The Worst Film Ever

Charming and brutal

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Park Chan-Wook's incredibly strange romantic art-house film narrates the romance and carnage that follows when a woman who fantasises that she is a cyborg meets a paranoid man in a mental institution who believes that he is steadily transforming into a single dot. Seriously. Whilst the film is kooky and kind of sweet in an eighty foot teddy bear kind of way, the film renders its audience completely oblivious to its message of humanity over conformity and the humanistic fear of helplessness, all because its far too colourful and its ridiculous plot completely overshadows its subplot; unfortunately what's implied is ignored for what is seen.

I remember randomly choosing this movie in a fantasy-horror festival shortly after it's release. After watching i haven't been able to shake of the feeling that it broke the mold of the festival.Although described as romantic comedy I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK is more than that. Yes, there is romance and comedy and yes, there's fantasy and horror elements. I thought i've sensed even some influence from Kusturica, as well, but i might have been wrong. What makes exceptional is that melds the action of SF-action-movies, some gore and art-house.What stayed in my mind has been the depiction of main protagonist's descending into madness. It's been the finest of it's kind in contemporary cinema.

I had never heard of this South Korean film before and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I found it very charming with some great subtle use of CGI to illustrate the inner thoughts of the main characters. I know there are a few out there that fear the subtitle and for those I'm afraid your worst fears may be realised… It does have subtitles. For me, not usually a problem, but I did struggle to follow the plot at the beginning, it soon settled down though and easy reading from then on. I'll give you my thoughts after this brief summary.Young woman, Cha Young-goon has been sent to a mental institution. Her grandmother had been sent into care sometime earlier and, it seems, this had tipped her over the edge. She keeps it a secret, but she believes she is a Cyborg and she has to rescue her grandmother. In order to do that though, she must relieve herself of all thoughtfulness, sympathy…etc. She is befriended by Park Il-sun, another patient who has a habit of stealing things. The staff becomes worried about Young-goon when she refuses to eat. They lock her away but Il-sun has fallen in love with her and may be able to help her. I will leave it there or the Spoiler Police will be fitting cybernetic implants to me (again).I love the subtle use of CGI in this film, you can tell a lot of hard work and imagination has been applied to make it look so good. It's a film full of interesting characters and great performances, but the two that stood out were Su-jeong Lim as Cha Young-goon and Rain as Park Il-sun. Both were really excellent, particularly Su-jeong Lim, her performance was quite stunning.This is a very engaging and charming film with lots of subtle plot twists that keep the audience guessing. It is essentially a love story, but one with a difference and one that (I hope) others will enjoy as much as I did. Great acting, great direction and great production, although it's not altogether perfect; I've already mentioned the slightly confusing beginning; I still enjoyed it very much though. It's another of a growing number of South Korean films I am discovering and long may it continue… Recommended.My score: 7.7/10.IMDb Score: 7.0/10 (based on 8,808 votes at the time of going to press).Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: 90/100 (based on 10 reviews counted at the time of going to press).Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 80/100 (based on 11,824 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).

Having seen Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy and enjoyed them I was keen to see how he would tackle a more light-hearted film. With this he clearly demonstrates that he is not a one trick pony. Here he manages to make a film with plenty of laughs as well as some sadness. It would be too easy for a comedy set in a mental institution to descend into a freak show where we are invited to laugh at the patients condition but he skilfully avoids that.We are introduced to the protagonist Cha Young-goon in the opening sequence where she is working in an electronics factory, she hears a voice telling her what to do and cuts open her arm, pushes wires into the wound, tapes them in place then plugs herself in to the mains. She survives this but as there is clearly something wrong she ends up in a mental institution. As she is convinced that she is a cyborg she refuses to eat, instead spending her lunch time holding a battery. She grows to believe that her purpose is to kill the doctors there but her sympathy is preventing her from doing this because of this she forms a friendship with another patient who claims to be a thief who can steal just about anything... if he can steal Thursday surely he can steal her sympathy. As she isn't eating she is getting weaker and her new friend Park Il-sun is determined to persuade her to eat, he does this by giving her a device which he tells her will enable her to eat food.The film has many poignant moments as well as several surreal scenes such as those where Young-goon believes she is gunning down the medical staff at the facility. The actors did a good job especially Su-jeong Lim in the lead role who had a strange detached look which was somewhat increased by her blonde eyebrows. With this film Park Chan-wook has clearly demonstrated he can make light hearted films.... I certainly wasn't expecting him to make a film that featured yodelling.