Time

B

Directed by Kim Ki Duk

Anyone who reads these reviews (crickets chirp) knows that I'm a big fan of Kim Ki Duk. He is one of the few directors working today who has the talent and artistic liberty to make the type of films he wants. The results are often brilliant (see "Spring, Winter, Fall, Summer....and Spring" or "The Bow") but can sometimes also be frustrating or incomplete ("3 Iron," "Samaritan Girl"). One thing is for sure, however, and that is that all of Kim's films, no matter how flawed, contain great moments and "Time," although one of Kim's least accomplished works, certainly succeeds in delivering several of these moments.

"Time" begins as Ji Woo and Seh-hee's two year relationship is falling apart. Seh-Hee, convinced that Ji Woo no longer finds her attractive even though Ji Woo assures Seh-hee that this is not the case. Despite Ji Woo's efforts to calm his lady, Seh-hee simply disappears one day, leaving Ji Woo alone, girlfriendless, and wondering how everything fell apart. After grieving his loss, Ji Woo attempts to get on with his life by hitting the dating circuit again only to find that his attempts at reconnecting with the female kind time and again rudely interupted by a mysterious figure. At about the same time, Ji Woo meets See-Hee (see the link yet?) on a trip to a local turist attraction and the two embark on a drama filled relationship filled with deception, lies, and plastic surgery.

When watching films it is always critical to remain in the cultural context the film was made in. In this case, Kim Ki Duk's "Time" focuses on the obsession with changing ones looks via plastic surgery. While plastic surgery is certainly prevalent in North America (as anyone who hae ever visited Southern California will attest) it has yet to take on the epidemic proportions it has in East Asia, specifically in South Korea where elective aesthetic surgeries are all the rage. In its content, Kim's film is therefore quite relevant to his own society and he approaches this key social issue with his trademark style, using the issue not to grandstand or deliver pompous social commentary but rather to craft a quiet, pensive story about identity and personal obsession. That said, it's a sloppy film in many ways and even though it can be at times engrossing it suffers from a rather unhealthy dose of cinematic summersaults on Kim's part that are both useless and detract from the storyline. I've never been a fan of films that draw the viewer in only to dump a "maybe it's real, maybe it's not!" pseudo ending on them at the end, a crime "Time" is certainly guilty of (no due process needed). Nevertheless, Kim is such a talented director that most of his bad decisions or excesses are overshadowed in the rest of his work and in the case of "Time" there is certainly a lot that is still exciting and at times enthralling to behold. Kim is one of the few directors I've ever come accross whose films almost all have a distinctive rythmn to them, a unique 'feel' that can't be emulated and can only be reproduced by the director himself. Maybe I'm overselling the guy, but he's such an immense talent that even his least succesful films still fascinate me.