BEIJING, July7 --South Korean director Kim Ki-duk's new film "Time" a modern tale about love and appearances sprinkled with raw plastic surgery scenes had its world premiere at the opening of the Karlovy Vary film festival last weekend.

"Time" ("Shi gan"), which its author situates "between realism and fantasy," is a romantic story of a young Korean (Sung Hyun-ah) whose love for a slightly younger man (Ha Jung-woo) encourages her to undergo facial cosmetic surgery.

Scalpel cuts, sliced flesh and stitches are showed as if from a medical documentary, contrasting with the dreamlike scenes of the couple who cycle between finding and losing each other.

"If I said I did not mean to shock, it would be a lie. A shock was necessary," explained the director, a rising star in the Asian film scene.

"Now it is up to the people to decide if they are shocked and will denounce plastic surgery or if they take it as it is."

The director said that plastic surgery scenes represent less than 5 per cent of the film, and had he used up to 10 per cent, the film would not have been shown in cinemas.

"I really included the bare minimum," he assured, with a hint of a smile under his trademark blue cap.

But Ki-duk maintains that "Time" is about a lot more than cosmetic surgery.

"What I try to say through this film is that time passes but always returns to the same point and some things are never changing. Truth is not changing," he said.

The young South Korean, known for his ambiguous statements, said the philosophy of his film is that "black is white and white is black."

Ki-duk opted to present the world premiere of his film in the Czech Republic with a press conference in Korean, translated first into Czech and then into English.

It was his fear of being misunderstood which, he said, encouraged him to "do the utmost to reduce the dialogue" in his films.

After studying in France and travelling across Europe, Ki-duk has settled down in a small village outside Seoul and defines himself as a director "between Europe and Asia."

He said "Time" was not about "humanism, action or comedy," but rather "more about irony."

Irony will also be the main theme of his next work.

"There are several ideas that I'm pondering now, but I have not decided yet, but I want to make a film that has never been done by anyone else before ... which is very difficult. My next film will be about irony," explained the 46-year-old director, who has 13 films and a collection of European awards to his name.

(Source: China Daily)