Empty Body

After Hyera's son dies in a car accident, she manages to revive him by adding artificial intelligence to his brain. After a while, Hyera finds her son's behaviour is changing, and suspects that it has to do with his enhanced brain. Little does she know about the shocking truth. Astute but moving sci-fi asking questions about identity, family and free will. The opening shot of Empty Body reveals that the son is not fully human anymore and what follows is an examination of what that means for him/it and his/its mother. In his tightly scripted sci-fi, director Kim Ui-seok addresses essential questions surrounding the use of AI: what are the consequences of neural enhancement for identity, what does it do with free will and how does it affect family and relationships? The film leaves the viewer plenty of time for reflection and once Hyera finds out the devastating answers to these questions, this astute and controlled sci-fi also becomes oddly moving. (Imagine Film Festival)