Jung_E Review [Netflix] – Review in FilmTotaal

Director: Yeon Sangho | Screenplay: Yeon Sangho | Cast: Soehyung (Kang Soo-youn), Kim Hyun-joo (Jung_E), Lee Dong-hee (president), Ryu Kyung-soo (Sang-hoon), Uhm Ji-won (Lee Se-yeon), ea | Time to play: 98 minutes | Year: 2023

The world has become uninhabitable due to the climate crisis. Humanity flees into space, where it builds various shelters. Part of it proclaims the Republic of Adrian, and attacks Earth and other centers. A long war breaks out, in which a war heroine leads the Allies to many victories: Jung-E. After her inevitable death, the Allies try to clone her to win the war.

A story set on an intergalactic level, but unfortunately director/writer Yeon Sang-ho rushes through it. In less than a minute, this story is presented in just a few blocks of text. Then the action starts immediately. This is too short and too fast to set the future of Guy understand or contextualize. The backstory should have been much more elaborate, especially with a setup of this magnitude.

The focus is on the emotional and human core of the story. Yeon succeeds in this to a great extent. Jung_E’s mother, Soehyung, is one of the scientists working on cloning. This gives an interesting dimension to the situation. The development he is going through is portrayed beautifully and in a subtle yet effective way. Soehyung has only known her mother for a short time, and actress Kang Soo-youn has incorporated her dissociative attitude and inner pain into her swan song. She died of a brain hemorrhage shortly after the recordings.

The themes of parenting and grief are intertwined throughout Guy. An effective approach, which unfortunately clarifies the message very quickly, after which it is repeated a lot. The attention is so focused on this fact that there is almost no time left to expand the rest of the story and setting. These remain equally vague and underdeveloped after the fleeting start. A shame, because there would have been a lot more to this if the story had been expanded.

The many action scenes are very well choreographed and Guy once again it shows that Asian productions are far ahead of Hollywood in terms of action sequences. The many action scenes come from simulations, which are played out with the different clones of Jung_E. This makes them feel a bit insignificant, causing them to lose their power anyway. There’s a lot going on on screen, but the story moves slowly.

Plus, the CGI doesn’t detract from the biggest blockbusters, except for a few thorns in the side. Unfortunately, the set design and cinematography are a dime a dozen. Whereas the music, on the other hand, either has a very alienating effect, or is no more than a few seconds in an endless loop.

Jung-E and Soehyung are well developed, but the opposite is true for the rest of the characters. Almost every one of them can be described by a single character trait: the pervert, the villain, the overly ambitious businessman, etc. The director of the investigation, Sang-hoon, is especially distracting, with his over-the-top acting in every scene in which he appears. Guy it is full of potential, but it never becomes more than that.

Guy can be seen in Netflix.