Review of Natural City

Introduction

Ask me what my favourite movie is, and without hesitation I`ll reply Blade Runner every time. It is challenging, thought provoking sci-fi that has never been matched, by Hollywood at least. The thing about Hollywood is, in recent years at least, that there has been a tendency to market films at the lowest common denominator, with all the pieces to the puzzle supplied, and the film just an exercise in putting the jigsaw together. Indeed, while this summer`s I, Robot was an intelligent action thriller, it made sure that the audience was spoon-fed the plot, with the characters` back stories filled in, and every twist and turn neatly labelled and signposted. Ambiguity just doesn`t put bums on seats it appears, and the intelligent sci-fi has suffered consequently. Even Donnie Darko failed on first release, and only built up a cult following after a DVD buying public got the chance to fathom its depths.

Until quite recently, the sci-fi spectacular seemed the province of Hollywood alone, but CGI has been the great leveller it seems, and film industries from around the world are getting in on the act. I was naturally intrigued when I heard of Natural City; a Korean film that seemed heavily influenced by Blade Runner, but with shades of The Matrix to boot, and it was with some trepidation that I watched it, hoping for more than just a remake.

The world is a different place in 2080. Society now lives and works with cyborgs, artificial life forms based on human DNA but with AI chips providing the intelligence for their brief lifespans. When the cyborgs go rogue, it falls to the military police to eliminate the threat, but the only way to kill a cyborg is to shoot it in the head, destroying the chip, and when facing a stronger and faster opponent, a moment`s hesitation could be fatal. R is one of these officers, but he fell from grace the moment he fell in love with cyborg dancer Ria. Now Ria is coming to her expiration date, and to prevent her dying, he`s made a deal with maverick scientist Jiro to preserve her. To earn the money to do this, he steals the AI chips from the rogue cyborgs and sells them on the black market. His boss Noma has been turning a blind eye to this, but now R`s distraction is costing lives. Then he learns that there is a way to save Ria, and the secret lies in the DNA of Cyon, a young prostitute from the ruined city outside the metropolis. But there are others after Cyon for nefarious purposes, most notably a ruthless rogue cyborg called Cypher.

Video

Natural City gets a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, and it shows off this film to excellent effect. The picture is clear and colourful throughout, although there are a couple of moments of softness. The film borrows heavily again from Blade Runner for its design ideas, with a dark neon lit rain drenched metropolis, with plenty of shimmering holograms and flying cars. However Natural City differs in that there are plenty of scenes that take place in daylight.

There is a nice contrast between the futuristic metropolis and the ruined city that faces it, a giant CG statue serves as a central point for the story, and it gets lit in a glorious gold sunlight that give the scenes a poetic quality. Ria and R also spend time in a brightly lit, futuristic spaceport, experiencing a hologram of a distant fairy tale world that is also effectively realised. While there are a few questionable CGI moments, Natural City shows consistently high production values.

Audio

I recently reviewed another Optimum Asia release, and found the specifications wanting. I had put it down to the fact that 4 hours of material had been crammed onto one disc, but having said that I would have expected this disc to be more adequately authored.

Unfortunately this isn`t the case as the UK R2 release of Natural City is similarly cursed with fairly large burnt in subtitles, and merely a DD 2.0 Korean soundtrack. The dialogue is clear, and the music is nice and expansive, filling the epic cinemascope visuals very nicely. But watching the film, the martial arts action, the powerfully realised future world, all I could do was lament the absence of a surround track.

Features

On this disc, you`ll find trailers for other Optimum Asia titles as well as a couple of featurettes.

The Making Of Natural City lasts 24 minutes and is just that. Starting with the inspiration for the story, it also looks at the special effects and the realisation of the action sequences. It wouldn`t do to watch this first as it contains some spoilers to the film.

Location Tour sees director Byung-chun Min and actor Chan Yoon visit the locations used in the film and talk about the film. This lasts 21 minutes and provides a nice contrast between the locations and how they were spruced up with the use of CGI.

Both these featurettes are presented in 4:3 with DD 2.0 Korean and burnt in subtitles.

Finally there are 4 deleted scenes lasting a total of 6 minutes, which are interesting but don`t add too much to the film.

I did notice that the sound seemed distorted on the extras, with the high frequencies particularly painful, although this did seem to come and go with time.

Conclusion

Dark rainy metropolis, hovering spaceship advertising off world colonies, flying cars, cyborgs with three year lifespans wanting to extend their lives, you couldn`t get more Blade Runner if you tried. Throw in a confrontation between a psychotic cyborg and the film`s protagonist, as well as an oddball scientist who has a malady similar to Blade Runner`s JF Sebastian, and copyright lawyers will have dollar signs in their eyes. However Natural City while superficially resembling the earlier film actually discards much of the philosophical musing to tell what is at heart a simple love story.

This film is about R`s love for Ria and what he will do for the sake of that love. There is little question of whether the cyborgs are alive or conscious, and any complex questions of slavery and exploitation are likewise eschewed for plenty of action and Matrix style martial arts. With Ria only having 3 days to live, we see R sacrificing more of his humanity in a desperate obsession to keep his love alive. He`s an unsympathetic character as he betrays his duty and his friends, but through it all his pain is apparent. Natural City has much of that ambiguity that I look for in sci-fi, we get little or no background to the characters, we are told there was an apocalyptic war in the future, but we get no details, we have to accept that R and Ria are in love, but we also get no history to their relationship. Similarly, other characters are only ethereally drawn, leaving us to ascribe motives or figure out their actions for ourselves. Also admirable about this film is that the end is anything but Hollywood, yet hopeful nonetheless. It`s definitely a film that will reward a second viewing, as you can appreciate the film again in the light of what you learned the first time round.

Unfortunately, because Natural City has avoided the deeper sci-fi questions, what is left is a love story told with plenty of special effects. It`s an unconventional love story certainly, and there is another layer to the story as other characters` motivations are revealed, but while the imagery is impressive and thought provoking; there isn`t much meat in the sandwich.

As a sci-fi movie, it certainly puts Korea on the map, and stands up well against a lot that Hollywood can offer. It`s definitely worth giving this film a rent, but if you are considering buying it, the Region 3 version has optional subtitles (for the feature only) as well as DD 5.1 and DTS soundtracks.