I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK
Year: 2006
Director: Park Chan-Wook
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean

When thinking of films that take place in mental institutions, most avid movie buffs would point to Milos Forman's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, James Mangold's  Girl, Interrupted or Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor. The former and the latter begin with sane characters - who come from a sane & stable world-and have them plunged into a world of chaos. Few films start with insanity and roll with it, I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK is fairly unique in that respect.

A girl (Su-jeong Lim) who thinks she is a combat cyborg checks into a mental hospital, where she encounters other psychotics. Eventually, she falls for a man (Rain) who thinks he can steal people's souls. 

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook defies standards with every new film, thus it's hard to nail him down to any specific genre or style. The same man who has made this weird and quirky film has also made the ultra violent Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film’s story focuses entirely on the institution’s deluded, paranoid, compulsive, and hallucinatory patients. Taking this unconventional approach, he finds a curious sense of romanticism influenced by the imbalanced fantasies of his subjects.

Like the characters, this film cannot be put in a box. When we think the picture has enough humor to be labelled as a "comedy" it hits us with hard truth, showing quite sad confessionals of every patient which make them a victim of both themselves and their circumstances. Granted there is an energy in every scene, along with joyful romance and mesmerizing delusion. It's quite hard to compare this film to anything else, perhaps it is an odd mix of 12 Monkeys and Monty Python.

Barely distributed in the United States, Park’s film was profitable in his own country and proved to be a critical success. The film will definitely disappoint fans of his more outrageously bloody affairs, but overall it's quite engaging and entertaining. Not a "great" film, but eccentric enough to capture your interest.