I’ve been waiting for Seobok to become available in my geo-area, but had some trepidation about watching the movie.I didn’t want to pass up the chance to see Gong Yoo and Park Bo Gum on the same screen, but I gathered from ratings and mini reviews, that the movie was not a critical hit. I was afraid the two actors had not delivered, or had, at least, hitched themselves to the wrong vehicle. I was afraid of being disappointed.

So, it was a pleasant surprise that I fully enjoyed the performance of both actors! They made the most of a story and script, which, I agree with KFG, was somewhat underdeveloped, yet nonetheless engaging. Both actors showed range and depth, and created some chemistry. It felt like Park Bo Gum, especially, delivered a different kind of character than I’ve seen before. It made me hopeful about his return to the screen post-military.

Overall, a very watchable film.

HAS SPOILERS.
seabok. i am not a science fiction fan, but this movie was something else. it touched every string of my emotions, without leaving out a single one. (now that does not often happen to me with science fiction).
i want to start with the most heavenly , most alluring, most mind boggling, , most moving, most magical… scene, episode, picture or whatever you want to call it. it’s exactly at 1:13 hour of the movie.
after ki-heon brings up his miserable memory of how his partner/friend is killed by their bosses, (that he might have been the target, or may be should have been in her place), and is exploding with guilt, regrets, and tears – seabok responds with the most humane reaction imaginable, being a subhuman, as everybody considers him. he uses his telekinetic powers to attract to him little stones from the beach, and piles them up in a kind of burial mound, to commemorate ki-heon’s friend, as a response to his grief. it is all done without touching a stone, merely by brain power. they both look at this, on the background of the serene peacefully purring ocean and the sunrise on the horizon. the picture is breathtakingly beautiful, but what follows is even more stunning. a huge flock of birds come into the sun tainting the sky with bluish-lavender, amber, shining silver and muted orange. as they enter the center of the sky above our main characters, but far away above the horizon, seabok with his amazing brain powers starts moving the thousands of birds in circular movements along the sky, as if trying to create an infinity symbol and ending it with a complete circle surrounding the full golden lit ball of the sun. ki- heon watches it spell bound, and so am i. sea bok’s creation in memoriam of this woman’s life is for ki-heon, and is beyond anything i ever seen. the background music is totally organic and the cinematography is exquisite. i kept going back to this scene, again and again, i could not have enough of it. the images are still swimming in my head, stuck to my retina and sends an army of imaginary ants all along my spine. i am not a cryer, but i cry, touched by this heavenly indescribable in words beauty and what it all means.

unlike kfangurl i did enjoy this movie quite a lot – impressive acting, powerful special effects, interesting and engaging ideas, thought provoking story, artful photography, lighting, supportive of the whole scenes of high tech labs to urban environments to drop dead gorgeous scenery and all that immersed in issues of various agendas in politics, governments, corporations, colliding powers, mega-conflicts in science and healthcare, and most important – century old quest of understanding of LIFE AND DEATH itself and their interrelatedness. and all of the above mentioned agencies/organizations/powers have their own unique pursues of greed and self-serving needs.
questions of personal code of conduct, morality, ethics, eternal life, cloning, meaning of being a human are all brought up to the surface, but not answered. and how could they, this is for us to ponder and i am in total agreement with that as it is of great interest to me.
i found this movie to be complete, although condensed. could it be a multi episode drama? i personally do not need it, as i suspect it would be filled with unnecessary fluff. i also did not feel the need to know more about ki-heon’s past, guilt’s and so on. the movie makes it clear that he was an ex-secret-agent (former assassin) and standing at the border of his life to transition to death, he starts reflecting on the validity of his own life as he terminated so many other lives. it is not difficult to imagine the guilt feelings arising from his past, and on top of it he has to decide whether buying some more years of his life is worth it, as it will cause another being, the so called subhuman (with human ability to intelligently process thoughts and feel physical pain not less than a so called human)to go through intense cruelty and tortures . in my opinion this is a fundamental question for modern humanity, and the question of who between them is subhuman and who is human is open for interpretation, although to me it is seabok who is more human that his highly educated, highly positioned that call themselves “humans”. so what does it mean to BE human?
parallel to all this runs the aspect of seabok’s complex individual fate, what it means for him and what it means for ki-heon, as it slowly and methodically develops into deep connection and emotions, where they both protect and care about each other. watching it blossoming was rewarding and warming my heart, as seabok new only ONE emotional connection in his life – his mother who created him. for him to find a friend, or brother figure, or father figure is a true gift, and feels my heart with happiness, even that it is just for a short period.
the last scenes, although violent (i do not exactly like such events) bring me some sort of satisfaction, as in my opinion JUSTISE IS SERVED.

Thanks KFG, I agree with the rating of B. It could have been better and having the two of them in the same film was such a great opportunity. I think I had unbelievably high expectations which then led to a bit of disappointment.

I watched this film as soon as it was available and was really exicited to see that you reviewed it–THANK YOU, KFG!!! It was one of our last on-screen looks at Park Bo-Gum before he entered the Navy!

I agree with your analysis and rating, especially your comments about the need to build a more intimate rapport with the main characters. I felt the need to better get to know the main characters dept this from being an excellent film. Perhaps this will really become a mini-series someday.

The most interesting part of the movie was when Seobok escaped from the lab. He just wanted to look around, and that was well-portrayed. It was also engaging when the film allowed us to see his reactions to the real world and get a glimpse of what Seobok knew about ordinary human life.

The arc about their visit to Seobok’s requested destination could have been better developed; I would have preferred more time developing on that arc rather than the focus on big pyro-technics near the end of the film. I do think there were a lot of parallels to the 11 character in Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” including the haircut.

Thanks again, KFG!

I just had the opportunity to watch this a couple nights ago as well. They acted the heck out of a very thin script, I thought. It wasn’t as heart-tugging as I wanted. And not enough sci fi intrigue to keep my husband engaged either. It would have been better with your ending too! But I did enjoy this.