Doomsday Book

This Anthology features 3 tales, 2 of which are somewhat religious and another one dabs more on an alien Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy way. All three have to do with the fall of mankind.

Story 1: 9/10 My favorite, A Brave New World, depicts a basic zombie uprising, in the plague form, but what is different is the overall direction the story goes, and the characters development... of zombies. Rarely do zombie films give the zombie POV, but we are able to get that here. A great aspect of this story is the strong acting by the leading actor, a guy who gets bullied by those around him and is very awkward, in a nerdy way. He goes on a date with this girl, and they seem to have a great connection, but then he begins to turn, and she is scared off. What happens at the end throws in a bible element to the story, which I didn't much care for, but I understood the creators message of a new world. Overall, I thought this tale was hilarious and sweet and well acted with enough zombie chaos to intrigue hardcore zombie fans.

Story 2: 6/10 The Heavenly Creature. This story is about a Robot that becomes Buddha, or at least to the monks. When the factory finds out, they seek to destroy the machine for attempting to forget it's duty to serve man and instead attaining man's greatest goal. This is deemed a threat and an insult to mankind. While I like the message of man's jealousy over a near perfect machine, I was turned off by the Robot's final message to man. It seemed idealistic to me, and hard to swallow. Overall, it was slow paced and more of a thought provoking study on people and our desires and fears. Might be a good watch for a philosophy/Buddhist student.

Story 3: 5/10 Happy Birthday, to me this was the cheesiest of all the stories, and cute, but less thought provoking. Like the first story, it had comical moments, and was quite enjoyable at times, it also felt like a family story and not on the same level as the other stories. You could actually watch this one with your 8 year old, and they might really like it. A problem with this story to me is how things aren't really explained, especially a scene in the end. I laughed off my interpretation of it, but am unsure of the message. There is a adorable aspect of it about trusting your child and having faith in them, which was very sweet, but for me, it wasn't enough to give it a very favorable review. I would have definitely liked to have seen a different story here that didn't have such an absurd scenario... I giant 8 ball heading to earth... why would aliens have giant pool tables and websites dedicated to selling individual balls to different planets? Too silly to me.

I sat down to watch "Doomsday Book" without having a single clue what it was about, and decided to give it a go simply because it was a Korean movie. And now having seen this movie, I will have to say that this was a different experience in many ways.

First of all, this is not a single movie, but a movie comprised of three different short stories, that are independent upon one another, and dealing with very different subjects.

The first segment, titled "A Brave New World" (8 out of 10 rating) was without a doubt the best of the three segments (in my personal opinion). Both story-wise and also entertainment-wise. It is about a man who contracts a strange disease from eating tainted meat, and ends up turning into a zombie. It was a different approach to the zombie genre, but all together a very good one. I thoroughly enjoyed this segment, because it was nicely made, a fresh new take of the zombie genre, and also proved to be the better of the three segments. Great make-up and great effects, a well worthy Korean addition to the zombie vault.

Segment two, titled "The Heavenly Creature" (5 out of 10 rating) is about robots having a major part in the life of humans, to the extend where they are so much integrated part of life and structure that they might start to become a threat to mankind. In a Buddhist monastery, an older robot model have found spiritual and religious enlightenment. Well, I will say that the director here had come up with an interesting concept. However, this particular segment turned out to be a little bit too heavy on the ethics and morals, compared to the other two segments. And as such, it turned out to be somewhat of a hard pill to swallow. Aside from that, then the segment was well constructed and nicely filmed, and the robots were quite amazing.

The third and final segment, titled "Happy Birthday" (4 out of 10 rating) was without a doubt the most odd and bizarre of the three segments. It is about a young girl who orders an 8-ball on the Internet for her father, but as luck would have it a 10 kilometer wide meteor is heading towards Earth, threatening to end life as we know it. It turns out that the meteor is the 8-ball ordered by the girl. Yeah, odd story, isn't it? The segment itself was nicely edited and nicely filmed, but the story was just too strange to fully wrap your head around and embrace it for what it was. It sort of felt a little bit out of place in the segments.

I suppose there is a little bit of something for everybody in these three segments, and we would all individually have our different favorite and least favorite of the segments. However, they all do bring something unique and outstanding to the enjoyment of the movie.

For an Asian movie, then "Doomsday Book" was a bit out of the ordinary. As a collective rating, then I would rate the entire movie a 6 out of 10 stars.

Part of the appeal of movies is the chance to see other cultures. Doomsday Book starts off with a great view of Korea, not so unlike here in Australia, which was refreshing. I hadn't read anything about this movie before I watched it and was disappointed when the first of three stories descended into rather ordinary zombie fare. For me, it was kept afloat by my unfamiliarity with the country and its customs, but that was all. The next story, concerning robotics, is a quantum leap better, well directed, acted and edited, showing some class. The final idea, concerning a meteorite, had some of the sparkle I last enjoyed watching The Host, with a similar family dynamic. It wasn't as well thought through as the former idea however, and was confusing for the first half. When I got it though, it was a good idea, if a tad on the weird side. There was a welcome scattering of sci-fi visuals throughout the three stories. As a trilogy of shorts I feel this endeavour could have been better served with a more original idea for the first part.

You get three directors (on one theme) and of course three different ways they handle that. Completely different ways that is. The first short (still about 40 mins long each of them) is more on the funny side of the spectrum, the second one is more philosophical and the last one tries to combine those two "worlds" (no pun intended). Each does so with a great finesse.

It's hard for me to decide which one I liked best, but if I had to say one, I'd say it's the middle piece. The framing especially is more than gorgeous. But they all have their charming qualities and the third one is just so out there you will either love it or dismiss it, for its craziness. Hopefully the former, but whatever the case, if you like Korean cinema you'll enjoy it no matter what. If not you might want to change the order of the shorts and watch them backwards (3, 2, 1)! I have a feeling that might work better for some

"In-lyu-myeol-mang-bo-go-seo", a.k.a. "Doomsday Book", is a South Korean science-fiction film divided in three uneven segments:

1) "A Brave New World": the research scientist Yoon Seok-woo stays alone at home while his parents travel for a holiday with his sister. He is in charge of cleaning their apartment and he dumps all the garbage, including a rotten apple, in a disposal recycling system. This apple becomes animal food and soon the cow meet contaminates the population of Seoul that becomes zombies.

This segment is the best one with a funny story and beautiful, but nasty cinematography.

2) "The Heavenly Creature": the technician Park Do-wan is summoned to repair the robot In-Myung in a monastery since the robot claims that he is Buddhist and has reached enlightenment. Park is not capable to fix the robot and the company's president decides to decommission the robot.

This segment is boring and annoying despite the great cinematography and special effects.

3) "Happy Birthday": a girls damages an 8 ball and she buys another one in the computer of her father. Then she throws the ball through the window in order her father does not find it. A couple of years later, an asteroid will collide on Earth and her family seeks protection in an underground shelter.

This segment has also a great cinematography but the story is senseless.

My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): Not available on Blu-Ray or DVD