After finishing the vengeance trilogy, Park Chan-wook wanted to try something different and so he decided to make a romantic comedy and that romantic comedy is called “I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay”.
Romantic comedy that Park Chan-wook made after being done with the avengers trilogy park chamber wanted to try something different for two reasons.
- He was tired of the gloomy dark and violent tone of three of his previous films.
- He wanted to make a movie that his young daughter would also be able to watch and enjoy.
With these two things in his mind he made a movie and released it in 2006 and that movie is called “I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay”.
Synopsis
The story takes place in a mental hospital to which our main character Young Goon just has been accepted into because of her condition where she believes that she is a cyborg and refuses to eat any food and licks batteries instead.
She meets another patient, Parkinson who steals other people’s traits and as the story goes on and progresses, these two form a bond.
This is an unconventional love story with unconventional characters. Our lead character Young Goon believes that she is a cyborg, she’s as weird as it gets. To get the performance he wanted out of our main actress Park chan-wook told the actress to remember her seven-year-old self and act just like that and it’s a perfect description for our cyborg girl.
It is hard to latch onto this character or relate to her. In fact you can’t really do that with any of the other characters in the movie so it can be a little hard to connect with the movie for some people.
Her relationship with Park is something that develops slowly and they form a bond not because they have cute interactions or long deep meaningful dialogues with each other but they form a bond because Park is the only person who manages to reach out to Young Goon like no one else could.
None of the nurses, despite all their efforts could understand our cyborg girl but Park comes into our life and understands how to communicate with her and most importantly he understands how to help her.
The message Park Park Chan-wook wanted to convey with the story, was to give up hope but also keep fighting which we know sounds contradictory but that’s what Park Chan-wook said in an interview.
He means that Young Goon will never be cured. She can never go back to being a normal person again but what she can do is that she can keep fighting to at least start eating again which is the main problem for her in this movie.
About – I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK
If you’ve seen a few of Park Chan-wook films, you’d know he loves surreal odd visuals in his phones and what a better movie to have these surreal visuals then “I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay”.
The crazy visual moments fit perfectly into this film though and to film the madness behind the camera once again we have Chung-hoon Chung who has worked with Park Chan-wook countless times.
We also have young hook joe returning as the composer and their work is noteworthy. The soundtrack of this movie is perfect and sounds fairytale-like which once again is exactly what the movie needs.
If you listen to the soundtrack blindly without knowing what movie it belongs to you would never guess that this is from a romantic comedy but once you watch the movie and realize what’s going on and what it is about, you understand the genius of the soundtrack.
The side characters in the movie are great. They are the other patients in the hospital and all of them have their own quirks like one of the patients is so nice and polite that he literally walks backwards because he doesn’t want to disrespect anyone also these secondary characters are the core of the movie’s humor. They make the movie more entertaining.
Final Words
Overall “I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay” is a movie that can’t be recommended to anyone because some might find it boring some might not really connect with the characters or care for them some might just not get the movie.
There are also a ton of things to enjoy about the film and it’s one of those films that will get better at second viewing and so all that being said we are not going to grade this movie.
It is definitely a movie that you are not going to forget and it is one of those films that is worth checking out at least once.
If you haven’t seen it, definitely watch it. It’s definitely a memorable Park Chan-wook film.