Bimil

The South Korean SECRET TEARS, or BIMIL (2000), is a cross between a psychological thriller and girl-meets-man story, with enough plot twists and creative story angles to keep it engaging almost all the way through. Although I found myself wishing for more tension-producing subplots or situations as the film wore on, the originality of the story and beauty of the photography maintained my interest. The movie's thoughtful treatment of themes such as memory, reality, loss and emotional honesty were a welcome departure from the all-too-frequently two-dimensional content of many thrillers. The acting was wonderfully understated, although I found myself getting distracted by the male protagonist's habit of shifting his eyes from side to side whenever internal dialogue was indicated. But that's a quibble. The visual and audio effects so essential to the film were handled in an appropriately simple way, considering that this was not a big-budget movie. Subtitles were mostly well done.