Doomsday Book

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.

If you can live with the Korean style of human expression: abrasive, aggressive, cruel, and loud, you will find this film wonderfully imaginative. I admit I have some prejudices against a culture of violence and domination, but the Koreans can't pretend to be otherwise. The Japanese seem to disguise their violence and cruelty quite well, for instance. So it takes me a few dozens films of Korea to get me to overcome the bias. Having said that, the central episode / story of this 3-part anthology is most breathtaking. Beautifully shot. Clear and clean script. Thought-provoking underlined message. I am a Buddhist. I experience first-hand the great contrast of scientific go-getting and religious cry for us to accept whatever the present. The Buddha robot represents us very well, and quite understandable to the ones who are not Buddhists. This episode does not set to convert anybody religiously, but it successfully conveys the anguishes and self-conflicts reasonably well. I am not very much into the first and the final episodes. They are too abrasive and too loud to think anything deep. Even a death, or freaking zombies, can be nice and serene. The eighth ball that destroyed the world? Entertaining and imaginative in young adults' way. It leaves nothing. Cinematically, there are some scenes or shots which I think memorable and telling. A dirty trash can with strayed cats around is one. Creepy and indicative. Buddha robot's movement in general is another. Serene and internalizing. Korean filmmakers are now on top of their game, production-wise. But for culture and internal feelings, that's another story.

After Asian-wide "Three (2002)" where Jee-woon Kim contributed to the "Memories" segment and "Three... Extremes (2004)" where other Korean master, Chan-wook Park, messed with our minds with "Cut", Jee-woon Kim works here with Pil-sung Yim to give us an all-Korean short film anthology classic.

Pil-sung Yim, who was in attendance at the FantAsia Film Festival screening, writes and directs the first and last segments, while Jee- woon Kim who was in post-production for his first Hollywood project "The Last stand (2013)" sent us a video detailing the hardships he is facing in the big Hollywood machine and light-heartedly prefacing his short film "The Heavenly Creature" which he classifies in the genre of philosophical science-fiction.

7/10 "A Brave New World"

Pil-sung Yim starts it off with a meticulously constructed take on the zombie/vampire apocalyptic movie. It is endearing, funny and poetic. It tries not to take itself too seriously, but nether does it tries to take the audience for a fool. It actually develops charming characters and then delves into a deluge of disconcerting destruction, before leaving with an open-ended finale. Note that the alternate ending was an American nuclear bomb, but the actual ending fits much before with the rest of the film.

9/10 "The Heavenly Creature"

This far from formulaic robot story is in fact the crux of this trilogy and drips with deep dialogue and introspection while being sparkled with humour, sweetness, sexiness and tension. A full on societal and moral commentary here from the writer/director of the high calibre, haunting "A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)" with an enlightened robot who perhaps surpassed his creators in wisdom and the battle of sorts between capitalism and Buddhism. It explores finality, fear, faith, fate and the future in a thoughtful tapestry of tasteful interactions.

8/10 "Happy Birthday"

The last segment is a preposterous post-apocalyptic scenario that pacts loads of laughs, especially with the dramatization of a newscast presenting the unfolding doom of the world. It flows well and follows to an adequate conclusion of this science-fiction segment and film.

All in all, Doomsday Book breaks boundaries in the quality of the stories and in the directorial distinction in dealing with death and end of the world scenarios with humour, pose and serenity.

May this futuristic film live long and prosper.

An anthology of apocalyptic sci-fi. Kind of. The film as a whole is infuriatingly confusing in its conception and execution. The first segment, directed by Pil-Sung Yim (of the Korean Hansel & Gretel movie), is the part that can be definitively labeled horror. Tainted beef turns people into zombies. The film has some decent comic moments, but it never really goes anywhere. Plus, I'm absolutely sick of zombies. The third segment, also directed by Yim, concerns a gigantic pool ball from space on a collision course with Earth. Turns out a young girl accidentally ordered an alien attack on the planet. This segment is so absolutely bizarre, I have no idea what they were going for. It is, at least, a bit amusing even if baffling. Bae Doon-Na appears at the very end of this segment, in the last ten minutes of the movie, and director Bong Joon-Ho also appears. The middle segment, directed by Kim Jee-Woon, cannot be considered horror at all. It concerns a robot which has achieved enlightenment and is considered by his fellow monks to be the reincarnation of Buddha. His makers are incensed at the idea, though, and wish to destroy him. This starts off as the most interesting segment, but as it goes on it gets lost in endless dialogue. Kim is a great action filmmaker and has no ability to make abstract concepts interesting. It's the most boring segment of the film, unfortunately. The one thing I can say for the film as a whole is that it always looks fantastic. Even when it's dull, which is often, it's always pretty.

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.