Secret Tears

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.

I purchased the zone 3 DVD and cannot stop to look at it. The actors in this movie are simply incredibly great. You'll stay long impressed by the young Mi-Jo. I was never so impressed by the expression in the eyes of an actor as I was in this movie.

After the ever fateful last round of drinks 3 friends find themselves driving home in the rain. It's dark and visibility is slim to none. Standing in the middle of the road 200 meters away is a bright eyed school girl staring at the sky as rain clouds pelt her face from high above. The driver is not paying much attention to the road, distracted by his friend singing karaoke next to him and too much to drink, he predictably runs straight into her. The only thing is she flies about 10 meters into the air in slow motion and strangely receives no bruises or breaks from the accident. This school girl, with no ID on her as well as a convenient case of amnesia and loss of speech, becomes the center of the story when the 3 friends try to find out who she is. As the events unfold it becomes clear that something supernatural is going on. In my opinion the rest of the story panned out pretty well, it wasn't too far fetched or even lacking content. It was filmed very well and the acting was solid. I was interested the entire way through, this is definitely a movie I would like to watch again.

This film tells the story of a Korean salaryman who after hitting a schoolgirl falls in love with her. She miraculously survives the accident without any marks or bruises. As the story gets further unraveled, the main character gets more and more attracted by this girl who slowly shows some supernatural powers. Apparently she can not cope with these and therefore the film ends in a dramatic way. Credits must be given to the actors who perform well. It is a shame though that the obvious, simple and predictable script fails to interest the viewer. The story develops in a linear way without surprising the public. Even though the director of photography did a good job, this film clearly shows that there can not be form without content.