I'm a Cyborg, but That's Okay is the fifth major feature by Park Chanwook, who is most known for his "vengeance" trilogy. Certainly an auteur when it comes to visuals, Park's fifth feature takes a change of pace from the intensity of his previous works and is billed as a romantic comedy. That said, if you're looking for the genre formula to be present with Park's film, you're going to be disappointed. On the other hand, what you have here is a visually memorable if somewhat slight mind trip of a film, not without its problems from a storytelling angle.
The story deals with a young woman, believing herself to be a cyborg, gets checked into a mental institution. Because she thinks she's a cyborg, she refuses to eat human food. Also somewhat recent to the institution is a mask-wearing young man, who is under the impression he can intangibles like "Thursday" and character traits of other patients. The strange thing is that the man has some sway over the other patients and they all seem to agree that he can indeed steal such things, leading to some strangeness. And then these two crazy birds meet and well, nothing really goes how you might think it goes. Calling the story a romantic comedy is a little off, despite being a romance at heart and a comedy as well.
Unfortunately, while the concepts presented are interesting and presented well, the storytelling doesn't provide much more conflict than the woman not eating. This is complicated by the compounded mental illnesses of all present, but the conflict appears to be easily overcome and so there doesn't seem to be any weight to the story. And then there's the depiction of madness, which we will have to assume is far from realistic. If you have any actual experience, whether directly or indirectly with mental illness, you will have to throw your real world knowledge out the window with this film.
As expected, the visuals are highly impressive, while maintaining the sense of claustrophobia that seems present in most of Park's compositions. Use of color, lens filters, lighting as well as aspects like mis-en-scene, framing, dynamic action is all clearly taken advantage of, with production values of a high budget film, leading to a rather strange, but appreciable hybrid of blockbuster and art film, threatening to fall into avante garde without actually falling in. Thesps perform surprisingly well (with an unexpectedly loose performance by pop star, Rain).
Ultimately, because of the simplicity of the story, the film fails to carry any emotional weight, leaving the aesthetics and blending and blurring of reality to carry the piece. Fortunately, it is enough to leave the movie an interesting and watchable affair, but I can't help but feel that were more attention paid to the underlying story, the film would've strongly benefited from it. Recommended only for the adventurous or those that like visual/mental trips. 7/10.
The story deals with a young woman, believing herself to be a cyborg, gets checked into a mental institution. Because she thinks she's a cyborg, she refuses to eat human food. Also somewhat recent to the institution is a mask-wearing young man, who is under the impression he can intangibles like "Thursday" and character traits of other patients. The strange thing is that the man has some sway over the other patients and they all seem to agree that he can indeed steal such things, leading to some strangeness. And then these two crazy birds meet and well, nothing really goes how you might think it goes. Calling the story a romantic comedy is a little off, despite being a romance at heart and a comedy as well.
Unfortunately, while the concepts presented are interesting and presented well, the storytelling doesn't provide much more conflict than the woman not eating. This is complicated by the compounded mental illnesses of all present, but the conflict appears to be easily overcome and so there doesn't seem to be any weight to the story. And then there's the depiction of madness, which we will have to assume is far from realistic. If you have any actual experience, whether directly or indirectly with mental illness, you will have to throw your real world knowledge out the window with this film.
As expected, the visuals are highly impressive, while maintaining the sense of claustrophobia that seems present in most of Park's compositions. Use of color, lens filters, lighting as well as aspects like mis-en-scene, framing, dynamic action is all clearly taken advantage of, with production values of a high budget film, leading to a rather strange, but appreciable hybrid of blockbuster and art film, threatening to fall into avante garde without actually falling in. Thesps perform surprisingly well (with an unexpectedly loose performance by pop star, Rain).
Ultimately, because of the simplicity of the story, the film fails to carry any emotional weight, leaving the aesthetics and blending and blurring of reality to carry the piece. Fortunately, it is enough to leave the movie an interesting and watchable affair, but I can't help but feel that were more attention paid to the underlying story, the film would've strongly benefited from it. Recommended only for the adventurous or those that like visual/mental trips. 7/10.