As humans, we’ve long been fascinated with getting bigger, better, faster and stronger. Physical strength and muscular prowess have been a desirable feature, for obvious reasons, of soldiers and warriors down through history. Even going back to Ancient Greece and the first Olympics or the modern incarnations, we celebrate athleticism in many forms. However, homo sapiens can only progress so much. Unless, like Trans, we augment our biology.
Minyoung (Jeong-in Hwang) is a troubled schoolgirl with an eating disorder and three bullies who won’t leave her alone. She dreams of being able to escape her life. Become someone different. Be something more than she is. When the opportunity to do something about it arises, to become transhuman, Minyoung jumps at the chance. However, when something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
Trans is a delightfully old-school take on the weird end of sci-fi cinema. A bastard mix of Weird Science and Tetsuo: The Iron Man, all wrapped up in a in bizarre Korean psychedelia-tinged madness. Naeri Do’s film revels in lo-fi 1980s special effects and melodramatic teenage angst. It can be a little bewildering at times but there’s an energy and craft to Trans which makes it eminently watchable.
Trans screens at Grimmfest Easter Horror Nights.
