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Movie Moxie’s Anti-Valentine’s Day Horror Special Presents ‘Bulgasal Immortal Souls’: Curse you, Destiny!

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Spoilers endure for thousands of years!

As the Covid pandemic rages on with no end in apparent sight, the thought of romance and spending time together with the vestiges of humanity makes Moxie’s scrubbed skin crawl, so instead we’re diving into a story of Korean monsters, mythology, murder, and redemption over a thousand years in the making!

Most people are familiar with the semi-standard tropes of monsters known more or less around the world – vampires, shape-shifters, and the like – but with all the popularity South Korean television has garnered in the last decade, the rich monster mythology Korea has to offer has yet to be explored – til now!

As the show readily explains more than once, a Bulgasal is a vampire-like being, forced to feed on human blood and cursed with immortality, for a monster with no soul simply cannot reincarnate. Our primary Bulgasal is Dan Hwal (Lee Jin-wook), though it does take him some time to give his name, for when our story begins in the modern era, Hwal is effectively running around as the monster who kills other reincarnated monsters, nameless. Hwal doesn’t need to eat, not people food anyway, he gets regularly scheduled deliveries of beef blood from adorable Ajumma Lee Hye-suk (Park Myung-shin) whom he saved from a different monster when she was a girl, Hwal barely sleeps or even rests, he’s simply waiting. What’s he waiting for, you ask? For a woman, for the woman, specifically the reincarnation of the woman who killed Hwal’s family and made him into Bulgasal, some 600 years ago. Yes, Bulgasal is big into themes like reincarnation, fate, and destiny.

Then there’s the woman Hwal’s been waiting forever for, Min Sang-woon (Kwon Nara), and by extension, her sister Min Si-ho (Gong Seung-yeon). Her childhood was forever shattered when her parents were slain by, what else, a monster of the Bulgasal variety, yes, but why? Because some six hundred years ago, when Sang-woon was a terror herself apparently, she purportedly slew Hwal’s adoptive father Dan Geuk (Jung Jin-young), his wife Dan Sol and their poor blind son, and to add insult to injury, stole Hwal’s soul and turned him into Bulgasal. Inevitably here in the modern world, Hwal’s adoptive father, wife, and even son have all reincarnated and are about to get themselves involved in the hunt for the real Bulgasal boogeyman! Did I happen to mention that Bulgasal is huge into, like, inevitable destiny?

So if it wasn’t an appalling Sang-woon from a previous life or any of these other reincarnated humans with monstrous ancestry that Hwal happens to be interim killing while he waits for his intended to reincarnate so he can kill her yet again, who’s the really-real villain of this story? Rich and powerful and effectively immortal, his name is Ok Eul-tae (Lee Joon), he’s been associated with Bulgasal and Hwal in particular for a long time now, and has been holding a grudge against Sang-woon for pretty much this entire time. The why of his grudge against both Sang-woon and Hwal, the gaping void hole in his chest, the miserly way he hoards secrets only to deploy them like a bomb for max effect decades later, all conspire to demonstrate how unstable and volatile Ok Eul-tae really is. Like the brutal and atrocious consequences of a disastrous decision made a very long time ago, Ok Eul-tae glories in bringing maximum destruction to those he considers secondary roles in Hwal’s life, which is pretty much everyone, but especially that damnable woman that keeps reincarnating and getting in the way of him and Hwal going off into the darkness together forever! (Sure sounds an awful lot like a previously scorned lover to me!)

Sure, there’s plenty about the fate and destiny of love, even hundreds of years and lives lived later, but what makes Bulgasal Immortal Souls different is showing the consequences of the hurt and pain we cause those we claim to love around us, sometimes even decades or lifetimes later. Some people hold grudges tighter and more precious than Faberge eggs, especially against those they claim to love, and the ripples that spread out from that have a tendency to affect those only innocently associated on the periphery, too. Hwal finds himself shocked and horrified to see the reincarnated versions of his loved ones be hurt and even die as a direct result of his actions, and we feel every single second of his immortal suffering with him. (In case it wasn’t obvious, Bulgasal is also big-big-big into suffering – physical pain, emotional torture, mental agony, seeing our loved ones tormented in our own place, etc.)

The show also emphasizes the thought that true families are made, people gather ‘round each-other and choose to be together, to call each other ‘brother’ or ‘auntie’ or ‘Ajumma’, to chide each other over not eating, to share in heartbreaks and triumphs with people you chose to love, not because destiny said you shared blood ancestry and therefore have to care about them. In particular the performance of modern-day Detective Kwon and previous-life General Dan Geuk, the man who rescued a cursed, nameless boy from the machinations of a shaman and the idiocy of villagers and helps Hwal run around investigating Ok Eul-tae in the modern world, and the love and care of Ajumma Lee Hye-suk, who was that same shaman who cursed Hwal in a previous life and could be accused of starting this entire cycle of suffering and pain around him, in this life she became the Mother figure of the strange little family Hwal gathered ‘round himself.

Bulgasal Immortal Souls breaks the chains of destiny, and proves that real love – familial, platonic, romantic, whatever – is something you fight for, with your own hands and heart and mind! Catch the blood-drenched struggle against the madness of fate on Netflix now!

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Top Ten Times Willow was the Worst

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With all the discourse surrounding the much anticipated Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, not
to mention Sarah Michelle Gellar’s and Alyson Hannigan’s joint interview on the Today show
discussing the show’s legacy! Many fans have revised their opinions on some of the
original show’s titular characters. One such character is Hannigan’s own, Willow Rosenberg. Once seen as the shy, lovable, nerdy sidekick, now her image is less than rosy. Manipulative? Petty? And maybe worst of all: a bad friend.

10. Easing us in with a somewhat annoying one. In Season 6, Episode 11, ‘Gone’, it is
morning in the Summers household. After throwing out most of Willow’s magical stash as
the fallen wiccan tries to go cold turkey with her magic addiction (more on that later). Buffy
is post-traumatic-resurrection trying to keep it all together after a night of hot,
passionate…fighting with a vampire. Willow appears to be living in the Summers’ home rent-free and is cooking Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) an apology omelette. She is making a
mess while cooking, as one does, but leaves her traumatised friend to clean up after her! Poor
Buffy (you’ll hear that a lot) was just lambasting herself for not noticing Willow’s self-
inflicted downfall. Buffy is literally chopping off her own hair in distress, and no one notices!
The audacity!

9. In Season 3, Episode 2, ‘Dead Man’s Party’, Buffy has returned to Sunnydale after her
secondment in LA. After a traumatic year, Buffy clearly just wants to hang out with her
friends like a regular teenager. Willow agrees to meet Buffy in town to re-bond over
shopping. Yes, Willow did say earlier in the episode that she had school work that she would
have to rearrange, which is fair enough, but at least cancel instead of leaving poor Buffy
(see?) sitting alone waiting for you!

8. Anya (Emma Caulfield), the ex-vengeance demon, was treated pretty coolly by the
Scoobies. Willow was clearly jealous of Anya’s relationship with Xander (Nicholas
Brendon), taking Xander’s attention from her. Throughout the final seasons, Willow treated
Anya like an annoyance at best and undermined her with cruel remarks at worst. In no
episode was this more obvious than Season 5, Episode 11, ‘Triangle’. Willow is brazenly
stealing spell ingredients from Anya’s and Giles’s (her friends) small business. Willow even
says herself she is not “stealing”, she is “…just taking things without paying for them. In what
twisted dictionary is that stealing?”.
Willow comes off as a bully throughout this episode, cruelly mimicking Anya and trying to
make Xander choose between his childhood best friend and his girlfriend. I want to mention
that not only is Willow gay, but has her own girlfriend at this point. So her possessiveness of
Xander comes off as particularly childish.

7. Willow’s irresponsibility with magic becomes a large feature of the series. Even her most
ardent fans can’t explain what she was thinking in Season 5, Episode 17, ‘Forever’ when she
draws Dawn’s attention to a dark spell book. This book encourages 15-year-old Dawn to raise
her mother from the dead. Culminating in what is, in my opinion, one of the creepiest scenes
in Buffy: the shadow of zombie Joyce walking past Summer’s curtained window, returning
home. Presumably, Willow knew the dangers but was fine with a child dabbling in dark
magic.

6. Back to Season 3, Episode 2 ‘Dead Man’s Party’. After not being satisfied standing Buffy
up, she also wants to rant at a clearly distressed Buffy that Willow’s now got a boyfriend and is
practicing witchcraft, AND had no one to talk to about it when Buffy ran away. Bear in mind
that Buffy had to stab her boyfriend through the heart and send him to Hell after months of
his evil alter ego psychologically torturing her. But Willow needs her gal pal.
Very similar to Season 7, Episode 19 ‘Empty Places’ when Willow joined the group pile on,
blaming poor Buffy (and again) for everything that’s gone wrong. And then throwing Buffy
out of her own house (you know the one she pays for?)! In the words of one Buffy fan ‘Y’all
hate her so much, why did you resurrect her?’

5. Going to my personal favourite season, Season 6 (I’m not arguing about it), Episode 10
‘Wrecked’. Willow is caught in the throes of magic addiction. Within the Buffy universe,
magic was a metaphor for lesbian sex, but the metaphor changes in Season 6 to substance
abuse. Willow takes Dawn to what is essentially a magical drug den and leaves her waiting
there for over an hour. Then, high on magic, he proceeds to not take Dawn home, instead
offering to teleport her back home. Willow then gets behind the wheel of a car with Dawn
while high and crashes the car.
Buffy was known to tackle social issues, and its handling of substance abuse was surprisingly
Realistic, mainly due to Alyson Hannigan’s amazing acting!

4. In Season 4, Episode 6, ‘Wild at Heart,’ we get to see the true darkness that appears to live
inside Willow. After being cheated on by her long-time boyfriend Oz (Seth Green), Willow
takes it upon herself to hex both Oz and his cheating partner, Veruca. She casts ‘in the name
of Hell’ wanting to break both their hearts and find no peace or solace…harsh. To be fair to
her, she does stop herself, but Willow, I appreciate you got cheated on, but we can’t just go
about hexing people.

3. And now to one of the best episodes ever! Season 6, Episode 8 ‘Tabula Rasa’ delivers
some serious comic gold, but the premise of the episode is rather disturbing. Despite
promising Tara (Amber Benson), her long-term partner, that she would give up magic for a
week, Willow casts a spell. Tara is understandably upset that the woman she loves cast a
memory spell on her to make her forget their arguments. Willow’s answer to this is to cast yet

another memory spell to make Tara forget the first memory spell (stay with me). Willow also tries to cast a spell on Buffy (you know her friend suffering from depression) to make her forget being in Heaven. As is a staple in the Buffy universe, the spell goes awry, making the whole gang forget who they are, leading to hilarious hijinks.
Yes, it’s one of the funniest Buffy episodes, but if the spell hadn’t accidentally been broken, then they all could have been stuck like that.

2. For such a trailblazing relationship, Willow and Tara have a lot of problems when
scrutinised. Almost everything stems from Willow’s overuse of magic. The relationship
gets darker the more you examine it. As Tara said in ‘Tabula Rasa’, Willow violated her
mind. Some fans have pointed out; not only was the flower Willow used to cast the forgetting
spell (Season 6, Episode 6) is in an oddly convenient place in their bedroom. This begs the
question: how many times has Willow cast these spells? Fans have also pointed out that if
Tara had sex with Willow after any spell was cast on her, she wouldn’t be consenting.

1. As a surprise to literally no one, the number one time Willow was a bad friend on top of
being completely irresponsible, resurrecting one Miss Buffy Summers. Now, many may
argue that after the finale of Season 5, ‘The Gift’, it would be understandable that Willow
would think Buffy was trapped in some Hell dimension.

Ok, let’s stay with that logic. Willow is aware that resurrection spells are extremely volatile,
presumably why the Scoobies have been planning it for weeks. Xander voices it perfectly, in
Season 6, Episode 1 ‘Bargaining Pt 1’, Buffy may try to “eat our brains”. Willow even
comments (Season 6, Episode 3) on how messed up Angel was when he came back from Hell.
Willow could have caused an emotional and physical catastrophe for them all by bringing
back a ‘wrong’ Buffy who still possesses super-strength and super-speed. Spike (James
Marsters) declares in the same episode that he shut down any idea Willow had about bringing
Buffy, back in case it went so badly, they would have to “get rid of what came back”. It’s bad
when the soulless vampire is more mature than you, isn’t it?

Willow Rosenberg is indeed a very complex character played expertly by Alyson Hannigan. Willow has her flaws, but it is those flaws that make her such a compelling character. I, for one, am very interested to see what they do with the character in the reboot.

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Review: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

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From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is a stylish and brutal addition to the ever-expanding John Wick universe. Set between the explosive events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Chapter 4, the film seamlessly slots into the timeline without feeling like a stopgap. Instead, it builds something fresh, introducing a new protagonist on a vengeful journey of her own.

Ana de Armas delivers a fierce and emotionally layered performance as Eve Macarro, a ballerina-trained assassin seeking justice for her family. While her motivations mirror Wick’s, the film avoids repetition by diving deeper into the Ruska Roma and High Table lore. It’s a testament to the world-building that this spin-off doesn’t just feel justified—it feels essential.

As expected, the fight choreography is at its peak—gritty, inventive, and ruthlessly beautiful. Every action set-piece hits with a kinetic energy that’s both thrilling and brutal. This franchise continues to prove that when it comes to stunt work and direction, it’s in a league of its own. Can the John Wick series really disappoint? So far, no.

The story is tight, the pacing brisk, and each supporting performance, especially the cameos from familiar faces, adds weight and continuity to the narrative. Ballerina proves that this universe is more than just one man’s war; it’s a whole underworld waiting to be explored.

With compelling characters, rich mythology, and jaw-dropping action, Ballerina is a strong 9/10—one of the best spin-offs in recent memory.

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The Top 5 Movies of James Gunn — A Symphony of Heart, Humor, and Heroism

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Few directors in the modern cinematic landscape have reshaped genre filmmaking quite like James Gunn. Known for blending irreverent humor with profound emotional depth, Gunn has left an indelible mark on both indie horror and superhero franchises. As he transitions into leading DC Studios, it’s the perfect time to revisit his five finest works—each a statement of his unique voice in an often formulaic industry.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Rating: 9.5/10

A rare sequel that deepens its characters rather than merely expanding its universe, Vol. 2 is Gunn at his most personal. The film wrestles with the pain of abandonment, the search for belonging, and the complexity of father-son dynamics—cloaked in vibrant visuals and a killer soundtrack. Yondu’s “He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn’t your daddy” line alone secures its legacy.

2. The Suicide Squad (2021)

Rating: 9/10

Chaotic, gory, and gleefully anarchic, The Suicide Squad is a wild remix of the superhero genre. Gunn injects pathos into misfits like Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man, proving his unmatched talent for humanizing the bizarre. It’s a subversive spectacle that doubles as an anti-war allegory—with a giant alien starfish to boot.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Rating: 8.8/10

The film that redefined Marvel’s creative boundaries, Guardians took a gang of obscure comic-book characters and turned them into pop culture icons. With its perfect balance of humor, heart, and ‘70s mixtape vibes, it’s the origin story of Gunn’s mainstream rise and one of the MCU’s most beloved entries.

4. Slither (2006)

Rating: 8/10

Before superheroes and intergalactic misfits, Gunn gave us Slither—a grotesque and hilarious horror-comedy with serious B-movie charm. This film showcases his roots: practical effects, quotable dialogue, and an affection for the genre’s oddballs. It’s disgusting, delightful, and distinctly Gunn.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Rating: 8/10

An emotionally charged finale to the Guardians trilogy, *Vol

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