Time 시간 written and directed by Kim Ki Duk (김기덕) [2006]
3 February 2008Kim Ki Duk movies are always hard to watch, and this one was no exception, though certainly not as brutal as many of his earlier films. Still this has it’s hard moments. And while this film is ostensibly about Korean’s and their obsession with Plastic surgery, but in actuality is just obsession in relationships and a women who uses plastic surgery in her mind to help make her relationship more fresh. This woman is really crazy though, but I was interested throughout, and I certainly did not expect the ending, even if the title gave it away or should have. Certainly worth seeing, with an interesting ending, though not quite a satisfying ending, but I guess it all comes down to, that obsession will only harm you.
A woman named Se-heui (Park Ji-yeon 박지연) runs into a woman just out of a Plastic Surgery place, with her face covered and large sunglasses on. Se-heui knocks a photo out of her hands and breaks the glass, so she grabs it and says she will get it fixed, but the woman walked off. Se-heui then goes with the repaired photograph of a crazy looking or maybe mentally disturbed image to see her boyfriend Ji-woo (Ha Jeong-woo 하정우) at a coffee shop. Se-heui is incensed because Ji-woo was looking at a waitress there, then another woman runs into his car, and he goes outside and sees there is no damage and gets her card, and again Se-heui freaks out and she runs off. Ji-woo returns home to find her in bed, and has sex with him, but she tells him to pretend she is the car girl, because she wants to be fresh to him, because must be bored with seeing the same body for 2 years. The next day Se-heui goes back to the Plastic Surgeon, and decides to become someone else, and after the surgery, she just disappears without a trace from Ji-woo’s life.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Ji-woo is really depressed, and doesn’t want to see anyone else, but his friends keep dragging him out on blind dates. Then he meets an old photographer friend who seems to want him, and he agrees to date her, but she goes to the bathroom and sees something or someone and immediately leaves him, and won’t talk to him.
Ji-woo then goes on a ferry to go to a sculpture park that he used to go with Se-heui with. He sees a girl in bandages and glasses, who also goes to the park, but then she disappears.
Ji-woo then meets Sae-heui (Seong Hyeon-ah 성현아 who is now a waitress at the same coffee shop, and is in fact Se-heui post plastic surgery.
Slowly the two start to date and fall in love, going to the park and taking new photos. Eventually though Sae-heui then starts sending Ji-woo letters from Se-heui, saying she will be coming back, and then freaking out when Ji-woo wants to see her, even though she is Se-heui. When he finds out the truth, he freaks out, but he does love her, in fact he loves both women who are his girlfriend, in fact he loves her so much that he goes to the plastic surgeon and decides to get a new identity, just as Se-heui did.
Now it is Sae-heui who is missing her boyfriend, and she thinks she his everywhere, and ends up being with different men that she thinks are him, but they aren’t. And finally at a train station she loses it, screaming for him, and she sees someone run, and she runs after him, but he turns a corner and is run over by a truck and killed, his face mangled, and she loses it. Sae-hui returns to the plastic surgeon all covered in blood, and he asks her if she would like to completely change again, and she gets plastic surgery again, and leaves carrying a photo and runs into Se-heui and drops her frame and takes off, it seems she caused her own obsession with the plastic surgery.
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A good movie, but with some seriously crazy characters, the girlfriend is not stable at all, and the guy loses it completely as well. Wow these people are insane. It is worth checking out, but really damn messed up.
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