The Isle (2000)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

A Surprisingly Unforgettable Movie!

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I gotta give it to the makers of 'The Isle'. Really, they should get a 10 for originality because there are quite a lot of things you'll see here that, I assure you, exists in no other film.At the risk of ruining the element of surprise for you I won't say what you'll see; suffice it to say, this film is worth your attention because watching it feels like you're peeking into a world quite unlike any you've seen on Earth. That's the feeling I got, anyway, like it was a surreal movie filmed on Jupiter and exported down here to us.I get this feeling that the makers actually sat down and said, "You know what? Cinema is redundant these days. There's nothing original anymore. All the dramas are the same. All the thrillers are the same. All the horrors are carbon copies of each other. Let's go out of our way to present something, with the limited budget we have, that an audience has never seen before." And they succeeded.Again, I'm not giving anything away other. The film, as presented, is absolutely sublime. The cinematography alone is worth the price of admission; everything else you see on screen is just icing on the cake. Definitely one of the best Korean films ever.

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.

I really can't understand how could someone give this disgusting film more than 1 star... How can you like such a retarded film, where all the animal abuse scenes are real? I don't even want to imagine the excruciating pain those innocent and defenseless living beings felt in those horrific moments... Jesus... What kind of ''human'' would torture them like that for no reason, or just for money? I tell you, that director is either mentally retarded, or he's just a monster with a ''heart'' of stone. Or both. He truly deserves to get his hands cut off and burn alive.It contains various horribly barbaric scenes that may cause shock, especially to sensitive persons and children: a real frog is skinned alive, fish are sadistically mutilated and thrown back into the water, a dog is beaten, birds are thrown into the water...This movie is more than awful; it has to be the worst and most retarded film ever made, along with another one, called ''Cannibal Holocaust'' or something like that. I'll never watch or buy any film directed by this heartless monster. No one should waste their time watching it, especially when there are a lot of TRULY great movies out there, in which all the animal abuse scenes are staged.Fortunately, only a few people liked this - which is natural, since it's the worst film ever -, so it wasn't successful. I hope this will make the retarded director realize that such unjustified barbaric acts of extreme cruelty and violence to REAL animals will NEVER be praised, and that he will stage all the animal abuse scenes in his following films. I truly believe that everyone receives but what they give! There will be a day when all the retarded and cruel ''humans'' will feel the same pain they once inflicted to others.This, however, is probably my only ''negative'' review. I usually don't comment on a movie if I dislike it, but this time I just couldn't shut up. I had to speak the truth, because animal abuse must stop!

Is this the same Kim Ki Duk who directed the poignant, life-spanning testimonial of "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring"? The same Kim Ki Duk who directed the exquisite, nearly silent, heartbreaking longing of "3 Iron"? The same Kim Ki Duk who dazzled us with the staggering tragedy of "The Coast Guard" and made us squirm about the ugliness of nonchalant teenage prostitution before returning to his almost patented nature motif to allow us all (characters and viewers alike) to experience redemption in "Samaritan Girl"? I just cannot seem to find him in this film.Oh, sure, Kim's nature motif is still present. The film takes place entirely on a lake surrounded by mountains and on fishing floats resting placidly on the surface of calm waters. Yes, it's Kim Ki Duk, all right. Kim even describes the film as "beautiful" in an interview included in the DVD's special features. But I'm not sure anymore what that means after viewing this putrescent presentation.What is beautiful about angry, potty-mouthed prostitutes, lustful, violent and potty-mouthed fishermen, a covetous mute merchant, explicit animal torture, sequences of self-mutilation and a pace that swings nauseatingly between bestial carnality and mindless brutality? These are the only elements of humanity that present themselves in this utterly confounding and ultimately pointless film. If it is based on a fable or intended as a parable or is meant to be symbolic of something greater, this reviewer is unfamiliar with the source material. It has been favorably compared to "Audition" by Japanese director Takashi Miike (much to Kim's satisfaction), but aside from some astonishingly good performances, especially given what they had to work with, by lead actors Seo Jung and Kim Yoo Suk, I find little reason to recommend this film. I have not seen "Audition," but I doubt it would alter in any way my view of "The Isle." Its violence is pornographic and senselessly sadistic. Its sex is not pornographic, but passionless and masochistic. Characters behave on irritating impulse because there is no plot. Its point is either non-existent or, I will admit, lost amidst Korean cultural quirks that I fail to understand.The only beauty is in the cinematography, which is classic Kim: fog-shrouded boats lapping slowly across a serene lake, mountainous terrain dominating the background, and an imaginative and playful use of color. At times it seems as if viewers are locked in a big Kim Ki Duk romper room. Some touches, like the mysterious and seductive mute merchant played by Jung and the pleasantly odd use of motorbikes, are intriguing. But as a film, this effort is downright confusing and, in the end, offensive to the senses, not necessarily to sensibilities. One hopes that Kim will leave this kind of film-making in the trash heap of his past, for we know he is capable of so much more.