Famed Mercenary War Heroine Yun Jung-yi (Kim Hyun-joo) is left critically injured in a battle that could have ended the war.
Now years later her own daughter Yun Seo-hyun (Kang Soo-yeon) is leader of a project to train an AI modelled on Jung-yi's mind to pilot a fleet of robot warriors (JUNG_E)
to finally end the decades long conflict.
This does not go to plan.
This Korean sci-fi does a mild bait and switch, giving you a movie mostly focused on the ethics of taking a recording of a person and subjecting them to repeated injury and death. With a slice of how this prolongs the original sacrifice they made for their child in fighting to save them.
It's at its weakest when the comedy "tech bro" boss is on screen and once it gets into an extended action scene it kind of spoils the end. I was totally there for the "traumatised daughter watches her mother die over and over but never talks to her until it's too late" drama side of things. There's shades of Source Code, Robocop, Oblivion and various other "let's use people as disposable tools" themes throughout but done from the perspective of the exploiter.
It has reminded me however that I really should go back to filling my watch list with Korean cinema because whatever failings this has (comedy unsympathetic boss, forced action scene at the end) it is still an interesting movie. Recommended 7/10. Were this in English I think it would have made a small splash.