I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK

A young woman who believes she’s a deadly cyborg finds herself institutionalized, where she meets a young man who believes he can steal people’s souls.

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (Saibogujiman kwenchana) is an offbeat, but visually inspired, comedy from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook.

Because it’s a comedy, it’s hard to appreciate the film fully, as so much of the humor is inherently cultural, and thus lost on a western audience, but there are moments of startling visual imagination, so much so that the film can almost be appreciated as a silent picture. Yes, that’s damning with faint praise, but foreign comedies are often hit or miss.

Performance-wise, everyone works, even top-billed Rain, who’s apparently a big pop star in South Korea, and the film is just odd enough to keep you interested during it’s less flashy stretches. It’s a good thing, too, as the film’s best moment, with the titular girl going on a bloody, bullet-ridden rampage throughout the hospital grounds, doesn’t occur until quite a ways into the 105-minute running time. But wow, is it ever an amazing, surreal, and emotionally resonant sequence. One that easily makes up for all the humor lost to the cultural divide.

That said, I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK still requires a good deal of patience, and a certain predisposition toward Park’s visual style. While it doesn’t knock you out like Oldboy, it does reinforce Park’s status as a visionary filmmaker.