Saibogujiman kwenchana (2006)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Chan-wook Park

Writers:

Seo-Gyeong Jeong (writer)
Chan-wook Park (writer)

Release Date:

7 December 2006 (South Korea)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

A girl who thinks she is a combat cyborg checks into a mental hospital, where she encounters other psychotics. Eventually, she falls for a man who thinks he can steal people's souls.

Plot Keywords:

Mental Hospital | Cyborg | Mental Institution | Electric Shock Therapy | Blue Hair

Awards:

5 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Su-jeong Lim	...	Cha Young-goon
Rain	...	Park Il-sun
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hie-jin Choi	...	Choi Seul-gi
Byeong-ok Kim	...	Judge
Yong-nyeo Lee	...	Young-goon's mother
Dal-su Oh	...	Shin Duk-cheon
Ho-jeong Yu	...	Il-sun's mother

Directed by
Chan-wook Park

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Seo-Gyeong Jeong		writer
Chan-wook Park		writer

Produced by
Chun-yeong Lee	....	producer
June Lee	....	associate producer
Miky Lee	....	executive producer
Tae-hun Lee	....	executive producer
Chan-wook Park	....	producer

Original Music by
Yeong-wook Jo

Cinematography by
Chung-hoon Chung

Film Editing by
Jae-beom Kim
Sang-Beom Kim

Visual Effects by
Jeon-hyeong Lee	....	visual effects

Production Companies

• Moho Films

Distributors

• CJ Entertainment (2006) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Encore Films (2007) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• GAGA Communications (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Golden Scene (2007) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• Golden Village Entertainment (2007) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Rapid Eye Movies (2008) (Germany) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Tokyo Theaters Company (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Wild Side Films (2007) (France) (theatrical)
• AmaFilms (2008) (Greece) (all media)
• Future Film (2009) (Finland) (DVD)
• Rapid Eye Movies (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Versus Entertainment (2007) (Spain) (all media)

Other Companies

• HFR  digital cinema
• HFR  digital intermediate

Also Known As:

I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (International: English title) (USA)

Runtime:

South Korea:105 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Hong Kong:IIA | South Korea:12 | Germany:12 | France:Unrated | UK:15 | Sweden:11 | Finland:K-13

Company:

Moho Films

Trivia:

Su-jeong Lim had to get her weight down to just 39 kg to shoot this film.

Absolutely amazing film

I see so many tedious, over-hyped films, I so often can barely drag myself through some well-received, critically acclaimed film, and I just can't understand why a movie as good as this is so obscure. Brilliant from beginning to, well, five minutes before the end, Cyborg is an utterly incredible experience. It shows you the world of a schizophrenic, but it doesn't play those "what is reality" games; there's never a question that the leads are crazy, and no false promises that at the end they will miraculously be cured. Instead, it follows them through their strange dream logic, and shows the insanity of one character melding with the insanity of another to create this bizarre alternate view of reality. The girl is fascinating to watch, managing to be both humorously wacky and touchingly vulnerable. The movie is full of clever ideas, but never falls too in love with its own cleverness, and is reminiscent of Charlie Kaufman's films.

I want this movie to be far better known than it is. I just happened to see it listed on TV and thought it had a cool title, but it's praises should be heralded far and way. Creative, original, funny and sad, this is a great movie.

Except for the ending. The ending wasn't horrible, but I wasn't completely clear what was going on, or why the characters were reacting as they were, and the film ended with very much of a whimper. But the movie overall was so terrific that I can live with the final letdown.