Directed by: Bae Jong (배종) (Welcome to Dongmakgol) Starring: Ji Chang-wook (지창욱), Shim Eun-kyung (심은경), Oh Jung-se (오정세), Kim Sang-ho (김상호), Ahn Jae-hong (안재홍), Kim Min-kyo (김민교), Kim Ki-cheon (김기천) Release Date: February 9th, 2017
Fabricated City sees the return of writer/director Bae Jong after some 12 years since his massive hit Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005). His new action crime film reimagines the classic ‘framed for murder’ concept with its high tech spin on crime scene manipulation and digital data management. Fabricated City dresses its dark story of manipulation and murder with a fresh and stylistic visual flare ripe for the times that sees its (mostly) youthful leads take their keen online gaming and teamplay skills to the next level where they face off with a dark and powerful industry fueled by scandal and corruption.
After returning a lost phone to a mysterious woman for a reward, the video game addicted Kwon (Ji Chang-wook) awakes in his apartment to police bursting through his door to arrest and charge him with the rape & murder of an underaged girl, said to be the very woman he delivered the lost phone to. With zero recollection of the events, Kwon pleads his innocence but overwhelming evidence sends him away to life imprisonment. Life in prison is cruel to Kwon as he finds himself at the mercy of the hardened gang leader Ma (Kim Sang-ho) and his goons that sees the former national Tae Kwon Do competitor endure beating after beating. Slowly, Kwon rebuilds his confidence in prison where the skills he acquired as a leader in the video game worlds he dominated begin to resurface as he plans an escape.
Once out, a nationwide manhunt begins to track down the wanted fugitive as Kwon reunites with his former online gaming squad who use their various technical, gaming and computer hacking skills to clear the name of their beloved captain. The crew uncovers the dealings of a nefarious organization that fabricates crimes and scandals using state of the art set designers and artists to plant and remove evidence at crime scenes they manipulate in order to enrich themselves while offering power and influence to others. With Kwon’s case being just the tip of the iceberg in this elaborate corporate scandal, his team puts it all on the line to expose the truth.
Fabricated City opens with a very cool sequence style wise a la Ready Player One (2018) that I wish was pursued a bit more. The players do not completely enter a virtual world using VR tech like in Ready Player One but their their gameplay is presented as a full emersion experience with its onscreen portrayal. Complete with lifelike avatars and haptic feedback, this sequence shows us just how serious and immersive an online gaming experience can be, and provides ample justification for the tight bond they share. This filmmaking style also helps to add a fun Inception like element to the story and characters in Fabricated City but unfortunately it’s only used in this opening sequence.
Fabricated City is a feast for the senses. It comes packed with superb visuals and its sound design is top notch. There’s a dark ambiance to many of its scenes, especially during the prison sequence, and colors pop when tech is deployed or other artificial lighting is used. But there may be too many dark narrative devices including murder, rape, suicide, and physical abuse that are used to establish the world of Fabricated City that will prevent it from having a the broader appeal it desires.
I, for one, appreciate Fabricated City the most when it doubles down on its hard R sci-fi actioner aesthetics. It features a wild, dark and deranged set up that takes nearly 40 minutes to establish. But once the main story kicks in, Fabricated City dials it back a bit and takes up a more playful tone at times. This comes across as a bit too silly during its mid and final sections where the gaming squad reunites in real life to expose the shady criminal enterprise. This causes Fabricated City to begin to feel like a different movie entirely from how it started.
The characters in Fabricated City are also only loosely defined and introduced far too late into the movie to emotionally invest in. Only a few of their quirks are very memorable like the girl MR. HAIRY (Shim Eun-kyung) who leads the hacking efforts and is only comfortable talking through cell phones or other electronic devices. The film then becomes more of a cat and mouse type pursuit film when Kwon’s jailhouse rivals begin to join in on the manhunt for him. Both parties utilize their high powered surveillance and hacking tech to constantly one up the other that starts out fun but becomes somewhat tiresome rather quickly.
Fabricated City takes a stab at high profile corruption in regards to both corporate and personal scandals that tend to lead the news headlines here in South Korea. It portrays a kind of puppet master orchestrating the public narrative to determine winners and losers within society through its control over the interconnected technological and data infrastructure systems that have emerged over the years. This is the most interesting sci-fi concept that feels rather timely considering just how valuable personal information has proven to be after the rise of SNS platforms in the digital age. In this way, Fabricated City provides an entertaining, albeit frightening, glimpse of what it could look like should our digital information fall into the wrong hands.
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