Time (Shi Gan) - Dir. Kim KiDuk
The Destructive Nature of Plastic Surgery
International art house director Kim Ki-Duk's thirteenth film, Time, tackles the psychological destructive cycle of plastic surgery.
Kim Ki-Duk's thirteenth film, Time, follows the story of Seh-Hee and Ji-woo, a young couple who have been together for two years. Seh-Hee's jealous insecurities are amplified by Ji-woo's roving eye who seems to just enjoy looking. Seh-Hee feels that Ji-woo is bored with how she looks and hence the reason why he constantly is looking elsewhere. She then decides to completely change the way she looks in an effort to 'renew' their relationship - only she doesn't tell him and abruptly disappears for 6 months.
In a somewhat preachy narrative, Kim really hammers home his frustration as to why women would undergo such trauma. Footage of actual procedures and operations are shown in such an explicit fashion, it's as if for a moment one was watching Discovery Health Channel. However, unlike his previous masterpiece, 3-Iron, the emotional element is severly lacking.
Seh-Hee, before and after surgery, comes across as such a lunatic that it's hard to really grasp and sympatize with her plight - which is perhaps on purpose as clearly Kim feels that people who undergo the knife are ridiculous caricatures. Ji-woo, while coming across as a primate in the beginning, through Seh-Hee's 6 month absence, attempts to feed his physical needs only to find discover that he betrays his emotions hoping and waiting for Seh Hee's return.
He unwittingly gets into a relationship with her, after she's been healed from the operation. She, on the other hand, has orchestrated the entire chain of events to her satisfaction, but fails to find any happiness as the ghost of Seh Hee past still plagues Ji-woo's heart. In a rather bizarre, yet fantastic scene she meets with Ji-woo as Seh Hee, wearing a mask and asks him to remove it to reveal her new face.
What follows is even more far removed from the psychological headspace these two characters occupy. But such is the thing to expect from a film directed by Kim Ki Duk. While his previous films have characters in their own world, they still manage to connect with each other and the audience. Perhaps that's the downfall of Time is that the stakes keep getting raised, thrown and twisted so much it loses its connection.
Still, it's clearly not the director's best work, but is worth a look should anyone enjoy his past films.
