Jung-E
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Year: 2023
Rating: 7.0
Country: Korea
This Korean film
takes place far into the future and as in most futuristic films these days,
it has not gone well for our planet. I can't imagine with things going so
splendidly on earth right now with the wars, authoritarian governments on
the rise, a dismissal of science by many and backsliding on Climate Change,
why filmmakers are so pessimistic. I am sure everything will work out just
fine. I didn't realize till checking the credits after watching the film
that it is directed by Yeon Sang-ho whose film Psychokinesis I saw yesterday.
He was also director of the much better-known Train to Busan (and its sequel
Peninsula). So, zombies, a superhero film and now this somber terrifying
depiction of our future. I wasn't thrilled with the special effects in Psychokinesis,
but they are fabulous here. The designs of this world are sleek, stunning
and imaginative.
Life on earth is dying due to climate change
and to continue civilization they have built multiple stations in space and
over time have migrated people to them. These artificial stations are huge
with forestation, trains and cities - and us being human - there is war.
A few of the stations became allies and declared war on the others. The war
has been going on for forty years and the use of robots and androids has
become common. Not just in the military but science has achieved the ability
to transfer our thoughts into data that can then be transferred to an android.
Capitalism still thrives. People are given the choice of three classes of
androids - the top and most expensive gives you the same rights as humans
and you may not even know you are not human, Class B gets fewer rights, Class
C which is free gives away all rights of ownership.
Beneath all the CGI, the action and the
sterile life lies a simple emotional story - the bond between a mother and
a daughter. Separated by death but still strong. Jung-yi (Kim Hyun-joo) was
a legendary fighter, but in her final mission she is badly hurt and goes
into a coma that she can never come out of. A corporation is using her memories
and skills to create the perfect fighting machine. In charge of the development
is her daughter, now grown up (Kang Soo-yeon, who was to pass away before
this film was released). When Jung-yi went on her last mission, her daughter
was a small girl about to have an operation. But the prototype is still not
ready - in combat simulations she keeps getting killed at exactly the same
point. They don't know why. Then peace is made and they are told to shut
down the operation. Wipe everything out.
The action is CGI heavy in the simulations,
as she is fighting machines, but they are well-done. And later there is non-simulated
action though again very reliant on CGI. The entire film looks very cool,
but it is the connection between mother and daughter that makes it more than
just a CGI fest. This emotional core between parent and child is something
Yeon Sang-ho often focuses on in his films. Much of this depiction of the
future has of course been in other films and a lot of the film's ideas are
scrapped from both literature and film going back to Metropolis up to Blade
Runner. But with AI it doesn't feel as farfetched anymore.
