Time

Ki-duk Kim is one of my favorite filmmakers. He seems to always stick to his vision and, I suspect, enjoys going against the very grain of where he is expected to go. It is my opinion that he takes audiences to "places" in Korean culture that other Korean filmmakers dare not go. I had been waiting to see this film on the screen but the opportunity has yet to come. I was thrilled when a pal sent me the just released DVD.

Ki-duk Kim's work is surreal, socio-political and melo-dramatic all at once. This can be an uncomfortable combination. I find that there is often a dark comedic element at work in his films which makes it all the more uncomfortable. In fact, I often wonder if the "comedy" I find is intended. As a viewer, I don't care. I find his work endlessly interesting and unforgettable.

This is not his finest work. It is, however, a visually stunning work. At it's heart are two central ideas playing off each other: the 21st century obsession with plastic surgery and the obsessive quality of love/devotion. The film is filled with character insecurity and the neurotic. The surreal set up for this film is also a bit too confused. However, I would urge anyone interested in his work or the films that are coming out of Asis to seek this film out.

There has been criticism of the theatrics of the performers. While I understand this issue I feel the actors give exactly what Kim was after. The pitch of the performances match the over-the-top story line.

This is an intellectual film. I think what I love the most is the fact that it is visually intellectual vs. plot driven intellectual. I am not sure I managed to get that idea out, but I hope whoever reads this understands what I am trying to articulate.

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.

Many Koreans hate the fact that Kim Ki Duk is still able to produce movies in Korea. There were many people boycotting this film in Korea, many saying that he is a very pessimistic human being, touching up on all the dirty things about Korea.

I myself finally got the chance to watch this. Watching all of Kim Ki Duk's film so far, I believed that this was definitely much more colorful in a sense. The story was very relative towards the Korean population. With plastic surgery becoming just a new hobby in Korea, Kim Ki Duk, goes in depth with the theme. The cinematography was great. Personally, it was my favorite film by him so far, before this it's been Bad Guy and Address Unknown but, Time delivered it to me. It kept me glued to my seat the entire time. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

If people enjoy the movies made by Mr. Kim Ki Duk. you won't regret this one either.

Hope you have read the official story line.

I was intrigued by that and since we are all so used to so many of the Hollywood style movies and also because of the relatively low 7.2 rating here at IMDb I was expecting it to be a mediocre merry go round, boy was I wrong! This is a weird movie, and instead of putting us off it makes us think, think really hard. Very strangely, this movie, unlike other movies is always showing us a certain third party perspective (normally Hollywood tries to do just the opposite to make us empathize with the character), and its this that makes us 'think'.

And I came off thinking:

* Our lives are too good, and because its too good we do things to make it complicated, we basically imagine up things, and we ourselves create problems which we then try so hard to solve.

* Only if we had left things as it was.

* Aren't we being just plain greedy.

If you have liked movies like Tokyo Story, Still Walking, etc., yes please check out this movie.

Thank you for reading. :-).

Cheers!

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.