are you human

i guess since i watched my holo love, my netflix gave suggestion around similar topic. thus "are you human" popping up in my feed. i read the synopsis and watched clips of the movie in youtube. and it seemed more interesting than holo love, so i watched this one. i never saw seo kang joon before, so crossing my finger that this would be a good one.

title: are you human

cast: seo kang joon, gong seung yeon, lee joon hyuk, park hwan hee, kim sung ryung, yu oh seong, park yeong gyu

genre: romantic melodrama, fantasy

nam shin (seo kang joon) was just 7 years old when suddenly his life changed overnight. his dad was (accused of) having suicide, and his mom was banned to live with him. he had to live with his grandpa who threatened him that he had to do that or his grandpa would harm his mom. his mom didn't know it and only told to stay away or her father in law would harm nam shin. his mother was a genius scientist in AI industry, so since she missed him so much, she built an AI robot that looked like nam shin completely and named him nam shin I. the first one couldn't smile and walked downstair, so she kept perfecting him and made him grow just like nam shin. so there were nam shin I (the childhood nam shin), nam shin II (the teenager nam shin) and finally nam shin III (adult nam shin/ seo kang joon). the adult nam shin III was almost perfect, only that he didn't have many experience in human relation. oh, i forgot to mention that dr. laura oh (kim sung ryung), nam shin's mom lived in czech republic. 

meanwhile, nam shin was still living in korea, under his grandfather's watch. he had a loyal assistant, ji young hoon (lee joon hyuk). shin was making a scene, getting a fight with one of his bodyguard who was caught taking his pictures, kang so bong (gong seung yeon). kang so bong ended up getting fired while shin caught his flight. at first young hoon thought he was going to the US, but shin called him that he was going somewhere else. he was going to czech republic, wanting to prove something.

he was going to the same market as his mom and nam shin III were going, and he was facing nam shin III face to face when he was hit by a truck that made him went into coma. since shin was the only heir to his grandfather's company, his mom had no choice but to order nam shin III to take shin's place in order to secure it. his condition couldn't be known by other people in the company, especially by one of the director, seo jeong gil (yu oh seong). young hoon who immediately went to czech to catch up with shin met with dr. laura as well as david (choi deok moon). young hoon agreed to put nam shin III as shin's substitute and even taught nam shin III how to act like the real shin.

at first, only nam shin III, young hoon and dr. laura were back to korea, but after a suspicious man lurking around dr. oh's house, david decided to bring shin back to korea as well. back in korea, nam shin III managed to pose as shin at the company event, even better. however, later he was involved in a fire and saved several people, and later saved so bong who came to beg her old job back because she found out shin was collaborating with the reporter who asked so bong to take pictures secretly in exchange for money. he was almost caught by so bong as his back was exposed due to the fire, but young hoon and dr. laura managed to save him in time. later at the company, so bong cried her heart to beg her job back (later we found out the reason was so bon agreed to be jeong gil's inside person) and nam shin III acted as he was taught to do, hugged the person who cried. and so he did with so bong. and that surprised many people. at the end, so bong was hired back as nam shin III personal bodyguard while young hoon warned nam shin III to act like the real shin. problem didn't stop there as shin's grandpa told shin III to just marry his fiancee, seo ye na (park hwan hee) who was jeong gil's daughter as well. jeong gil opposed to the marriage contract but ye na insisted to proceed with the marriage plan.

however, ye na found out the truth about shin condition and agreed to play along as long as she got to marry shin. at work, the self driving car project that shin was working on got some trouble because of a hacker hired by jeong gil. the road test failed as the car went crazy, shin III tried to save both the car and more people and stopped it in time before it crashed into a big truck. however, that accident exposed his back again, and this time so bong saw it clearly. dr. oh immediately dragged them both along with young hoon to repair shin III. so bong at first was reluctant to help shin III, and planned to sell the secret to jeong gil. but later she decided to help shin III. as problems kept popping up here and there, so bong was the only one that knew shin III's secret as well as the only one that could help him aside from young hoon obviously. since shin III was heavily relied on so bong, that made so bong felt something else toward the robot. on the other hand, both shin's mom started to shift. she became more concern that shin's condition were out in public, and even installed a kill switch in case the real shin woke up and they had to get rid the AI. david became angry and told so bong about it. so bong begged dr. oh to get rid of the kill switch, but she didn't budge.

there were problems with shin's grandpa as well. first time he tried to deceive people by acting like he got dementia, but shin III found out that he was lying. but then shin III found out that grandpa was really got dementia and helped him to cover the condition from the real shin. we also found out that so bong got kidnapped on shin's wedding day and make shin III to save so bong even though it meant that he had to expose himself. however, later we found out that grandpa got something to do with shin III's development as shin III's server was inside grandpa's company building. later when shin woke up, he was angry because his mom got his substitute running around and everyone believed that the robot was him. shin also confused everyone since he kept popping up here and there, causing scenes, even young hoon and so bong got confused to tell the difference between them, aside from shin's battery watch.

shin was even angry enough to steal the manual override and he ordered shin III to choke his grandfather. luckily, so bong caught him on time and even managed to persuade shin III just in time before she was injured as well. however, shin became angrier. he then collided with jeong gil to get rid of grandpa and even threatened his aunt to give up her shares. however, young hoon started to realize that the real shin must be stopped. together with so bong and shin III, they managed to steal grandpa's shares that was stole by shin the first time, and later exposed shin III at the company meeting. completely defeated, jeong gil was fired, while shin disappeared for awhile only to find that there was a kill switch. at that time, dr. oh finally realized that she was wrong to put shin III as number two, and that she should treat them both the same. so she handed the kill switch to shin III and so bong. but shin stole the kill switch and activated it.

at the end dr. oh sacrificed herself and tried to undo the kill switch but she could only postponed it. shin III also sacrificed himself to save shin and so bong from jeong gil. jeong gil was arrested, ye na moved to US to live with her mom. young hoon became CEO and fast forward couple years later, so bong was still crying over shin III. shin tried to pose as shin III to cheer so bong but his plan backfired. at the end, we saw that shin used his money to search and repair shin III together with david and they let shin III back with so bong. however, shin III was not as sophisticated as he used to be, and he became more human now since at last we saw he could shed a tear.

what i love:

- gee.. this plot was better. they kept the AI as the winner and not let the human jerk win. though the idea of loving an AI is impossible, but watching so bong's true love for shin III is so moving. i bet everyone would root for shin III.

- thumbs up for seo kang joon. he managed to portray different personality for the AI and the human shin. as human, shin was a brute ruthless and emotionless human because he was left under his grandpa's care who didn't care for anyone else as long as his company would keep surviving. while shin III was a loving and caring AI who grew up under the love of his creator, dr. oh. i guess it's a way showing that a mother's love truly change someone. even though that it's just an AI.

- all actors were good, however, i don't like the child actor that play shin I/little shin. he was too stiff, but i guess considering he's still a child, it's understandable.

what i don't like:

- can the makeup artist tone down the makeup? they make so bong and shin looked so white. you can tell the shade difference. why don't they put on usual makeup like young hoon? or david? it looks more natural that way. and shin was hit by a truck. can't they put on more bandages on him? he should look like a mummy after being involved in big accident like that.

- the usual power struggle plot. from the grandfather, to shin's dad suicide/killing to shin/shin III vs jeong gil. i have to agree what young hoon said to grandpa, that he didn't envy grandpa's life because he was always suspicious to other people. and he became lonely at the end. 

rating: 9/10

binge worthy: yes

recommend for: those who don't mind fantasy love story (between human being and non human), fans of seo kang joon and gong seung yeon, those who watched holo love and hate it should watch this. i bet it will console your angry heart after watching holo love.