| | |  | KOREA | Home » » Natural City | | | | | | | Description: | | Rebuilt after a devastating war, the world of 2080 has given rise to advanced technologies including the creation of cyborgs. Created with artificial intelligence (AI), human-like emotions and great strength, they serve one master for their entire lifespan. When the cyborgs revolt, R (Yoo Ji-tae)and Noma (Yoon Chan), Rs best friend and commander, lead an elite military squad ordered to eliminate the rebellion. Unbeknownst to anyone, R has fallen in love with Ria (Seo Rin), his cyborg, and is illegally harvesting AI chips from dead cyborgs in order to save her life. Torn between his love for Ria and the battle to save mankind, humanitys fate hangs in the balance. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Ji-tae Yu, Jae-un Lee, Rin Seo, Eun-pyo Jeong, Doo-hong Jung | | Director:
| Byung-chun Min | | Format:
| AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Language:
| Korean | | Subtitle:
| English, Spanish | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Tartan Video | | Run Time:
| 114 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| April 18, 2006 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 23 reviews |
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Average Customer Review:
 ( 23 customer reviews )
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32 of 33 found the following review helpful:
 To date, probably the most beautiful looking AND most vapid Korean science fiction filmFeb 20, 2006
By Brian T
"The Coolest Movies"
NATURAL CITY (2003) Directed by Min Byong-chan. Arresting production design and state-of-the-art visual effects can't disguise a dull plot that borrows so liberally from BLADE RUNNER and GHOST IN THE SHELL that the word 'tribute' could warrant legal action. To date, this is probably the most beautiful looking AND most vapid Korean science fiction film to come down the pipeline, and one feels almost guilty in knocking it in the face of the undeniable amount of craftsmanship that went into it.
Set in a futuristic megacity in the year 2080, it's about a sullen policeman (Yu Ji-tae) who wants to extend the life of his beautiful android dancer Ria (Seo Rin) by finding a new host for her brain-chip. As she's nearing her sell-by date, which requires her complete destruction, this puts him at odds with fellow cop Noma (Yun Chan) and evil android Roy Batty...err...evil uber-android Jeon Doo-hong, who has plans on accessing android headquarters and programming a massive robot uprising. Flying police cars, slow-floating dirigibles with gigantic projection screens, endlessly vertical skyscrapers forming a mountain of technology in a post-war wasteland.
We've seen all this before. And indeed, it all looks amazing here. But what's missing is any depth of character to make the story more convincing. The leading man is a complete cipher whose motivations for prolonging the life of his robot are never explained or explored, and while his robot clearly has functional difficulties with her impending doom, Seo underplays these scenes to a fault, generating neither tension nor sympathy, only indifference about her fate. To give credit where it's due, Korean is one of the few Asian countries - and one of the few countries outside of America and Japan - even attempting high-minded science-fiction films such as this, WONDERFUL DAYS, 2009 LOST MEMORIES, and YESTERDAY. One hopes that one day, the quality of screen writing will improve to meet the superb level of technical artistry already apparent on screen.
The Korean 2-disc special edition had a remarkable array of extras that may not all be included on the U.S. edition, but hopefully they'll at least include the cool easter egg that could be found on disc 2 by arrowing up on the main menu to highlight '*REC'. This gave you access to what appeared to be a 7-minute, effects laden music video about the plight of a country devastated by a nuclear attack, which almost feels like the backstory to the main feature.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
beautiful but emotionally chillingAug 26, 2006
By Joseph Geni
OK, so I haven't seen Blade Runner, which this film has been repeatedly compared to. I have, however, seen Ghost in the Shell. Switch around a few plot specifics regarding cyborgs and the various bodies in which they might unexpectedly be found, and this is pretty much a live-action remake. Add in a bit of Minority Report sci-fi-noir and a flair for horror-suspense, a 5th-Elementesque mystical pleasure cruise ship that can take you away to a fabled land of forgetfulness, and finally toss in some Matrix-esque high-speed martial arts and sweeping, post-apocalyptic panoramics, and you've got yourself a movie. (I've only scratched the surface with the homages here: there's a fair number of nods to A.I., and one section of the soundtrack is jacked almost verbatim from a bit in the Truman Show. But never mind all that.)
The reason I liken this to Ghost in the Shell above the others is because they both have the following:
a) Beautiful, absolutely, astoundingly, beautiful visuals
b) A female cyborg character who wonders about the nature of life. (Fortunately, on this note I am pleased to report that Natural City's dialogue is a bit less rigid and more, well, human, than Ghost in the Shell's was.)
c) Nefarious, antagonistic, body-hopping cyborg villains.
Maybe it's because it's live action and not animated, but in general I found the characters to be surprisingly compelling for a cyborg flick. But their development is jarring and their motivations or thoughts are often maddeningly unclear. There's Cyon, the prostitute, who spends the first half of the movie sneering at everyone and the second staring in dull detachment at the ongoing events as they spiral out of control around her. What's going on in her head as she becomes a target for both hero and villain alike? She's the most human character in the story, so I'd like to know. There's Ria, the cyborg that R., our protagonist, has fallen for. A major problem with the movie is that we encounter her just 3 days before she "expires." She appears to not be functioning so well. Was she always this stupurous and obedient? What exactly is the humanness within her that makes R. fall in love with her? I don't often say this, but some well-placed flashbacks might have been helpful. This is the lynchpin of the story. Since R. loves her so much, WE should love her too, at least a little. I feel sympathetic for the character, but more in the way that I felt sympathetic for a pet dog that is about to be put down, not in the way I would for the love of my life.
Which brings me to R., the main character, whose love takes him on a completely destructive path that everyone can see but him. At the start, we sympathize with him, because blind love and devotion is an emotion that is easy to sympathize with. But he is so clearly out of control, it is difficult to fathom or relate to the increasingly desperate steps he takes to try to save Ria's life.
Which in turn brings me to my major issue with this film. Put simply, I don't like the resolution of the plot. I won't say whether it ends happily or not, because that would be bogus, but what I will say is that happy or sad, I like my plots to resolve in an emotionally satisfying manner. So if a film is trying to make a statement about life and what it means to be alive and human (as I believe, to its credit, this one is), I would like it to do so in a coherent (and preferably life-affirming) manner. At the end of this, beautiful though it is, I had to wonder, what's it all mean?
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Beautiful movie, but very bloodyMar 04, 2007
By Pavel Peev
The story is similar to the "Bladerunner" movie: policemen fight bad cyborgs.
But all the actors are asians here.
There are futuristic buildings and beautifully designed surroundings.
There are very beautiful women, some of which are real, some of which are cyborgs.
Even occasional nudity is presented.
But there is an awful lot of shooting. The policemen are dressed like
anti-terrorists, with helmets and huge guns (resembling a car's muffler).
The movie is excellent, with romantic music and pretty sea and sunset landscapes.
So, I recommend it, as long as you don't mind the bloody shooting and fights.
I don't give it full 5 stars because of the bloodshed.
P.S. Today I learned that a Korean student has shot other students in Virginia Tech University.
Perhaps he was insipred by watching too many korean movies with shootings in them?
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent Sci-Fi from South KoreaAug 15, 2006
By Terry Smith
"http://terrysmith.net -- http://terrysmithimages.com"
Natural City is a visually stunning sci-fi movie produced in South Korea. It is dark, gritty, slow-moving film noir at its best. The plot revolves around a futuristic SWAT team hunting down rogue cyborgs and the love affair between one of the men and his cyborg girlfriend who is about to "expire". There are plenty of comparisons both in plot and in elements within the movie to Blade Runner, and in fact the director's cut of this film on Amazon is subtitled "Korean Blade Runner".
However, all of that said, Natural City is not a rip-off and is an awesome movie in its own right. It has an excellent story line, great acting, incredible visuals, action-packed scenes clearly inspired by The Matrix, and a very worthy Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack. The film has English subtitles; but otherwise, you would not be able to tell it apart from a Hollywood film. On the contrary, Hollywood hasn't produced science fiction on this level for quite some time.
In particular, many months were spent building small-scale models filmed for a lot of the special effects. I still find this technique of using miniatures "realistically superior" to 95% of the computer graphics produced these days.
If you love dark, post-apocalyptic, film noir science fiction then you will love this movie. It's worthy-enough to reside in your DVD collection next to Blade Runner and the Alien trilogy.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
A great film with stunning impressive visualsApr 12, 2006
By Horror-Fanatics.com
When you pick up a Tartan DVD release you know that you're getting your moneys worth. I've seen so many great movie releases from Tartan Video that I just can't begin express how much I appreciate being able to watch their latest stuff. Just recently I got to check out a film called Natural City. A Korean science fiction picture filled with great action, drama, visuals and a damn good story that goes with it. Natural City takes place in the year 2080 after a deadly war. Advanced in technology the streets are filled with cyborgs, flying cars, and well you get the picture. We fallow a man by the name of R, who is a fellow police official. R is in love with his cyborg companion Ria. To keep Ria alive R illegally takes AI chips from other dead cyborgs. Little does R know he is about to face his biggest challenge. To fight a group of rebellious cyborgs who are hell bent on taking down the entire police force.
The first thing that came in mind when I read the actual plot was the movie Blade Runner. For the simple fact that the stories are pretty similar. You can argue that perhaps director Byung-chun Min may had some inspirations prior to writing this film. Luckily in the special features of the DVD you get to hear from the director himself as to what really inspired him and what lead him to make the movie. Hearing about the real inspiration for Natural City makes total sense when you actually finish watching it. Natural City is a beautiful film which features some of the best looking visual effects I've ever seen. Watching some of the scenes were like watching cut scenes from a next generation video game. The movie blends in a nice mixture of computer and miniature visual effects. It helps give the movie a more realistic look behind all the CGI aspects of it. It's always best to combine CGI with the real thing or even just a hand built model. The presentation is just wonderful and it's much more than just eye candy. The film also has a great yet familiar plot which plays out mostly like a well made science fiction drama.
The story doesn't go too much into the past. In the beginning there is talk about the deadly war in the dialog but not much is really explained. Instead you just stay in present time and you fallow these characters in the year 2080. The lower class live in the ruined water filled parts of the city while the middle class and above are across the bay. What the film also includes are some brief and very entertaining action sequences. Although there are only a few real big action scenes they were all fun to watch. Not only were the action scenes well shot but they were just really entertaining and fun to watch. There's even some blood and gore thrown into the mix which had my head spinning from excitement. If you're into Sci-fi films then Natural City is just the movie for you. The only real downside about it is that it's nothing new. But that alone didn't keep me from enjoying it all the way through.
To understand the logic and meaning of everything you have to go through the bonus features, which by the way are also really good. There is a featurette called 'The Story of Natural City'. You get to hear from the cast and crew about the making of the project and as I mentioned before you also get to hear from the director and his inspirations for making the film. You get a good look behind the scenes on some of the visual effects and even some of the planned out action sequences. Features also included are deleted scenes, cast interviews and trailers. If you're into science fiction dramas then I highly recommend Natural City. It's a great film with stunning impressive visuals and very entertaining action. Sure it's nothing new but if you watch it all the way through it shouldn't disappoint. Natural City is a science fiction film I definitely recommend owning.
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