How does a webdrama where a guy and his cyborg creation fall in love sound to you? It’s certainly a creative plot, I’ll give ’em that. Well, if you’re curious about that idea, then you ought to give Bong Soon – a Cyborg in Love a try.
Kim Joo-Sung is a brilliant, young scientist/computer programmer who is in love with Oh Bong Soon, his beautiful, kind and intelligent co-worker. She’s the perfect woman, except she’s not really a woman. Bong Soon is the cyborg Joo-Sung created, the prototype of the BS Project funded by Joo-Sung’s friend. She was designed with a program that forces her to shut down if she begins to fall in love, therefore overriding her own cyborg feelings. When Bong Soon falls for Joo-Sung he has the heart-breaking choice to either allow her to “love him to death” or remove himself from her life so she can continue to “live”.
If falling in love with his own cyborg creation isn’t a big enough challenge on its own, Joo-Sung is also dealing with a very debilitating condition – early onset Alzheimer’s disease. As things get more difficult for him to handle, mentally and physically, his buddy, the president of BS Electronics, calls someone in from New York to take Joo-Sung’s place as head of the BS Project – Joo-Sung’s old love, and she has definitely not forgotten him.
Oh Bong-Soon looks and acts like an ordinary woman. Even her roommate and co-workers have no idea she’s a cyborg. She shuts down every night to recharge even if she’s in the middle of a conversation, can drink any man under the table and not get drunk, and shocks a nurse when two needles break while trying to draw blood from her delicate arm. She’s somewhat of a memory bank for Kim Joo-Sung. You see, he programmed her with all of his own good memories so she would have a past to draw on during conversations with other people. She is very selfless and loves Joo-Sung with every bit of her cybernetic heart.
Kim Joo-Sung is played by Cho Kyu-Hyun, better known as Kyuhyun from the iconic Kpop group Super Junior. Kyu-Hyun began his acting career in 2010 in the male lead position of the musical theater production The Three Musketeers. He went on to star in several others including Catch Me if You Can and Singin’ in the Rain. Although he may be a veteran actor to the stage Bong Soon – a Cyborg in Love is his introduction to webdramas. As difficult as it is for me to say, I wasn’t as impressed with his acting as I had hoped to be. Band members Lee Dong-Hae, Kim Hee-Chul, and Choi Si-Won all beat him to the web/Kdrama scene. Choi Si-Won is by far the best actor of them all. Maybe Kyu-Hyun will get better the more experience he gets.
Yoon So-Hee tackles the title character part of Bong Soon. I know her from her role as the 20 something year old Eun-Dong in the Kdrama My Love Eun-Dong. Sadly, she didn’t leave a huge impression on me. I really didn’t feel she was well cast in that role. But I did enjoy her as Bong Soon. She is a beautiful German-Korean young woman who, obviously, has a train-load of brains since she is enrolled as a Chemical and Bio Molecular Engineering major at KAIST, a prestigious science and research university in South Korea. She is currently on a leave of absence, though – perhaps due to her acting career?
The ending of Bong Soon – a Cyborg in Love was just too ambiguous for me. I can’t help but wonder if the writer wanted the audience to decided exactly what happened or if he just didn’t write the ending with enough clarity. It could have been my problem. Maybe I just didn’t understand the ending, which happened to be exactly how the whole story began… a coffin, a snowstorm, wrapped in a blanket, attacked and knocked unconscious. Huummmm… I mean, I got most of it just not enough to let me enjoy it entirely.
The vocal duo GB9 are responsible for the one and only song in the show. I’m not kidding. At least I only remember one song. Good thing it’s very pretty and the show is very short. I think it’s a shame Kyuhyun didn’t sing. After all, he’s sung on several other Kdramas, why not his own? He has a very distinctive voice and I kept listening for it but came up empty. How can a show starring an amazing singer not feature him on the soundtrack? That just doesn’t make sense to me.
The scenery for this webdrama is extremely good. The laboratory is quite fancy, complete with glass wall touch-screen computers. They also take us to a lovely retreat-style home over looking some water. And there’s a kiss scene on a street with hundreds of tiny colored lights to add to the romance. Very impressive for a webdrama.
This show only has 12 episodes, between 12 to 15 minutes a piece. I’ve seen a lot worse (Love Cells, The Romantic Movement: Seoul are two that quickly come to mind) and I’ve seen a lot better (The Secret Message and Her Lovely Heels are a couple I can think of). I’d call Bong Soon – a Cyborg in Love a middle-of-the-road webdrama… not great, not bad.
Score: 4
The Good:
Original plot
Nice scenery
The Bad:
Confusing beginning and ending (at least to me)
Non-seasoned acting
A one song soundtrack
Didn’t have Kuy-Hyun sing
Kisses without moving lips
Heart and Seoul 