For his line of work, being aloof and
anti-social is actually a prime qualification. He has come from the future to
subtly undermine the relationships the parents of future mass murderers,
forcing them to break up before they tragically procreate. Of course, it is
imperative he not interact with others while he is secretly living in our
current time-span. Ordinarily that is not a problem, but one mistake leads to
complications even he could not foresee in Jude Chun’s short film The Time Agent, which screens during the
2016 Third Culture Korean American Film Festival New York.
To break-up currently happily married
couples due to have monstrous children, he mostly does little things, like
leaving the toilet seat up. It is not just one thing—it is the cumulative
effect that really matters. Frankly, these scenes are rather disturbingly
convincing. However, while walking home from a day of minor mischief making,
the Agent interrupts a possible suicide on the bridge. Rather annoyed by his
squirrely behavior, Moon Yeesul decides not to jump.
Did he just change the future? To limit
the potential damage, the Agent invites her to stay in his Spartan flat while
he investigates what her previous future fate. Yet, much to his surprise, he quickly
finds he quite enjoys her company.
Much like Richie Mehta’s I’ll Follow You Down, Time Agent focuses more on the emotional
implications of time travel than special effects or huge history-altering time
ripples. Frankly, it turns out to be shockingly poignant, bringing together two
lost lonely souls, while dangling a Damocles Sword over their ambiguously budding
relationship.
Essentially a two-hander, Time Agent features two extraordinarily
subtle and agonizingly restrained performances from Choi Gwui-woong as the
Agent and Jeon Young-hee as Moon. You will be hard pressed to see better work
in any recent science fiction feature.
