Vanishing Time (Movie Review)

I've been meaning to watch Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned for a very long time, but I put it off, since I expected it to be horribly tragic. And boy, was it. But it was also beautiful and deeply touching - I feel slightly cleansed. This is what fantasy is all about.

Four friends go into the forest. Only one comes back, and she has a story to tell. A story so unbelievable that that a theory of kidnappings, Stockholm Syndrome and delusion is far more plausible. All you need to know is that only one boy survives, and he isn't the same.

Firstly, this movie is unbelievably cruel. I'll avoid going into the details of why these boys disappeared, and simply say what happened was horrifying. Your mind dances as you watch, thinking of all the things that the boys missed out on, all the horrible possibilities.
  As expected, the acting was absolutely flawless. Kang Dong-won was mesmerising; he perfectly captured the boy trapped in the shell of a man. I think I broke inside when he tried to reach out to the people who used to know him, because every micro-expression betrayed how he was just a tender-hearted, vulnerable, broken child. But I was also majorly impressed by Shin Eun-soo as well, and I'll definitely be following her projects from now on.

  The movie was very deserving of it's long run-time, it never once felt inflated. The pacing was absolutely perfect, and the team clearly laboured over the world-building. It's a shame that we were never given any logical explanations for the 'egg', but it's easy to form my own conclusions from what we were given.

  Something I didn't expected was the saturated filter that was used in the film. Perhaps I thought the world would be portrayed to be more bleak, considering the tragic nature of Vanishing Time, but I thought a little harder and this made more sense. I was left with one life-affirming message: Life is beautiful, so seize it whilst time is still on your side.

  What intrigues me is that despite how frustrating the police, parents and guardians in this film were, they weren't the 'villains' of the film. People are inclined to believe whatever is the most probable, so it is sad but completely understandable that they each skipped to a conclusion that they perceived as the most likely. The real villain here was time. Think about that for a while.

In conclusion, Vanishing Time is the fantasy movie you didn't know you needed. Not only did the visuals take my breath away, but the story was inventive with a concept I've seen time and time again, managing to pour so much love and heart and pathos into it. I'll be remembering a friendship that spans time when I think about this movie.