JUNG_E lulls the audience into a false sense of security with a fantastic futuristic shootout in its first few minutes. It'll get back to creative combat set pieces by the end, but everything in between is simultaneously extremely heartfelt and deeply cynical. The future imagined in this film is extraordinarily well-realized, and that's what makes it so gutting.
Yeon Sang-ho exploded onto the scene a little over a decade ago with his animated films The King of Pigs and The Fake. His biggest hit is still the groundbreaking zombie movie Train to Busan, where he's demonstrated his ability to revamp tired genres. Now, with JUNG_E, he takes on the complex world of science fiction.
JUNG_E opens with a straightforward explanation of its setting. The planet Earth has been ruined by climate change, leading much of humanity to take to space for shelter. A few human settlements band together to form a new nation and declare war on everyone else, leading to a long-winded civil conflict. The war should've ended several decades ago, but the legendary super soldier Yun Jung-yi tragically failed to complete her final mission. Captain Yun wound up in a coma, but the military scientists on Earth think she can still end the war. A group of dedicated professionals set to work perfecting a clone of her brain that they can put into a robot body and mass produce as a perfect army. The lead scientist on that team happens to be Yun Seo-hyun, Captain Yun's daughter.
JUNG-E takes place in a horrible future in which every brilliant technological advancement is weaponized against the people they could serve. War is fought almost entirely with robots, but the scientists on Earth insist upon cloning real human brains and forcing them to do battle. The drones aren't killing enough people, so they have to torture war heroes through immortality to get the job done. The horrific sci-fi concepts only get worse from there. Eternal life isn't just available to the perfect soldier, anyone can copy and paste their brain into a new body if they have the capital. Immortality has a tiered payment scheme. Those with enough cash can buy a new body and live as they did. Middle-class folks have to make do with second-class citizen status and surrender privacy rights to their brain. Poor people can live forever too, but they forfeit their rights to their own identity. Yun Jun-yi went with the third option, forcing her into a fate worse than a thousand deaths.
The action of JUNG_E is characteristically solid. The opening action scene establishes Yun Jun-yi's skills as a super soldier. The film's go-to weapon is an assault rifle with a built-in grappling hook, and it gets absolutely everything it can out of that solid concept. The hand-to-hand combat is fast and fascinating. Captain Yun and her robotic clones move like an anime character, but the film never loses the geography of each scene. It takes a long time to get from its first action set piece to its massive finale, but it's worth the wait. Audiences who are just here for the punching and shooting may lose interest in the second act, but anyone paying attention will find the more intelligent core underneath the well-made violence.
There's a moment near the end of the first act of JUNG_E that will chill some audience members to their core. This film will likely always be remembered as the final project of beloved worldwide star Kang Soo-yeon. The film is dedicated to her. It was her first feature in 9 years, and she tragically passed away in May. She takes the starring role, Yun Seo-hyun, and she's fantastic. Seo-hyun speaks to a fellow scientist about her relationship with her mother, a war hero who has spent most of her daughter's life in a coma. She mentions, without the weight one would imagine behind a big reveal, that Captain Yun only became a mercenary to afford the insurmountable medical debt of her daughter's cancer treatment. Her colleague, a massive fan of Captain Yun, reacts with glee. He explicitly compares it to a comic book nerd learning some hidden detail of their favorite superhero's backstory. The world of JUNG_E is cold, cruel, and bracingly real. The film's beating heart lives in the simple relationship between an absent mother and a loving daughter, made impossibly complex by the infinite pulls of the new era.
This film will not be for everyone. Some will find it too long-winded, some will only be into it for the action, and some won't connect with the ideas. The pitch isn't 100% original, but the new wrinkles make it far more complex than the average futuristic action movie. If JUNG_E connects with you, it'll bring out some strong emotions. If it doesn't, it's still a very fun fast-paced sci-fi feature. The film is available on Netflix now. Take a look into Yeon Sang-ho's take on the future. Though it mostly works with brains, it might just grab your heart.
Jung_E