Are You Human Too?

Are You Human Too?

7/10

Are You Human Too?

Genre:                                                  Episodes: 18                                  Year: 2018

Romance
Comedy

Melodrama

Synopsis:

After being forcibly separated from her son, Oh Laura, a renowned scientist, built an AI robot modelled after her son, Shin. When Shin is injured, Laura uses her AI, Nam Shin III, to pretend to be her son in order to protect his position as a corporate heir. Kang So Bong is hired as a guard to protect Nam Shin III.

Cast:

Seo Kang Joon (Nam Shin III/Nam Shin)

Gong Seung Yeon (Kang So Bong)

Lee Joon Hyuk (Ji Young Hoon)

Park Hwan Hee (Seo Ye Na)

Kim Sung Ryung (Oh Laura)

Yoo Oh Sung (Seo Jong Gil)

Park Young Kyu (Nam Gun Ho)

Choi Duk Moon (David)

General Thoughts:

This drama is so much cuter than I thought it would be. I actually don’t understand why I didn’t jump on this show quicker- because it’s been out since August and I distinctly remember whining around mid-year that I had nothing good to watch.

This show has so many things I like

I think maybe its quiet reception lead me to believe that it was a bad show, but it isn’t really. Sure, it had its problems, but overall it was a delightful and charming show that probably deserved more attention than it got. I also tend to shy away from melodramas because I so rarely find them satisfactory (usually they’re a lot of pain for nothing), and I thought ‘Are You Human Too?’ was going to be far more serious than it ended up being.

Seriously- where do I buy one of these handsome manbots?

That’s not to say that the show was all fluff and no substance or that it didn’t take itself seriously, but it knew how to enjoy its happy moments and didn’t pull us through a trail of meaningless angst the way I feared it might. What really sold the show for me and made it something that made me want to watch back to back episodes (seriously, I think I watched this whole drama in about 3 days) was definitely the leads and their relationship. Who knew that one of my favourite romances of the year would include a man that wasn’t human? In theory it sounds really hard to do, and silly to watch, but the drama did it brilliantly. It didn’t feel weird or icky that the heroine was falling in love with a robot- because we were too. While I know that a lot of people took issue with So Bong’s character, I actually really liked her. She felt raw and realistic and completely authentic. She had traits that made her very human- she was selfish, wounded and skeptical, but because she wasn’t vindictive or downright nasty so I found her character quite refreshing and likeable. I probably liked her more because I’m also kinda selfish and skeptical so I could identify with So Bong more.

I actually enjoyed their playful bickering

The way she reacted to Nam Shin III was also very humane. At first she was shocked and a little creeped out that he was a robot, but as she spent more time with him and learned more about him, she couldn’t help but like him. Gong Seung Yeon did a great job at handling So Bong’s emotions, especially as a rather brash heroine isn’t one that’s easy to act out. It’s hard to balance giving the character a strong personality and opinion while also maintaining their likability.

They're just so darn cute

Gong Seung Yeon is an actress I find does better in these louder, more outspoken roles. While she’s proven that she can be a fantastic emotional actress while playing softer roles (her alien character in ‘Circle’), I do find I like her best when she plays a character with a bit of fire (such as here and in ‘My Only Love Song’), as she’s so good at pushing her character to be self-centred and mildly arrogant without letting the character become too dislikable. I think her greatest strength with these sorts of characters is the way she can so naturally transition them from their initial defensive stage to their more open and loving stage. If you look at So Bong’s character development throughout the drama, she has a very slow softening towards Nam Shin III, until he becomes someone she would put her life at risk to protect. But this change from self-centredness to altruism doesn’t come out of nowhere- as Gong Seung Yeon is fabulous at expression, and really shows how much she cares through her eyes, more than her words or actions. So while it takes a while for the words or actions to change, we can see So Bong falling for Nam Shin III through Gong Seung Yeon’s expression alone.

Girl gets some mad chemistry with her costars too

While the character of So Bong was written quite well, it was Gong Seung Yeon’s acting that really made her so believable and loveable. The only small complaint I have about So Bong’s character is that despite her strong personality and strong physique, she was often relegated to being the damsel in destress with Nam Shin III doing a lot of the saving.

Cue the swooning

I would have really loved it if the show had given her more opportunities to protect Nam Shin III, rather than him always rescuing her. Still, I adored the relationship between the two, and pretty much any time they were on screen I was a happy camper. The chemistry between Gong Seung Yeon and Seo Kang Joon was pretty dynamic, and I melted any time the two had any skinship. Admittedly, they did (sadly) keep the skinship to a minimal level, but that just meant I was that much more excited when it did happen. To be honest, I didn’t really pay much attention to other characters in the story, or even any plot in the story that wasn’t directly related to Nam Shin III and So Bong’s relationship and how completely adorable they were together. There were some company things happening in the background, but I was quite content for the drama to keep the Chaebol business to a minimum in order for us to explore this android, his relationships, and question whether or not he had emotions. Which I think we can all agree he did.

I mean- just look at how happy he is to make friends with the robo-vaccuum

The drama actually started to lose me the more it started focusing on the company, as this meant we got less time with our leads being cute together and more time with human Shin. And human Shin sucks. Young Hoon was one aspect of the story that I found got more interesting as we moved into the company segment of the drama, as I found his loyalty to Shin and his dilemma about liking Nam Shin III interesting to watch. But not quite as interesting as our RoboCyborg couple.

It didn't get quite as bromantic as I would have liked

Overall, the storyline was a little all over the place, with so many situations feeling very much like they were only used as a tool to get the story moving. The whole initial set up of how Shin was injured (truck of doom obviously), and how So Bong went about getting hired as his personal bodyguard kind of didn’t make a lot of sense.

Probs don't hire the girl that sold pictures to the media to babysit your secret bot

I was confused about why characters were behaving certain ways (why would you allow a stranger near your secret robot, let alone move in as a personal guard?), but these plot holes were easy to overlook due to the fact that they were bringing about the situation we were all wanting to see- human girl meets the robot. The writing for the main love-line was absolutely brilliant, however it was a bit lazy with how it actually got to that love-line. The visual quality of this drama was pretty high, and just goes to show some of the bonuses of a pre-produced drama. Every shot was perfect and pretty, and we even had some pretty cool effects and stunts thrown in every now and then. The fire rescue scene was glorious and dramatic, and made Nam Shin III seem that much more unreal, and the car chase was unbelievably cool. Not to mention when Nam Shin III showed anger for the first time and totally destroyed that car to save So Bong. Swoon. I was also really impressed with the soundtrack. While there’s no one song that sticks in my mind (which isn’t always a great thing by the way), I distinctly remember liking how well each track fit and shaped the mood of a scene. Rather than being a cherry on top, the music felt very much like it was a vital part of expressing the emotions of the drama, and it did this so well.

Shinbot to the rescue

I also really liked the quiet alarm sound effect that was often playing in the background of intense moments, as this was a really subtle way to up the tension of whatever was going on, and added a great sense of urgency to the show. It kinda fit with the robot theme too.

What Was Great:

Shinbot:

Of course I hadn’t forgotten to write about our glorious AI in agonising detail. Definitely what made this show so enjoyable was the robot, Nam Shin III. Going into this show I thought we were going to get a lot of robot-human switcheroos so that So Bong would eventually fall for the human Shin- because having her fall in love with a robot is a tricky subject to handle.

How could you not love him?

I was actually really glad to find out that we weren’t going down the easy path, but were actually going to tackle the idea of an android learning human behaviours and a human girl falling in love with him. Because that’s waaaay more thought provoking than having a human girl fall for a slightly damaged Chaebol boy. It also served to set this series apart from ‘I’m Not A Robot’, which was created and announced after ‘Are You Human Too?’ but showed first (due to ‘Are You Human Too?’ being pre-produced while ‘I’m Not A Robot’ was a live-shoot). So while both shows had element of realistic human androids, they were vastly different in the subject matter they were tackling, and ended up being completely different shows. Even though both centre around robots, you can’t really compare them. What made Nam Shin III so great is that he was so completely robotic. He was mild and logical and didn’t react based on emotions. And yet he was so completely loveable. Due to him never really being around people apart from Laura and David (aka. Mum and Dad), when Nam Shin III finally got out into the world he had a very childlike innocence to him.

Be free my beautiful robot son

Everything around him was so new to him, and his pure excitement at being able to go out and experience the world and learn about humans was just too cute. This type of sweet innocence isn’t exactly new in K-Dramaland, but unlike most heroes, Nam Shin III actually had a reason for being that way, so we could take his adorable innocence at face value rather than thinking it was unbelievable.

I seriously cannot get over how adorable they were together

But the best thing about Nam Shin III was definitely how he started to become his own entity. He always had self-awareness and a sense of self, but he previously only listened and obeyed. As So Bong started coming into the picture, we really got to see Nam Shin III begin to make his own judgements and decisions. Sure, he was created by Laura and David, but he was created to observe, learn and adapt, so it made sense that he could start making his own calls on what he believed was right. So Bong’s presence also further enforced the fact that Nam Shin III already had a sense of self. Once So Bong came along and started treating him like an equal who was able to make his own decisions, and told him he shouldn’t let people walk all over him just because he was a robot, Nam Shin III started being drawn more and more towards So Bong, even if that meant pulling away from his ‘Mum’. If Nam Shin III didn’t have a sense of self, then he never would have started protecting So Bong- he would have stayed firmly by his creator’s side. As the love-line really started taking off we got to see more and more of Nam Shin III’s development. Despite Nam Shin III always stating that he couldn’t feel emotions and that he wasn’t human, we were given just enough that we started to question that.

Shinbot sure seemed pretty mad when Grandad threatened his girl

The fact that Nam Shin III would say things like ‘If I were human I’d say you are pretty’, showed that he was extremely capable of learning human behaviour and mimicking it. And if we’re all being real, how much of human behaviour is learned anyway? 50%? 60%? More? The simple fact that Nam Shin III could decipher who treated him kindly, and set out to protect that person showed some kind of baseline emotion.

He even made holograms when he wanted to see her

Sure, the emotion may not be exactly the same as human emotion, but it was still there. He learned that So Bong treated him kindly and fairly, saw her in danger, made a judgement that her being in danger was not right, and then reacted accordingly. His desire to save So Bong from people that would harm her came veeeery close to looking like anger, and did make us question how much emotion a robot could feel. After all, don’t our own emotions come from how we learn, make judgements and react? On paper it sounds a little ridiculous, but on screen it played out very smoothly. It didn’t seem strange or odd that this robot was exhibiting something reminiscent of emotion, and it became something so addictive to watch. Nam Shin III had spent his whole life being told that he couldn’t feel emotion simply because he was a robot that he believed it so strongly himself. It was so extremely satisfying to watch that ‘fact’ be shaken in his mind, and also in the mids of people around him. Because Nam Shin III was always presented as having these snippets of emotion (even though we were constantly being told it wasn’t real), it made it much more natural for So Bong to fall for him.

I vote yes for more robot romances

Because if there’s a handsome, thoughtful, kind man around, wouldn’t any girl fall for him- even if she knew he wasn’t technically human? A robot-human relationship could well have ended up being creepy and weird, but due to how brilliantly Nam Shin III was written, it instead became something sweet and charming.

I hope Seo Kang Joon takes on more cute characters in the future

But no matter how well written Nam Shin III was, the whole thing would have easily fallen apart if he hadn’t been acted well. Personally, I’ve thought that Seo Kang Joon was an amazing actor since I saw him in ‘Cheese in the Trap’. I happily avoided ‘Entourage’ which was a total fail and earned him a lot of criticism, but I’m glad he’s made a solid comeback with ‘Are You Human Too?’, with heaps of people who were previously unimpressed acknowledging that he actually has some pretty decent acting chops. Seo Kang Joon really made Nam Shin III feel like something that was almost human- but not quite. The way he moved and spoke felt very robot-like (advanced robot mind you), without feeling cheap or gimmicky. Even the way he blinked slightly slower than usual helped enforce the idea that this character was driven by machinery rather than muscle. Not only did Seo Kang Joon deliver an amazing performance as an android, but he also made Nam Shin III completely separate from human Shin. It was most noticeable in the way his pitch raised slightly when he was acting Nam Shin III, but it went down to the way he moved and walked, and even the amount of tension he kept in his mouth and around his eyes.

I love when actors take on duel roles

Even before the character spoke, I always knew right away whether it was Shin or Nam Shin III on my screen- and that’s a pretty impressive feat. He even had to act as Nam Shin III acting like human Shin, and at times human Shin acting like Nam Shin III. It was a tall order, and Seo Kang Joon delivered perfectly.

What Wasn’t:

Final Quarter:

Basically what this boils down to is that human Shin is a giant d*ck and we were all better off without him. Yeah, I know that’s not the message the show was going for, but it didn’t help that the drama became much less entertaining from the moment human Shin woke up from his coma.

Stupid assassin should have done his job properly

I put this down to the fact that when Shin woke up, the focus of the drama shifted from Nam Shin III and his interaction with the world around him, and subsequent commentary on whether or not he could feel emotions, and put all the focus on human Shin and whether he’d inherit Grandad’s company. Which sounds more interesting to you- intelligent yet adorable look in on android development and what it means to be human,

He woke up in a real bad mood

or whiny Chaebol kid throwing a fit because Grandaddy won’t give him the company. I know which I prefer. One of my biggest grievances with human Shin is that his character construction was really sporadic. Leading up to his coma, Shin was presented as a hurt kid with nothing left to lose except his life. In flashbacks we see his love and desire to protect Young Hoon, along with a healthy distaste for Grandad, grandad’s company and Jong Gil- the man who killed his father and snatched him from his mother. And yet when he wakes up from his coma he’s ready to screw anyone in his path (including Mum and Young Joon) in order to get his hands on the company. Oh, and get rid of the robot that was holding down the fort while he was unconscious. While I understand that it would be alarming and highly unpleasant to wake up from a near death experience only to discover your mother had created a robot in your image that could easily take your place (and that everyone likes better), the way Shin lost literally all his sh*t was highly unbelievable. He became nothing but angry and volatile and murderous.

Where's that truck of doom when you need it?

While I might not have minded if they were going to paint Shin out to be a huge villain, Shin’s antagonistic behaviour was irritating because I knew they weren’t going to stick with it. He was obviously going to get over his bruised pride when he realised that the robot wasn’t out to take his place, and then everyone would be besties again. Except that Shin was going way too far to deserve a redemption arc. I mean, he tried to kill So Bong for no other reason than that she liked Nam Shin III and wanted to protect him. And when he tried to kill her, he used Nam Shin III’s manual override to do it.

Quit messing with our adorable robot!

Admittedly, I did love when Nam Shin III overruled the manual setting so he could save So Bong, but still- d*ck move human Shin. It drove me nuts how Mum and Young Joon were constantly siding with Shin and trying to prove that they loved him more than the robot when what they really needed to do was tell Shin that he was being a major d*ckwad (and had been for quite some time) and that was probably why people liked Nam Shin III better.

Why would you even want to consider killing this cutie?

Cuz Nam Shin III wasn’t an *sshole. And the kill switch, oh good Lord, the kill switch. I get that it was written in to keep the tension high and actually give the drama some conflict, because I suppose we can’t really have 18 hours of a delightfully adorable robo-human love story (even though I probably would have loved that), I wish there had been a better reason for Mum building it in. Because to be honest, if she really loved Nam Shin III and thought of him like a son, she probably wouldn’t have put a bomb in his brain. Even though we had plenty of time for set-up, the whole ending felt really rushed. We entered into the final episode with the bad guy still to catch, the kill switch still to be deactivated, and the happy ending still to be reached. I usually like to come into the final hour with a lower key conflict so that we can have lots of time for our happy ending- not 3 minutes of it right at the end. I will admit that I did enjoy Nam Shin III putting his own life at risk in order to save human Shin (even if I'm kinda on So Bong’s team of just letting the *sshole fend for himself)- because it so perfectly represented who Nam Shin III was. It was also an out that worked nicely to quell Shin’s hatred of Nam Shin III- cuz it’s kinda hard to hate the dude that nearly died to save you.

Brobot mode activated

And Ye Na getting evidence to catch her Dad for trying to kill Shin and being able to lock that guy up was awesome. You know what wasn’t awesome? The ‘one year later tag’. I hate that tag I tell you, I hate it! I can bear it when it’s just a happy ‘lil skip to the future so we can see how nicely all our beloved characters are getting on, but not when it’s used as a mechanism to heal wounds.

Why'd you make our So Bongie sad for a whole year?!

I especially hate it when one side of our couple is waiting for the other who for one reason or another has not been in the picture for the last year. I don’t even hate how the final kill switch plot was carried out. Nam Shin III takes out his battery so that the kill switch can’t blow his brains out, and gets shot by Jong Gil who thinks he’s killing off human Shin. But why the actual h*ll does it take a whole year for them to find Nam Shin III’s body, fix him up, and get rid of the kill switch for good. And why the h*ll was all of that shown off-screen. All the things I really wanted to see- human Shin realising he’d been a total jerk and making up with Young Joon, human Shin begging for forgiveness from So Bong, Nam Shin III getting saved and fixed up, happened in the year that wasn’t shown on screen. I mean really, at that point in the story there was no doubt in my mind that Nam Shin III would be making an appearance all fixed up and good to go, so I don’t see the benefit of trying to pretend he was dead for good and having So Bong suffer a sad, lonely year without him. It's mean and pointless, and I would rather watch them being all cute and snuggly after finding out that David built in a tear function while fixing him up (which was amazing and I loved it, and that part of the ending was absolutely perfect).

That tear almost made me forgive the time skip. Almost.

I wanted to see human Shin getting to know Nam Shin III and see how their relationship grew as they learned to like each other. I wanted to see where Nam Shin III fit into the world- what was he going to do from here on out, how would outsiders view his relationship with So Bong? But I didn’t get to see a single one of those things because the drama spent so much time on how hurt and sad (and crazy) human Shin was, and then rushed the finale. Seriously, the best thing to come out of that last quarter was Mum getting killed off. Because David wasn’t exactly wrong- she was a bad mum.

Recommend?

If you’re the type of person who can get invested in a drama purely for the romance, then yes. If you’re looking for a watertight plot with riveting, realistic characters, then probably not.

Our robot learned to love