The South Korean sci-fi blockbuster "Seobok" (2021), which has not yet been released, has already gained momentum. With the popularity of the two superstars Gong Yoo and Park Bo-Gum, it was originally scheduled to be released in December 2020, but was later postponed to April 2021. It was released simultaneously in South Korea and Hong Kong. The first major production will be screened simultaneously in Korean theaters and online OTT. It seems that the film company CJ Entertainment is bent on maximizing the profit within a short period of time when the film is released.
"Seobok" is the third screenplay written and directed by Lee Yong-ju. Nine years ago, "Architecture 101" (2012) written and directed by him became the highest grossing romance film in South Korea at the time. Following him as director Lee Hae-young for the first time, he wrote the horror film "The Silenced. Unexpectedly", Lee Yong-ju who was a blockbuster in romance films, started filming this sic-fi action blockbuster, and the film has only two male protagonists, and the female role is only Jang Young-nam, who plays the role of Dr. Im Se-eun, a doctor in the research institute, who is the mother of the replicator. The film uses Xu Fu (Seobok), the name of the alchemist in the Qin Shi Huang era (259-210 B. C.). The film tells from the director of the research institute, played by Park Byung-eun, that this replicator is the "product" of stem cell technology, which can be the "antidote" for human beings to treat terminal illnesses, allowing people to live forever immortal.
The film here briefly touches on a scandal in the Korean science and technology industry, which is the Hwang Woo-suk stem cell fraud incident fifteen years ago. At that time, Hwang Woo-suk's research shocked South Korea and become a people's hero. The subsequent fraud and corruption incidents made Koreans feel unacceptable and ashamed, that is called national shame by public opinion. This topic may not be felt by audiences outside Korea, but for Koreans, it is a rather sensitive subject, which has become another selling point of the film limited to Korea.
In terms of sci-fi genres, "Seobok" should belong to the category of mind and identity. From the perspective of science and technology, it explores the development and changes of science and technology, the changes in thinking and the identity and crisis of human beings. For example, the replicator in the film, a scientist and doctor who is a mother, uses stem cells to transform the son who died in a car accident into a replicator through technology. Facing this "son", she is also an experimental product and a technological product, and fights for him every day. Depressants and extraction of bone marrow, as the supervisor said, is no different from the extraction of insulin from pigs in the laboratory, but the protagonist Gong Yoo plays the terminally ill special agent Min Ki-heon, in order to protect Seo Bok, the replicator played by Park Bo-gum, and feels unacceptable. The institute treats a person in this way, which can be seen as the director's questioning when technology touches the boundaries of human morality and identity. There are many comments that the film's handling of this message disrupts the rhythm of the film as an action film, and is too superficial and not profound enough. I agree that the director failed to combine literary drama and action scenes organically, which made many viewers who watched action scenes feel disappointed and dull, especially in the second half of the film, Seo Bok took Min Ki-heon to the cemetery to see his own prototype: Dr. Im Se-eun's son, his confusion and doubts about his identity also caused Min Ki-heon to have interpersonal feelings for him, which made him return to research instituate afterwards, when Seo Bok's bone marrow was extracted, Min Ki-heon's question to the supervisor became reasonable.
As for the comment about why the government wants to eliminate Seo Bok, the film passed through the mouth of the intelligence director Chief Ahn, played by Jo Woo-jin, and mentioned the views of American scientists. If people can live forever and have no fear of death, people will self-destruct. So they had no choice but to eliminate Seo Bok, the immortal "product". This concept comes from the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who believes that human nature is the only one that can be aware of death, so people feel a passionate need for existence, and death is just the witness of human beings as existence, in fact, Heidegger in his the classic Being and Time has many accounts of how people prepare for death in order to prove their existence. The film borrowed this idea to achieve dramatic effects, especially in the last scene, Seo Bok asked Min Ki-heon to destroy himself, which was quite a sensational scene. There are many comments that this scene has the shadow of a classic Japanese animation, Otomo Katsuhiro's "Akira" (1988). In terms of visual effects, it does have the feeling of "Akira", but the film reminds the author of the French director, "Lucy" (2014) by Luc Besson, especially about the problem of existence, also tells the story of the person using technology to give people the ability to control other things. Both films have the ending of the "Akira"'s destruction. But "Lucy" raised the existence of superhumans to a more nihilistic level, and she was everywhere in the end; and "Seobok" returned to people's desire to achieve immortality and created Seo Bok, but also because of his appearance, people may face the crisis of self-destruction, so he must be destroyed, although this is a hypothetical question, if people really do not die of illness, how will people face the problem of existence?
The director chose Seo Bok as the name to bring this ancient character into the world of science fiction. According to "Records of the Grand Historian" (Shiji), Qin Shi Huang, in pursuit of immortality, accepted Xu Fu's (Seo Bok) proposal and took the boy and girl to the three immortal mountains of Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou. Looking for the medicine of immortality, in the end neither Xu Fu (Seo Bok) nor the boy and girl came back. Later, there are many records about Xu Fu (Seo Bok) in China and Japan. There is a character in the film with a very "Akira"'s style, that is the chairman of the company played by Kim Jeo-geon. He uses mercenaries to fight the government, a villain who is rich and rivals the country. This is also curve criticism of the Korean film's response to the Korean chaebol phenomenon. And the other villain is Chief Ahn, he has the intention to send this replica to the US military for processing, but in the end he asked him to use the military to take action, and he almost fell into a sea of fire. Some reviews pointed out that since Seo Bok has such a huge super power, why did Chief Ahn ask for Min Ki-heon to protect him? In fact, the director of the research institute and Dr. Im Se-eun have explained that Seo Bok's cells grow very fast, because a boy's body is actually only ten years old, and he is a child with superpowers. Whether his superpower can be controlled freely is a question mark, so Chief Ahn only sent a terminally ill agent to protect him, which finally proved that Chief Ahn's choice was correct. The film does not have much breakthrough in the genre of sci-fi films, and as a large scale production, it has not reached the climax expected by the audience, but the performances of the two superstars are quite suitable for their jobs. Of course, Park Bo-gum's role has more room to play, and he also grabbed a lot of edge from Gong Yoo. The audience who came to watch idols wholeheartedly should not be disappointed.
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)
"Seobok" is the third screenplay written and directed by Lee Yong-ju. Nine years ago, "Architecture 101" (2012) written and directed by him became the highest grossing romance film in South Korea at the time. Following him as director Lee Hae-young for the first time, he wrote the horror film "The Silenced. Unexpectedly", Lee Yong-ju who was a blockbuster in romance films, started filming this sic-fi action blockbuster, and the film has only two male protagonists, and the female role is only Jang Young-nam, who plays the role of Dr. Im Se-eun, a doctor in the research institute, who is the mother of the replicator. The film uses Xu Fu (Seobok), the name of the alchemist in the Qin Shi Huang era (259-210 B. C.). The film tells from the director of the research institute, played by Park Byung-eun, that this replicator is the "product" of stem cell technology, which can be the "antidote" for human beings to treat terminal illnesses, allowing people to live forever immortal.
The film here briefly touches on a scandal in the Korean science and technology industry, which is the Hwang Woo-suk stem cell fraud incident fifteen years ago. At that time, Hwang Woo-suk's research shocked South Korea and become a people's hero. The subsequent fraud and corruption incidents made Koreans feel unacceptable and ashamed, that is called national shame by public opinion. This topic may not be felt by audiences outside Korea, but for Koreans, it is a rather sensitive subject, which has become another selling point of the film limited to Korea.
In terms of sci-fi genres, "Seobok" should belong to the category of mind and identity. From the perspective of science and technology, it explores the development and changes of science and technology, the changes in thinking and the identity and crisis of human beings. For example, the replicator in the film, a scientist and doctor who is a mother, uses stem cells to transform the son who died in a car accident into a replicator through technology. Facing this "son", she is also an experimental product and a technological product, and fights for him every day. Depressants and extraction of bone marrow, as the supervisor said, is no different from the extraction of insulin from pigs in the laboratory, but the protagonist Gong Yoo plays the terminally ill special agent Min Ki-heon, in order to protect Seo Bok, the replicator played by Park Bo-gum, and feels unacceptable. The institute treats a person in this way, which can be seen as the director's questioning when technology touches the boundaries of human morality and identity. There are many comments that the film's handling of this message disrupts the rhythm of the film as an action film, and is too superficial and not profound enough. I agree that the director failed to combine literary drama and action scenes organically, which made many viewers who watched action scenes feel disappointed and dull, especially in the second half of the film, Seo Bok took Min Ki-heon to the cemetery to see his own prototype: Dr. Im Se-eun's son, his confusion and doubts about his identity also caused Min Ki-heon to have interpersonal feelings for him, which made him return to research instituate afterwards, when Seo Bok's bone marrow was extracted, Min Ki-heon's question to the supervisor became reasonable.
As for the comment about why the government wants to eliminate Seo Bok, the film passed through the mouth of the intelligence director Chief Ahn, played by Jo Woo-jin, and mentioned the views of American scientists. If people can live forever and have no fear of death, people will self-destruct. So they had no choice but to eliminate Seo Bok, the immortal "product". This concept comes from the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who believes that human nature is the only one that can be aware of death, so people feel a passionate need for existence, and death is just the witness of human beings as existence, in fact, Heidegger in his the classic Being and Time has many accounts of how people prepare for death in order to prove their existence. The film borrowed this idea to achieve dramatic effects, especially in the last scene, Seo Bok asked Min Ki-heon to destroy himself, which was quite a sensational scene. There are many comments that this scene has the shadow of a classic Japanese animation, Otomo Katsuhiro's "Akira" (1988). In terms of visual effects, it does have the feeling of "Akira", but the film reminds the author of the French director, "Lucy" (2014) by Luc Besson, especially about the problem of existence, also tells the story of the person using technology to give people the ability to control other things. Both films have the ending of the "Akira"'s destruction. But "Lucy" raised the existence of superhumans to a more nihilistic level, and she was everywhere in the end; and "Seobok" returned to people's desire to achieve immortality and created Seo Bok, but also because of his appearance, people may face the crisis of self-destruction, so he must be destroyed, although this is a hypothetical question, if people really do not die of illness, how will people face the problem of existence?
The director chose Seo Bok as the name to bring this ancient character into the world of science fiction. According to "Records of the Grand Historian" (Shiji), Qin Shi Huang, in pursuit of immortality, accepted Xu Fu's (Seo Bok) proposal and took the boy and girl to the three immortal mountains of Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou. Looking for the medicine of immortality, in the end neither Xu Fu (Seo Bok) nor the boy and girl came back. Later, there are many records about Xu Fu (Seo Bok) in China and Japan. There is a character in the film with a very "Akira"'s style, that is the chairman of the company played by Kim Jeo-geon. He uses mercenaries to fight the government, a villain who is rich and rivals the country. This is also curve criticism of the Korean film's response to the Korean chaebol phenomenon. And the other villain is Chief Ahn, he has the intention to send this replica to the US military for processing, but in the end he asked him to use the military to take action, and he almost fell into a sea of fire. Some reviews pointed out that since Seo Bok has such a huge super power, why did Chief Ahn ask for Min Ki-heon to protect him? In fact, the director of the research institute and Dr. Im Se-eun have explained that Seo Bok's cells grow very fast, because a boy's body is actually only ten years old, and he is a child with superpowers. Whether his superpower can be controlled freely is a question mark, so Chief Ahn only sent a terminally ill agent to protect him, which finally proved that Chief Ahn's choice was correct. The film does not have much breakthrough in the genre of sci-fi films, and as a large scale production, it has not reached the climax expected by the audience, but the performances of the two superstars are quite suitable for their jobs. Of course, Park Bo-gum's role has more room to play, and he also grabbed a lot of edge from Gong Yoo. The audience who came to watch idols wholeheartedly should not be disappointed.
By Kam Po LAM (original in Chinese)