Jung_E

[Drunk Monk]

JUNG_E by Yeon Sang-ho (teaser)

This K-flick delivers like K-flicks do - a mix of many genre cliches taken to an unexpected place. The setting lifts from Bladerunner, Elysium, & Ghibli. The bots look like skinned terminators or the Borg queen. The lab reminded me of every future lab mixed with auto making bot arms. And the sim was sort of a holodeck. Nevertheless this went places I didn’t expect and there’s some thought provoking moments which is key to good sci-fi. 

The earth is ruined by climate change so giant satellites are built for people to live. But a war breaks out between the settlements or something like that - it doesn’t matter because that’s background. This is about a research team building an AI battle bot using the brain of a dead rebel heroine (she’s in a coma). Nevertheless, there’s some great bot fu. The research bot which has the head of the heroine - that bot looks just like the heroine in the flashbacks and it doesn’t know it’s a bot. She sticks out from the skinned terminators. There’s a poignant mother/daughter tale that was a stretch at first because it was preposterously caricature, but it worked for me in the end.  

D00M recommended.