday and another day for me to watch a movie on Netflix. Every year and especially at this time of the year, Hollywood would bring out a bunch of Christmas movies. This year, one of them is Our Little Secret, starring Lindsay Lohan and Ian Harding. It is No. 2 in the chart for movies in Singapore. The first one is a horror movie. I am not a fan of that genre. So, the feel-good Christmas movie it is.

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Silenced: A True Story of Horror and Justice in South Korea

Movie poster for Silenced

On a lovely Sunday, I decided to scroll through Netflix to see what movie I can watch for the day. I chanced upon this movie that was tagged as “Leaving Soon”. As a true crime addict, I did heard of it before from Rotten Mango, hosted by Stephanie Soo. You can watch the episode below on YouTube on the real case of Inhwa Boarding School.

Or if you can’t stomach watching it, you can also listen to the podcast episode below on Spotify.

While the movie was based on a novel called The Crucible written by Gong Ji Young, it was inspired by the above horrific true story.

Before you go any further, a little warning that there’s mentions of child abuse.

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Officer Black Belt: Short, Sweet, and Impactful

This Netflix movie sure comes at the right time when the world is grappling with sexually exploitive videos of women and children. There’s the infamous Nth Room case in South Korea and now the case dubbed as the new Nth room with deepfake photos and videos spreading in Telegram, and the horror of child sex abuse in Malaysia’s charity homes. The world definitely needed this movie because we need a hero like Officer Black Belt.

And here we go…

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Movie Review: My Name Is Loh Kiwan

This is the first work of Song Joong Ki that I’m watching after a whole drama of what he had said about “married actors”. I’m not going to delve much into it except that it sounded very ignorant of the challenges that women in the industry face as well, if not worse, than their male counterparts, like him.

In any case, the trailer looked interesting so here I am. It’s No. 2 in Singapore on Netflix so why not give it a try, right?

Well… big mistake…

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