- Starring
- Kang Soo-yeon, Kim Hyun-joo, Ryu Kyung-Soo
- Writer
- Sang-ho Yeon
- Director
- Sang-ho Yeon
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 98 minutes
- Release Date
- January 20th, 2023 (Netflix)
Overall Score
Rating Summary
Sang-ho Yeon just knows how to make genre films that hit audiences right in the feels. Train to Busan was a zombie movie with a heartfelt and emotionally-impactful story behind all the violence associated with zombie films. Along those lines, Jung_E is a sci-fi action film that will thrills but has so many layers waiting to be unpacked in an emotional story that is just as impactful. Mindless action for the sake of mindless action comes and goes, however, something powerful to ground it gives it that much more staying power. The setting of this post-apocalyptic tale is essentially irrelevant since it is so much more than that. An epic story on paper feels so much more intimate in spite of its premise. Though the VFX may not be all there, that’s not the point. The point is great storytelling and for that, the film definitely delivers. Running at a brisk 98 minutes, it will have viewers on the edge of their seats and surely leaving them wanting more. Driving it home is a trio of sensational performances from Kang Soo-yeon, Kim Hyun-joo, and Ryu Kyung-Soo. While not necessarily showy in the traditional sense, the three are compelling.
Taking place in the distant future on a now inhabitable planet Earth destroyed by climate change and in the midst of a civil war between groups of outer space shelters, the key to ending that war is perhaps to clone the brain of a renowned soldier and strategist Yun Jung-yi (Hyun-joo) to create an elite AI android combat mercenary known as JUNG_E. However, looming over her was her last mission for which she failed and left her in a vegetative state thus enabling the cloning process. Jung_E follows Jung-yi’s daughter Yun Seo-hyun (Soo-youn) now 35 years later as she leads the effort as the head researcher of the JUNG_E project. While the world that the film creates in undoubtedly an ambitious one, the mother-daughter relationship at the core is by far where it truly thrives. Despite plenty of external pressure to get the project up and running, Yun perhaps saw it as a means to reconnect with her mother for whom she lost at a young age. Their history was a complicated one but how the film uses its premise to simply tell a story about grief was so powerful as flashbacks developed that connection in an impactful way.
That being said, Yun had to set all that baggage aside, baggage that was known to the others on her team and the company they all worked for. However, that internal conflict proved to become increasingly difficult as the film went on and that tension and sense of urgency was ratcheted further upon the news that her employers were moving in another direction. The ultimate goal, as mentioned, was to create the perfect AI soldier but test after test and simulation after simulation taking on waves and waves of opposition, there always seemed to be something missing in JUNG_E. Somehow, the researched needed to find a way to pull out more of her humanity to motivate her by giving her something to fight for. Knowing this presented a line that Yun avoided to cross while trying to maintain her objectivity and delaying that reunion. However, something had to give, resulting in a thrilling and moving climax that really put JUNG_E/Jung-yi and her relationship with her daughter to the test. The power of that legitimate emotional connection added real stakes and made the eventual ending even more heartbreaking to watch.
Ultimately, Jung_E would not have worked if not for the aforementioned sensational performances from Kang Soo-yeon, Kim Hyun-joo, and Ryu Kyung-Soo to tie this high-concept film together. Soo-yeon and Hyun-joo in particular give the film in an emotional center despite the latter being purposely robotic for the most part. While the former plays Yun on the restrained side, there is still layers of pain and regret below the surface that she is forced to push down but seeing an analog of her mother every day made that difficult though that fact clearly motivated her actions. Once those feelings came back to the surface, it was beautiful. Though Hyun-joo is an absolute badass as JUNG_E as she got to show some of her action chops, she also got to show a lighter side to put a more human face via the film’s many flashbacks. Kyung-Soo was great as Yun’s boss Sang-Hoon, the film’s comic relief until he got to show a different side in what was a fun transformation.
At the end of the day, Jung_E is the next genre classic and a storytelling masterclass. It arguably could have done more with its world and a hypothetical may very well will but as it stands, is one to remember.
still courtesy of Netflix
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
