Time

Kim Ki Duk’s films have a tendency to teeter between the bizarre and the beautiful but nothing prepares you for Time, his 13th feature. The first few minutes of the film are enough to rattle anyone.

The basic plot of the film revolves around a chirpy young woman who just can’t get over the fact that perhaps her boyfriend is bored with her. She keeps noticing that he constantly checks out other women, is cordial towards everyone but her and isn’t even aroused by her anymore. The man tries to convince her that she is nuts but it just doesn’t work. To save her relationship, the woman puts herself through extensive plastic surgery.

The woman just vanishes one fine day and all efforts on the man’s part to locate her fail. The woman returns but we don’t see her for she is always hiding and playing mind games with her boyfriend. Just when he’s about to get over her the woman decided to show up in her new avatar and lo and behold the man falls for her. The woman couldn’t be happier but the only thing that bothers her is the fact that the man still craves her former self. She decides to test him; she sends him a letter as the first one begging to allow her to return. The man, elated and confused, conveys to the second woman that the first one’s back and her wants to be with her; he has no clue that it’s the same woman. This action of his enrages the woman to no end for she can’t believe that her boyfriend would still desire her old self. She accuses him of using her, etc. and finally ends up meeting him with a mask covering her new face and strangely the mask is the face older woman. The man who is now on the edge decides to take off but not before telling her that a change in physical appearance eventually changes you as a person.

The film now takes a fantastic but nonetheless a weird turn when the man decides to prove his love to the woman by transforming himself. The doctor who performs both the operations assures the woman to wait for the boyfriend to return in a new form. Now living a reversed role, the woman goes through the same pangs as she looks at every man with expectant eyes. Time passes and the boyfriend does come back but only to play the same mind games; the woman by now has had enough and asks him to show up. The climax of the film has the woman running after someone who, she is convinced, is her boyfriend but fate intervenes and the man ends up dying in an accident. The film ends with on a note that states the universal fact that one has to be at peace with the inner self rather than be happy with the outer shell.

The first scene has shots of a surgeon’s knife cutting up a woman and the gut churning images of extreme makeover in progress will give anyone a queasy feeling. But Time is a love story albeit an unusual one and plays out like a perfect tragic love story confronting many questions about love. It’s also an interesting film from the aspect of dialogue, for it strangely has a lot of dialogue as opposed to his previous films. Time is a film that will invite extreme reactions. Many, especially Koreans, believe that with the passage of time Kim Ki Duk’s turning out to be some sort of misogynist and perhaps Time adds to the speculation but is it really so? Or could it just be an example of a director relentlessly doing his number and perhaps falling out, at times, with the capricious film fest mob?

Image Courtesy: www.koreansociety.org

Kim Ki Duk

Cinefan screened one of Korean director Kim Ki Duk's initial films Bird Cage Inn. The auditorium was packed considering the man behind the film that was about to be screened. Kim Ki Duk has had a phenomenal rise in the world of cinema and is often considered to be one of the most interesting filmmaker operating out of Asia today. To say that his films have a very strong impact on your mind would be stating the obvious; his films have a strange haunting quality that lingers on your mind long after you have finished the film. He has a knack for picking up very basic ideas and adding layers to them; he once saiud that most of his ideas originate from 'hatered'.

Kim Ki Duk's breakthrough film, The Isle, was also the first film of the director that I saw. The film had a very simple premise- a mute girl works as a helper in a fishing resort way out in the Korean wilderness. She sells food, bait and some times herself to the tourists. In the course of the film she falls in love with a man after saving him with a fishing hook when he tries to commit suicide. The stark images, the rare dialogue and great production design were a few of the things that set The Isle apart.

The style of The Isle would became the directors trademark- little dialogue, striking images, interesting sequences and most importantly high original concepts. The other important films in his repertoire are Bad Guy, Address Unknown, Samaritan Girl but the two films that really stand out Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring and 3-Iron. The former is about the various stages in a humans life as well as the basic emotions that we live through. It deals with solitude, love, innocence, corruption and most importantly redemption. Kim Ki Duk uses a Buddhist monk's life as a metaphor; this monk lives on a floating house and it's through his eyes that we see the journey of a human life. The film has some stunning cinematography and lots of metaphors, the staple of any Kim Ki Duk film.

3-Iron has a young drifter who breaks into strangers' houses - and lives - while owners are away. He spends time by living it up and repaying their unknown hospitality by doing laundry or small repairs. The man bumps into a beautiful woman who's suffers at the hands of an abusive husband and a loveless marriage. The man is caught and jailed but when he comes back the women couldn't be happier. The film has a very metaphysical quality about it and meanders between the brilliant and the bizarre but is still beautiful.

Coming back to Bird Cage Inn, the running time seems too long and the long silences somehow don't convince. The film is about a family that takes in a prostitute and how her being there threatens to destroy the family. But more often than not things that break us are the very things that bind us as well but somehow the basic message is played for too long. There are almost 8 major characters and each has their moment so you can imagine the effect on the story. One can see many future Kim Ki Duk references and characters taking shape in Bird Cage Inn but that's not enough to enjoy the film. For some one who has seen better fare from Kim Ki Duk, Bird Cage Inn is only important for anthropological reasons.

Image Courtsey: www.horosheekino.ru