King of Clones Review: King of Clones is a medical documentary film directed by Singaporean director Aditya Thayi and focuses on South Korean Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk’s record rise to fame when he claimed to have cloned human embryos and his equally astronomical and disgraceful fall to the bottom after certain events. The docufilm has a runtime of 85 minutes.
– King of Clones Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
King of Clones Plot
The documentary series follows the ground-breaking research in stem cells of veterinarian Hwang Woo-suk and his rise to astronomical fame for his two published research articles where he claimed that he created human embryonic stem cells by cloning. However, as quickly as he received said fame, he was equally quickly called out for his sketchy methods of research, and his research was eventually proven to be fraudulent, with myriad ethical violations to boot.
King of Clones Review
85-minute-long King of Clones is an electric watch, not only because of Hwang Woo-suk’s rise and fall but also because of the fascinating things that you will get to learn from the docufilm if you’re not familiar with cloning. The film, which breaks down difficult scientific information for regular viewers, will suck you in with how watchable and utterly fascinating it is. The information provided seems too good to be true yet easily understood for even those who might have no interest in the subject matter.
Anyway, the docufilm captures the entire ordeal of Hwang’s research, his rise to fame, the possibilities of cloning and his eventual demise to disgrace like a story. We start off in the present, with Hwang standing in UAE in front of their leaders’ portraits and describing his work and then jumping straight to where it all began. The storytelling is quite linear, and thus it’s very easy to keep track of where we are in the storyline at all times.
This simple style is very necessary when it comes to complicated subject matter such as stem cell research and cloning, wherein the layman has to take in a lot of foreign information that can feel daunting. Thus, keeping things simple not only makes watching less of a chore but also increases the interest in the subject because you don’t have to keep track of where you are in the timeline.
There are also some very interesting ways in which the creators have tried to recreate past situations. It’s not every day that you see a medical documentary featuring comic book-style recreations. It’s different and maybe not for everyone, but I personally really loved it, and the animation was done really well, so that was definitely a win in my book. Moreover, it’s for very specific and very short moments, so it doesn’t really affect the overall seriousness of the subject matter.
King of Clones majorly features interviews, old news clips and video footage to tell its story, and it’s done so well and without much happening in the background that your focus will always be on what is being said. interestingly, the film also features interviews with Dr Hwang, wherein he talks about snippets of what went down during his research and how that impacted him.
Hwang’s research, on the other hand, is a completely shocking discussion altogether. Throughout the film, you are subjected to watch this man’s life’s work taken apart and picked through, and regardless of whether or not he gets insulted and questioned or whether he’s at the throws of appreciation and national interest, the man has a smile on his face that will leave you feeling a little bit unsettled.
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Regardless of what he has done in the past, you’d be forced to ask yourself with playing around with cloning is a form of god complex by the scientists who are using it to satisfy their own ego. I don’t know the answer to that, but at one point, Hwang mentions to the camera that people think that cloning is an act of trying to play God and asks how anyone can dare to claim that only God has that right. I mean, I don’t know about God, but it’s a bold statement and tells a lot about the disgraced doctor, his methods and his thought process.
The documentary doesn’t try to make any judgements through the documentary and only brings forth everything that happened to Hwang and everything Hwang has done. Some would argue that not taking a stand is also taking a stand but then again, the documentary leaves us with a hundred moral and ethical questions, and that is probably its biggest and only contribution. At one point, a vet mentions that although he would clone his dead child given a choice, he wouldn’t let anyone clone himself. That says a lot about people and their motivations, doesn’t it?
Another very interesting part of King of Clones is the societal pressures, expectations and frenzy surrounding Hwang’s research. Throughout the movie, we are made well aware that stem cell research is not only a point of awe and intrigue among the general masses, but in spite of whistleblowers bringing out the dirty truth behind Hwang’s research and how he has been acquiring human embryos, it’s almost startling to witness people, especially women who have to bear the brunt of the responsibility and toll of their bodies, rallying up in arms to support this man.
It’s interesting because although they don’t know him personally, the societal expectations from the research and what it can mean for the country as a whole are such that they are ready to look the other way when it comes to questions surrounding ethics and what it means for the future if such things are left unchecked. There’s also a very interesting subset of discussion surrounding what cloning can bring to those suffering from grief and heartbreak.
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Does cloning your dead dog bring back the exact same dog? Can you clone personalities? Although grief-stricken dog owners might say that it does, it is interesting to note that the researcher heading the entire thing mentions that cloning is not a 100% copy of the original specimen. So how much do to try to tell ourselves to think otherwise instead of coming to terms with the fact that once a loved one is gone, they are gone for good? Or can it be that you can get the dead back from, well, the dead?
Be prepared, though; audiences who have a smaller appetite for animal experiments might find this distressing to view. Although we talked a lot about how human consent wasn’t taken in the research, which is fair, no one seemed to talk about the animal’s consent to be experimented on and their cells taken apart to create clones. Of course, it’s not a new practice and wouldn’t be the last, and maybe, as a society, we have resigned ourselves to the fact that for the betterment of human society, it’s the animals who have to sacrifice the most. Food for thought.
King of Clones Review: Final Thoughts
Director Aditya Thayi leaves audiences with many questions that will keep us thinking long after this docufilm ends. The story is a cautionary tale for researchers but also for humans as they peek behind the curtain and look into the abyss that scientific research is. Sure, stopping the progress of science is like if you choose to stop living. However, how far are we willing to go in order to find the meaning of life? And is there anything good to be found there?
King of Clones is a fascinating watch. For fans of documentaries who want something other than true crime this week, this will prove to be quite interesting and worthwhile.
King of Clones is streaming on Netflix.