Kim Ki Duk
Time

Kim Ki Duk is without a doubt one of the greatest representatives of Oriental cinema, and with his works, he has created a purely romantic and lyrical way of filming and understanding cinema, giving a poetic touch to films that remain absolute masterpieces of this art. The two gems "3-Iron" and "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring" are clear and, I might add, sublime examples of how the Korean's films manage to touch the viewer's heart by bringing to the big screen stories with a thin plot, but with a visual impact, and above all, a poetic aesthetic greatness that reminds one of a formally almost pictorial 'schematization'. It is no coincidence that Duk himself tells us that before being a filmmaker, he was a painter and art avant-gardist. Art that can be both the pictorial and the cinema itself, which has in Kim Ki Duk one of the highest innovative expressions. 

The two films mentioned above were true avant-garde works in which the artistic vein of the painter was reflected in every single image, accentuating the details almost as if to create an actual painting within each scene. Moreover, the near absence of dialogues rendered the atmosphere imbued with sensations and emotions that the viewer savored in every single fragment. A revolutionary attitude that was overpoweringly shattered with the film "The Bow," in which the Korean filmmaker slightly nodded to more "stereotypical" cinema. This is why Time, Duk's thirteenth work released in 2006, generated expectations, anticipations, and fears about what the fate of cinema signed by the Korean genius might be.

Time is Kim Ki Duk at 95 percent. The directorial imprint is already visible in the main theme: love. Love, which had been the fundamental stronghold of 3-Iron, here becomes perhaps even more anguished. The young Ji-woo loses his partner Seh-hee due to her complexes. Unhappy to see herself as always the same, unhappy to realize that he no longer feels the passion that once connected them. Seh-hee decides to change drastically: a total face operation, in order to return after six months more beautiful and sensual than before. Ji-woo wanders desperately in search of his beloved, and when the clarifying meeting happens, it will be him, this time, who has a repulsion towards Seh-hee.

The plot is linear but contains multiple variations and plays of "personas" that complicate the entire story. From the pure love of the first part, it passes to conflicts. But Kim Ki Duk also confronts us with another widespread problem of today's society, which is the unconditional desire to change one's body. However, many times this "change," which should improve us positively, affects us in an entirely different way. This is precisely the case with Seh-hee, immovable in her decision to "transform," only to then consciously regret not having found the happiness she was looking for.

Besides these reasons, which are of absolute interest, what truly distinguishes Kim Ki Duk's way of making cinema is the ongoing pursuit of details, of angles that can highlight a formal cleanliness aimed at enhancing the "perfection" attitude pursued by the Korean director. In this sense, the sequences set on the "Sculpture Beach" are emblematic, real moving photographs that could easily be part of a hypothetical collage of images. The poster is precisely one of the scenes on the "beach," and the photography, much like in 3-Iron, is a mirror of reality that does not end the moment it's taken but continues to pulse with life, conveying emotions. The passage of time (those six months of waiting before being able to "reveal" oneself after the surgical operations) is the same that persists in the photographs, which are lost and return even with the passing of time.

Beyond the directorial merits now acknowledged by all critics, there is that 5 percent for which Time is not fully Kim Ki Duk. Compared to previous masterpieces, the dialogues have increased, with a clear reduction of those shards of truth and emotion that were instead fully savored in previous films. Moreover, a larger "blockbuster" tendency is visible, which is in stark contrast to what Kim Ki Duk did previously. Despite this, Time remains an excellent film, full of emotional turmoil that fascinates with its poetic nature.

Another great work of a cinema innovator.