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Reviews
Jimseung ui kkut (2010)
Rides from strangers
Dark without remit. During most of the film's two hours, dramatic tension in "End of Animal" swings between uncomprehending confusion ("Why is this happening?") and betrayal and victimization ("Why are you doing this to me?") as a very pregnant young woman attempts to reach a highway rest area where she can get word to her mother following a mysterious failure of all electrical devices (well, except for a flashlight or two). Defenseless against the other desperate people she encounters, she lacks coping skills beyond sheer persistence, which nevertheless takes her unexpectedly far in her quest to get home. The erosion of all human help and comfort reminds me of a Japanese film I dimly recall from years ago: "Woman in the Dunes".
Pacing is slow but consistent, and events maintained my interest in the main character and my wish for her to succeed. Supporting characters are economically but believably drawn. The only false note: a nonhuman, recurrent threat is too reminiscent of the American TV series "Lost", which had to be familiar to the makers of this 2010 film.
Time Machine: The Journey Back (1993)
Overcoming time
I always loved the movie and in particular the Time Machine itself: what a wonderful design! It was surprising but somehow fitting that the sled concept came from George Pal's childhood memories of winter fun.
I wondered what had become of the Machine, who owned it. I had always assumed that like the life-creating lab equipment used in James Whale's _Frankenstein_, it had been bought by a wealthy fan for a private collection, or that it was in a film museum somewhere.
The truth revealed in _The Journey Back_ is a little sad, but also moving. The studio, not realizing the icon they had, did little to preserve the Machine. Over the years it was dismembered, auctioned, sold, damaged, and neglected by a variety of owners. The occasional people who lovingly restored the Time Traveler's seat, the control panel, or the brass railings showed the devotion and resourcefulness of custodians of a holy relic.
Ironic that a symbol of emancipation from time was so subject to its effects; uplifting too that a few fans who, like me, had admired it since childhood were able to keep it, and a sort of hope, alive.