I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) Movie Information:

I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) Directed by: Chan-wook Park I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) Written by: Chan-wook Park, Seo-Gyeong Jeong I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) Cast: Lim Soo-Jung, Jung Ji-Hoon, Choi Hee-Jin, Lee Young-Nyeo, Sohn Young-Soon, Lee Kyung-Eun, Joo Hee, Lee Young-Mi, Chung Sung-hoon, Kim Choon-Gi

I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) U.S. Distributor: Not available at this time I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) U.K. Distributor: Tartan Films

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I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) Synopsis:

A girl who thinks she is a combat cyborg checks into a mental hospital, where she encounters other psychotics. Eventually, she falls for a man who thinks he can steal people's souls.

I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) Movie Review:

While "I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay" is not an entirely successful movie as a whole, it is a movie with so many delightful parts and sequences that it is impossible not to recommend. It doesn't exactly work, but it is possible to take a certain pleasure in an adventurous movie not working that can't be found in a 'safe' movie that’s working fine. A safe movie, for instance, is unlikely to have a scene involving a grandmother being hurled through the sky by a huge rubber band, or one of a girl whose socks can make her airborne when she rubs them (this one accompanied by someone cheerfully yodelling).

This curious love story emerges from the mind of Chan-wook Park, best known in the Western world for his loose ‘revenge’ trilogy that included the masterful "Oldboy." Like many of today's most intriguing directors (Ji-woon Kim, Ki-duk Kim) he comes from South Korea; together these three directors have made fascinating, stylish pictures often full of violence and philosophy. "I'm A Cyborg..." isn't full of violence - though it isn't completely absent - and it's philosophy is directed, or derived, from a love story that has to overcome certain unconventional obstacles. These are, namely, that the lovers are both in an asylum, that she believes herself to be a cyborg, and that he thinks he can steal other people's souls (and so do the other inmates).

The film has the visual flair I've come to expect from Park, whose films always look great but don't always look the same. "I'm A Cyborg..." is told specifically from the points of view of a character who really believes herself to be a cyborg and a character who loves her and comes to accommodate her delusions. The girl is called Young-goon (Su-jeong Lim). Her mother checks her into the hospital fearing that she will go the way of her own mother, who believed herself to be a mouse, and ate only radishes. The boy is called Il-sun (played by Korean pop star Rain). He wears elaborate cardboard masks and keeps stealing abstract qualities from people. One day he announces that he is going to steal Tuesday.

The movie exists within the delusions of the central characters; they are real to them, so they are real to us. At the same time, however, we see the 'real' problems associated with the characters, particularly in the fact that Young-goon refuses to eat anything for fear it will stop her internal machinary working. To the doctors she is almost a lost cause, but we see her as she sees herself; in one scene she can't help herself from opening fire from guns that emerge from her fingertips and, in a fairly extraordinary sequence, blasting the hell out of all those doctors.

There is something missing from this movie on an emotional level that consequently means the movie feels somewhat lacking in closure and development. Nevertheless we can find joy in individual scenes of Il-sun trying to negotiate Young-goon's delusions and trying to come to terms with her own emotions. The whole movie is like that; an arc or sense of real development feel absent, but Park is nevertheless to be congratulated for departing from his usual, bleak work and attempting a love story that is really about the obstacles and difficulties a successful relationship need overcome. We all feel like cyborgs sometimes.

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I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2007) review written by: Adam Whyte