“I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK” Theatrical Poster
Director: Park Chan-wook
Cast: Lim Soo-Jung, Rain, Oh Dal-Su, Park Jun-Myun, Choi Hee-Jin, Kim Byung-Ok, Lee Yong-Nyeo, Yoo Ho-Jeong, Park Byeong-Eun, Kim Do-Yeon, Son Young-Soon
Running Time: 105 min.
By Paul Bramhall
In 2005 director Park Chan-wook wrapped up his Vengeance Trilogy with the release of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, concluding 3 of the most iconic movies of the 21st century (and which, to this day, I find my answer changing every time someone asks me which is my favorite). The trilogy put Chan-wook on the map, and naturally, the audience which had lapped up the gritty, morally ambiguous, and always confronting slices of cinematic vengeance eagerly awaited whatever he was going to deliver next. Looking backwards from the perspective of 2020, not many people expected it to be a love story between two patients in a mental institution, and when I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK was initially released, for many their feelings landed somewhere between stumped and confused.
Of course since then we’ve had horny blood-sucking priests, murderous uncles, and erotically charged lesbianism. It’s easy to argue that if Chan-wook released IaC,BTOK (as I’ll refer to it from here on in) now, it would be accepted and enjoyed far more than it was back in 2006. In many ways the reaction to its release at the time, at least from a western perspective, was a culmination of factors. In the mid-00’s most distributors had cultivated an image of Asian cinema as being some kind of Extreme variant on what you could expect from Hollywood – it was all about ultra-violent gangster Continue reading →
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