best movie i've ever seen.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

An anthology of apocalyptic sci-fi. Kind of. The film as a whole is infuriatingly confusing in its conception and execution. The first segment, directed by Pil-Sung Yim (of the Korean Hansel & Gretel movie), is the part that can be definitively labeled horror. Tainted beef turns people into zombies. The film has some decent comic moments, but it never really goes anywhere. Plus, I'm absolutely sick of zombies. The third segment, also directed by Yim, concerns a gigantic pool ball from space on a collision course with Earth. Turns out a young girl accidentally ordered an alien attack on the planet. This segment is so absolutely bizarre, I have no idea what they were going for. It is, at least, a bit amusing even if baffling. Bae Doon-Na appears at the very end of this segment, in the last ten minutes of the movie, and director Bong Joon-Ho also appears. The middle segment, directed by Kim Jee-Woon, cannot be considered horror at all. It concerns a robot which has achieved enlightenment and is considered by his fellow monks to be the reincarnation of Buddha. His makers are incensed at the idea, though, and wish to destroy him. This starts off as the most interesting segment, but as it goes on it gets lost in endless dialogue. Kim is a great action filmmaker and has no ability to make abstract concepts interesting. It's the most boring segment of the film, unfortunately. The one thing I can say for the film as a whole is that it always looks fantastic. Even when it's dull, which is often, it's always pretty.

This film presents three futurist-themed stories, which either directly or indirectly hint at apocalyptic overtones.The first story (called Brave New World) is a simple zombie-pocalypse, brought on by some kind of mutant food poisoning. As this one dude turns into a zombie, he's also searching for the girl of his dreams. Plenty of gnarly violence and partying ensues.Unarguably, the most worthwhile story will be the middle one (entitled Heavenly Creature), in which a robot at a Buddhist temple attains enlightenment, and everybody tries to figure out what to do with him (or it, depending on perspectives). While this story seems to move the slowest, it's most interesting for its philosophical implications, especially in regards to Buddhism; the story does a fine job of underscoring the key Buddhist themes of materialism, perspectives, and cycles of life. Even if you don't care for all that, the film will spark some good brain activity with the simple moral notion of whether or not it's wise to terminate a spiritual robot.The final story (Happy Birthday) is easily the most absurd: a little girl breaks her daddy's 8-ball, and orders a new one online. The 8-ball appears two years later...as a meteor traveling at hypervelocity. The end of the world ensues.Each story offers a little of something: a little bit of quirky humor, a little bit of heart, a little bit of style, and even a little food for thought. Even though Heavenly Creature will stand out as the strongest work of science fiction, coming close to approaching Isaac Asimov levels of greatness, Brave New World is an entertaining thing to watch, and one can't help but to appreciate how straight Happy Birthday plays out. This might be one of the best (and maybe coming close to strangest) anthology of short films I've seen since the Tokyo! anthology.Despite some stylistic excess in Brave New World, each film is crafted with superbly stylish photography and editing. Acting and writing are impeccable all around. The films use just enough sets, props, costumes, and special effects to tell their stories, and is quite effective.If you're a fan of Korean cinema, science fiction, or end-of-the-world stories, then I do recommend giving this film a try. As a fan of all three, I found it quite enthralling.4.5/5 (Entertainment: Very Good | Stories: Good | Film: Very Good)

Three short entertaining and intriguing films about the end of the world or humanity. The first features a put-upon hero left to clean up the family flat while his parents and sister go on holiday who meets a beautiful girl with whom he becomes a zombie, whether from a variant of 'flu, a kind of B.S.E. or North Korean biological warfare isn't made clear and doesn'tmatter. The second is about a robot in a Buddhist monastery which appears to have 'become Buddha'- achieved nirvana- the monks want to know if this is possible or if it is a defect in the robot and the repair man sent to examine it and from there we move to a strange meditation on robots and machines and humanity and what might be the differences between them- a philosophical Blade Runner. We also catch strange glimpses of a possible future world. Paradoxically, in some ways this episode is the one least suited to cinema and the one I'd like to have seen expanded. It ends with a quiet chilling revelation that changes the way we have seen everything before.The third part involves a little girl who throws away a pool ball and orders another on the 'net. Owing to a galactic error worthy of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, the ball arrives in the form of a meteor ten kilometres across and liable to wipe out humanity...Cue (as in the first episode) satire on T.V, personalities, politicians, scientists, weather forecasters etc.and a curious happy ending.

After Asian-wide "Three (2002)" where Jee-woon Kim contributed to the "Memories" segment and "Three... Extremes (2004)" where other Korean master, Chan-wook Park, messed with our minds with "Cut", Jee-woon Kim works here with Pil-sung Yim to give us an all-Korean short film anthology classic.Pil-sung Yim, who was in attendance at the FantAsia Film Festival screening, writes and directs the first and last segments, while Jee- woon Kim who was in post-production for his first Hollywood project "The Last stand (2013)" sent us a video detailing the hardships he is facing in the big Hollywood machine and light-heartedly prefacing his short film "The Heavenly Creature" which he classifies in the genre of philosophical science-fiction.7/10 "A Brave New World"Pil-sung Yim starts it off with a meticulously constructed take on the zombie/vampire apocalyptic movie. It is endearing, funny and poetic. It tries not to take itself too seriously, but nether does it tries to take the audience for a fool. It actually develops charming characters and then delves into a deluge of disconcerting destruction, before leaving with an open-ended finale. Note that the alternate ending was an American nuclear bomb, but the actual ending fits much before with the rest of the film.9/10 "The Heavenly Creature" This far from formulaic robot story is in fact the crux of this trilogy and drips with deep dialogue and introspection while being sparkled with humour, sweetness, sexiness and tension. A full on societal and moral commentary here from the writer/director of the high calibre, haunting "A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)" with an enlightened robot who perhaps surpassed his creators in wisdom and the battle of sorts between capitalism and Buddhism. It explores finality, fear, faith, fate and the future in a thoughtful tapestry of tasteful interactions.8/10 "Happy Birthday"The last segment is a preposterous post-apocalyptic scenario that pacts loads of laughs, especially with the dramatization of a newscast presenting the unfolding doom of the world. It flows well and follows to an adequate conclusion of this science-fiction segment and film.All in all, Doomsday Book breaks boundaries in the quality of the stories and in the directorial distinction in dealing with death and end of the world scenarios with humour, pose and serenity.May this futuristic film live long and prosper.