Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned is a South Korean movie.
Tropes in this movie include:
- Bittersweet Ending: Seong-min stops time again to save Su-rin and the Captain, but spends another few years alone in the other world again. The Captain isn’t sure what to believe anymore, but advises Su-rin to just excuse her actions as complying with the strange man’s threats since no one will still believe them. Su-rin is interviewed by a writer, allowing the events of the film to be told elsewhere and interpreted by others (meaning someone could believe the story). Su-rin and her step-father make up. Su-run is accepted into a good middle school on the mainland, allowing her to start fresh, and she reunites with an even older Seong-min on the ferry.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes Su-rin or Seong-min that the strange man is an aged up Seong-min.
- The Ghost: The goblin(s) that laid the eggs.
- Give Her a Normal Life: At one point, Seong-min suggests to Su-rin that he should just turn himself in so that Su-rin can live normally, because he already lost his chance to do so when he broke the egg. He refuses to let Su-rin break the second egg because of this, so he breaks it himself.
- Hero with Bad Publicity:
- Su-rin is already seen as a weirdo at school, a sentiment that her classmates have spread to their parents as well. Seong-min reappearing as an adult causes her try to Verbal Backspace in an attempt to keep him off the radar, but it only leads everyone to think she’s a pathological liar seeking attention and is wasting everyone’s time that they should be using to find real evidence on the search.
- Seong-min has a hard time convincing anyone of his true identity, because wouldn’t you be suspicious if a man unknown to the town appeared right after the disappearance of three boys and made himself known when he made a creepy move on a young girl that was friends with those boys, as well as somehow knowing details that only Seong-min and company should know? Sounds like a pedophilic stalker...
- Heroic Sacrifice: Seong-min breaks the second egg to save Su-rin and the Captain from their fall, spending another decade-ish frozen in time again.
- Kick the Dog:
- The classmates ostracize Su-rin.
- On the first day of the search, the parents reveal that they full-heartedly believe what their children say about Su-rin being weird and thus she should be considered suspicious, instead of, you know, having told their kids prior to the ordeal to stop acting that way.
- The classmate that Su-rin and Seong-min try to convince of their story thinks Su-rin is an attention seeker that just wants to be in their friend group despite knowing nothing about them and throws her book into the water. He also tells on her to his mother, who uses it while accusing Su-rin’s stepfather.
- Su-rin’s stepfather locking her in her room and nailing down the door & window.
- Loners Are Freaks
- Not Helping Your Case: After returning to the real world, Seong-min gets uncomfortably close to Su-rin and almost caresses her face while saying that he’s Seong-min. Not helped with how disturbed he acted (of course, considering what he had been through, none of this behavior is his fault). This leads to Su-rin running away and calling for help, which causes the police to believe that this strange man that none of the locals know must be behind the disappearances. Su-rin is unable to Verbal Backspace the problem without people ignoring her and seeing her as a pathological liar.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While frozen in time, one of Seong-min’s friends cries after one of them dies, despite having bragged about how he doesn’t cry in the real world. After Seong-min returns to the real world, he tries to convince via Su-rin giving a writing to a classmate of their story, but he tells Su-rin to screw off for acting like she knows a thing about his missing friends and promptly tells on her to his mother.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Su-rin and Seong-min try to escape to the mainland, but are unable to obtain tickets. They try to escape to the downtown area via taxi, but change their mind after seeing that security checking taxis for passengers.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Su-rin can’t purchase a ferry ticket to get off of the island with Seong-min because she needs an ID or her parent’s ID.
