Given that the next trope trend on the horizon is android dramas, I’m excited at this glimpse of the our next entry in the genre, Are You Human Too, and especially at how different it is from our currently airing one, I’m Not a Robot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving the adorable romance and heart-pangs that I’m Not a Robot is giving me, but given that comparison between the dramas is inevitable, I’m glad to have them be more different than not.
Are You Human Too takes a much more serious, dramatic approach to the android premise, and seems tension-packed and action-driven based on this initial teaser. So far I’m liking the look of the show; it certainly looks to have made full use of its 10 million won budget and its fully pre-produced schedule (the drama has wrapped filming).
The show also puts the android front and center, which is the opposite of I’m Not a Robot; I’m intrigued to see how it’s the robot getting the bulk of the character and plot development, not the human. That’s because the premise centers around the android, Nam Shin-III, being brought in to serve as secret placeholder for its human counterpart, Nam Shin, a third-generation chaebol who lies in a coma. Seo Kang-joon plays both versions, and it’s Shin’s mother Kim Sung-ryung, a renowned AI expert, who is responsible for the switch; she creates the robot in her son’s image, and asks him to “protect Shin’s place.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgU0Z4VtXs0
The teaser starts out with both versions of Shin coming face to face in surprise, and one asking, “What does it mean when our faces and names are the same?” Mom tearfully asks Shin-III (“a robot more human-like than a human”) to call her Mom, and the two embrace.
Yoo Oh-sung can always be counted on to play an ambitious villain, so I expect him to be our resident baddie here. He growls menacingly for someone to “do it in one job,” and we see a dangerous car chase unfold on the road, and Shin-III behind the wheel of a car.
As the android emerges from a car and is greeted by a staff of bowing employees, he says, “I’m not the Shin of the past.” Someone tells him in a low voice, “For god’s sake, act like Shin,” and he replies, “I’m Shin, too.” We see Shin embrace Gong Seung-yeon, who plays a bodyguard, and then an explosion rocks the interior of a restaurant. An angry voice yells, “I told you not to do anything conspicuous! Why don’t you listen?”
Then as Shin covers Gong Seung-yeon’s eyes, she says she can hear his heart beating. As he carries her out of a burning building, he tells her matter-of-factly, “I don’t have things like hearts.”
Are You Human Too will premiere in early 2018.
