Natural City (2004) Synopsis:
Rebuilt after a devastating war, the world of 2080 has given rise to advanced technologies including the creation of cyborgs. Created with artificial intelligence (AI), human-like emotions and great strength, they serve one master for their entire lifespan. When the cyborgs revolt, R (Yoo Ji-tae)and Noma (Yoon Chan), Rs best friend and commander, lead an elite military squad ordered to eliminate the rebellion. Unbeknownst to anyone, R has fallen in love with Ria (Seo Rin), his cyborg, and is illegally harvesting AI chips from dead cyborgs in order to save her life. Torn between his love for Ria and the battle to save mankind, humanitys fate hangs in the balance.
Natural City (2004) Movie Review:
It’s the year 2080 in the city of Mecaline, and combat cyborgs created by a company called Neucom have started to show defects (i.e.: murdering humans).
A crack team is set on the case to track them down and kill them before they can do more damage. Their especially nasty leader, Caper, manages to get away and continues to evade capture by having his memory chip implanted into the bodies of others, effectively taking them over.
One of the team is R, an arrogant guy who is constantly in trouble and up to illegal mis-deeds. Then there is Cyon, an orphaned girl who drifts the streets offering to tell people their fortune. Ria is a robot whom R has fallen in love with. But bots only have a short life-span, and R has to find a way not to lose her, no matter what.
Every scene oozes high quality. From the lushly re-created Mecaline, to the gripping fight scenes and costume design, everything has been rendered in vivid detail and is eye-poppingly lovely.
“Terminator”, “Bladerunner”, “Alien”, “Neuromancer”, “The Matrix”, even, “I Robot” and are all blended together into a froth of action, romance and sci – fi.
Which is good, because these are all great movies/books, but not so great because it means that despite the unique look to the film the feel is all too familiar.
The story is actually a bit thin too, but there are three very cool words will immediately draw hoards of sci-fi buffs towards Natural City regardless: Martial Arts Cyborgs.
You see, it looks great, but once the shine wears off you realize that all that’s left is a fairly formulaic story with some excellent fight scenes, discounting the over-used and over-seen ‘bullet time’ technique. On a less blood-thirsty note, there are some breathtaking underwater scenes too.
There’s also a kick-ass kamikaze explosion sequence and in terms of pulling off a convincing vision of cities of the future this is spot on.
But a strong intro and conclusion doesn’t disguise the fact that the story is lacking the x-factor which could really make it a crossover smash.
You may note that Yoo Jie Tae, the lead character, is also highly billed on the excellent “Old Boy” (see day 1). He plays this part with serious swagger, and owns the screen because he has attitude written all over him. He also looks a little like Elvis.
Watch this just to wallow in the lovely bits, but don’t expect it to be engaging or all that original on any deep level.
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Natural City (2004) review written by: Terresa Gaffney
6th September, 2008 
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