Recalling both the erotic tension and the surrealist imagery of Woman of the Dunes, Kim Ki-duk's film is set near a remote lake where men come far and wide to fish on anchored rafts. Running a little bait-and-tackle shop is the earthy -- almost feral -- young lass Hee-jin (Seoh Jung), who sometimes sells herself for a price to horny fishermen. On one raft is the morose youth Hyun-shik (Kim Yu-seok), who Hee-jin has quietly taken a shine to after saving him from a suicide attempt. His ham-fisted advances are rejected, but after a second try at suicide, in which he puts fishing hooks in his mouth, she nurses him back to health. Soon, a freakily-intense relationship builds between the two in which the jealous Hee-jin starts to brutally dispatch with any competition. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
Part of a recent wave of taboo-breaking provocations from Asia --
Takashi Miike's
Audition and Jang Sun-woo's
Lies were released around the same time -- Kim Ki-Duk's The Isle is a gruesome, gorgeous yarn that locates its fabulous tale of love and loneliness in a remote South Korean lake. The oasis, with its mysterious floating shacks and spectral fog, proves to be an indelible setting for Kim's taciturn psychodrama, not to mention a spectacular subject for the director's camera. Kim's assured editing builds a lulling, creepy rhythm, while the striking compositions and colors provide eerie counterpoint to the queasy scenario. Ostensibly centered around the perverse romance between mute Hee-jin (Suh Jung) and the addled Hyun-shik (Kim Yu-seok), The Isle's
raison d'etre is, in fact, the bits of business that memorably punctuate Kim's abstracted love story. Boasting graphic scenes of bodily functions and self-mutilation, cynics can rightfully contend that the movie is nothing more than a compendium of shock tactics. Perhaps its most enduring image is that of Hyun-shik swallowing a handful of fishhooks, which Hee-jin then uses to reel him back in from the lake. A scandalous entry in the film festival circuit, where it reportedly caused walkouts among the squeamish, The Isle is clearly the work of a shameless provocateur, albeit an evidently gifted one. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide