In “Dream,” Jin (Joe Odagiri) wakes up from a dream with an uneasy feeling that what he just dreamt may have just been something more. In his dream, Jin drove his ex girlfriend’s car, only to smash into another car, but takes off before the police arrive. Jin’s uneasy feeling about his dream is so persistent that he leaves his home and drives to the spot where the accident occurred in his dream. When Jin arrives at the intersection, there is the same car he dreamt he hit, broken down from a hit & run accident. The area is now blanketed with cops.

Jin then overhears that a suspect for the hit & run has been discovered and follows a cop car that goes to investigate the suspect. When the police arrive, they find a car matching the description of the hit & run driver’s car with a smashed in front engine. The police then takes the woman named Ran (Na-young Lee)in for questioning. While she is being taken away, Jin hears Ran screaming that she was home all evening and was in fact sleeping in her bed.

At the police station, Jin walks up to the police desk interviewing Ran and takes full blame for the hit & run. He claims that somehow what he dreamt was acted out by Ran, but she is completely free from blame. After psychological exams, Jin and Ran realize that they are inexplicably connected, with Ran acting out whatever Jin dreams …

“Dream” is a unique film, that at times feels like a clunky art-house film, but wins you over with its many sleight of hand tricks to make you re-examine what is reality. Especially in the beginning of the film, “Dream” takes on more of a feel of a “theatrical play” rather than your typical feature length film. The main culprit for this feeling would undoubtedly lie with Joe Odagiri speaking entirely in Japanese, while all the other characters respond in Korean. Timing between spoken lines become more pronounced, as the characters seem to make sure they don’t run over the other person’s lines. For less adventurous native Korean & Japanese movie goers, this just may well become a deal breaker. Western audience may not even notice this discrepancy, and for all others, this becomes less of an issue as you become more familiar with the story. Realism does take a serious hit with the decision to have Joe Odagiri speak entirely in Japanese, but when examined more closely, the loss of realism becomes more of an intentional ploy to further blur the line between the movie’s central question – “What is reality and what is a dream?”

For people who find the story confusing or absolutely need to fill in all the blanks, well the story is purposefully obtuse and you just can’t fit everything perfectly into place. Instead, “Dream” is a film that should be taken as a whole to surmise what could have occurred in the film. If you don’t mind spoilers and want to know my take on the film’s premise read below and for others just skip to the last paragraph. The biggest clue in determining what is “reality” (or better yet what is not “reality”) in the film is Joe Odagiri’s Jin character speaking Japanese. This tells you that the movie’s narration is set not in reality but within a dream, but then from whose dream does the story take place? You can pick Ran or Jin, but it really doesn’t matter, as they seem to be one. The film on more than one occasion harps on the mantra “black & white is the same,” while Ran and Jin appears in contrasting black & white throughout the film. Also note the scene where Ran walks back to Jin’s car outside the Buddhist temple. When Ran peers into the tinted window, Jin’s reflection appears on the window.

With the combination of Ki-duk Kim, Joe Odagiri, and Na-yeong Lee working together for the first time, my enthusiasm for “Dream” was incredibly high. This was even further heightened by the absolutely stunning trailer released for “Dream.” The actual end product doesn’t quite rise to the level of these lofty expectations. Frequent faults found in Ki-duk Kim’s latter films (like his penchant for pretentiousness or his over emphasis on unique themes & under emphasis on believable characters) appear numerous times in “Dream.” With that stated, the movie is still a fascinating pic that unveils a succession of sleight of hand tricks to make you re-examine what you first believed is reality in the film. “Dream” is Kim’s most enjoyable film to date.