Jung_E (2023)
AI Combat Warrior Will be Unleashed
Science fiction night tonight baby. Since I’ve already thrown out the whole “trying to not do new movies in the long-format” thing, here’s a fresh off the press one from Netflix and some lovely folks over in Korea whose name’s I’d only butcher pronouncing them cause I’m bad at that. We’ve got robots, we’ve got AI, and we’ve got a very interesting looking trailer to pull me in. Tonight, we light up some yellow as we check out Jung_E.
I should start off, I went into this on the description blurb mostly, which ended up being a bit misleading in hindsight. I expected a bit of a science fiction action-romp where a robo-mom protects a kid, and although there’s some real minor notes of that still in here, this is far more a drama and emotional-thinker than it is an action movie. With that in mind, a mercenary mom dies trying to provide her daughter with some expensive cancer treatment, and that same kid ends up growing up to work on a project to bring about a combat AI based on her mother’s skills and brain-scans. There’s a lot of drama in there, dealing with some “meaning of human” elements and the general interactions between a chunk of the characters as the movie slowly escalates to it’s final conclusion. Mixed throughout we get some action scenes as we get to see some combat simulations played out, but the true focus is on the impact events are having on our main characters.
The characters are pretty good in this. Some of it is a bit over-the-top, but as you watch the movie it all falls into place and makes a lot of sense. Although there are characters all over this movie, most end up sort of melding into the background as just nameless scientists and background-businessmen. The largest focus on the now-project lead daughter and the less calm and focused yin to her yang the project director. The two characters offer vary different approaches towards the same end goal of a successful program, and the divide between the two’s actions only becomes even more extreme by the end. I’d like to say that the most arc-like emphasis is on the daughter and how the experiment scenarios slowly weigh on her, but I’d feel remiss to say that the directors little arc - although perhaps less nuanced - doesn’t carry a large impact on the plot.
The actors do a good job. Admittedly, I’m sure some things could be lost in translation at parts, what with the language barrier meaning that I’m relying less on line delivery and more on body language and my ability to see what’s happening while I read the subtitles. That said, I do feel like the actors do a pretty good job here, with parts where people are playing it cool feeling accurate, and some of the players adding a nice layer of small details to show potential stress fractures forming under the surface. Actions the actors portray don’t really tend to feel like they are out of nowhere. It’s good, and it helps sell the situations and the world things take place in. That said, sometimes the daughters constant forced calm can be a bit off-putting, but that’s less bad acting and more just natural how humans expect to see emotion out of other humans or it just feels off.
Mother of Soldier
Of course, one of the things that drew me to the movie was the description making it sound like a scifi action movie. There are a few scenes, and they are pretty good - but it’s not the main bulk of the movie, so think of it first as a drama and then action. It’s a bit like Blade Runner if that movie was way shorter and only really focused on making one robot as opposed to catching a bunch of them. It also has a bit of classic Cyberpunk in it as well, what with big corporations have some pull in things when you have a set of more limiting options for brain-scan “immortality” upon death depending on your cash flow options. Rich? Get the top of the line, with a little bit of companies getting your brain data. Poor? I hope you like being a barely conscious toaster whose brain data is entirely owned by companies and their ad revenue. Heh, you would have though that the planet suffering catastrophic flooding was the most distopian part of the movie, but then it wouldn’t be all that science fiction would it? Anyways, I kind of got a little off topic there - the fights that are in the movie are good, with a few moments where it could be a bit more clear or feel a bit more weighty - but I wouldn’t fault someone for coming out saying it made them feel like some off-brand Ghost in the Shell or Cyberpunk or the likes.
Part of the draw for me when it comes to science fiction is costume and prop potential. Here, we get a lot of future-simple with the lab and working attire, even the military and business attire. I love the main battle-mom’s armor outfit, as it caries this nice level of armored hard-shell look without being too overly busy. Her main weapon in the simulations almost steals the show, having so many neat little gadgets incorporated into the gun for utility or storage purposes, and I found it pretty neat. Past that we start getting into the more graphical elements - the robots and some of the scenery stuff. It largely all looks good, with of course some parts where you can tell it’s the money shot that got more time and polish than others. It never got to the point where any of it ended up being bad - occasionally when a robot is involved in a fight and obviously not a physical suit you get a bit of an off feeling that might be brought about by - and this is my guess as I haven’t seen any behind the scenes stuff - they had a green-screen suit performing the robot actions against the actor, as the human choreographs really well and reacts to things, but at times the space that robot takes up feels like it’s not a 1 to 1 with what the reactions are. Still, things like a robot that isn’t there going through a table still look incredibly convincing, so if you like effects work stuff you’ll be pretty at home having a good time here. Like I said, there is a time or two when it’s not nearly as impressive, but one or two moments don’t kill a movie for me personally.
Audio is there. Music does it’s thing and I do my thing where I forget it by the end of the movie. Maybe one day someone will make some scifi gadget to let me remember stuff like that better, but for now my brain-scan is just all red and suffering trying to recall any of the tunes past them helping the scenes they were in. Balance is good, although I don’t understand what’s being said because I don’t know the language - but I heard everything intended loud and clear, even during action scenes or music. I think the the strongest part of the movie is only helped by this, as it is very much that drama related to human tensions and interactions, things like people blaming themselves for things, or the side effects of feeling like you are disappointing others. It’s funny how so many movies with robots use the robot angle to try and disassemble humans in a retrospective and philosophical way - but I guess when you contrast a human to a robot it’s pretty easy to see the differences sometimes. There’s also some commentary on immortality in there, so there’s quite a few talking points people who like to do more than drool over action and costumes like me can dig into and strike up essays about.
Not amused by his antics.
It’s a fun movie, even if it’s slower than what I really expected it to be. Although going in I thought it would be much more action packed, it still did a lot of good things with it’s run time including giving me a few good action scenes. Thinker types and those who more like the human side of movies will probably get more out of this than someone looking for the next bombastic blockbuster - it’s more Blade Runner than it is Terminator 2 with it’s robot angle. Lots of talking points, good acting, an alright story that facilitates all the things I think they wanted it to - it might not be mind blowing, but it’s still quite well put together if you ask me, and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Who doesn’t appreciate a movie that feels like it’s providing entertainment without the need to stretch it out?