It's a primer on the rise and fall of a veritable Christ-like figure, capable of potentially being able to bring people back to life—but this Netflix doc 'King of Clones' (available now) also resounds as a plea for more rigorous cloning-research standards.
Cloning is, at heart, about the fear of death and the desire to defeat it. Consequently, biologist and researcher Dr. Hwang Woo-suk’s breakthroughs in the field made him not only a celebrated pioneer, but a veritable Christ-like figure, capable of not-so-figuratively bringing animals—and, potentially, people—back to life through the careful use and manipulation of stem cells.
Aditya Thayi’s feature-length Netflix documentary is a primer on the rise and fall of Hwang, a former superstar who currently plies his genetics trade in the United Arab Emirates, cloning camels for the rich and powerful, who covet them for both their attractiveness and their racing prowess.
While there’s no way to make an exact replica of another creature , Hwang says that his clones are “genetic copies,” and he admits to feeling great pride whenever he witnesses the birth of a new clone. Such astonishment, though, commingles with subtle terror in. From the outset, Thayi’s film likens Hwang to Dr. Frankenstein via clips from James Whale’s 1931 monster-movie classic—a comparison that Hwang himself seemingly dismisses, if only because no one has successfully recreated human life yet.
journal paper that was outed—thanks in part to whistleblower and former Seoul National University Professor Ryu Young-joon—as fraudulent. The fallout for Hwang was severe, and his public mea culpas did little to restore his tarnished reputation; that’s why he now operates in the UAE. The documentary details his professional demise through a variety of conversations with experts and colleagues, archival video, and animated interludes that resemble comic book panels.
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