David Kim's "Ximbi XombiX" is many typically disparate things at once, mixing elements of fantasy, comedy, and music film genres into its technicolor and dystopian blender. Against all odds and largely in defiance of explanation, they coalesce into a film that's paradoxically great and completely its own, and one that's wholly unshackled from any obligations to convention.
Shot in South Korea, "Ximbi XombiX" presents to the American consumer an Alice in Wonderland-esque, acid trip reality painted with attractively outlandish and unfamiliar colors and cultural undertones. This is a world where Soylent Green-style, scientifically overhauled food is fed to its zombified masses. And as is the case with most societies that have lost track of humanity's true plot, art is either a constantly blaring, vapid magnifier of those distortions, or the underbelly's infrequently-aired pushback against them. Ricco (embodied by Kim himself) eschews the banal trappings of his own affluence, swimming against the mainstream's currents most grotesquely exemplified by its popular music. As mastermind of "K-hop" band Sheeppsyche, he's steadfast against pop star Jo Bin (Claudia Pak) joining his counterculturist insurgency, but we soon pay witness to the pitfalls noble artists can fall into when intoxicated by the possibility their art might somehow be surfaced to a huge audience.
"Ximbi XombiX" is hardly a film for everyone: Kim directs his actors to present with a knowing, over-the-top artifice specifically reflective of perceived societal dehumanization, and the movie's structure may be too wildly ramshackle for conventional consumers. Yet for those drawn to social satire tinged with dark comedy, "Ximbi XombiX" is likely to elicit true admiration for its unrestrained ambition and uniquely colorful footprint. - (Was this review of use to you? If so, let me know by clicking "Helpful." Cheers!)
