Young-gyun works at manufacturing plant, assembling radio’s. She keeps to herself and also keeps a secret to herself, which is that she is a cyborg. One day, while working at the factory, she decides to re-charge herself, by slashing her wrist and implanting electrical wires into her arm. This quickly buys Young-gyun a ticket into “New World,” a a hospital specializing in the treatment of mental illnesses.

At New World, Young-gyun spends her time listening to the radio, talking with vending machines, and licking the terminals of 9 volt batteries. She soon encounters a guy, that is somewhat on the same eccentric level, named Il-Sun. Formerly an electrician, Il-Sun is now a thief of souls in the mental hospital, along with being your run-of-the-mill kleptomaniac. He believes that he possesses the power to steal the characteristics of other people. Young-gyun and Il-Sun soon bond together, as their strange personalities complements each other perfectly. Unfortunately Young-gyun becomes seriously ill from malnutrition. She believes that Cyborgs should not eat “human” food and thus has not eaten in weeks. She soon loses most of her energy and becomes bed ridden. The doctors say that she has only a few more days to live, if she continues her ways. Il-Sun must now find a way to connect to her soul and save her from imminent death.

From the opening scene, I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok, grabbed my attention with visuals that seemed like technicolor art. The way Chan-Wook Park interwove the opening credits within the actual opening sequences was utterly impressive and made for one of the best opening scenes I have ever had the pleasure to watch. From there, the visuals were on par with “Sympathy For Lady Vengeance” mixed in with the surreal and colorful worlds of say Terry Gilliam (Brazil) and Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands). I can’t emphasize enough how impressive the visuals were.

The main actors in the movie were Im Soo-Jung and the popular K-Pop singer turned actor Rain. For Im Soo-Jung, I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok may be the movie that gets her elevated beyond the teeny bopper films that she seems to get typecast for so often these days. There were moments in the film where she was completely unrecognizable and still delivered a very impressive performance. I was also very impressed by the fella known as Rain. He seemed to be a natural for the camera and delivered a performance that seemed uncanny for a first time big-screen actor.

Beyond the simple love story between the two eccentric main leads, you have a lot of other things occurring in the film that was harder to comprehend. Definitely Chan-Wook Park seemed to have been implying the importance of a strong motherly figure, because both main characters had mothers that were non-existent or virtually non-existent. As for Young-Gyun she was closest to her grandmother who was also mentally ill. Young-Gyun saw her grandmother taken away by paramedics at a young age and since then, has had a fear of people in white uniforms. When Young-Gyun herself was committed to the mental hospital, she had these persistent visions of her grandmother in the mental hospital. She also had visions where she would kill the hospital workers ala the Terminator, to protect her grandmother from them. Yet, in Young-gyun’s mind, she still possessed 7 traits that would prevent her from being a cyborg and able to “terminate” the workers at the hospital. Some of the more notable of these 7 traits were: Guilt, Gratitude, and Sympathy. It seems Chan-Wook Park is still pretty keen on the importance of sympathy. These seven traits were also a play on a Korean word which is typically used for the 7 qualifications to obtain a legal divorce.

There were also the mysterious words that the grandmother mouthed silently to Young-Gyun while she was being taken away in the ambulance. Through all the years Young-gyun never knew exactly what her grandmother said to her, but finally as an adult and with the help of Il-Sun, she was able to figure out what her grandmother said. Those words could be translated roughly to “The meaning of existence is …1 billion volts.” …Yeah like I said earlier, there are parts in this film that are a little hard to comprehend. Certainly this is one of those movies that would provide more incite on second or third viewings and I certainly did not mind the eccentricity of the story.

Ultimately, I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok is an impressive film for its visual imagery as well as for its two main characters, that are as unique as any characters you will likely encounter in any film. You could just go with the flow and follow the movie for the simple love story between Il-Sun and Young-Gyun or you could try to delve deeper into their worlds to understand some of the more difficult to comprehend aspects that Chan-Wook Park laid beneath the love story layer. Regardless of what path you pick, the core of the movie contains a wonderful humanist theme, that goes along the lines of…”to truly love a person you must try to understand & accept that person for what they are.”

On a sidenote, while leaving the cinema I did listen to two fellow movie goers talk about the film while in the elevator. One guy basically said, “I could kill the bastard that rated this movie 5 stars!” I guess this film isn’t for everyone, but I certainly did enjoy the movie.