JUNG_E (2023)

January 25, 2023 12:17 PM

(TRAILER) On an uninhabitable 22nd-century Earth, the outcome of a civil war hinges on cloning the brain of an elite soldier to create a robot mercenary. Streaming on Netflix

Set in the 22nd century, climate change has caused the planet to become uninhabitable and humans live within a man-made shelter. A war takes place within the shelter. Yun Jung-Yi (Kim Hyun-Joo) is the elite leader of the allied forces. She becomes the subject of a brain cloning experiment. The cloning experiment is a potential key to win the war.

Seo-Hyun (Kang Soo-Yeon) and Sang-Hun (Ryoo Kyung-Soo) are responsible for the success of the brain cloning experiment. Seo-Hyun is the team leader of the laboratory that develops brain cloning and AI technology. Sang-Hun is the director of the laboratory.

Of Note: JUNE_E is the last acting performance by actress Kang Soo-Yeon. She passed away on May 7, 2022 due to a cerebral hemorrhage.

posted by jazon (4 comments total)

Kang passing away turned a sad movie ending even sadder - I keep thinking of the movie doctor who tells her character "You have three months to live". Shooting wrapped in late January, and she passed away in early May, so that's awfully close.

The premise reminded me a lot of a Black Mirror episode, but I like Black Mirror, so I'm okay with that.
posted by Mogur at 1:07 PM on January 25, 2023

I wasn't sure what to expect of this, the trailer makes it feel like Korean RoboCop in Space, but it's a much more understated and emotional story centered on Team Leader Seo-Hyun. It definitely would fit into the Black Mirror universe.
posted by jazon at 1:16 PM on January 25, 2023

I started off wondering if Ryoo Kyung-Soo was aware that he appeared to be acting in a different movie than everyone else, and I'm glad that the movie had an in-universe explanation for it and the actor got to use a wider range by the end.

Also, they could have called this movie Extreme Save-Scumming
posted by Molesome at 4:13 AM on January 26, 2023

I enjoyed this movie. Since I am apparently a slave to the Netflix recommendation algorithm, I had watched Oblivion the night before. Both movies touched on similar themes, but Jung_E did it much better.

However, I am really posting for the following tangential rant. Both of these movies started with an info dump and later had a character deliver the same information nearly verbatim. Why? Studio pressure forced the former, but they couldn’t cut the latter for plot reasons? Admittedly, I found it funny when the Jung_E exposition turned out to be irrelevant.
posted by Prof. Danger at 8:41 AM on January 27, 2023