Former special agent Ki-hun Min (Gong Soo) is dying of a brain tumor, but when the company asks him to take on one more job, he agrees. It is necessary to move a secret specimen called Seobok (Park Bo Gum), a cloned being that scientists created in a lab with the aim of an immortal source of cures for all human disease. But such a valuable specimen draws the interest of many, many other entities, and Ki-hun is charged with protecting Seobok from them, if he can....
I've read a lot of science fiction in my time, and some of this reminded me of "Beggars in Spain," Nancy Kress's meditation on what a "super-human" strain of humanity could mean. It also reminded me (especially toward the end) of "Carrie." Also a number of men-on-the-run action films, and a more nuanced thought-piece about Things Man Was Never Meant To Know. A bit all over the map if one takes each of those threads separately, but I felt it all held together quite well, in large part because of the excellent acting of the two leads, who believably inhabit the psyches of a dying, regretful man and a manufactured but longing adolescent. Very poignant in the end.
I've read a lot of science fiction in my time, and some of this reminded me of "Beggars in Spain," Nancy Kress's meditation on what a "super-human" strain of humanity could mean. It also reminded me (especially toward the end) of "Carrie." Also a number of men-on-the-run action films, and a more nuanced thought-piece about Things Man Was Never Meant To Know. A bit all over the map if one takes each of those threads separately, but I felt it all held together quite well, in large part because of the excellent acting of the two leads, who believably inhabit the psyches of a dying, regretful man and a manufactured but longing adolescent. Very poignant in the end.