Inception is a pretty great movie.  So when I saw an article in The Verge comparing the South Korean movie Fabricated City to it I had to check it out.  One problem: it’s not on any of the streaming services… I had to cough of the cash to get the Blu Ray.  I guess my eccentric streak was strong enough to compel me to go for it- the same way it led me by by the DVD of the surreal Iranian film The Cow, but that’s another story.

Fabricated City was decent.  I’d give it a solid A- for overall entertainment value. A little overlong, and with some laughable special effects, but an interesting story and good action.  I didn’t really get the Inception connection though.  It seemed to have more in common with paranoid thrillers like Enemy of the State.  By some random fluke though I did come across a story recently that seemed to share a lot of the themes from Inception: Ubik by Philip K. Dick.

I know of Philip K. Dick as the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the book that inspired Blade Runner, though I haven’t read/watched either of them yet.  I have however read the 900 page door stopper of a book The Exegesis of Philip K Dick, a bewildering tour of the seemingly endless pages of stream-of-consciousness metaphysical writings he left behind.  It seems to be the product of a creative, disturbed and paranoid mind.  It is sometimes fascinating, other times boring, and occasionally L Ron Hubbard-ish.  Anyway, I finally got around to reading Ubik, and without spoiling the plot, I can safely recommend it as a better fit than Fabricated City for fans of Inception.   It has it all- layers of reality, people who are not what they seem, and a head-scratching ending Christopher Nolan could be proud of.  It’s a pretty quick read, and fast paced.  Highly recommended, especially if you are looking for a way to kill time until your Blu Ray of Fabricated City arrives in the mail.