As a quick note, "Time" is the directorial convergence of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Charisma meets Miike's Detective Story meets Ki-duk's own Bad Guy — a certain amount of grit used to paint a beautiful and harrowing picture. Story-wise, the film is a confluence of relationship dualities (some quite literally), as well as employing a continuity/paradoxical question a la Song Il-gon! Watching the film in progress, it's hard to believe this is the same director that gave us the visually sumptuous 3-Iron, but there is no doubt that this is pure Kim Ki-duk. His lead characters are once again emotionally nude and fragile but courageous in practice and honest enough to admit it. In Time's case, these characters often put themselves in peril before they come to said realization. And this, of course, is why it hurts so.
