Oh my god… this one’s a real tear-jerker. Anga was the one, who recommended this movie to me, more than a year ago, and I finally had the chance to watch it, and I’m SO glad that I gave this one a chance. This movie is THE proof that the Koreans can do more than just produce pretty graphics á la Wonderful Days.

Basically, any slice-of-life fan will enjoy this. It tells the story of two orphans: a blind girl and her younger brother. There are other characters as well, like a couple of monks, who end up taking care of the pair of them, but they’re nowhere as interesting as the two main characters. The boy was only one year old when their mother died in a fire, and they’ve been taking care of each other ever since.

And boy, does it end up awesome. The creators were really successful in creating a sad story which left me crying for many times in a row. The two main characters are fleshed out into really likable characters, and you’ll really end up feeling sorry for the things both of them had to endure, and the beauty of all is that it manages to stay realistic while doing so.

I’ve got only two complaints for this movie. The two children may be fleshed out, and they’ve got background, but I would have liked to see a bit more of it, like how the girl was able to take care of her brother after becoming blind, and how the two of them managed to survive until they reached the Buddhist Monastery. The second point of critique is the ending: it’s an anticlimax. The mood is built up perfectly, and the boy reaches a really pitiful state, and then the suddenly introduces supernatural elements from out of nowhere. It’s here where the religious undertones of the movie went completely out of control.

Still, don’t let that flaw ruin this excellent production. It’s obviously not for those who need action, but this is a great example of a successful slice-of-life movie. Be warned, though: the boy might be a bit annoying with his antics in the beginning, but he quickly becomes too adorable for this to really matter. If you’re looking for something to make you cry, this is a pretty good suggestion.

And the finale has started!

And boy, it’s promising to be awesome. I wouldn’t have guessed this during the majority of the series, but El Cazador is really becoming one of my favourite series at the time, and this episode proves it. It may have had its lesser points, but the past couple of episodes have been amazing due to Ellis and Nadie’s great characters. Seriously, only Les Miserables and Kaze no Shoujo Emily have at the moment an even more likable character than Ellis and Nadie: Eponine and Emily, respectively.

And OMG: Plot twist! Rozenberg has been the one who controlled LA all along! It makes so much sense, he had him captured for a while, and didn’t worry about the guy escaping. Of course he wouldn’t mind; he messed with is bracelet to control the guy!! That’s why he went to his laptop in the past few episodes: to remotely activate the bracelet. That’s why Ricardo and Lilio were fired: because he now has a more useful servant than the two of them.

But the most exciting event of the episode was obviously Ellis, reaching her place of destination. We now see why Rozenberg had no intention to stop her from reaching her goal, since he intended this to happen from the start. In the next episode, we should see the guy, getting back into action, and we see him fly from the United States, back to Mexico at the end of the episode.

There are now four episodes left, and I’m really curious about how the finale will take place. Rozenberg is now really going to have to prove himself, since he had little to do for most of the series. But then again, the final bad-guy from Noir had even less of a role, and when compared to her, he’s actually quite active, with his little trip to the desert to control LA. At the moment, I actually consider El Cazador a bigger success than Noir, though Noir had the strength that it nearly had no flaws, apart from being slightly annoying when the True Noir showed up again. El Cazador is quite different in that, with some of its rather questionable plot events of Ricardo and Lilio suddenly following the same path that Ellis and Nadie go, and the fact that the blue guys have stopped going after our twosome, even during the night.

Oh, and to close off this post: it’s quite surprising that Nadie actually got hurt quite badly. I wonder how this is going to affect the climax. The next episode is promising to be awesome in any case.