I’m a Cyborg but that’s OK (싸이보그지만 괜찮아) by Park Chan Wook 박찬욱 (2006)
26 May 2007If you read are a reader of my blog at all you will know I am a huge fan of Park Chan Wook. I have absolutely loved 3 of out of his 4 previous films from JSA Old Boy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (though Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was not my favorite), and while this film is a huge departure in subject matter and in fact a much more art house film, I think his skill and style have held up completely, and this is easily one of the best films of last year. This film is quirky and wacky, and sure there is segment in this film where we lose the main thread and just go off with some of the other kooky characters (this is after a love story set in a mental institution), but they are interesting enough that it is accepted. This is truly a lovely little love story between 2 insane people, and surrounded by insane people. This is absolute quirky fun, and an absolute must see. I really hope this makes the American Art House circuit because my mother would love this film, it actually made me think of watching KING OF HEARTS with her as a kid. This film is fantastic, and I absolutely love how they did the opening credits, with the names appearing on objects in the scenes. I just think it is too bad that this Region 3 DVD seems to already be out of print, because this is a must see!
This is the story of the strange looking Korean girl Young Goon (Im Soo-jeong 임수정 who is amazing in this quirky role) who works at a radio manufacturing plant, and hears voices in her head. She believes she is a cyborg, and so has stopped eating, and while at work attempts to jam an electrical wire into her arm to try and recharge her batteries, so she is sent to a mental institution. And her mother explains to the doctor that Young Goon’s grandmother was schizophrenic and thought she was a mouse and fed mouse, and was recently sent to a mental institution. Young Goon seems catatonic, but in fact only talks to machines, and does so by putting her grandmother’s false teeth in, which she wants to get to her grandmother. Slowly Young Goon starts to open up to other inmates, letting one fat woman eat her food, and especially to Il Soon (Jung Jo Hoon, better known as the Korean Pop Singer Rain 비), who is a compulsive thief, and always wears masks because he thinks he is going to shrink to nothing, and doesn’t want to become invisible, and also has the ability to steal characteristics from the other patients, such as their ping pong ability.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Young Goon slowly opens up to Il Soon, because she wants him to steal her sadness that keeps her from shooting and killing all the doctors who she knows that took her grandmother away, and eventually Il Soon manages to do just that, and we see Il Soon’s fantasy of her fingers becoming guns and her shooting the doctors, but she runs out of power, mainly because she hasn’t eaten in so long.
Il Soon eventually realizes that he is falling for Young Goon, and realizes that he must make her eat so that she stays alive, and since he was an electrical engineer he develops a plan. He takes his flip open nick nack with a photo of his mother, and puts electronics in it, and then convinces Young Goon that is a device to convert food into energy, and then he tricks her into thinking he installed it into her back, and gives her the ability to eat, so that she won’t die.
Then Il Soon helps Young Goon to figure out what her grandmother, who she finds out from her mother (who also has issues) has died and been cremated, was saying to her that the meaning of her life was in fact that she is an atom bomb, and she needs electricity so she can blow up. So again Il Soon goes to help her, and since this is the most lenient mental hospital ever, letting patients out on the grounds, and carry whatever they want around. So Il Soon takes her out in the rain and they make a tent, and he wires up a big antennae so she can be hit by lightning, but he put the cork from their bottle of wine on top so they would not get hit by lightning. The two get soaked, and first take their socks off, and the Il Soon, says they are wet, and the films ends with the sun up in the morning as the rain has cleared, and we see a rainbow, and in the distance we see them naked and making love.
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Such a wonderful and quirky love story, with so many great and absolutely insane and quirky characters. Now this is not mainstream film, but this is such a wonderful and incredible film. It is shot beautiful, has great production design, and great characters across the board. This is an absolute must see film. I can’t recommend it more highly.
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