Review: DOOMSDAY BOOK Is An Interesting Book That's Short A Few Pages

Written & Directed by: Jee-Woon Kim & Pil-Sung Yim
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For as long as we've understood our mortality, mankind has had a morbid fascination with our end at the top of the food chain. With a wide variety of poisons to choose from ranging from ecological disaster to bringing about our own end via a gluttony of manmade weaponry to a new strain iof disease that leaves us coughing up our innards there's no shortage of possibilities. Doomsday Book, a new South Korean anthology film imagines three potential scenarios that spell the end of mankind.

The primary draw of The Doomsday Book would be the middle segment (“Heavenly Creatures”) helmed by Jee-Woon Kim. His best known films (I Saw The Devil, A Tale of Two Sisters) open the door for many horror aficionados beginning to explore Korean genre films. However, rather than the visceral, bloody horror fans have come to expect Woon Kim turns in the most reserved and contemplative segment. Set in the indeterminate future during a time A.I. is used to assist man in their daily tasks, the leading company in robotics sends out an IT specialist to a Buddhist monastery in order to check the status of one of its models. According to the monks, their robot has achieved awareness and subsequently, enlightenment. The monks wish only for the specialist to confirm their belief that the model is Buddha reincarnated but the UR Corporation has an opposing agenda. The CEO condemns his creation as abhorrent, arguing that it must be shut down lest other models follow his example and become self aware. In his view, this would lead to the inevitable destruction of man.

On a technical level, Woon Kim's contribution marks a stunning achievement. Rather than rely on CGI, Woon Kim employs practical and tangible robotic units that his actors must interact with. The primary unit, named In-myung, manages to convey real emotion, enough so that you understand why the monks are so quick to pin their faith on him. Heavenly Creatures doesn't concern itself with the literal destruction of mankind. Instead Woon Kim explores our over reliance on technology at the expense of our development. In less than thirty minutes time the short makes a swift rebuke of the overreaching effect of corporate culture and its almost Godlike hold it has over the individual.

Pil-Sung Yim sandwiches Kim work with a pair of more lighthearted efforts. “A Brave New World” depicts the world coming to an end at the hand of mindless violence brought on by a Mad Cow epidemic. The anchor point of the story is a nerdy military scientist left behind while his family goes on vacation. Sung Yim zooms in on the almost Hoarders level of filth by way of discarded food the family tosses about, with the implication being that this level of waste represents the norm. The meat industry recycles the rot into animal feed, which leads to diseased animals which leads to a health epidemic in the form of a flu strain that turns the ill into mindless, violent-you guessed it-zombies. The attempts at a deeper meaning fall flat here but there's plenty of humor minded from the situation and the grotesque zoom ins and close ups of patrons consuming tainted meat makes for a compelling argument in the favor of vegetarianism.

Yim has more success with his second short, “Happy Birthday”. As an absurdist bit of sci-fi, the short channels Monty Python with its bizarre take on mankind's inevitable end. When a young girl ruins one of her father's pool table balls, she swipes his credit card and orders a replacement. Two years later the country is planning for the end, as a massive meteor finds itself on a collision course with Earth. As her family batten down the hatches of their bomb shelter, the girl makes a startling discovery: the item hurtling through space is simply fulfilling the order she placed online, courtesy of a sort of extraterrestrial Amazon retail giant.

Along with hilarity mined from a giant 8-ball careening through the cosmos, “Happy Birthday” puts forth inspired bits of absurdity in the form of a broadcast news crew bearing their souls in the face of the end of days and a home shopping network pitching a transportable life pod with great zeal. The cheery pitchmen touting the benefits of the mobile disaster shelter stands in great contrast to the on screen image of a spokesmodel gasping for air while a medical team tries in vain to crack the faulty unit open.

Ultimately Doomsday Book results in a mixed bag. The tone of the film veers from one extreme to another and back again, making for a disjointed viewing experience. The lack of a wraparound to tie the three tales together draws attention to the absence of cohesion. On their own each segment would make a good short film, and the overall experience is pleasant, but Doomsday Book feels like a whiff at something larger.