Time (2006)

I was quite intrigued by the premise- over the years, I have heard a fair bit about South Korea's obsession with plastic surgery, and this narrative felt like a good way of exploring its potential as good storytelling. However, I felt severely let down by the writing, especially of the female characters. There was hardly any subtlety or nuance to be found, and even without checking, it was very obvious to me that this was written by a man (it really was). And this happened very soon into the movie, so you can imagine how pleasant the rest of the experience was.

Credits where credits are due- the story works much better than I expected as a thriller. I was constantly wondering about what I had just seen, and how it will impact the rest of the movie. Once I forced myself to get past the weirdly-written women (not very hard, since weirdly written women are the norm anyway), I started to be seriously invested in the characters' actions and motivations, and stayed that way till the end. The movie was messy in some places, but the high levels of drama and insanity worked for me, so I did enjoy the movie for the most part. However, the revelations about Kim Ki-duk being a rapist and serial sexual assaulter dampened my spirits again, and I wished that I had known that earlier so that I could have avoided watching the movie. Yeah I know, bit weird considering that I just said that I mostly enjoyed it, but I personally have a hard time separating the art from the artist, especially when the crimes are of such heinous nature. Definitely won't be watching any Kim Ki-duk ever again, no matter how celebrated or critically acclaimed the work is.

In conclusion, an interesting watch, but probably undeserving of its hype- for a movie that tries to dive deep into the mind of a completely unstable woman, it fails in its basic objective, that is to write the woman in a real way. Plus, Kim Ki-duk and his disgustingness. Cancel men for good, already!!