Jung_E

Stumbling upon the 2023 South Korean action sci-fi movie "Jung_E" on Netflix, of course I had to watch it. I had never actually heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it, so I didn't really have any expectations to the movie.

And truth be told, I am not particularly a huge sci-fi fan, so I can't claim that I was particularly thrilled to sit down to watch this movie from writer and director Sang-Ho Yeon. But of course "Jung_E" deserved a fair chance, and thus I opted to watch it.

"Jung_E" certainly was a visually impressive movie, and I must admit that I was definitely enjoying the special effects and CGI in the movie. It looked and felt like a futuristic movie, without a doubt. And the special effects in the movie certainly does a lot to lift up and carry the movie.

As for the story and script in "Jung_E", as written by Sang-Ho Yeon, well I wasn't overly impressed and was actually only mildly entertained by the storyline here. It was simplistic and generic, and there wasn't really much food for thought as the storyline trotted on for 98 minutes. Sure, it was watchable and fair enough for what it was, but this was by no means a groundbreaking sci-fi tale.

They had a good cast ensemble in the movie, just a shame that the actors and actresses were somewhat held back by a bland script.

I am sure that diehard sci-fi fans will get a much greater kick out of watching "Jung_E" than I did as a mere casual viewer.

My rating of "Jung_E" lands of a five out of ten stars.

First off, I knew nothing about this film, and I didn't know that the female lead had died in real life. It came up on my Netflix queue, the premise looked interesting, so I watched. And I am glad I did.

People bashing this movie have obviously been raised on a steady diet of big-budget action movies where there are explosions every few seconds. If not, they lose interest. This movie, while it has its action, is more a character study and a dive into the morality of cyber-human symbiosis.

I found the acting top notch. Even the quirky out of place odd behaviors are there for a purpose...to demonstrate how machines and organics react differently to external stimuli. By the end I found myself thinking..."What if"...this was to happen? And that's the mark of a compelling and thoughtful movie.

8.5 stars.

I'm completely baffled by all the horrible reviews. Did those reviewers even watch the same movie I watched? Is this the best sci-fi I've ever watched? No. But it's pretty decent. The visuals are fantastic. The CGI is convincing. The acting is solid. The storyline is bittersweet and, in some ways, unusual. This is a far-future robot AI sci-fi that has the love between a daughter and her mother at it's core, with no romance (refreshing!). Yes, there are some plot holes. For example, why are they working so hard to make a combat AI robot who keeps failing in simulation when the police AI that society already possesses is so advanced? Still, it doesn't deserve such atrocious reviews and I hope you won't let yourself be put off from trying it.

Beware: if you want to watch this movie for a dosis of pure robots and action, you need to know this is not an action movie. It presents the drama revolving around a dystopian future where technology is used in unethical ways to serve big corporation and military complex purposes. Even it falls short in developing the characters and middle story, making it dull and slow at times, It excels at showing how the future would look like if the advancements in technology lead us away from our humanity. If you have the patience, i would recommend this movie for a dosis of some amazing key components about what awaits us if we remain unaware. A must watch if you enjoy cyberpunk genere.

The S/VFX were all top shelf in this film, but it had two downfalls; one was the constant cheesy and annoying attempts at humor which became cringeworthy fast. The other was the convoluted screenplay. The conceptual story was actually decent, but it ended up all style with very little substance. It was riddled with plot holes, and incohesive and incoherent dialogue. Even the normally comfortable 98 min runtime felt much longer with all the infantile dialogue, terrible humor and some of the long, dragged out and unnecessary scenes. Writer and director Sang-ho Yeon should have made many edits and scene cuts after seeing the final version to at lease create better cohesion. It's a generous 6/10 from me, mostly for the very impressive visuals.