Natural City Review

Natural City

Year: 2003

Director: Min Byung Chun

Writer: Min Byung Chun, Han Jae Rim,

Starring: Yu Ji Tae, Lee Jae Un, Rin Seo, Jeong Eun Pyo, Jung Doo Hong,

There’s plenty of room for tales about robots, cyborgs and androids in the world but one thing is for definite, such stories will always draw comparison to Blade Runner. It’s a film that pretty much defined the rules of a science-fiction subgenre, and one that should probably always be consulted when attempting to design a similar world. However, there is a clear difference between paying homage or referencing, and simply looking up to a film like a star struck lovesick puppy. Natural City unfortunately conforms to the latter, but that’s not the only reason as to why the film feels lifeless and sterile.

Natural City is very much a film that seems to be in love with itself. It loves the way it looks and it loves the way it unravels; most evident in the fact that the credits are accompanied by production art. No denying it, the film is certainly beautiful in many ways, from the holographic representation of another world, to the dreamlike battle sequences. Beauty is only skin deep, which becomes apparent the longer the film goes on for. Fights are over-choreographed and contain far too many edits and slow-motion techniques. Anyone irritated by the likes of Zack Snyder’s love for slow-mo/speed-up have seen nothing yet. Ne scene sees the attacking androids doing incredibly fast spinning attacks while covered in water. It looks beautiful once, but then has you questioning the practicality.

The use of different filters and colour tints is also a major distraction, as some scenes are completely devoid of colour, others are subjected to a neon hue, and some are just dragged into a gritty greyish darkness. The techniques are obviously used to create a visual signature for individual locations, but with no progression or links between them it makes the film look messy as a whole. Speaking of messy, the plot also has difficulty defining characters or exploring its themes. The idea of androids with a shelf life is forever interesting, but they are played against the very uninteresting and immature R (Yu), who is so unlikable the film may as well be devoid of any human character.

Deconstructed into tiny little pieces, there are plenty of effects and shots that deserve better focus, but the lumbering story will be so familiar to fans of the genre that there is no doubting they will have seen it done better elsewhere. South Korean cinema has taken many familiar genres and spun a magical web of originality around them, or at least added something new to the approach, but Natural City seems to be an industry advert that the country were ready to compete with the big boys.

Will I enjoy it?

Fans of cyberpunk and stylistic action thrillers may certainly find some things to enjoy about the film. It has a very serious tone and a dreamlike quality but both of these can be attributed to its Blade Runner homaging. It may prove to have more merit for those not well versed in futuristic robot fare, but you can certainly find better elsewhere.