Oof...my heart. I watched this after work and didn’t finish until 1:30 AM. Instead of going to sleep, I instantly wanted to share it with you all.
Vanishing Time tells the story of young Su-Rin, who lives with her stepdad after her mom has died and moves to an island because of his work. She befriends Seung-Min and joins him and his two friends on a trip to the mountain. During a man-made 3.6 Earthquake, the children go missing and only Su-Rin is found. However, after several days, a man appears claiming to be her missing friend Seung-Min, despite being significantly older.
While this video above is not the official trailer, I honestly like it better than any trailers. Sometimes fanmade is better, yeah? And that’s coming from a blog that has its own fan-video YouTube channel, so you know my preference.
The movie itself is extremely sad. I found myself choked up during several points (I’m not one to cry) and I honestly wanted a different ending. However, I also think that the ending worked based on the framing.
The movie starts with Su-Rin being interviewed by a woman who will write a book on her story. She’s been called a liar, told she should die, and targeted all because she helped the man who kidnapped her friends escape. She says she wants to tell her story. no lies.
While watching the movie, it’s easy to forget that we are hearing things from Su-Rin’s story. We don’t know how reliable she is as a narrator. In fact, the story actually gives us reason to believe she’s an unreliable narrator. She’s framed as a pathological liar by the media within her story, and it’s clear she’s been through a lot. Due to the fantasy elements of the story, it gives the viewer reason to doubt the child while also wanting to believe her.
I left the story with two opinions for the reality:
1) Su-Rin told the truth about everything. The man really was her friend Seung-Min. They never compared the fingerprints, which would have proven the man’s story, and they never did find the bodies of the other two missing children. Only one body was recovered. Thus, the fate of two of the boys was never really confirmed outside Su-Rin’s story. I also am held at the reminder that this is a movie and we’re meant to suspend reasoning when watching one. You don’t always want to limit yourself to saying, “Well, that’s impossible.” Finally, I do want to point out that, after her interview ends, we are shown Su-Rin meeting up with an older man who resembles both forms of Seung-Min that she meets. That is outside the narrative Su-Rin provides, and, as such, easier to believe.
2) Su-Rin liked Seung-Min and also was the only survivor of the incident. We only find one body of the boys, giving reason to believe that it could have eaten away at her to the point where she would do anything to believe that Seung-Min was still alive, even if it was as an adult. We are given examples of the man being able to have just been a random pedophile who was obsessed with Su-Rin. Someone clearly had been in that house before, learning to carve soap. As such, he could have had the talent to carve the scene of Su-Rin from behind (which we are made to believe is her in the cave) even without actually seeing her. Maybe he was responsible for the kidnappings, or maybe he just took advantage of the fact that Su-Rin was in a fragile state and would be desperate to believe Seung-Min was alive. I believe that we are given reason to believe that, until the man appears, Su-Rin suffers from survivor’s guilt. After all, she’s being yelled at and blamed by adults because she was the only one found after the event since she isn’t able to help them find the others.
Overall, both options seem very reasonable. I, personally, like to believe option 1 because I am an optimist. However, I’d like to compare this “which is the truth” to the book “Life of Pi,” where we are given two choices to believe on the narrator’s journey. Did he really survive in a boat with a tiger...or were the animals the way his mind saw the people instead? Things like this, which force us to question the narrator’s reliability are great to enjoy. I believe they are best, though, when you have people who have watched or read them as well, so that you can compare notes and see different opinions on the story. As such, I’d like to ask you, my readers, to tell me what you think if you have seen the movie. If you have not, but intend to, please share your opinion after watching it! I am eager to learn more and also have more people to feel sad at the bittersweet ending with.
Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned is available on Netflix.
Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned (aka 가려진 시간) is one of my favourite movies and I found the collector edition on eBay last month and my whole brain went “YES YES BUY THE THING” so I did. And it arrived in the mail today and I regret NOTHING because look how beautiful it is???? Blu-ray, OST, replica notebook/bts photobook, it’s fantastic! I was very tickled to see the replica of the prop book actually has a decoder page, but as I know only verrrrrry little Korean (though I do know the Hangul alphabet now, whoop) it isn’t very useful to me (yet?). Still figured I’d include the page anyway in case any of y’all know/like this weird little movie and would be interested ^_^
