Natural City

First the good news: I can understand the majority of high ratings in other reviews. This film looks fantastic and those used to Hollywood big-budget fare will not find it wanting.The cinimetography is wonderful, and there are moments of simple, unadalterated beauty woven into the dark, rainy atmosphere. The scenes of the protagonist's cyborg sitting on a bench at the beach (within a hologram) are enchanting. Everything from her pose on the bench to the vibrant color that so contrasts with the rest of the film is profoundly affecting.The special effects are first-rate, yet exist to provide an environment, not become the focus of attention.Speaking of focus, that's the good and bad of this film. The acting is superb, but you can't concentrate on their faces because you have to read the subtitles. Dialogue dubbing has improved dramatically in recent years, and this film is begging for an English surround track.That said, there are other problems. First, the gist of the plot is that a cyborg hunter cop is stealing AI chips in an attempt to extend the life of his expiring cyborg girlfriend, whom he has fallen in love with. Not a problem in iteself, but there is absolutely no indication for almost the entire film of any affection between them. Only in a flashback sequence at the end do you see any signs of the love they supposedly share. For the most part, she just sits around looking blankly at the ground.Second, Natural City falls victem to the bad idea of filming the combat scenes too close. I don't understand why filmmakers do this, but all you see is twirling black-clad bodies that take up the entire frame, with no sense of their surroundings, then a quick cut to someone getting offed. Back up a little, please!So, a mixed bag of the great and the bad. I want to rate it higher because of it's undoubted quality, but the lows sadly beat the highs. An English (or substitute your language of choice) track so you can watch the talented cast, better framing of the fight scenes, and a more genuine portrayal of the protagonist's relationship with his cyborg (this is the whole purpose of the movie, remember) would have made this an easy four stars. As it stands, it's a great visual and acting treat made sour by some poor decisions.

An extremely fine Korean sci-fi film, unfortunately betrayed by marketing tags comparing it to "The Matrix" & "Bladerunner". This film survives quite well on it's own merits. The acting is uniformly superior to anything you will find in "The Matrix". The two male leads are impressively charismatic, their rocky but devoted friendship an important part of the storyline as one friend falls deeply over the edge as the lifeline of his love-interest, the mechanical Ria, comes to it's end. So this is also a love story.A lot of the best communication between characters is wordless which gives you an idea of the acting quality. The production, fight scenes & storyline are decently done. There's plenty of action, some of it beautifully choreographed. The love story is profound: It makes me wonder why some of the best love lines in cinema have been utterred by androids. I really can't understand why the producers never tried releasing this as a major release in the USA. There is a lot of candy here, & not because it's so bad. This is one movie of hi-fi sci-fi that I can watch from beginning to end without fatigue, as I have already multiple times. That's rare for me. There are visions here that give me the shivers. The villains are Sunday cinema amusing without being silly as well in a pleasureable way.It's a beautiful story on many levels.

I watch many Korean films, I really should be a professional at rating these films. I enjoy all the genres of K-movies mostly drama and action or action/thriller and some horror. With that being said I would like to say that sci-fi K-movies are not as a familiar drama to me. This film had great visuals a story similar to blade runner but with a more emotional twist.Old Boy co-star Yu Ji-Tae plays a cop named R that lives in a city in the midst of a colony war involving humans and androids. He runs into a prostitute that may be the mental host for his new found android Ria who is nearing the end of her three year life span. As a fan of Korean cinema I am always making an effort to share these films with many friends of mine, most of them find no intrest in foreign films, especially my star trek obsessed best friend who abhors Korean films.I recommend this for anyone interested in gritty sci-fi films and this one has an emotional twist to it.Enjoy.

A lot of movies try to reinterpret the vision and content of Blade Runner. They try to subsume some of its greatness, to operate on the same vistas, to charge the drama with the same kind of liveliness.This movie has got to be the best of the lot. It goes so far as to tell a story, and had Blade Runner never existed this movie would be excellent. But the regular nods to Blade Runner make this movie more memorable and enjoyable to watch several times over because there are so many things going on in the cinematography while the story is playing out.

Fans of Asian cinema and Korean SciFi will enjoy this one. Great visual design and a hard-boiled manga-noir approach wrapped in Blade Runner-esque package.

I'm a giant cyberpunk fan, and a Blade Runner fanatic. So when this movie was referred to as 'A Korean Blade Runner' I had to own it. It is a great film, almost a cross between Blade Runner and The Matrix. Superb visual effects, and a solid DTS soundtrack. It is in Korean however so if you don't like subtitles you may not like it. But it is a solid example of Korean film potential and definitely worth a look.

Very wierd and interesting movie, have never seen blade runner though (which is what this movie is compared to), a little hard to follow at first but a good sci-fi thriller!!

Bladerunner copy? Yes, Still awesome? Yes!

Having seen numerous very good South Korean films I decided to give a try to this 2003 science-fiction movie - and I was only partially satisfied. Below, more of my impressions, with some SPOILERS."Natural City" is without a slightest doubt a quasi remake of the famous - and much better - "Blade Runner". The story takes place in a dystopian megalopolis (but no, this is not Los Angeles) and the year is 2080 (rather than 2019). The main "hero" is a certain "R" (instead of Rick Deckard) and he is a specialised policeman charged with tracking and killing rogue androids - for some reason those guys are called MPs, rather than being simply called "blade runners". Androids, called usually "dolls" (rather than "replicants"), are quite numerous on Earth and some of them rebel and take to the hills (metaphorically speaking). For that reason their "life" is always limited to three years.Or "R" is in love with a dancing "doll" called Ria and she is nearing her expiration date. In desperation "R" contacts a shady character called Doctor Giro, who makes all kind of illegal things for the criminal underground, including escaped androids - maybe this very strange man knows how to override Ria's time-encoded "death switch"? In the meantime, "R" is also part of a large effort by all the MPs to locate and terminate Cyper-N77, a particularly advanced and dangerous combat android who deserted and vanished without a trace...That is the basis for the whole film and many more things will happen before it ends - at one moment a spunky street wise girl named Cyon, who lives on the margin of the society in the worst of the slums, will also play an important part.It is not exactly a bad film, but it is definitely mostly an attempted imitation of "Blade Runner", with just some more action scenes - but it is considerably inferior to this Ridley Scott masterpiece. There are many unnecessary lengths, the film is surprisingly slow, the main "hero" is a rather pathetic and not very likeable guy, there is virtually no humour and last but not least, the story is greatly confused - at some moments I couldn't exactly follow the plot and I didn't really feel motivated to go back and view once again the previous scenes to better understand. Also, at the end, rather than being moved, I was actually rather relieved that it was over.Bottom line, this film has for strong points two Oriental beauties playing Ria and Cyon, some good visions of the futuristic dystopian megalopolis, a couple of good action scenes and a serious sex-appeal for all the cyberpunk afficionados - the bad points, well, it is most of the rest. For my personal taste this is a film watchable once - I don't think I will keep the DVD.

Cyborgs are domestic appliances in this science fiction film. One military policeman who brings in rogue cyborgs called R has fallen in love with the one he owns and is looking for a way to save her, as she will soon reach her best by date.The story begins by talking about what R is willing to do to save his cyborg lover, even though it compromises his professional standing and threatens his moral standing too. His downward spiral has further reaching effects though, than just wrecking his career and potentially the life of a young woman who could be the answer to saving his lover.It's a great little film that manages to raise philosophical questions, even as it features some nice action sequences as well. The design is pretty good as well with some lovely special effects. The characters are likeable and understandable in their motivations, even down to the bit parts like the Head of the Military Police's assistant. The acting is rather good as well.I can recommend this film as something a bit cerebral but with a good quota of martial arts and gunplay to keep the story moving.

I've seen several superb Korean films and decided to give this one a try. Had read that it was in the style of Blade Runner but in all honesty there is no comparison in my opinion. This is a s--l--o--w film with unconvincing storyline and characters and only a few short bits of attention grabbing action. I admit a film is a personal experience for each viewer but forget Blade Runner if you settle down to watch this one or you'll be even more disappointed tyan necessary.

interesting film but starts off pretty slow, The main character is unlikable throughout the music which makes it hard to follow at first but the film is very gritty and there are many twists and turns and action plots which make it engaging and interesting to watch until the end. The film is heavily inspired by blade runner but i think they did a good adaptation and it's definitely worth a watch.

This was an excellent cyberpunk movie from South Korea, with a good story, and good balance of action and drama. There were some incredible beautiful scenes, beautiful both in the visuals as well as the emotion. This is a must watch for fans of cyberpunk and Blade Runner.