I rented this movie because I adore Ji-tae Yu - I think he's a wonderful actor. Unfortunately, the material he was given here was just not up to par. The movie goes beyond just being an homage and at several points DIRECTLY rips off Blade Runner (the stripclub, the eatery, etc etc) I could even have liked it in spite of its blatant lifting of Blade Runner's scenes, had it not also had a meagre created world in comparison to the original, and more importantly, had it had a sympathetic main character. R is a drunken lout who we are supposed to believe 'loves' his (replicant!) doll Ria...but we are shown no evidence to actually support this except for his protestations. Ria herself has no personality. Cyon is the only character which I felt in any way sympathetic towards, and for most of the movie she's being horribly abused (raped, kidnapped TWICE, repeatedly attempting to kill her/steal her body etc etc). There's just not much about this that is worthwhile.
Review of Natural City
Natural City
(2003)
Not just derivative...this film rips off Blade Runner...poorly.
24 November 2007
Warning: Spoilers