Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I'm A Cyborg, But That's Ok
I like romantic comedies. They are like fairytales that one can never face with in a normal, routine life. There is always more or less epic and eternal love that you dream of having in your life one day. Maybe in real life you get a chance of a love like that, but most probably you will miss it; well, at least I did.
I'm A Cyborg, But That's Ok is a romantic comedy too, in a sense. Yes, there is love, not in a legendary kind of way, but rather a sweet one. It sure has many elements of comedy either, yet all in all, this is never a classic romantic comedy that we are used to. How can it not be unusual, after all the director, Chan-wook Park is known for his movies with a brutal subject matter each, Vengeance Triology.
Young-goon, a young schizophrenic woman, is sent to a mental institution after she seems to have tried to commit suicide in her work, where in fact she tries to charge herself believing that she is a cyborg. Talking to lights and believing that she has a mission to kill the white 'uns, meaning the doctors and staff, in order to take the revenge of her equally schizophrenic grandmother, she starts living in the institution withdrawing herself from the other patients and refusing to eat. After a while, Il-sun, a young male patient who has been hospitalized because of his anti-social behaviour and again schizophrenia catches her attention; Il-sun is famous in the hospital for stealing people's souls, which is exactly what Young-goon needs in order to achieve her goal of revenge. She asks Il-sun to steal her sympathy which prevents her from killing people, and when he accepts the challenge and starts observing her, he slowly falls for her. Little by little, he takes care of her, and even in an incredibly creative way, he convinces her start to eat; and for a young man who happens to be anti-social, even to the extent of being hospitalized, this is an enormous intimacy.
Visually, the movie is like a cartoon for the use of beautiful, bold colours and even the characters themselves. You can not get enough of the hospital's environment, or the stories of the other patients. They all seem to have problems with themselves and with each other, and yet they also care for each other in a way, more or less aware of what is going on around. As for our sweet couple, here is a love that looks like from another world in the eyes of us, normal people, however one can not help but wish to have such a perception of love and intimacy. One of the viewers comment on the film on a website, filimadami.com, as:
If I were to be allowed only a couple of movies in my whole life, I would have wanted this movie to be one of them..
and dare I say, likewise.
Funny, as I am writing this post, I am eating noodles with chopsticks..
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