"The Afterparty," "Spellbound," and "Remarriage & Desires": Brief and Not-So-Brief Opinions: Part 17

Remarriage & Desires (Netflix), The Afterparty (Apple TV+), and Spellbound (Netflix).

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The 'brief and not-so-brief opinions' articles are my outlet to rant about or appreciate movies, shows and their elements. I will express my thoughts while watching and after or only after watching, it depends. I will not be rating. These are not spoiler-free for the most part, and no research will be made for or about them (unless it's out of curiosity or accidental, which would be mentioned). They are in no particular order of recent watching as well. However, the opinions are based on the order in which the movie or series is viewed (for the most part). This wouldn't be as structured or detailed, and there would be no set number of picks per article. It would be just as things go. It is intended to be casual. So think…conversations about movie plots, characters, topics, or something like that.

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Remarriage & Desires (2022)

One man's pleasure is his entire family's pain as his affair leads to dangerous results and consequences for his wife, Seo Hye-seung and their daughter. This stains and haunts their lives as the woman he has an affair with decides to ruin his life for daring to have a serious relationship with her. As I watched, I became increasingly enraged by the selfishness of this man to leave them, no matter the form, to endure all the pain they went through. He abandoned them twice and left them with the hateful whirlwind that is Jin Yoo-hui. While Hye-seung coped with her husband leaving her for Yoo-hui, she had to cope with his brief return before his choice of death as they grasped at the remnants to salvage his image in light of sexual assault claims Yoo-hui spread before making it her mission to see their family suffer. I believed Seo-yeon from The Trunk was horrible, but Yoo-hui is truly vile as she harnesses all her hatred of men stemming from abandonment issues from her father as an illegitimate child, to search for a wealthy man through the arranged marriage agency that Hye-seung's mother arranges for Hye-seung in hopes of stability in their family.

Yoo-hui chases her desires for perfection, love, and revenge, using everyone as tools to gain what she wants and pushing the moral boundaries in situations. She wanted Hye-seung to have no form of happiness as she infiltrated into her workplace, bought the house they lived in, and paid someone to kill Hye-seung's daughter. Despite choosing to fight, Hye-seung was running low on financial, social, and emotional strength until her two love interests came into play and cared for her. I would have been glad to fully watch her wedding to Lee Hyung-ju because an extended moment of happiness would have been great, especially in the intense 8-episode season. Jung Eugene's performance as Yoo-hui was spectacular as she was seethingly persistent and resilient, making her a true villain. However, her last scene, with no regrets, spoke volumes and was most memorable, showing that everything truly weighed on Remarriage & Desires.

Spellbound (2024)

Spellbound follows the life of Princess Ellian as she tries her best to save the humanity and image of her parents, the King and Queen of Lumbria after they mentally and physically transform into monsters. Their anger during arguments with each other produces enough bad energy that manifests in their prolonged physical transformation, and Ellian tries her best to prevent them from being locked up as mere monsters. 

I was surprised that the reason for all this was their disagreements, and it served as a metaphor for divorce. It felt underwhelming but could be a good representation for children of divorce who may not have gone through the process of healing. In this, Ellian depicts a reality where many experience rapid maturity to address their parents' shortcomings. This is clear, as everyone feels sympathy for her, especially since she is a princess who is expected to be more mature than other children due to her position. However, everything returns to normal as her parents focus on the truly important matter: her well-being, which leads to a happy ending for the royal family.

The Afterparty (2022)

A high school reunion transforms into a murder mystery at The Afterparty of a former classmate. Before her rival arrives, Detective Danner seizes the investigation of Xavier's murder, utilizing an unorthodox method of informality. She led them into a false sense of security as they retold their "mind movies" of what had happened earlier that night and the events leading up to that point, highlighting similarities, their perspective on themselves, their relationship with Xavier, and more. I love that each episode was different yet the same, as they focus on the mind movie of a particular character and incorporate a genre to shape their perceptions. This makes for an interesting experience, with romance, action, thriller, and other genres being featured in separate episodes. As everyone is a suspect, Detective Danner extracts clues from the irregularities observed in the stories told, as well as from Aniq, whom everyone claims is the culprit and serves as the prime suspect. During a search, I found out who the culprit was and thought it was interesting to see Yasper's behaviour. However, I believed it was too obvious, given his odd antics, his familiarity with Xavier's house, their old band together, and more, but it led to the solution of an answer hiding in plain sight. I genuinely thought the culprit would be one of the Jennifers or someone unexpected to provide the shock factor.

The suspense was effective throughout the plot, intro, and performances, inciting more interest in the different sides of the story. This is evident in the first season, which consists of 8 episodes and features several songs by Yasper, Aniq, or Xavier. As Dave Franco becomes a pop star in the character Xavier, formerly known as Eugene, we start to see that he might have a shot if he were to debut in real life. His dedication to the insecure and obnoxious Xavier is admirable as he pushed himself to record the songs and film music videos with choreography. I watched his Apple interview with Zane Lowe, and I was surprised to see that he thought he couldn't do it and didn't want to initially, but I'm glad he did. I enjoyed watching his character and was happy for his growth, even if it was superficial, but I hated what he did to Chelsea. The first season of this series is a truly enjoyable watch, with themes of purpose, inadequacy, unhappiness, courage, and more, in hopes of getting more than two shots in life.

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