Seom (The Isle) was the first movie I saw by the South Corean director Ki-Duk Kim and I liked it. It's about a strange lonely woman who rents floating fish huts for people to sleep in. In addition to food and coffee she also provides sexual services for the men.
The story gets going when a retired policeman, who has murdered his girlfriend arrives to the place of floating huts. A strange romantic relationship build between these two loners and sex becomes a drug for them - a medicine to mental and physical injuries.
An important theme of the movie is fishing, in my opinion Ki-Duk compares fishing to relationships; you need bait to lure the catch, just as one example. The movie analyzes love and relationships: do they always end up to a disaster or can they save a human's life. I'm sure I will come back to this film, because of its several layers.
There's not much of a dialog in this film, which to my mind is good. Because it's the reason why this movie is so capturing and it shows the visual skills of Ki-Duk Kim. Of course there is also always a reason to choose the quiet way, for the Belgian Dardenne brothers it is film-philosophy for Ki-Duk it is probably the style of narrative, but also the thing what silence does to the observation of the viewer.
The thing that bothers me with this film is the abuse of animals. I don't know whether the scenes were real or faked, but anyways they were pretty nasty. I can watch almost anything (Le Sang Des Betes), but it just doesn't feel right. Even that the scenes were important for the film - Ki-Duk's symbolicism.
So get ready for something a little different, something disturbing and yet so interesting. I wouldn't recommend this to the most sensitive viewers because it has a lot of brutal and violent scenes. Set your mind ready for some symbolism and good extraordinary narrative.
The story gets going when a retired policeman, who has murdered his girlfriend arrives to the place of floating huts. A strange romantic relationship build between these two loners and sex becomes a drug for them - a medicine to mental and physical injuries.
An important theme of the movie is fishing, in my opinion Ki-Duk compares fishing to relationships; you need bait to lure the catch, just as one example. The movie analyzes love and relationships: do they always end up to a disaster or can they save a human's life. I'm sure I will come back to this film, because of its several layers.
There's not much of a dialog in this film, which to my mind is good. Because it's the reason why this movie is so capturing and it shows the visual skills of Ki-Duk Kim. Of course there is also always a reason to choose the quiet way, for the Belgian Dardenne brothers it is film-philosophy for Ki-Duk it is probably the style of narrative, but also the thing what silence does to the observation of the viewer.
The thing that bothers me with this film is the abuse of animals. I don't know whether the scenes were real or faked, but anyways they were pretty nasty. I can watch almost anything (Le Sang Des Betes), but it just doesn't feel right. Even that the scenes were important for the film - Ki-Duk's symbolicism.
So get ready for something a little different, something disturbing and yet so interesting. I wouldn't recommend this to the most sensitive viewers because it has a lot of brutal and violent scenes. Set your mind ready for some symbolism and good extraordinary narrative.