I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK Reviewed

“That guy in the mask, they say he used to be really handsome.  He burned it with cigarette butts.  Then he sewed up his own anus.”

Of course you already knew from the start that writer/director Park Chan-Wook was not going to do your average romantic comedy set in a mental hospital.

We are introduced in graphic fashion to Young-goon when believing her battery power to be low she “plugs” herself in.  Young-goon has come to think she is a cyborg, she stops eating, and talks to the vending machines and lights around her.  When she is sent to a mental institution she meets Il-sun a young man who’s firm in his belief in his ability to steal the talents and characteristics of those around him.

This was to be Park Chan-Wook’s dramatic change in direction after the completion of his Vengeance trilogy of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.  It is the first film I have seen outside of those three.  In the Vengeance films he took a careful look at revenge and the damage it does and over the course of the three I’m sure must have exhausted his thoughts on the subject.  Needless to say those films never took the simplistic revenge thriller route and no one would expect him to do anything traditional for his love story in Cyborg.

Park’s style is very much in evidence, he rarely showboats but visually the film is interesting throughout.  Great use of colour, sets, and lighting are vital to the look of his films.  His stars Im Soo-Jung (A Tale of Two Sisters) and pop-star Rain both allow themselves to be transformed into strange characters for the film.  It helps that both are pretty people but you would be surprised how much haircuts and dyed eyebrows can affect someone’s attractiveness.  The childlike nature of the characters is not exactly endearing and there will be times when you want to forget the mental illness and tell them to grow up.

Eventually however Young-goon’s background and her urge to save her grandmother who was similarly institutionalised that bring you round.  Young-goon’s continually weakening state as her mental condition worsens and Il-sun’s efforts to help her mean only the hardest of hearts will not occasionally tremble.

It’s very much a slow burner, one of those that catch you off guard.  When it began I was unimpressed with the build-up of the relationship and the peculiarities of the characters were getting on my nerves.  It was with some surprise then that I noticed how invested I had become in them by the end.

8/10