Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned

This review may contain spoilers!

Certainly quite a bizarre film, but it's originality and beautiful style sets it apart from many other films I've seen this year. I'd give Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned a 7.5/10.

This is kind of a take on any film that involves time travel or some distortion of time to advance it's plot, except it's unlike anything you've ever seen before. The narrative starts out by crafting this wonderful relationship between two young kids only for us to watch as the young boy, Sung-Min, gets years of his life stolen from him after breaking a magical egg. What unfolds from there is a futile attempt at reconnecting with what he's lost and trying to find a place in a world that does not recognise him anymore. The cinematography is very vivid and beautiful, there's a real attention to detail with close ups of eyes upon the brink of tears or hair streaming outwards as a character floats upon water. The special effects and the cinematography go hand in hand here, the suspension of time is a hard setting to pull off and this film crafts something really unique and amazing out of it. The score really provided fitting emphasis to moments of high emotion, this was a crescendo film with the score rising to the key points of the narrative.

Gang Dong-Won, who played Sung-Min, does a great job at portraying a protagonist who has to be unique in how he interacts with an ordinary environment; Dong-Won crafts a tragic figure who is very easy to empathise with. Lee Hyo-Je, who played Sung-Min, does a great job of introducing us to this likeable child protagonist at the start of the film; his instant connection and chemistry with Eun-Soo sets the film up well for what's to come. Kim Hee-Won, who played Do-Gyoon, wasn't necessarily a great fathe figure but he went through some great character development over the course of the film; his abrasive manner meant his performance wasn't too conventional but it was nice to see he still cared for his stepdaughter despite his tough exterior. Kim Dan-Yul, who played Tae-Sik, is quite a cocky smart-mouthed kid when we first meet him; however what makes his performance really stand out is his portrayal of grief after seeing his friend die in the time suspension world. Jung Woo-Jin, who played Jae-Wook, has some of the best energy and line delivery out of all of the young cast; yet this only serves to make the film all the more tragic when we see this character struggle with his asthma in the time suspension world and eventually pass away. Um Tae-Goo, who played Tae-Sik, is a really interesting interpretation of what would happen to someone growing up in the time suspension world; his distant attitude and the futility in his voice make him one of the more tragic figures in the film.

However the best performance came from Shin Eun-Soo, who played Soo-Rin. This young protagonist crafted a strange outsider figure really well, a young girl obsessed with the impossible or the unexplainable. However when she befriends young Hyo-Je we see an instant chemistry between two young friends that is very heartwarming and nice to watch. Upon losing her friends Eun-Soo's grief and confusion guides the direction of the film and the trials she endures after meeting Dong-Won are intense to watch. This young actress plays a role who at times seems to be nearly alone against the world and she does a fantastic job of it.

This film attempts to introduce it's young cast of characters and their living situations very quickly, even the revelation of the magical egg and it's ensuing consequences feels rushed. This would have been fine if the film had at least kept with this style of pacing throughout but after Sung-Min is reintroduced the pacing slows right down. The tone of several scenes also undermined the dramatic intensity of the overall narrative, often taking things too far or throwing in a plot twist that just felt unnecessary. The ending for the film falls flat with Soo-Rin relating the final gripping events to some writer we'd never even met before and encountering Sung-Min again in what felt like an awkward final note.

Kwon Hae-Hyo, who played Baek-Gi, is the stern police chief that we've seen in heaps of different films before; nothing about this role felt original or indeed very necessary to the greater plot other than providing a form of antagonist. Moon So-Ri, who played Doctor Min, was a character that was introduced in the last ten minutes of the film and came out of nowhere; she wouldn't even be worth mentioning if there wasn't some weird level of importance placed upon her role in the film. Park Jin-Woo, Park Sung-Yeon, Kim Tae-Han and Kim Jung-Young, who played Tae-Sik's Father, Tae-Sik's Mother, Jae-Wook's Father and Jae-Wook's Mother respectively, were a group that really lacked dimension to their respective characters in this film; these roles were never really written to be developed and instead only served to provide background chaos throughout. Seo Ju-Hee, who played the Orphanage Director, was a poorly performed and predictable role in this film; her interaction with the two protagonists felt a little stilted.