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Time
The case of the ex
2006
Review: February 19, 2008
Director: Ki-duk Kim
Starring: Jung-woo Ha, Ji-Yeon Park, Hyeon-a Seong
Can definitely enhance the creepiness.
THE SETUP:
Woman’s boyfriend’s eye is wandering, so she gets plastic surgery and meets him again.
DISCUSSION:
This movie appeared in the year-end top 10 list of a site I like, and it sounded right up my alley. We open with a bunch of images of real plastic surgery, providing many an “Ewwwww!” moment right off the bat. We have the kind of compositions I love when we see a graphic of a face that is half-man, half woman, which suddenly opens—it’s a door. A woman emerges, and is bumped into by another woman rushing with a cell phone. A photograph falls from her hand and the frame breaks. We then follow the woman with the cell phone—SHE’S our main character. Although in a way, so is the other woman.
Cell phone woman is Seh-hee, and when she arrives at a café to meet her boyfriend, Ji-woo, she finds him eyeing the waitress. She pitches a fit about that, and a new one when he helps two women outside who bumped into his car. She freaks about his having their contact information [ostensibly for the car damage], rips it up, and goes over to scream at the two women, who are not receptive to her arguments. I wish the photo just below had copied with the subtitle, which was: "You crazy bitch!
That night they are in bed, and Ji-woo just isn’t able to get into it. They’ve been together two years, by the way. She says “I’m sorry for having the same boring face,” which is a little creepy, as she is utterly beautiful and just so deeply insecure. Ji-woo reassures her that he likes her, but doesn’t like her jealousy and games. She then encourages him to think of the café waitress as they have sex. He does, then she is furious that he did, and throws a white sheet over her face and refuses to take it off. Ah, you know, games people play.
The next day she has abruptly moved out and vanished. She assembled facial parts she likes and takes them to a plastic surgeon, saying she wants a new face. He tells her she’s beautiful as she is and tries to dissuade her, but she insists.
A month later, Ji-woo is out with two other couples and a young woman, and is still conflicted over Seh-hee. There is a very strange moment when one of the friends abruptly slaps one of the other guys’ dates and calls her a stupid slut. This passes as perfectly acceptable behavior. Then Ji-woo goes home with his date, and just as they’re about to go at it, a rock gets thrown through his window.
On his way to a sculpture park that was a favorite hangout with She-hee, he comes across a mysterious woman wearing dark glasses and a purple kerchief across her mouth with bright red lips on it. A few months later there is a new waitress at the café and she soon shows up on the ferry to the sculpture park. There’s a good tension in these scenes because you know almost any woman could be Seh-hee with her new face. At the sculpture park they take pictures posed the same way as his pictures with Seh-hee, and afterward go back to the café, where she writes her name—See-hee—over the name of Seh-hee on a letter he still holds onto. Twice she excuses herself by saying “I forgot it was a letter.”
She suddenly vanishes, but appears a few days later, jumping out in front of his car. Guys [straight guys, that is], do you LIKE these kinds of games? Do they turn you on, or drive you crazy? Because I would be high-tailing it in the other direction if someone pulled this crap on me. Anyway, Ji-woo leaves his car in the lane and runs after See-hee, even chasing her down the subway, while you’re sitting at home thinking; “Uh, aren’t you double-parked?”
Finally they connect, go home and do it. Afterward, she finds his love letter from Seh-hee and writes her name over it. Destruction of property is also a red flag in my book, but Ji-woo accepts that she has done it and kisses her, indicating that he is ready to move on from Seh-hee. This of course both excites and enrages See-hee [who is actually Seh-hee]: Sure, he loves her now, but she’s incensed that he forgot the memory of Seh-hee and is ready to move on without her. So she does what any sensible person would do: writes him a note from Seh-hee, saying she’s back and desperate to see him again.
I would love to tell you the rest, and show you a wonderfully disturbing image from the last half, but it’s too interesting to ruin for you. There are some surprises, and then some REAL surprises, and a big repeat of that sense of not knowing which of any of the people out there might be one of our characters with a new face. The woman coming out the door from the first moments also makes a reappearance in a moment where the film very effectively leaves reality behind for a moment to make a larger point.
Overall, very unsettling, just the way I like it. It has very well-controlled compositions that go a long way toward keeping the tone tense, and an explosive idea with a great deal of resonance to relationships and personal insecurities. The situation is so rich that for the second half, I was trying to guess any number of different directions the movie could branch out in, each of which would have been equally interesting. I must say that the one they chose, however, was completely unexpected.
It’s not really a horror movie, and there’s nothing supernatural about it, but it does maintain an extreme creepiness and tension that would make it appeal to horror lovers. It’s also just uncanny, in the manner of a story by Saki or Hoffmann. There is also LOTS of interpersonal drama, for those that enjoy watching that, as well. Overall, a meaty little thriller with lots of unsettling images and themes, and what more could you ask for?
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Yes, it’s really interesting and uncanny.
