I'M A CYBORG, BUT THAT'S OK (2008)

From Park Chan-Woo, the director who brought us "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" is a beautiful and whimsical love story starring the uber hot Korean pop star Rain and a 3-timer on the TIME magazine's list of the 100 most influential people who shape the world (as Park-il Sun, and his film debut) and the ethereal Su-jeung Lim (Cha Yung-goon) set in no less than a mental hospital (I don't expect anything less from Korean films, so far the ones I've seen are highly imaginative and emotionally satisfying).

Cha Yung-goon is convinced she is a (combat) cyborg, while her maternal grandmother believed herself to be a mouse and only ate radishes. She vows revenge on the "white 'uns" or the doctors and nurses responsible for her grandmother's institutionalization. Cha Yung-goon herself is institutionalized after she electrocutes herself in the factory where she works, hoping to complete the process of becoming a full-fledged robot.

Park il-sun, a schizophrenic, anti-social and kleptomaniac, notices her when he catches her communing with the vending machine and fluorescent lights. Park, on the other hand, is in constant fear of "vanishing into a dot," wears masks and "steals" other people's souls (in particular, fellow wards in the hospital) in elaborate ceremonies as a matter of survival.

While doctors puzzle over Cha goon-yun's real motives for electrocuting herself, Park discovers her refusal to eat out of fear of losing her robotic properties. She asks him to steal the 'sympathy' from her soul to be able to carry out her objective. He "steals" it, but instead is moved with sympathy and a growing attraction to her. He immerses himself in the world she sees through her eyes in order to rescue her from dying because of starvation.

Granted, this is not the first quirky love story between lunatics or the mentally
ill - we can easily name Benny and Joon and My Other Sister, or even Amelie (but I haven't seen it, it was mentioned in reviews of this film though) - and maybe I can throw in Science of Sleep, too (though it's one-sided) but this movie takes quirkiness to another level. It tries - and succeeds - in making the audience see reality through the eyes of its "crazy" characters versus the "sane" but cruel world outside (a la One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). Cha Yung-goon's mother saw insanity as an embarrassment and inconvenience. Though the doctors and nurses were kind and sympathetic, I felt a sense of futility in the way they handle their wards without truly improving their mental condition - in contrast to Park's creativity and earnestness in his efforts.

The film veers from a beautiful flight of fancy through the eyes of its protagonists to a stark depiction of the difficulty of remaining sane in an insane world. It's romantic and funny, sometimes depressing and thought provoking all at once.

Rating: 4 stars

You have until October 29 to watch it at the Araneta Center-Cubao Gateway Cineplex. :)