Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. I’m not reading this review because I don’t want to know anything about Chan-Wook Park’s new film until I get the chance to see it, but for those of you who are curious, check this out:
I've sent in a few things in the past, but have never seen a review come up. Yesterday I went into Hong Kong to see I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay, the new movie from Park Chan-Wook. I hope you like it and/or use it, as this film deserves attention and you guys seem to host the place to give it just that. As I got on the series of trains that would take me home from Hong Kong to China, I found myself thinking about how I wanted to talk about this movie but also how I, really, couldn't do that to anyone. Not because this movie was terrible, but because it was wonderful. I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay is the latest film by Park Chan-Wook, which if you've been following Asian cinema for the past few years should be enough to get you at least half hard. Years ago I walked in to a little movie called Oldboy and was amazingly surprised. All I knew walking in was that it was from South Korea and that it was well recieved. After watching it I realized why. Much of Asian cinema isn't, well, it's just not very good. It's always A for effort, but very rarely is it A for execution. That's not to say that there's a consistent flow of bad films. There is, but no more so than any other country on the planet. With many Chinese/Hong Kong and South Korean films I have to give them the benefit of the doubt in order for them to work as films. This year the Hong Kong Film Festival held the very first Asian Film Awards. The Host was the big winner. I believe it's out in America at this point, so you kids can check it out, but it's very, very Asian. 1) No direction. One moment it's a monster movie, then it's a government satire, then it's really melodramatic, then it's horror again. None of the genres were given the opportunity to actually work. Once one genre was settling in it was time for a change and all that work was lost. A for effort, C for execution. Another good example is the South Korean film Shiri. Shiri was the biggest movie in South Korea, finally toppling Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time in the country. And it's neat. But it suffers from all the same problems that The Host had. That much of Asian cinema has. So where am I going with this and what does it have to do with the movie in question? With I'm a Cyborg Park has shown us, the foreign moviegoer, that we don't have to be afraid of Asian cinema. That we don't have to have a cultural background or patience with these new directors. That we can go see a South Korean movie and just enjoy it as a film, not as a cultural piece. I went into this movie with no knowledge at all, and I think that's best. So I'll try to terrace this a little bit. 1) It's called I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay and it's by Park Chan-Wook, the director of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. It's nothing like those, however, but just as unique and special. If you recognize those titles and you are going to see the movie, stop reading NOW. 2) No idea who this guy is? He's a more than competent director who knows how to tell a story and how to use the camera as a tool. He paints with CG instead of relying on it. With I'm a Cyborg think Amelie, but in a mental institution. Stop reading NOW. 3) Still not enough? Okay, but I'm being totally serious. Discovering this movie was a wonderful thing. It's really best that you not know anything about it. The movie is about Young-goon, a woman who believes that she's a cyborg. In the opening scene she tries to plug a radio into her veins and gets hurt very badly. While this is happening we have another scene featuring a conversation between her mother and a therapist and the neatest opening credits sequence I've seen in a very, very long time. Young-goon gets sent to an insane asylum, where she meets and interacts with the other patients. The movie treats them all very respectfully, all things considered. Their issues are all cute and funny, but they're never outright mocked. And they're all also very, very real to the patients themselves. One woman has a pair of socks that she can use to fly. Another man can steal the "powers" of others. And the cyborg has guns for fingers. And they really all do. She refuses to eat, as she's a cyborg, and instead licks batteries for her meals. This worries the nurses and becomes the main conflict. Another inmate attempts to help her, and the two begin an innocent romance. The film is a love story, but it's not really, but I guess it also is. The relationship comes about so realistically, so subtly and so wonderfully that the love story doesn't feel like an important part of the film until the film is over and being thought about. Oh, and Young-soon wants to kill all the doctors because they took away her grandmother. There are so many other things that happen over the course of the film that it's impossible to simply classify it as a love story. Park has proven that he is good at mixing genres without giving the audience a disconnected feeling. Everything in I'm a Cyborg is relaxed and mellow. There is no melodrama, no sweeping violins and no hammy performances. It's a simple, sweet story told solidly, with no indecision about how it should be told. It's lighthearted, a big change for Park, but it's still clearly his. Like Amelie compared to Delicatessen or Beat Takeshi's Kikujiro to his Sonatine, I'm a Cyborg is as much a labor of Park's love as Sympathy, he just tells a different story. It's the best thing to come out of Asian cinema in the past year and I sincerely hope that Park keeps making movies like this one. -Ramon
