Rating: C-
Dir: Pil-sung Yim and Kim Jee-woon.
Star: Ryoo Seung-bum, Kim Kang-woo, Park Hae-il, Jin Ji-hee.
“Huh.”
That’s basically my reaction, not just to this South Korean film as a whole, but to each of the three segments which make up this anthology. Although (mostly) not as technologically inclined as Black Mirror, there’s a certain similar cynicism about humanity, and its inability to cope with anything outside the norm. However, none of the stories here feel fully developed in the form here. They might almost have worked better as three separate features, giving them enough time to do something more substantial. For example, the first section is A Brave New World, about a zombie apocalypse triggered by a rotten apple being recycled into cattle feed, and then infecting the public.
The problem is… that’s about it. Apart from following the man who discarded the apple (Ryoo), it doesn’t feel like Yim knows what he wants to do with the concept. Although it feels like there is a certain amount of political and media satire going on, this is almost opaque to foreign viewers. Instead, it’s just another zombie movie, without any clear resolution, and not a great deal to offer. We then move on to The Heavenly Creature, which perhaps has the greatest potential. A tech (Kim) is called out to a Buddhist monastery, to look at their service robot (voiced by Park), because it claims to have achieved enlightenment. With the rise of AI since, the concept in this one has aged particularly well.
Yet, again: a couple of philosophical discussions, the big business bosses show up… and the robot decides it has had enough of humanity’s shit. While I can’t say I blame it, the story is an idea which could have merited – and, indeed, likely deserves – deeper exploration. It feels like only a matter of time before this scenario crops up in real life. Oh, well. Maybe the third part will salvage things? In it, Earth is threatened with destruction due to the approach at high velocity, of a 10-km wide 8-ball (top). Read that again. You probably skimmed over it. There is a reason for this impending pool-pocalypse, involving a small child (Jin), and her purchase from a weird website.
Does it make sense though? I would have to say, no. However, given the (clearly, entirely deliberate) preposterous situation, the execution is decent. The same, to be fair, goes for all three parts. This clearly was not a cheap film to make – Wikipedia has it at $5 million – and both directors are experienced enough to do the work [Kim directed I Saw the Devil]. There are moments that do provoke a response. It’s just that, as noted above, this is rarely more than a grunt of acknowledgement. From what I’ve read, it was a rather troubled production, six years elapsing between the start of filming and release. All I’ll say is: sometimes the universe is trying to send you a message. It’s up to you, whether or not you bother to listen to it.