Time
I just watched 시간 (Time), directed by Kim Ki-duk. I only really know three Korean directors, Kim Ki-duk, Park Chan-wook, and Im Kwon-Taek. Each of them does well in a certain area. Park is probably my favorite director; for my money it doesn't get much better than JSA and the Vengeance trilogy. Kim's movies are distinct, however. He creates a world within this one which is almost entirely self-contained, much the way M. Night Shyamalan does, only Kim does it much better. In this world, the characters are free to explore the true limits of their actions. The characters are extreme, which leads them to actions that are normally off-limits either legally or socially. Within the world of the movie, which exists just at the edge of the real-world (though it is not fantastical), the characters avoid the typical expected consequences of their actions, at least at first. This frees Kim to explore the intrinsic consequences of attitudes, actions, and emotions rather than the external, societal consequences.
In Time, Kim explores the modern day fear of aging in a unique way. Time weathers all things. Can it weather love? Seh-Hee is a jealous woman who has been in a relationship with Ji-Woo for two years. She is afraid that he is no longer interested in her and will leave her for a more attractive girl. To save the relationship and test Ji-Woo's devotion, she leaves him and gets plastic surgery without telling him. Six months later, she meets Ji-Woo again, and they fall in love. However, her jealousy soon entraps her again. The film asks old questions but in a refreshingly subtle way. What is love? Is beauty - or for that matter, identity - only skin deep?
Once the viewer is initiated into the world of this movie, the events are not all that unpredictable. The acting is adequate but definitely not award-winning. Kim doesn't quite recreate the quiet, haunting beauty of The Isle or Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring as the story is set in city life. However, the characters still seem mostly exempt from the bustle of city life in Korea and able to escape to idyllic scenes both in and out of the city.
Overall, Time is a good movie, and it gets put on my list of Korean movies not to avoid.
In Time, Kim explores the modern day fear of aging in a unique way. Time weathers all things. Can it weather love? Seh-Hee is a jealous woman who has been in a relationship with Ji-Woo for two years. She is afraid that he is no longer interested in her and will leave her for a more attractive girl. To save the relationship and test Ji-Woo's devotion, she leaves him and gets plastic surgery without telling him. Six months later, she meets Ji-Woo again, and they fall in love. However, her jealousy soon entraps her again. The film asks old questions but in a refreshingly subtle way. What is love? Is beauty - or for that matter, identity - only skin deep?
Once the viewer is initiated into the world of this movie, the events are not all that unpredictable. The acting is adequate but definitely not award-winning. Kim doesn't quite recreate the quiet, haunting beauty of The Isle or Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring as the story is set in city life. However, the characters still seem mostly exempt from the bustle of city life in Korea and able to escape to idyllic scenes both in and out of the city.
Overall, Time is a good movie, and it gets put on my list of Korean movies not to avoid.