‘Wonderland’ is an emotion-driven movie that puts forward the pros and cons surrounding the idea that artificial intelligence can be used to transform death into a renaissance of lost hopes and dreams.The film presents a platform that attempts to blur the line between the living and the deceased through new technology. It explores AI’s power in manipulating human emotions by altering the subconscious mind’s memories, making it possible to forget a loved one is gone and give the illusion of forever being able to interact with them. This opportunity presents the possibility of closure and continuation in relationships for the one activating the deceased through the platform.

Overall, the movie is especially touching and scary because of its resemblance to the real-life possibilities that may await us with AI’s rapid progression in intelligence. It explored the circumstances that can stem from its usage, using the Wonderland platform as a way to take a look at the possible future AI can bring to the world all while exploring the public’s many different opinions surrounding this topic.

The film starts off by providing viewers with a depiction of the service’s negative impacts on those who use it. It prevents the user from being able to let go. This effect on the characters’ daily lives is shown through different scenes. Firstly, there is Koo Jeong In, the girlfriend of a man in the comma missing out on the occasion to date someone new because she’s convinced her boyfriend is an astronaut coming to earth soon. Then, there are two individuals who pretend to be a couple in order to satisfy the woman’s deceased parents who are constantly pestering her to find a boyfriend. The platform allows lies to easily be believed and shared, distorting reality by presenting a different face to those who are actually long gone. For example, instead of remembering her deceased Mom as someone who is always there but never paid attention to her, Jia will now believe her Mom is someone who always listened to what she had to say but was never actually present. It additionally gives an improper ending to those deceased and severs relationships using the AI that changes their personalities, giving these generated people a life of their own. This was shown through the grandma spending her last moments with her grandson feeling like she wasn’t doing enough for him even though she kept buying him whatever he asked for because he became greedy.

By diving into the life of Lee Yong Sik, a dying man, viewers can gain a sense of understanding regarding the AI platform ‘Wonderland’ as he follows through its policies and braces for his ‘new life’. He disagreed with his wife’s opinion that one lifetime was enough and wished to go elsewhere, thus perhaps putting more distance between the both of them than death would have. With the storyline of his possibility in being Kim Hyeon Su’s Dad, he also allowed viewers to dive into the life of the one prominent character who wasn’t yet explored. Their interactions, such as playing ping-pong through a screen or an awkward video call provided some comedic relief amidst the movie’s heavy themes of loss, grief and acceptance.

The relationship between Song Jeong Ran and her grandson showcased how AI uses humans to evolve instead of the other way around. As for the relationship between Bai Li and her daughter, it suggests the opposite idea. Jia uses the platform to accept reality and emotionally process the loss of her Mom. This relationship between them also showcased the prominent barrier between AI and the real world. This was shown when both were trying to physically reach each other, building up on a climax that teased that the impossible would happen. The movie put focus on how these actions of theirs would result in breaking their invention because of how nonsensical the idea of AI forging its way into the real world as actual humans would be.

The AI Mom brought to the scene a person struggling to accept and process their own death instead of realizing the platform’s goal of making the deceased forget it even happened at all. Instead of continuing her ‘life’ by satisfying her own childhood dream of becoming an archaeologist, she wanted closure to it, wishing to come closer to the reality that she was gone so that she could settle things with her own child. Through the journey she took to the airport in her universe to help Jia accept the truth that she was gone, she herself accepted that she was deceased and could no longer continue her life. She admitted to being dead so that her daughter could move on even if it meant ending her dream life where she would stay stuck in the idea of who she had wished to become .

This particular scene where they reunited showcased the stark contrast between both worlds. Jia can move on, but her Mom can't. She’s an idea, mirroring how IA is simply just an invention. All the daughter wants is to be with her Mom in that very moment, showcasing her human need for love. The Mom (who is AI) is only there to provide her with it, mirroring the reality of this platform. AI is fake, and will never be anything more than an invention. It doesn’t have the emotional complexity of a human, making it impossible for it to take on a true form of life. What’s so scary about it is that it can give the impression that it is a real human being to us in terms of emotion even though it isn’t there physically.

Jia’s desire for the impossible, for her Mom to be more than just a face on a screen, was driving her crazy. She was literally losing herself by chasing after the part of her Mom that was long gone and unable to come back. The shadow of someone lost behind is represented through Park Tae Ju, who woke up from his coma as a different person. In the airport, he got a call. Unlike the time where it was a delusion that awaited to be picked up, it was a call for reality. There was no astronaut Park Tae Ju from the past that was trying to reach Koo Jeong In who never let him go and was convinced she was still dating him. Bai Li used the AI service’s phone line to reach her daughter and reveal the truth. When Park Tae Ju saved Jia from getting hit by a truck, it represented how he saved her from losing herself in the lie that her Mom was alive and still yet to be found. He provided assistance in Jia’s journey to wait for her Mom and Bai Li ended up providing her daughter with solace.

In the end, the reunion that concluded their search for one another was as heart-touching and realistic as could be. They learned that even though they remained in two different universes, they would always remain together at heart. Instead of trying to get to her deceased Mom and create new memories with her, she’s now content with just having their old memories to keep her company. This was represented through her being happy that she can at least communicate with her AI version, who is like a keepsake of moments they spent together in the past since she was only able to come to life as AI using old pictures and videos.

As for Koo Jeong In and Park Tae Ju’s relationship, it unveiled an unhealthy face to the ‘Wonderland’ platform. It delved into both sides of the sea of people that were affected by the platform. The heartbroken user, and the unconscious individual whose life was mimicked in a distortion of reality. He had finally woken up from his coma though it was as if he was by his girlfriend’s side all along since she would wake up and fall asleep to the AI version of his voice every day. Whenever she would experience whiplash from his drastic change of personality, she would run back to his past version of self using the service, wishing his normal self would come back rather than supporting him in his journey of recovery.

The day their relationship started going up in flames was the day their apartment was set on fire just moments after Park Tae Ju exited its entryway. This significant event gave meaning to the earlier scene that showed him eyeing all of the couple’s old pictures that were still put up in the house. He wasn’t admiring what they used to be, but wishing she’d let go of his older self. Something that added to these feelings of his was the scene that preceded the fire incident, where he saw that someone with his exact name kept calling Koo Jeong In on a second phone. This made him realize to what point she was still attached to his post-comma self and unable to let go.

By setting the apartment’s entirety on fire, he’d be attempting to get rid of his old self and cut its link to his girlfriend in the present. Not only does this give him reason for purposely starting the fire, but there are also small details that hint at it. After leaving the apartment, the first place he looked was right into the hallway’s camera. Secondly, when Koo Jeong In proposed different ways that could have led up to the incident, he denied them all, insisting it wasn’t him. Perhaps he meant that it was the other, past version of himself that caused the chaos in their lives: the fire and their relationship.

This tactic of his failed in getting his girlfriend to let go, and the subject of the ‘Wonderland’ platform introduces itself between them. The moment where he asks Koo Jeong In about her decision to make him an astronaut enables us to see an earlier scene from a new perspective. She answers that space is the farthest place she knows of and he had felt so distant from her, giving light to the prolonged moment where he sat in a seat by the window at the airport. He wasn’t just watching his girlfriend’s airplane fly into the sky, he was watching her approach space and getting closer to the old reality of who they were. This time, she was the one leaving him and getting farther away into the sky as he waited for her to come back down below.

After speaking with him about it and coming to terms with the truth, she calls the company for a favour, still emotionally connected to the AI version of her boyfriend. The only way she’d be able to let go was by providing him a happy closure. To satisfy this desire of hers, what she wanted was for the company to set up his arrival back to planet earth to make him believe that he’s coming back home during his last moment before deactivating that last trace of Park Tae Ju’s past self.

The couple settled things between them as Koo Jeong In spoke to Park Tae Ju with his new personality traits. Speaking about the matter allowed her to reconcile her feelings for the lost version of her boyfriend and move on. By stopping those feelings of hers from lingering, she has let go of her past relationship and Park Tae Ju walks away as a goodbye. Despite knowing that he's almost like a new person, she still runs back to him, not wishing to continue what they had, but start anew.

Seo Hae Ri, the woman who works for ‘Wonderland’ and picked up her call seemed almost disappointed to hear that her beloved came back because she’s aware that her deceased parents never will. Even though part of her knew their AI versions weren't real, in her mind, it was the only possible way to speak to them. It reminded her that it isn’t reality, helping her process the fact that her parents won’t ever be their real selves again. This jealousy of hers shows how despite knowing the truth, there will always be people who put AI in favour by choosing to seek comfort in pretense.