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so i was watching NATURAL CITY the other night... and right from the beginning it smelled like Blade Runner, Equilibrium & Returner. So far, not so bad and thats what this movie is all about: its "not so bad".

set in a futuristic Korea its the story of a special forces officer falling for an artificial girl whose chip is about to expire. as we watch NATURAL CITY, we witness his attempt to fixing the "expiration matter" while having the worst days of his life at work (mind you, he is eliminating replicants for a living).

i wont go more indepths as the rest of the story is as thin as ice & i don't wanna spoil too much. for most fans of the korean action cinema this flick definitely was a slight letdown- and its getting apparent to everybody watching the flick..... as there is nothing we aint seen before.

on the positive side NATURAL CITY offers decent acting, above average cinematography, some tense sequences (god knows, i prayed for more of them) and subliminal impulses to have a thought or two bout what the director may have wanted us to reflect upon. a good 60 % rate would be appropriate, I'd say.

I saw a screening of this film recently at the Milan Fair and I'm inclined to say that, while it was rather interesting, I would not suggest it to anyone but hardcore fans of SF. In a way the concept is reminiscent of Bladerunner: The (male) officer of law falling for the (female) cyborg/clone/android that has an 'expiration date', while on the other hand, he is fighting the rebellious cyborgs/clones/androids. There are a number of twists in the plot that add interest, the photography is very good, the acting is fine and the action scenes are typical Asian. All in all, quite interesting but not fulfilling...

NATURAL CITY (2003) Directed by Min Byong-chan. Arresting productions design and state-of-the-art visual effects can't disguise a dull plot that borrows so liberally from BLADE RUNNER and GHOST IN THE SHELL that the word 'tribute' could warrant legal action. To date, this is probably the most beautiful looking AND most vapid Korean science fiction film to come down the pipeline, and one feels almost guilty in knocking it in spite of the undeniable amount of craftsmanship that went into it. Set in a futuristic megacity in the year 2080, it's about a sullen policeman (Yu Ji-tae) who wants to extend the life of his beautiful android dancer Ria (Seo Rin) by finding a new host for her brain-chip. As she's nearing her sell-by date, which requires her complete destruction, this puts him at odds with fellow cop Noma (Yun Chan) and evil android Roy Batty...err...evil uber-android Jeon Doo-hong, who has plans on accessing android headquarters and programming a massive robot uprising. Flying police cars, slow-floating dirigibles with gigantic projection screens, endlessly vertical skyscrapers forming a mountain of technology in a post-war wasteland.

We've seen all this before. And indeed, it all looks amazing here. But what's missing is any depth of character to make the story more convincing. The leading man is a complete cipher whose motivations for prolonging the life of his robot are never explained or explored, and while his robot clearly has functional difficulties with her impending doom, Seo underplays these scenes to a fault, generating neither tension nor sympathy, only indifference about her fate. To give credit where it's due, Korean is one of the few Asian countries - and one of the few countries outside of America and Japan - even attempting such high-minded science-fiction films as this, WONDERFUL DAYS, 2009 LOST MEMORIES, and YESTERDAY. One hopes that one day, the quality of screen writing will improve to meet the superb level of technical artistry already apparent on screen. The 2-disc Special Edition DVD of this film has tonnes of interesting (unsubtitled) materials for those inspired by its technical merits, including an art gallery, a sketch gallery (tres Syd Mead), a 45 minute TV doc with plenty of behind the scenes and FX footage, a 24 minute DVD doc with more of the same, a 14 minute interview with the lead effects man, an 8.5 minute interview with the animator of the opening credits, 6 minutes of deleted scenes, an English language Cannes trailer that pumps up the action quotient, cast interviews and a 20 minute walking tour of the films locations with the director and lead actor. A cool easter egg can be found on disc 2 by arrowing up on the main menu to highlight '*REC'. This will give you access to what appears to be a 7 minute, effects laden music video about the plight of a country devastated by a nuclear attack, which almost feels like the backstory to the main feature. 5.

I would put this as one of the most beautiful science fiction films ever made ...

As much as this is an homage to Blade Runner it also draws heavily from the Matrix and HK Cop films. Like a great hip hop record or a Tarantino film, it weaves familiar elements together in a way that not only seems fresh but gives you a new appreciation for the original sources.

One of the things I loved most about this movie was its look and in particular the way the CGI was integrated almost seamlessly with 'real' live action cinematography. As opposed to many western sci-fi movies, for example the new Star Wars movies or I, Robot where the actors are shot on a green screen and then composted over a completely synthetic background.

Natural City might use a shot of a cityscape and then drop in CGI elements like a craft flying over. They employ another technique which was used a lot in 70's scifi films like Logan's Run - inter cutting SFX scenes with live action that was just shot on real, futuristic-looking locations. This really balances out the artificiality of the effects and shows that a little can go a long way ...

The result is an extremely realistic look and feel to the movie. I believe that this is what the world could look like in 2080.

Natural City's only real flaw, in my eyes, is that it does tend to get slow in a few key spots. But every shot in this film is so gorgeous it's hard to know where they would cut.

All in all I really enjoyed this film and would highly recommend it.

..... in fact, a lot better than expected. I watched both trailers before the movie to see if it looked any good, and it did. It looked stunning, just a bit empty. On watching it, i found it to be very accomplished, it put most Hollywood films to shame. In saying that, though, there really aren't any US equivalents to this. Yeah, it borrows from plenty of other movies, but none of them would be so daring or have such a sombre tone. This is quite bleak and nasty stuff. Highly recommended, just don't expect a happy ending or any humour. If great, Blade Runner-style visuals are your thing, you'll find plenty to enjoy. Four out of five.