Dedicated to that special someone
After Park Chan-wook finished making his Vengeance Trilogy (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) he wanted to make a film his daughter would like. Thus “I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK” came into being, which was definitely a big leap from that ultra-violent trilogy. This is more light hearted, fantastical, bright, and ridiculous in the best possible way. The film is very original and provides a very unanticipated debate on one of the most important philosophical question on the purpose of existence from an adolescent point of view. Essentially this is a very quirky Korean rom-com that so happens take place in a mental institution.
The film focuses on Young-goon Cha who has been committed in a mental institution after she slit her wrists and connected a cord to her wrists causing her to get electrocuted while she was at work at a radio factory. She wasn’t trying to commit suicide, but she truly considers herself a cyborg and just needed a recharge. She talks to machinery and she starves herself for the fear that food consumption may cause her to malfunction. She licks batteries for nourishment and recharges herself by listening to educational broadcasts on her radio. In the ward, Il-soon Park is falls for her. He himself has his own issues. He’s nonsocial, a kleptomaniac, wears paper masks, and is a schizophrenic. He steals just to incorporate their personality traits into himself, before he eventually returns the stolen items. He wants to help Young-goon and finds out that she’s killing herself by not eating. He tells her that he’s a technician and he’d repair her if she malfunctions since she has a life time warranty. That eating rice is like an algorithm. I find it to be a sweet tender moment between the two characters.
The film switches from reality to fiction. Since Young-goon believes she is in fact a cyborg. So due to her hallucination she views her body as just a mechanical mechanism consisting of gears and bolts. Not just her, but other patients convey their delusions on screen also. These views the patients have become so strange and disconcerting, but the visual presentation truly pins the awkwardness and insanity so many of the characters express.
I never liked using the term “insanity” due to my psychology background. I prefer saying a person is mentally unstable than slinging the term insane. In the world we live in, the larger the term of “insanity” becomes. Love in a way can be a form of “insanity” since it makes people do things that are completely out of character. Yet one could debate this idea that if one is already mentally unstable that falling in love could be a basis of sanity for the person. It can aid in the route recovery. Love is sorta funny that way. At the core of the film is in fact a love story.
As stated earlier, Il-soon is a kleptomaniac. He steals sympathy. Stealing this came with its own side effects. At the start he was diagnosed as being nonsocial and he begins feeling things for the first time in a very long time. Sympathy was what he profoundly needed. If he did not steal sympathy, this love story would have never come into realization. Il-soon knows what makes others tick on a much profounder level than the psychiatrists do. In a way he helps aid the patients to that path of recovery. This is by stealing what troubles them.
In a way this film is a happier Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the psychological tones. The music is phenomenal and the film even makes use of Rain’s outstanding singing skills by making him steal a patient’s yodeling ability in order for him to serenade Young-goon. This film proves that not only is Rain a great musician, but also remarkable actor. Im Soo-jung also did a pretty great job as the lead. She deserved an award for her role. This is hands down my favorite film Park Chan-wook has directed. The film is truly magic at its purest form.
5 out of 5
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