Cyborg Girl (2008)

A lonely university student develops a romance with a beautiful interesting woman, who turns out to be a cyborg from the future.

Director:

Jae-young Kwak

Writer:

Jae-young Kwak (screenplay)

Stars:

Haruka Ayase, Keisuke Koide, Risa Ai

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Haruka Ayase	...	Cyborg
Keisuke Koide	...	Jiro Kitamura
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Risa Ai	...	Girlfriend
Nya Daigo	...	Store Manager (as Naoko Niya)
Yoshikazu Ebisu	...	Shop Owner of Candy Store
Ken'ichi Endô	...	Auctioneer
Horiken	...	Bus Driver
Masatô Ibu	...	Designer
Kenta Kiritani	...	Jiro's schoolmate
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	TV Reporter
Kaito Kondô
Rio Matsumoto	...	Interviewer
Sakura Mizuno
Rokurô Naya	...	Jiro Kitamura - old
Yasuhiro Roppongi	...	Bartender

Storyline

A lonesome college student, Jiro, is spending his 20th birthday alone, when suddenly, a beautiful girl turns up. The few hours that he spends with her are the most incredible moments of his life and Jiro is overwhelmed by his good-fortune in meeting her. But his happiness does not last long as she disappears as suddenly as she appeared. A year later, on his 21st birthday, Jiro runs into her again at the same restaurant, where she saves him and countless others from a crazy assassin. She looks the same, but this time she is somehow different. It is the beginning of a relationship that would change his life forever.

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Plot Keywords:

female cyborg | strong woman | love | earthquake | tokyo japan | 

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Jiro Kitamura was born on November 22, 1987.

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Goofs

Cyborg She is an English mistranslation of the original Japanese title, Boku no Kanojo wa Saibougu, which actually means "My Girlfriend is a Cyborg." Kanojo is a Japanese pronoun referring to females (the equivalent to "she/her"), but it also means "girlfriend" in a certain context.

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Quotes

Girl: [on Jiro] I can feel his heart.

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Connections

References Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

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Soundtracks

Yakusoku no tsubasa
Composed by Jun Sasaki
Lyrics by Misia
Performed by Misia

User Reviews

A Nutshell Review: Cyborg She

Sometimes the greatest love stories aren't the ones that end happily ever after, but the realization that it's all a matter of the quality moments spent between the lovers. You can call me a sentimental sap, but Cyborg She does meet every single one of my expectation of what makes a palatable romantic movie, never mind sometimes dwelling on the clichéd moments, especially when the leads share great chemistry, and this being a science-fiction piece to boot too! Jiro Kitamura (Keisuke Koide) is a loner who celebrates his birthday with nobody except himself, going to the mall and picking out his own gift, before ending up at the same old restaurant for a plate of spaghetti. It's a routine year after year, but in 2007, he chanced upon a girl (Haruka Ayase) whom he witnessed to have shoplifted from the departmental store, and from then they spend the most amazing evening together. Yes, it's reminiscence of Serendipity, done in the style of Kwak Jae-young, whom we know better as the writer-director of the Korean hit My Sassy Girl.

Fast forward to a year later, Jiro meets the girl again, but this time discovers she's a cyborg sent from the future. I guess to most guys, this seemed like a dream come true when a girl, no matter if she's a fully functional cyborg, happened to just drop into your lap again. It's R2D2 with boobs, sent to him in Terminator fashion (Sorry, with clothes on too), which means of course that she has a higher calling and purpose to be with him, for reasons best I not reveal here, but for you to find out for yourself.

Being an advance being, in between getting to learn how to be a human, protecting Jiro from harm and being romanced, she's also like a superhero, and Cyborg She never looked a minute out of place if positioned side by side with this year's Hollywood superhero blockbusters. Boasting excellent special effects, I thought this movie gave another Japanese Film (don't click on this link if you choose not to know) a run for its money with its rendition of the event being a more realistic one.

It has plenty of charming moments within that makes it a perfect date movie, and the great chemistry between the leads is what made this work. Keisuke Koide looked like the helpless puppy that he is, flitting from moment to moment trying to figure out what his cyborg's true calling is, while succumbing unsuccessfully to temptation of trying to get fresh with her. Haruka Ayase on the other hand had her work cut out for her in being an emotionless robot programmed to smile, and had moments which mirrored Uma Thurman from My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Together they share some light hearted moments in a fine balance with the dramatic ones. And as we all know, we usually appreciate things a lot more the minute we lost them, and for a romantic movie, this usually is the case to reinforce certain emotions the characters have for each other.

Running slightly more than 2 hours, it never for a minute felt longer than its welcome on screen, though I had to admit that amongst its multiple endings, I thought that it could have ended at any point, and still would have made it a bittersweet movie to have experienced. I've no qualms about the ending it decided upon too, but meanwhile for those whose hearts would feel heavy at the slightest touch of sentimentalism, you'd better pack your tissues with you.

I'll admit it, this is a movie which I enjoyed thoroughly, even though as you know with any movie dealing with time travel, that'll be that bit of a paradox involved, and here it came in large doses. I'll advise you to accept the timeline presented for what it is, because that's the only way, linearly, in order to enjoy any movie that has this element. Highly recommended stuff since it's been some time I saw a romantic movie (and a science fiction one!) that just worked. I'll stick my neck out to say it'll likely be featured in my top 10 list of films for this year and I'll put money aside for the DVD as well.

For those who want to watch it on the big screen, well it's been playing at the cinemas for some time now, so you'd better quickly make some time for it.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

31 May 2008 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Cyborg She

Filming Locations:

Gifu, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$8,500,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,172,979

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amuse Soft Entertainment, Dentsu, Fields Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1