Dream

Dream (Bi Mong/비몽), review, is a 2008 Korean film of the supernatural kind. It stars Joe Odagiri, Lee Na Young, Park Ji Ah, and Kim Tae Hyun. The summary is as follows:

Jin wakes up from a nightmare of a traffic accident. It drives him to the very spot where a real accident took place. He follows the police to the suspect’s home and watches as Ran denies the hit-and-run accusation since she was asleep the entire night. Jin explains his dream to them and asks to be charged instead. The police dismiss him and arrest Ran. Jin is convinced that there’s an unexplainable connection between the two. They discover that when he dreams, she acts out his dream in her sleep.

I decided to watch this mainly because it sounded interesting - I mean, a sleepwalker acts out someone elses' dream? It started out tame enough, when we're first introduced to it, but once the two interacts more with one another and they even make a futile attempt to stay awake at all times, in an attempt to stop the dreams, it gets more intense. There seems to be an underlying message that's hidden pretty deep down, with a statement (白黑同色; 'black and white are the same colors'), blending together what's reality and what's fantasy. Towards the middle, there was some graphic self-torture, akin to the Saw movies though not quite to that extent (in short, it may be disturbing to some viewers) that may bring this movie towards more mature audiences, among other issues that are portrayed.

However, if you're looking for something with a clear-cut conclusion, this is not a movie for you. It sort of raises more questions and makes you think at the end. It is a bit of a roller coaster though, with twists and turns, as well as additional puzzle pieces. In the end, there's a sort of tragic romance feel to it that sort of reminded me of Butterfly Lovers, a movie about the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet - but don't get me wrong. This movie's dark and provocative and has a high possibility to be confusing; I mean, Odagiri speaks Japanese throughout the entire movie - he's the ONLY one to speak Japanese in the entire movie - and no one seems to notice. On the other side, the acting was pretty good. :)

You can watch it here.