Dream (2008)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Best movie ever!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Kim Ki-Duk is a bit of a celebrity down here in Poland, especially in the art circles. This position was a bit hurt by his immense failure of a movie "Time", but memories of past glory persist. "Dream" was therefore awaited with clenched fists and some drool pouring from the mouths of critics."Dream" tells a story of two people - a man and a woman - whose lives become intertwined by a weird twist of fate. Apparently when they both sleep the man dreams, whilst the women ends up sleepwalking and executing the dream. When this reality folds they unwillingly start connecting their lives together - they attempt various schemes to solve the issue - with more or less limited results. Will they be able to stop the dreams? Will the dreams connect them eternally or destroy them? The movie itself fails to make any such impression asthe director's glorious predecessors, but thankfully it is watchable, if extremely flawed. To a large part the movie is even enjoyable, thanks to it's slightly slapsticky humour focused on methods of trying not to fall asleep. In the meantime issues of love, solitude, connection are hardly dealt with or are subtly touched. That is until the final third, when the movie increasingly and unsuccessfully goes into "Old Boy" territory plus some cheesy Korean love flick. The romance doesn't work and isn't believable, while the grand finale instead of being somber and melancholic ends up being laughable and... cheesy.Definitely not the corn on the cob any fan of Kim Ki Duk was expecting. But I least several times I had a good honest laugh (as intended hopefully by the director, although I wasn't always sure). The problem remains however the impossibility to turn a blind eye on the slightly ridiculous last 30 minutes, even more so due to the fact that it was so out of focus from the less serious start to it.And not even the beautiful cinematography can help with this movie playing out like a Brazilian soap with a supernatural twist to it...

The Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu dreamed he was a butterfly and when he woke up he thought maybe he now was a man in a butterfly's dream. I think you can see the whole film as a dream and as such it is just perfect. In the real world it's of course impossible for a Japanese to be understood in Corea, speaking his own tongue -it's not like e.g. a Swedish actor in a Norwegian or Danish film- but in a dream it's even natural. Also, the "comical", bloody stay-awake-scenes should be seen as dream-scenes; I guess in real life you would drink a lot of coffee instead of stabbing yourself! So, my recommendation is: give the film a second chance and look upon it as a dream.

Kim Ki-Duk's tale of how a man and a woman become linked by dreams.It begins with Jin waking up from a vivid dream involving a car accident. Going to the scene he finds th police are investigating a hit and run accident. Following information from a traffic camera the police go to Ran's home find that she was asleep. Hauled to the police station Ran tries to protest but there are pictures of her driving the car. Jin tries to intercede and soon its discovered that Ran has taken to sleep walking recently.It seems that when ever Jin dreams Ran acts out his dreams but in an opposite way which means that Jin who is trying to see his ex-girlfriend whom he still loves, causes Ran to see her ex boyfriend whom she despises.This is a dark romantic tale is an often uncomfortable to watch since we know what the dreams mean. Ran is getting hurt because of what Jin is dreaming and there is little that the pair can do. Well acted, we feel for the characters because the actors makes it clear that sometimes its so hard to stay awake. They have created two nice characters that we feel bad for.Unfortunately the film has a couple of problems that work against the valiant attempts of the actors. First the score is not very good. It seems to belong to some cheesy exploitation film from the 1970's. For me it was all wrong and from the first notes it set a really bad mood. The other problem is that script doesn't really work. The characters are never fully fleshed out and as much as the actors try to breath life into them they sill feel a bit hollow or unformed. The trajectory of the story kind of seems too artificial. The film seems not to always be moving in a natural direction, I had the feeling that the director wanted it to go in a certain direction and thats the way it goes. This being a Kim Ki-Duk film it's ripe with a sense of darkness and or even dread. This is not a wholly happy tale even if it is ultimately a love story (there is some violent imagery).In the end I don't know what I make of it. I like the idea, I like the characters, but there is something about the way the film is told that rubbed me the wrong way. I think its an interesting misfire. (And lest you think that I don't "get" Kim Ki-Duk's style or his films, understand that I am a fan having all but his first three films in my collection.) if you're a fan of the director or adventurous, I think its worth trying for the characters and the pieces that work, but at the same time I'd wait for it to be a rental or (less likely) on cable.Between 5 and 6 with my feelings toward the film bouncing back and forth between the ratings

A man and a woman's life becomes entangled as she does what he dreams, or in other cases,he experiences what she does while sleepwalking. Its a storyline that Kim-Duk should feel right at home with. And for the first twenty five minutes or so it looks promising. Rich atmosphere with tasteful use of music. I was just waiting for him to really start WORKING with the story and ideas at hand.I don't think he does that. To me it looks like Kim-Duks abandons much of his graceful soul-searching in favor of fleshy melodrama. Especially the awkward shouting-scene at the field, but the whole film has something contrived about it. The main-character are very illogical in their thinking, with may indicate that the film is meant to work on a allegorical level, but I'm dubious. The cinematography too strikes me as bland, with some interesting exceptions. There are faint echoes of 3-Iron here, the film that more and more stands out as his masterpiece, but lacks most of its subtle grace.Well, until the end that is. The breathtaking and magical scene where she "escapes" confirms that Kim-Duk still has it in him,(but I'm not wild about how it ties everythinkg together so neatly), as much as i respect him as an artist, i think Kim-Duk needs to relocate and form ranks.