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| Jun Young desperately tries to save his daughter Eun-jung from a deadly fate in Sun-ho Cho's A Day (2017) |
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I tend to find sentimental films rather disappointing, especially when they are couched in a daring, viscerally visual action thriller. Therefore, while Sun-ho Cho's time loop thriller
A Day certainly has plenty of crowd pleasing, eye candy charms, and a narrative structure that playfully unfolds, its "heart" is rather schmaltzy.
First, though, let me extol some of the film's pleasures. As I have mentioned, I recently taught a class on "puzzle films," so time loop or "forked path" narratives, where characters relive narrative events repeatedly, with different variations, carry great appeal. As per usual, the characters in such films must eventually "get it right" in order to escape the seemingly endless pattern of repetitions. Phil Connors in
Groundhog Day must let go of his selfish narcissism in order to progress; Lola, in
Run, Lola, Run has to make less violent and morally bankrupt choices; and Colter Stevens in
Source Code needs to discover the terrorist and stop a bomber from blowing up Chicago. All of these "forked path"/time loop narratives tell moral tales, so Cho's
A Day fulfills those kinds of expectations.
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| A Day has three characters who are stuck in an interconnected time loop |
Initially, the film focuses on Dr. Jun Young Kim, who is returning home from a U.N. trip and reconnecting with his neglected daughter, Eun-jung, for her birthday. What quickly becomes clear is that Jun Young is unable to prevent her death from a fatal traffic accident, which seems to occur no matter how many variations he tries. He soon discovers that this time loop is shared by another character, Min-chul, an E.M.T. whose wife dies in this traffic accident as well. Once these two connect, their mission is to save their damsels in distress from their imminent deaths. Another character is caught up in the mix, but explaining his role would give too much away.
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| Eun-jung's death is one of the film's greatest visual pleasures |
Sun-ho Cho knows how to craft a well-paced plot, and for his first feature, the film's narrative complexity, and the its resulting tension, are impressive accomplishments. Yet, I found myself both thrilled and a little dismayed by the great pleasure I took from watching the film's incredible car crashes--the camera veering, wheels squealing, and bodies flying into the air in glorious slow motion. There's something a little sick at work when some of the film's most exhilarating scenes are of a girl's repeated murder. Still, one of the film's variations was so incredibly dynamic that it elicited a unanimous roar of approval from the Fantasia crowd. The best way to see this film, by far, is in the SGWU hall packed to the rafters with enthusiastic fans!
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| All the "heroes" are men, the victims, women |
On the whole,
A Day is a really fun, adrenaline-fueled thriller. Unfortunately, it's also an example of "patriarchy 101" where invalid daughters and pregnant wives are the only role that women play here, and the men are the only ones with any agency. What could have been a rather sharp, dark revenge thriller is molded into a feel good film about love's ability to bring us together and conquer adversity. Meh. While I'm all for a world with a lot less hate in it,
A Day's overall sappiness and gratingly mushy heart just left me blandly cold.
