Cyborg She Explained
is a 2008 Japanese science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Kwak Jae-yong, starring Haruka Ayase and Keisuke Koide.[2] Although the characters are different and the stories unrelated, Cyborg She is unofficially but lovingly seen by genre fans as being the third installment in a trilogy of "strange girl" films written and directed by Kwak,the previous films being My Sassy Girl and Windstruck.[3]
Plot
It is 22 November 2007. Jiro Kitamura (Keisuke Koide) is spending his 20th birthday alone. As he buys a birthday present for himself in a shopping mall, he gets the attention of a 'cute girl' (Haruka Ayase) and she surprisingly smiles at him. Afterwards, she successfully steals a pair of clothes, which Jiro notices, but he ignores it as she walks away in front of him, and he is distracted by her beauty. The mystery girl, who seems to be interested in him, follows him to a restaurant, where he eats spaghetti on the advice of his grandmother. She suddenly appears and sits with him, stating that it's her birthday too. The two of them then exchange birthday presents. The girl, who seems unused to everything, behaves very boldly and suddenly rushes with Jiro out of the restaurant without paying the bill, provoking the manager to chase the two through the streets of the city. As he spends time with the girl, Jiro finds himself charmed by her. But, after a few hours, the girl insists she has to leave and goes with a tearful goodbye.
The story then jumps to one year later, as Jiro again celebrates his birthday alone in the same restaurant. All of a sudden, the same girl appears and joins him. While he rejoices in her presence, the restaurant is suddenly attacked by a gunman, but she saves him and the other guests by throwing the gunman out the window. Despite her cute outward appearance, she is incredibly strong and behaves erratically. Later, in Jiro's home, she reveals her true identity by showing him a 3D projection of a video in which an elderly Jiro from the future explains how he created her as a cyborg and warns him about an upcoming disaster. The old Jiro told him that the shooting at the restaurant burned him and paralyzed him for life. However, a lottery ticket he bought earlier was fortunate for him. He spent all his time and money on one thing: creating the cyborg girl to save his past self -- exactly as Jiro experience that night at the restaurant. Old Jiro believes that he has restored the "natural" history of his timeline by sending her. The girl becomes Jiro's protector as well as a loyal friend and they both share some wonderful moments. She also saves many other lives from tragic deaths that old Jiro had regretted witnessing.These include:
- a small boy from an oncoming truck
- an elementary school soccer team from a fire
- a girls' high school from a madman with a knife
Over time, Jiro not only becomes dependent on, but also falls in love with her. However, when she cannot return his feelings, he gets irritated and in the evening of 2009-03-13, in a drunken rage, forbids her from seeing him unless she can feel his heart. He begins to regret this, especially when it becomes apparent that she is still helping him while staying out of sight. Another disaster soon occurs: a gigantic earthquake completely devastates Tokyo on 2009-04-03. As his apartment block collapses, she comes to help him, but even her superhuman strength isn't enough to save herself. After telling Jiro that she now understands his feelings, she is destroyed while saving him. Later, distraught, Jiro digs up her body on 2009-04-07 and spends the next 61 years trying to rebuild her. He eventually succeeds but dies shortly after, on 2074-09-28.
Further in the future (63 years later) on 2133-04-19, a girl is told by her friend that there is a cyborg on display that looks just like her. She is curious and with the help of her father buys the now defunct cyborg in an auction on 2134-10-09.She uses a special machine to experience the memories stored in the cyborg's hard drive. Intrigued, she then decides to fulfill her wish of going back in time to meet Jiro. She is revealed to be the real girl who met Jiro on his 20th birthday (22 November 2007), explaining that she wanted to meet him before the cyborg did. We see an emotional replay of their first night together, this time from her point of view. The story then jumps forward to the moment when Jiro is weeping over the destroyed body of the cyborg. In a surprise twist, the girl suddenly appears again, finally declaring that she can "feel his heart," and decides to live with Jiro from then on, changing his fate again.
Timelines
While revealed dramatically in different manners throughout the film, the narrative includes three distinct timelines that intertwine to form the full story.
Timeline 1
On his 20th birthday (22 November 2007), Jiro is visited by a mysterious girl who charms him but leaves suddenly after telling him that the man living in Jiro's house jilted her. Jiro buys a lottery ticket shortly before his 21st birthday (22 November 2008). On that day, he is tragically shot and wounded by a crazed gunman at the Italian restaurant. Although paralyzed for the rest of his life, he is able to fulfill his childhood promise to his (grand)mother and become a scientist, using his lottery winnings to create a cyborg in the perfect image of the girl who charmed him on his 20th birthday. From his high-tech wheelchair complete with robotic arms, he records a message to his younger self, embeds the message in the cyborg, and sends her back to 22 November 2008 to meet himself on his 21st birthday and prevent the shooting.
Timeline 2
On his 21st birthday (22 November 2008), Jiro is suddenly visited by the same girl from one year earlier, who now rescues him from the shooting and proves to be a cyborg. Jiro spends some amount of time with the cyborg (probably many weeks), falls in love with her, but sends her away in a drunken rage, only to be rescued again by her in the Tokyo earthquake where she perishes. Jiro takes possession of the cyborg torso and spends the rest of his life reconstructing her and builds several exact copies. The cyborg is finally able to "feel his heart" and Jiro (this time in a normal wheelchair) dies happy. Decades later, the cyborg girl ends up in a museum where a human girl who looks just like her learns their story (via Jiro's writings also acquired by the museum). A few years later, the human girl's rich father helps her purchase the cyborg in an auction. Using that future's technology, she downloads the cyborg's memories into her own brain. She falls in love with the memories of Jiro and obtains special permission to use a time machine to visit the past for a few hours. She travels back in time to Jiro's 20th birthday (22 November 2007) when she charms him but tearfully must leave him due to the limitations of that time trip.
Timeline 3
After returning to her own time in the future, the human girl again uses the time machine, this time returning to the exact point in time when Jiro finds the cyborg torso in the ruins of Tokyo. She announces that she has decided to live the rest of her life in young Jiro's timeline.We have no idea whether Jiro goes on to become a scientist in this timeline, but it is safe to assume that he does not build girl cyborgs because he already has love in his life, resulting in a completely different life for the couple.
Plot Holes and Inconsistencies
- In the first act, Jiro is understandably oblivious to the fact that the girl is referring to him when she describes the sad breakup with her former boyfriend. When he later realizes that she was describing exactly how he ended up sending the cyborg away, it is barely mentioned with one sentence of internal monologue. Could have been played up with a more interesting dramatic twist / character-building moment.
- There is no explanation given for why the cyborg is able to transport the couple back to the past at Jiro's hometown -- or whether this was just a projection she put into his mind (but then where did she get such detailed information?).
- There is no explanation given for why Jiro is suddenly shown in a clinic getting a shot.
Easter Eggs
- When they travel back in time to Jiro's hometown, the name on the bus is "Big Fog Transportation".
Cast
In end-credits order from the original Japanese official blu-ray:
- Haruka Ayase as the girl, the cyborg, and the future girl
- Keisuke Koide as Jiro Kitamura
- Kenta Kiritani as Kenta Sato, Jiro's classmate
- Suzunosuke aka Suzunosuke Tanaka as boy in dicso
- Yuriko Yoshitaka as the girl's friend in 2133
- Risa Ai as Jiro's date
- Megumi Sato as a teacher at the girl's high school
- Ayumi Saito
- Hiromasa Taguchi as the unnamed shooter/arsonist
- Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi as a back alley bandit
- Doronzu Ishimoto as policeman
- Hiroaki Matsuzawa
- Issei Okihara
- Takamitsu Okubo
- Andre
- Erika Mine
- Mayuko Tate as maid
- Reina Matsuba
- Naoko Niya (aka Nya Daigo) as the store manager
- Ryuu Hijun
- Ryosuke Nagata as shop clerk
- Sachiko Fujikura
- Asami Yoshimi
- Ryuto Kiuchi
- Hana Mizuno
- Kaito Kondo
- Yuito Owada as Ryosuke
- Kazuki Matsuda
- Hironobu Baba
- Takuya
- Horiken. as the bus driver
- Hitomi Kawaguchi
- Akira Kubo as old man in Jiro's hometown
- Tomoma Inaizumi
- Yutaka Mishima
- Akinori Ando
- Fumi Osato
- Shuichi Masuda
- Kenji Matsuzaki
- Yuki Ito
- Ryo Nichiya
- Aya Katsuki
- Chisato Haruna
- Takeshi Onishi
- Yuta Manage
- Shoichi Matsuda
- Goshin Hirose
- Yudai Ishida
- Ken'ichi Ugana
- Aya Hosokawa
- Shinji Takakusa
- Makoto Takakusa
- Naoki Takase
- Nagoei Matsumoto
- Reishi Yoshioka
- Kaisuke Naka
- Momoka Yamada as girl in restaurant
- Yuki Kanno
- Sari
- Ken Oshidori
- Takanori Tashiro
- Eiji Usui
- Yusuke Saito
- Hiromi Nikaido
- Sayaka Miura
- Chie Honbo
- Sanae Kuroda
- Yukari Kanna
- Mayuka Kawamoto
- Hisao Morita
- Takako Nagamune
- Yumi Nomura
- Hatsumi Koyama
- Yuka Yoshida
- Hiroichi Hase
- Taichi Nagatani
- Takeshi Nakamura
- Rie Shimizu
- Mao Harari
- Taku Manabe
- Yoshihiro Mitani
- Mio Kutsusako
- Chisa Maruyama
- Mariko Nakatsu
- Takeshi Uemura
- Hiroshi Iwanaga
- Hideki Nishikado
- Yoshiaki Sugisako
- Kinihiko Morimoto
- Takaya Nagai
- Akane Takano
- Chiaki Fukishima
- Ayu Todo
- Mai Morishita
- Tatsuro Kawanishi
- Akani Arikawa
- Chisato Kurumamoto
- Yoshie Mikami
- Misato Shimizu
- Kozaburo Tanaka
- Akira Tanaka
- Tomohiro Arai
- Yoshihiko Bito
- Takahiro Yamamoto
- Shohei Ohata
- Junko Shimizu
- Yoko Sukeno
- Mami Nakagawa
- Asumi Nomura
- Buntaro Ichihara
- Hiromi Ito
- Katsuya Uyori
- Doremi Okuyama
- Yu Ga
- Takahiro Kusunoki
- Katsuteru Date
- Kazuo Tomoda
- Mahumi Nishimoto
- Yuko Fukuda
- Sachiko Kawata
- Atsuko Hashima
- Yasunari Nakamura
- Ria Arai
- Peppe
- Koji Ota
- Akiko Hamaya
- Airi Kaneko
- Kazuma Sakai
- Maiko Yamaoka
Special Guest Stars:
The following are credited in IMDB and/or other websites, but these names do not appear in the credits of the official blu-ray:
Filming Locations
Thanks to the production's use of very distinctive, famous, and/or canonical exterior and interior locations,and thanks to various internet sleuths and film buffs (see External Links below), we know the filming sites for almost all of the movie's pivotal and memorable scenes.
Their first day together
- As the movie opens, Jiro is at the window of a watch shop. This exterior is Kamine Toa Road Store (カミネ トアロード本店) at 3-1-22 Sannomiyacho, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- The stores have changed and the building facade has been remodeled a bit, but the iconic scene where she flirts with him as they walk down opposite sides of the street was definitely in 浪花町筋 in Kobe, specifically in front of "Bar & Bistro 64" at 64番地 Naniwamachi, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- The exterior of the fateful Italian restaurant is Old Kobe Residency 15th Hall (旧神戸居留地十五番館) at 15 Naniwamachi, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- The dining room was a set built inside a gymnasium on the campus of the Kobe Municipal High School of Science and Technology (神戸市立科学技術高等学校) at 1-4-70 Wakinohamacho, Chuo Ward, Kobe. It is unclear whether the original gymnasium still stands or if it was razed and replaced at some point.
They flee through Chinatown
- Choanmon Gate (長安門) at 1-1-1 Motomachidori, Chuo Ward, Kobe is where they enter Chinatown
- Mitsugi Shoten (三木商店) at 1-3 Sakaemachidōri, Chuo Ward, Kobe is where they steal apples
- One of the distinctive landmarks they run past is Nankinmachi Square (南京町広場) at 1-3-6 Motomachidori, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- They "exit" Chinatown through the main gate of Kuan Ti Miao Temple (関帝廟) at 7-3-2 Nakayamatedori, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- Mikage Public Hall (神戸市立御影公会堂) at 4-4-1 Mikageishimachi, Higashinada Ward, Kobe contains the stage where the "Peking Opera" was performing, as well as the staircase where the policeman grabs the wrong actors.
- Hanadokeisen Street (花時計線通り) across from Daimaru Department Store is where they shed their costumes, most recognizably the real-world storefront with "Isola Di Motomachi" signage at 3-1 Sannomiyachō, Chuo Ward, Kobe (seen as Iba Clinic on screen).
- The steps down which the girl leaves Jiro with his eyes closed (the same steps at which he sends the cyborg away later) are near Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, right next to the Belle Maison Roppongi Towers (ベルメゾン六本木タワーズ) which is at 7-20-8 Roppongi, Minato City, Tokyo.
- Just before the title card, when we hear Jiro reminiscing about the events of that day, we get a glimpse of the huge TV screen on the M-INT Kobe building (7-1-1 Kumoidori, Chuo Ward, Kobe) in the background. The vantage point is from Sannomiya Station Portliner East Entrance, one flight up from street level.
The Cyborg arrives
- The cyborg arrives to her past amid lightning and chaos in the intersection at the Akashichosuji Former Settlement Free Walk (明石町筋 旧居留地 フリーウォーク) near 47 Akashimachi, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- She battles pickpockets in the alley beside the Minato Bank Headquarters building (みなと銀行本店ビル) at 2-1-1 Sannomiyachō, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- She acquires shoes and a new dress at Daimaru Kobe, 40 Akashimachi, Chuo Ward, Kobe. Behind the shoe department you can see Caffera which is still there today on the first floor.
- HARBS Kobe Clefy Sannomiya Store (HARBS 神戸クレフィ三宮店) at 1-4-3 Sannomiyacho, Chuo Ward, Kobe is where she enters and points at the birthday cake in the display, but when she walks out the door carrying it, the scene is at Doutor Coffee, half a block down the same street, at 1-3-15 Sannomiyacho, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
Their daily life together
- Jiro's apartment was a set built inside a gymnasium on the campus of the Kobe Municipal High School of Science and Technology (神戸市立科学技術高等学校) at 1-4-70 Wakinohamacho, Chuo Ward, Kobe, although it is unclear whether the original gymnasium still stands or it was replaced at some point.
- In the background of their morning walk is the large stainless steel sculpture in Yoyo Square (ヨーヨー広場) at 2-3-1 Minatomirai, Nishi Ward in Yokohama, with the vantage point being approximately at Gran Mall Park Fountain (グランモール公園 噴水) at 3-4-1 Minatomirai, Nishi Ward, Yokohama
- A few seconds later they arrive at Jiro's college campus whose entrance promenade was filmed at Kwansei Gakuin University adjacent to the Main Administration Building at 1 Uegahara 1-banchō, Nishinomiya, east of Kobe.
- Real-world Kobe University Rokkodai 2nd Campus (神戸大学 六甲台第2キャンパス) at 1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada Ward, Kobe served as Jiro's college when other building exteriors were seen (visually unconfirmed). This includes the cafeteria where the girl amusingly devours chicken bones, with the distinctive foothills of Mt. Maya and the suburbs of Kobe clearly visible outside the windows.
- Classroom scenes were filmed at (unknown).
- The restaurant where the girl gets drunk was filmed at (unknown).
- The interior of Jiro's part-time job with its mint green walls and distinctive chairs seems to be Freshness Burger Sannomiya-chuo-dori (フレッシュネスバーガー三宮中央通り) at 1-3-3 Sannomiyacho, Chuo Ward, Kobe, although what we see outside the windows does not seem to match with reality. It's possible that they decorated another location to look like that particular Freshness Burger branch on the inside.
Jiro’s hometown
The village of Gujo Hachiman in Gifu Prefecture was used as Jiro's hometown.
- When they get off the bus and look down at the village, the vantage point is from the grounds of Gujo Hachiman Castle (郡上八幡城) at 一の平 659, Hachimancho Yanagimachi, Gujo.
- The festival parade crossing the bridge at dusk is on Miyagase Bridge (宮ヶ瀬橋). The procession crosses from real-world south to north into the Honmachi neighborhood and the couple is going the opposite direction into Shimadani.
- The small red bridge seen in the distance when they greet the policeman is Shimizu Bridge (清水橋) at 493 Hachimancho Osakicho, Gujo.
- The scenic stream with moss and bridges they walk along is the Otohime River near Sakyo Inari Shrine (左京稲荷神社) at 770-1 Hachimancho Shimadani.
- The shrine at which they wave to people as they walk by is Hiyoshi Shrine (日吉神社) at 683 Hachimancho Shimadani.
- Behind the couple when the little girl shows them the fossils is Ishiyama Kimono (石山呉服店) at 828 Hachimancho Shimadani.
- The bus stop where they wait to be picked up after returning to the present was filmed at (unknown).
The Cyborg’s jealous rage and other antics
- The courtyard scenes outside Jiro's rooftop apartment were filmed on the roof of the Kobe Center for Overseas Migration and Cultural Interaction (海外移住と文化の交流センター) at 3-19-8 Yamamotodori, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- The distinctive building visible from Jiro's apartment, that the cyborg throws an empty can at and hits the Sanyo Bank sign, is the Kobe Kanden Building (神戸関電ビル) at 6-2-3 Kanocho, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
- The schoolgirl rescue from the knife-wielding madman was filmed at a real school – Takatsuki Minami High School in Osaka (大阪府立高槻南高校), which was already closed and vacant at the time of filming. The entire campus has since been razed and replaced by a residential area and the brand new Shibo Elementary School at 3-30-1 Shibocho, Takatsuki, Osaka.
- After the disco date, the trio walks to Higashi Yuenchi Park (東遊園地公園) at 6-4 Kanocho, Chuo Ward, Kobe. In early 2024 the park was bulldozed and rebuilt from scratch, so if you go there now you won't be able to recognize the fountain or any other specific locations.
- The earthquake and disaster scenes were filmed in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture (いわき市) but the large set was mostly contained and no real world elements of Iwaki are recognizable. The only lasting evidence is that some local firefighters got their names in the credits.
The future
- The grand staircase that the cyborg walks down was filmed in the Gunma Prefecture Showa Government Building (群馬県庁 昭和庁舎) at 1-1-1 Otemachi, Maebashi, Gunma.
- The other interiors of future Jiro's house – the room with 3 large windows, the ballroom, and the dining room – were filmed inside Hyogo House (兵庫県公館) at 4-4-1 Shimoyamatedori, Chuo Ward, Kobe.
Adaptations
A manga adaptation by Akihiro Nakamura was released on 17 October 2008 . Based on the film, it was published in Kodansha's Young Magazine.
External links
Notes and References
- https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/intl/?page=&id=_fBOKUNOKANOJOWASA01 "Box office by Country: Cyborg She
- Web site: Jason. Gray. Gaga's Cyborg She finds real-life home with Bogeydom. Screen International. 13 May 2008.
- Web site: Derek. Elley. Cyborg She. Variety. 25 Aug 2008.
