Tiempo

There is something startlingly relevant to this film. The ever increasing lack of identity in the modern world, and the rise of all sorts of abstract selves, from Internet IDs to Social Security numbers, has left our age with nothing but ever changing faces and dubious selves. The most corporeal and brutal example of this is cosmetic surgery. And, Kim Ki-Duk's haunting masterpiece speaks to both the obsession with a physical ideal, as well as the very ambiguous ideology of identity.

As a cynical and often apathetic moviegoer, this film entranced, bewildered and truly disconcerted me. Kim Ki-Duk is developing into an incredible filmmaker. The cinematography is delicately crisp, in a way that is very new and only really found in a handful of Asian movies from about the last 5 years. The dramatic elements are utterly profound, and the plot functions on many levels, (though not specifically allegorical) invoking and evoking issues ranging from history, the failure and ultimate relativism of communication, the absurd necessity for beauty, as well as a plethora of other parallels.

Anyhow, I find myself being verbose, but I just watched this movie and am terribly excited about it. Instead, the film itself is anything but convoluted, and though not exceedingly complex, is incredibly deep. Be patient, because it starts a little slowly, but erupts into something so strange and meaningful that I would recommend this film to anyone that enjoys Asian cinema or that likes to think.

Kim Ki Duk's film Shigan/Time is about the concept of beauty which differs from person to person.He has built his film around a couple of young,violent lovers whose whimsical behavior reveal hotheadedness prevailing in South Korean society.Much of the film tries to find out why people especially youngsters start to get bored in relationships ? Although Shigan/Time concentrates its energies by depicting various procedures used to beautify ordinary looking people,it loses no time to convey that real beauty lies in one's heart.We get a clear message that inner beauty is important than a person's external appearance.Kim Ki Duk also suggests that boredom is not entirely a curious phenomenon related to affluent nations as this malaise of western world has already started to rear its ugly head in new developed nations too such as South Korea.It is a pity that not much is known about Kim Di Duk's motivation for making such an inspirational film.However,one can hazard a fortuitous guess that Kim Di Duk made this film due to an old incident of his reckless wild life when he was rejected by some girl.

In combining elements of sci-fi and fantasy with a thoughtful, contemplative study of human relationships, the Korean film, "Time," brings the adage "Beauty is only skin deep" to a whole new level.

When she begins to sense that her boyfriend, Ji-woo, may be losing interest in her, Seh-hee decides to undergo plastic surgery so radical that even he will not be able to recognize her. Her plan is to then insinuate herself back into Ji-woo's life under the guise of her new identity, hoping to stave off his growing indifference and, in so doing, give them what amounts to a second chance as a couple. Needless, to say, Seh-hee 's scheme does not work out quite as planned and she learns some pretty powerful lessons about the way true love actually works.

Although Seh-hee clearly believes that by altering her appearance she will be able to change her inner makeup as well, the truth is that she remains every bit as grasping, jealous, melodramatic and paranoid after the surgery as she was before. No amount of change in her looks can raise her self-esteem or make her any less difficult to deal with. Her boyfriend, meanwhile, becomes a pawn in her twisted game, as he is tricked into inadvertently rekindling a romance with a woman who carries with her all the same baggage he had so much trouble putting up with in the previous relationship (despite the fact that he genuinely loves her).

An attack on the looks-obsessed nature of modern culture, "Time" is not a "thriller" in the conventional sense of the term. It demands patience as it goes about the business of laying out its storyline and doesn't go in for a whole lot of fancy horror movie pyrotechnics to raise the audience's hackles. Instead, it relies mainly on subtle psychological insights to generate a feeling of imbalance and unease. Seh-hee is clearly mentally and emotionally unstable, and writer/director Ki-duk Kim's subtle, almost Pirandellian way of dealing with that madness makes it all the more disturbing.

Strong performances, steady direction, sharp cinematography and an unnerving view of human nature all combine to make "Time" an offbeat, memorable experience. Don't expect to jump out of your seat or bury your face in your hands during the course of this film - for in the case of "Time," the chills all take place in the mind.

Although I have not watched any of the director's previous movies, "TIME" was a movie that was definitely provocative and representative of women's ideals of today. At least most of the women I know. Do not watch this movie at face value because for me, I felt that the director did a fantastic job portraying the emotions and insanity faced by the women and men who were in that situation. When in the cinema, there were men sitting next to me complaining about how crazy the protagonist was. I was quite sure he didn't enjoy it. So my advice is take it artistically. It's quite disturbing to the mind when you see what plastic surgery looks so prepare yourself for such graphics.

Plastic surgery has become today's solution to esteem problems and the result is, even more problems.

I enjoyed this film. I think that reviewers who claim it had nothing more to say than "plastic surgery is bad" are really refusing to dig critically into the themes of the film. It is about identity; it is about jealousy and fear; it is about vanity. These aren't exactly "easy" themes, and while I do think that the insanity of the heroine do make it difficult to relate to at times, the film had a lot to say that is applicable to all of us.. not just jealous nuts. That being said, I definitely viewed the film as a fable (especially because of the last scene). In some ways it reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with this weird sense of starting with a clean slate.

The idea of not being able to recognize a past lover is extremely disturbing to me personally, and so I might have allowed myself to get taken in by this film more than some people would. Even so, I think that the film was executed very well and deserves high marks.