InCinemas SG

Opening Date

10 Aug 2017

Rating

PG13 Some Coarse Language

Runtime

90 mins

Language

Korean - subtitles to be advised

Genre

Thriller

Director

Sun-ho Cho

Cast

Myung-min Kim, Yo-han Byeon, Hye-Sun Shin

Synopsis

Returning from a long trip abroad, Jun-young, a skilled doctor, comes across a scene of a car accident on the way to meet his daughter. It turns out that the dead girl hit by a taxi is none other than his beloved daughter, Eun-jung. Then suddenly, everything repeats like déjà vu, Eun-jung getting hit by the taxi and Min-chul, the paramedic, checking on the other victims in the taxi, including his own wife. Lost in repetition, Jun-young notices that he is not the only one trying to save a loved on in the endless time loop. Jun-young and Min-chul decide to work together to redesign the gruesome future.

Reviews

By Jason Lin 10 Aug 2017

Many things can be achieved in A Day and director Cho manages to make good use of it as a platform to showcase his craft. While it was produced with specific intentions, much more can be done within A Day to push it beyond its genre-fulfilling attributes.

read more

Waking up multiple times to relive the exact segment in life isn’t a new premise where it was adopted in films like 2011’s Source Code and 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow. South Korean filmmaker Cho Sun-Ho’s directorial debut uses the concept to craft a thriller that advocates the greater good to seek forgiveness over vengeance.

A Day is not a science fiction production and it, therefore, doesn’t try to elaborate on the time loop phenomenon. It happens just because – a plot device for the film to narrate the intertwining story of how three men find themselves stuck in the vicious cycle of reliving a tragic chapter of their lives.

While it is disappointing not to establish the concept, it understandably enables the film to focus on its key point(s) that it wishes to make. It begins with the lead character – celebrity doctor Jun-yeong (Kim Myung-min) who tries to prevent his daughter Eun-jung (Jo Eun-hyung) from the tragic fate of being run-over by a speeding taxi. He later realises that he isn’t the only one.

But as much as Jun-yeong tries to coordinate efforts with paramedic Min-chul (Byeon Yo-han) who also wishes to save his wife who was in the taxi that ran over Eun-jung, the event simply cannot be prevented.

The plot thickens quickly (given the film’s concise running time of 90 minutes) and they realise that the vicious cycle is sustained by another man’s hatred for what Jun-yeong and Min-chul had done previously. The film then dwells into the characters’ approach towards addressing their past sins and how it has an impact towards their lives moving forward.

Character performance is generally strong where they appear to be frustrated and desperate given the circumstances. What let the film down somewhat is, however, the minor plot pieces that were not used to accentuate the overall story arc. For instance, the (repeating) scene where Jun-yeong encounters a fumbling highway toll counter staff was sadly not part of the film’s narrative strategy.

Many things can be achieved in A Day and director Cho manages to make good use of it as a platform to showcase his craft. While it was produced with specific intentions, much more can be done within A Day to push it beyond its genre-fulfilling attributes.

read less

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