| Bilgi :I must say that besides Winter Spring Summer Fall, Time would be the only other film by Ki-Duk Kim that I have seen, that I could watch from start to finish. His past films that I have seen, were filled with misery and vile characters that would make the movies unwatchable for me. As an example Address Unknown seemed to make Breaking The Waves look like a light hearted comedy. I would say that the most interesting aspect of “Time” would be the premise of the film: can reconstructive plastic surgery make a new person? The film answers the question in a confusing “yes” and “no” fashion..
The two main characters in Time reminded me a lot of those two crazy cats in Nagisa Oshimas In The Realm of Senses. Although the characters in Time were not as infatuated with sex as the people were in The Realm of Senses, the similarities that the characters shared in obsessiveness, along with the insecurities held by the female lead, seemed to make the characters from both films kindred spirits of sorts. Unfortunately, the two main leads in Time seemed to have an uneven level of character development. While See-hee seemed to be written with much thought and given a dynamic level of character development, the male lead lead Ji-Woo was often left standing around, having a confused look on his face, while wondering why See-hee slapped him. (On a sidenote, if I was the owner of the cafe that they frequented, I would have banned Ji-Woo and See-Hee many moons ago.).  Visually the film was engaging and often contained scenes filled with symbolism. One of the more visually arresting moments would have been the scene in the cafe, where Seh-hee wears a mask of her old self. Typifying the unevenness of Time, the following scene has See-hee walking into her plastic surgeon's office with the same mask on. The doctor casually asks See-hee if she wants to go back to her old self and See-hee shakes her head no. See-hee leaves the office, while leaving the mask behind. The doctor picks up the mask and tries it on and lets his assistant try on the mask as well. I'm sure there was ample symbolism there, but their actions were just too unrealistic. As the film continues, there would be more of these artistic shots that would feel disruptive to the flow of the film, almost like the director taking a 10 second break from the storytelling to include an artsy sequence.
 The character's themselves often did things that seemed inexplicable. Obviously See-hee getting plastic surgery without telling Ji-Woo would be the main one, but that was understandable because her action makes the film what it is. What was more inexplicable was the action of the boyfriend after he learns Seh-Hee’s true identity. His actions were far from realistic and just outright bizarre. The ending of the film includes a final twist, that is a head scratcher itself. That scene doesn’t make much sense logically, but I’m guessing it has something to do with Time itself.
Beyond these complaints, Time is still engaging due to its fascinating premise and a dynamic female character that always seemed to be on the edge. Plastic surgery is probably more common in South Korea than most other countries and with that disturbing fact, Ki-Duk Kim makes a film that examines the effects of plastic surgery on two people, who take that behavior to the extreme. Far from a perfect film, Time is yet entirely engaging and worthwhile to check out. This would easily be my favorite film by Ki-Duk Kim. |
