Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Young-goon, mentally deranged and frequently electro-charging herself with a transistor radio, has been admitted into a mental institution. Firmly believing herself to be a cyborg, she refuses to consume like a human being. Il-soon is another patient, who catches the eye of Young-goon and soon becomes a close friend. Il-soon is now confronted with the biggest task: to cure Young-goon's mental problem and have her eat real food.
Park Chan-wook's whimsical detour from his Vengeance trilogy is a visually inventive, tonally unique romantic fantasy set in a psychiatric ward. The cinematography is lush and dreamlike, with candy-colored production design that creates a singular aesthetic world quite unlike anything else in his filmography or Korean cinema broadly. The film's novelty is high — it occupies an almost uncategorizable space between surrealist romance, dark comedy, and mental illness drama with a distinctly personal and eccentric voice. Acting is solid, with Rain and Im Soo-jung delivering committed, quirky performances, though neither is given a role of great dramatic depth. The plot is deliberately loose and episodic, prioritizing mood and character texture over narrative momentum, which works as a stylistic choice but leaves the story feeling thin. The ending is warm and satisfying but not particularly surprising or resonant beyond its immediate sweetness.