Time (2006) | DVD Review

A woman’s paranoid fear of losing her boyfriend and the bizarre lengths she will go to in order to keep him form the basis for writer-director Kim Ki-duk’s (3-Iron, Bad Guy) 13th film, Time. However, as with Kim’s previous films, there’s more to this one than meets the eye, turning Time into a kind of modern day Grimm’s Fairy Tale.

After a two-year relationship, Seh-hee catches her boyfriend Ji-woo sneaking appreciative glances at other women and believes that he no longer finds her attractive. After a few quick and intense argument scenes (actually, chewing-out scenes might be more appropriate) Seh-hee just disappears out of Ji-woo’s life without a trace. Of course, he never actually stopped loving her or finding her attractive, and he pines for her after she leaves, reluctantly going out on blind dates and meeting other women with his friends. Meanwhile, Seh-hee decides to get plastic surgery in an effort to become different so that Ji-woo will not be bored by her looks. Six months later, when Ji-woo starts falling for the (unknown-to-him) new and improved Seh-hee, she is faced with the notion that if he falls in love with her, it means he is ready to move on after the loss of his girlfriend. On the other hand, if he rejects her, then she will have done this to herself for naught and will have lost the love of her life forever. Understandably, she begins to unravel and this marks the point in the film where the pace picks up and the plot goes out on a limb. To Kim’s credit, though, Time isn’t as far-fetched as the premise seems. He takes the fact that there’s a rather large market for commercial cosmetic surgery in South Korea (it’s estimated that at least one in ten Korean adults has gone under the knife) and twists it just enough, with the motive for getting the surgery being much more classical than a simple yearning for the fountain of youth. Then, Kim cinches the deal with an ending that’ll throw you for a loop and a final shot for the ages!

Following some promising reviews on the festival circuit, Time opened on only one screen in North America and played for two weeks. It’s beyond me why Kim Ki-duk is not a household name here, as each and every one of his films is masterfully crafted and wildly original. For instance, the setting for most of the romantic scenes in Time is a strange island full of erotically-charged sculptures, including an odd staircase with a giant hand that becomes partially submerged when the tide comes in. As obvious as the deeper meaning of this is, Kim shoots it beautifully and with just the right amount of sublety. Even the heavy-handedness of the film’s underlying theme is handled with care in the hands of Kim, who includes many comical and tender scenes to lighten the tone.

At first glance, as far as special features go, Time seems rather bare with only a theatrical trailer and a making of featurette. But that making of featurette is actually 46 minutes of on-set footage of Kim and crew at work and is very informative for any fan of what goes on during the making of a film. The lack of any voiceover narration, interview scenes, or subtitles make it all the more interesting if what you want to see is a literal “making-of”. If you’re looking for some insight into the plot and characters of the film, though, you’re out of luck. For film-making buffs only.

Though many will say that Time is not among Kim’s finer films, it’s still a fantastic story told by a masterful director and featuring great acting performances all around. If you love smart films that make you think, Time is not to be missed.

Movie rating – 3.5

Disc Rating – 2.5