JUNG_E Is A Sci-Fi Android Film Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts
I was having a hard time writing this review of the new Netflix film JUNG_E because I felt if I described the setting and premise of the movie in too much depth it would constitute spoilers. Eventually I realized that spoilers involve plot and story, and that led me to pin down my problem with this ambitious and well-crafted movie — the plot and story are far from its strongest suits.
I liked JUNG_E, and in many aspects I really liked it, but below I will explain without any plot spoilers why it ultimately was not on par with writer and director Yeon Sang-ho’s most famous film Train To Busan.
The science fiction movie is set near the end of the 22nd century. Earth is nearly uninhabitable due to climate change and sea level rise, and most of humanity lives in ring-shaped space colonies. For 40 years, a breakaway group of colonies have been engaged in a civil war with the alliance of the other colonies and Earth — a war fought mainly by AI-controlled combat robots. The main characters are working for a company trying to make combat AI based on a copy of the brain of the alliance’s most famous war hero, Capt. Yun. The humanoid combat robot under development using that tech is called JUNG_E.
The performances are all over the place. The two main lead actresses, Kang Soo-yeon as chief researcher Yun Seo-hyun and Kim Hyun-joo as Capt. Yun/JUNG_E are fantastic. Kang in particular puts on a master class on how to portray someone who is repressing way too many emotions, until she really isn’t. Kim is both bad ass and touchingly relatable as Capt. Yun. Unfortunately, the primary male lead, Ryu Kyung-soo as lab director Kim Sang-Hoon, is a laughable caricature of a villain. Ryu puts on a performance that is downright cringe-inducing at times.
What really shines in JUNG_E, aside from the two lead actresses, are the world building and the production design of that world. As the movie progresses, you get a really disturbing picture of just how believable the corporate dystopia is the more it gets explained. And the technology is a pleasant respite from the nigh-magical floating holographic screens that appear at the wave of a hand in the MCU. The CG and practical effects are excellent and could teach many a U.S.-based movie studio a thing or two.
The main problem with the movie — even more than the uneven performances — is its pacing. A standard three-act structure, JUNG_E uses the first act for set up of the story and the world it is in, which feels like it takes way too long. One third of the way into the movie we barely have any reason to care for the characters and their situation. The second act redeems itself by cramming in a ton of back story and character development, finally giving us a reason to be concerned for (or at least interested in) the plight of the characters. This is also where the story reveals just how bleak and dystopian this world is for most people. Even more so than its older Netflix cousin Altered Carbon, which has similar themes, JUNG_E makes you realize you really don’t want to live in this at first seemingly cool space future.
The third act is an action-packed finale that, while exciting, pays short shrift to the deeper themes established in the second act. The third act also sees a design choice by the filmmaker Yeon that, on the one hand I applaud for how it completely violates any kind of normal standard of visual storytelling, but on the other, as a bog-standard consumer of visual entertainment, left me baffled.
This next bit has no bearing on my review, but once I saw in the closing credits a dedication to actress Kang Soo-yeon, I had to look up why. Not being well versed in Korean film or TV, I had no idea that Kang was a storied actress, who began her career decades ago as a child. Despite being popular throughout her career, for whatever reason she hadn’t worked in TV or film since 2012, and JUNG_E was her return to acting. She died in May 2022, after filming was completed, of a cerebral hemorrhage.
For her performance, for the well-realized world building and the incredible effects, I can recommend JUNG_E if you are a science fiction fan, but not very strongly. At barely more than 90 minutes, it won’t take up too much of your time, and might leave you thinking about its particular kind of existential dystopia for some time.
I give JUNG_E (Climax Studio; TV-14; 1hr 38 mins) a 3 out of 5.
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