I'm A Cyborg, But That's O.K.

I was disheartened when I heard the negative buzz surrounding this movie. I’m a huge fan of Chan-wook Park’s films and wouldn’t wish for a single of his movies to be a flop. Still I feel that despite its poor performance in the box office and bad press this movie is a huge artistic success. Breaking free from the thematic limitations of his revenge trilogy, Park takes this opportunity to expand on the nostalgic romanticism and poetic beauty that underlined his past two releases. And while revenge still figures into this movie, it plays second fiddle to the Park’s meditations on love, family and friendship. 

 

Even though this film doesn’t go as fiercely against the grain as Oldboy or Lady Vengeance did, Park’s recent film is a very interesting take on romantic comedies. A good comparison might be Michael Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine”, since “Cyborg” is bittersweet and visually stunning. The movie starts with Cha Young-goon (played by Su-jeong Lim) electrocuting herself while trying to recharge her batteries.

In her mind, she is a Cyborg and this apparent act of suicide is a wake up call that she has become a danger to herself. Placed in an institution she finds herself slowly wasting away, afraid to eat thinking it will ruin her mechanical insides. As she roams the halls hooked up to a drip and speaking to machines she catches the attention of another inmate.

 

This character is Park Il-sun, played by the up and coming pop star Rain (think Justin Timberlake, but made in Korea). Without understanding the subtleties of the language I cannot tell you for sure if his performance is perfect, but based on voice and subtitles I was quite impressed. He plays an antisocial kleptomaniac who not only steals worldly possessions but also the skills and manias of his fellow inmates. This means that he spends a lot of the movie imitating other characters strengths and weaknesses, which puts his vocal and physical talents to good use.        

 

The rest of the movie plays out shifting between reality, memories and the shared daydreams of the inmates. Most shots are visually cluttered with mental patients, each in their own world following their own routines. And surprisingly enough insanity is not really played out for cheap laughs; instead it serves as a means to bring an extremely varied cast together without the burden of logic. For example you have some great conversations between a paranoid ex-cop and his pathologically polite best friend. As one curses and blames the world for his problems, the other constantly apologizes and blames himself.

And then you’ve got the main character, who believes she has been entrusted by her grandmother to extract revenge on the men in white coats that took her away. In her mind, her compassion is the only thing stopping her from turning into a full fledged rampaging robot with machine gun fingers, and she needs her new kleptomaniac friend to steal that compassion from her.

 

Unfortunately once he does this she descends into deeper madness, and it’s up to him to set things right and save her life before she wastes away into nothingness. While I don’t want to give away the ending, I don’t have enough willpower to talk about this movie without mentioning its most impressive scenes.

For example at one point Cha Young-goon daydreams of herself walking through the halls mowing down doctors with a John Woo style hail of bullets. This scene spills out into the garden with a super wide angle shot, where every doctor is just an ant running around trying to flee from the petite assassin. This shot is amazing; in a way it looks like Miss Pacman running around eating ghosts on an arcade screen.

 

Now I’m sure there’s still people who wanted a lot more blood and brooding, but rumor has it Chan-wook Park’s next film will involve vampires and the mob so you will get your wish soon enough. In the meantime though I invite all fans of good foreign cinema to check out this story and if you don’t find anything charming in it, then you must be some sort of heartless robot.