Cyborg She (2008)

[僕の彼女はサイボーグ]

Director: Kwak Jae-yong
Starring: Haruka Ayase, Keisuke Koide, Risa Ai

Synopsis:
A college student encounters a cyborg sent by his future self to save him from an incident that would leave him paralyzed.

Impressions:
This is a decent scifi romantic comedy that hinges on the social awkwardness of the eponymous cyborg and her superhero feats. The male lead Kitamura is mostly just strung along. I suppose it's asking too much to see a relationship more along the lines of Ex Machina. Kitamura's future self tasks him with helping the cyborg develop a human heart and it'd be nice to see him exert more of an active effort toward that end. He's studying science and ends up inventing the cyborg, so you'd think he'd want to explore the limits of her AI in a more analytical manner. We get a segment involving Kitamura's past that's really schmaltzy, but as I understand it, this sort of thing plays well to Japanese audiences, so know your market. I thought I picked up inconsistencies with the first and second appearances of the cyborg, but this gets resolved in the end, so I'll at least give points for that being sorted out. Haruka Ayase has a fair bit of charm in that first appearance and afterward she does the robot thing decently. All told, this movie is nothing amazing, but you might find it a decent watch. Take it or leave it.

Rating:
50/50