TexRogers

True, Phone is quite a copy of Ring but on the other hand there are many Asian movies with such a similar ghost theme and many are older then Ring besides after seeing Dark Water I must say that the author of the Ring is pretty limited because Dark Water is just another Ring spin off and a poor one. Phone on the other hand is a great and scary film. Scary means that for me as a westerner I find films like Seven and Phone more scare then "gore" movies like Hellraiser to name one of the better ones. On the other hand horror movies actually never scare me... maybe because I don't believe in ghosts... ;-) What speaks for Phone is first the actresses... man they are beautiful! Something you rarely see in a western movie don't misunderstand me they certainly don't look like a playboy bimbo but like elegant ladies with very angelic faces. Just for that the movie had me absorbed... lol

Then I found most of it more scary and more intelligent made then Ring. In Phone the end is very surprising... sure somehwere half through you might suspect this or that person to be the killer and quite half at the end the end the movie leads you onto the wrong path. That was made very intelligent!

I was not sure what to expect from this film when reading the two commments here before seeing it. My conclusion is that Summer Time goes quite in the same sense of the erotic french drama's from the eighties like "37°2 le matin" with Béatrice Dalle, "La Bonne" with Florence Guérin or even "Breathless" with Richard Gere and Valérie Kaprisky. They all have in common that they play during a very hot summer and combine tame nudity (showing breasts - you can see more flesh at any European beach during the summer nowadays...) and sweaty lovemaking in a dimly lit place while the ventilator hums in the background. So far so good. All of these movies do have in common that they are a bit dull when it comes to the storyline. But more later and also my opinion about the two previous comments...

When I put the DVD into the player I was so surprised! The leading actress (the cheating wife) is played by a very famous korean singer (she also sings the end credits - great song!) from the former pop group Roo'Ra (spoken: Rula) that she would show off so much was really surprising (I have a Roo'Ra VCD with their best songs brought home from my last visit in Korea). She indeed is quite a lovely sight...

Now on to the story. The plot is indeed very meaningless. Student revolutioneer hides from the officials in a rural town and rents a room on top of a young couple. He discovers several peeking holes and watches the bored wife dance and stretch/work out in sexy lingerie on her bed. The student protests are just used as a vessel for the reason of him being there and has nothing to do of whatsoever with the story. Also the end is pretty clear you see the husband carrying a gun occasionally throughout the movie the reason for showing these scenes made the ending not at all surprising. But back to the hiding student. He watches the couple having very unloving sex with each other. When the hubby comes home from night shift he just jumps onto his sleeping wife from behind and takes her, then stops as soon as he's finished - and that happens every day. When the husband loses his keys the student jumps on the opportunity and does the same thing with the bored and always faking sleep during intercourse housewife. The second time she notices him and they start an affair. So most of the movie is spent showing quite tame lovemaking as it can be seen in the above mentioned French movies. The plus of Summer Time is that the lovemaking is shot quite beautifully the minus is that there is not really much of a story going on. You later find out that the husband has raped his wife when they first met while he wanted to arrest her father and she, not knowing what to do after loosing her "pride" followed him and they married. He loved posessing her pretty body but none of them really loved each other in fact she hated him but for whatever reason stood with him. You could say that my opinion varies a little from the two previous ones. The film certainly wasn't a harsh sex movie that only adults can watch (nowadays) nor was it displaying the student struggles of the early 80ies in South-Korea. It is just a nice erotic teaser for people who like to see something else besides the ordinary XXX flicks. It's for fans of "art" movies and tasteful erotica. Fans of a good plot with many twists and p*rn will be disappointed but all others should give it a try when in the right mood at a warm summer evening with a glass of wine.

Over the past years I've become a real fan of korean movies and this one didn't disappoint me either. I like movies like Silence of the lambs (even if it isn't as thrilling and suspense now as it was when it came out) or Kiss the girls. On the other hand I hated(!) Seven which in my opinion was a bit boring and had a terrible ending. What I love about many korean movies and this one shows it especially... the female lead character is played by a beautiful woman (one of the most pretty actresses in the world I would say) which is a nice change because besides Ashley Judd and Angelina Jolie American actresses are either pretty old or just plain ugly compared to 50ies to 70ies Hollywood era. Anyway, Tell me something is a well done thriller that keeps you wondering (in difference to twelve monkey were I figuered out the end after five minutes of watching despite what people said what a surprise ending it was supposed to have - I would rate Twelve Monkeys with 1 out of ten anyway, though. And I'm a vivid reader of sci-fi and I do love Blade Runner). Anyway I'm getting lost. Just let me tell you that you should watch this movie and just enjoy it. Not because of the gore scenes but because of the riddles it offers to the audience.