So it turns out I only saw two Korean time travel films this week. To be fair, the first one was more like time manipulation – not the same thing at all, right? And this one? The word “travel” is used pretty loosely; I mean, travel implies destination, which certainly applies, but only for, like, 20 minutes. Hence, there’s time travel here in the same way that you “travel” to the post office to buy stamps.
Will You Be There? isn’t afraid to ask the hard-hitting question: “Could you fall for a dolphin trainer?” And having asked that question, the hard-hitting follow-ups, “Are you sure? Like, for how long, because what if she dies within a week?” and “Suppose she died 30 years ago; could you still love her then?” It’s not often films get to revive the Timecop scenario, boldly choosing to eschew both timecops and JCVD in the process.
This film is told in two different timelines – in 2015, surgeon Su-hyeon (Yun-seok Kim) is doing relief work in Cambodia. Instead of taking the chopper back to his Korean M*A*S*H unit or wherever, he stays to fix a baby with a cleft palette. The wizened elder who witnesses the selflessness more-or-less grants Su-hyeon a wish and leaves him with a bottle of pills. I don’t know about you, but if I’m in ultra-rural Cambodia and some old fossil asks me what I wish for and then hands me a bottle of pills, well, I’m looking for escape routes. Could be I’m just a little jaded.
Su-hyeon, a champion smoker with lungs roughly the shade of a computer monitor, asked for “more time.” And when he takes a pill, he is transported back to 1985 – isn’t that cute? where he catches young Su-hyeon (Yo-han Byeon) just in time to confuse himself mightily. Of course, Su-hyeon just wants to go back in time to see that sweet, sweet dolphin trainer he missed – or maybe just a sweet, sweet dolphin. I wasn’t sure at first—then, of course, he devises a plan to save her life. There’s a catch, however, in the years following the 
fateful dolphin incident, Su-hyeon got married and sired a girl.
You get where this is going, right? A man has the ability to time travel for a brief and limited amount of time. He can probably save the woman he first fell in love with, but if he does, he jeopardizes the birth of his only daughter. In the case of your soulmate v. your child, what do you do? And give the movie credit; it also accounts for young Su-hyeon’s POV – he doesn’t know his daughter at all; she’s still nine years in the future to him. What does he care about the child of his upcoming life?
I’m a sucker for lost love and a sucker for parent-child devotion, hence this movie nailed me on two fronts. I don’t expect it to do the same for you, so I’ve probably rated it slightly higher than it deserves. Still, you time travelers out there –who continue not to go back and steer Tyler Perry towards politics or business or something … damn you! – might find a perspective worth your unlimited time.
A time traveler whose life’s thread wears thin
Finds the point where his love was done in
But if he acts fast
With choices that last
He can probably save her dolphin
Not Rated, 111 Minutes
Director: Ji-Yeong Hong
Writer: Ji-Yeong Hong
Genre: Timecop
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: JCVD
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Ron Silver (the villain from Timecop)
