BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Anssi Vartiainen The Isle is one of the few movies I've seen in a long time where silence is used to its full extent. It's a movie of very little music, very few lines of dialogue and even the ambient sound is that hollow echo of a lake where everything is muted and misty. And yet it works so well for the purposes of this particular story.Hee-jin (Jung Suh) is a mute young woman who runs and maintains a removed lake fishing resort where a fleet of floating cabins are rented for those wanting peace and quiet. Most of her usual customers are middle-aged men who are mostly interested in fishing, drinking and occasionally her body. Our story starts when a disquieted man (Yoosuk Kim) arrives at her resort, looking to hide from the world.The Isle is a movie of reflection. It's that lazy hour sitting on the porch, drinking coffee, staring at nothing, thinking nothing in particular. And thus, when things start to build up, it takes you a moment to shake off the cobwebs, allowing the movie to deliver some real gut punches. At its heart of hearts it's a thriller, but honestly I have rarely been as nauseated or scared by a horror movie than I was by this one.The Isle is a fantastic movie for someone looking for a quiet thriller that takes its time and trusts itself enough to allow for the suspense to build as slowly as it needs to build. The pacing is just perfect, the story ends just when it needs to and as a whole it's an experience. Highly recommended.

plsletitrain The film gives you that heavy, unexplainable, load after watching. There's not much child-friendly scenes going on, and that's what made me love this. There's cruelty and profanity everywhere, with the injection of, on its face, irrelevant scenes which were either intentionally placed to stir our brains, or were unintentionally left by a director who lacked ideas. I have to believe its the former.The Isle actually made me laugh, because the scenes were just so explicit, overt and straightforward that I can't help but be amazed at Kim's confidence. I honestly can't believe he had the guts to do all those stuff. He takes the risk to employ moral and social taboos in his films and that's what I like about him. He doesn't hold back just to please everyone.The story isn't messy, too. There's room for interpretations but the movie still gave away its own essence. Actually, if you were to summarize the story, you can do it in a sentence or two. What made the movie complex is Kim's approach. I think he failed on his approach in 3-iron but he was successful this time. Perhaps because he coursed through the more understandable route--hit what you wan't to say in your movie without lingering, but do it painfully straight to scar the viewer--that's what he did! I think any social and moral controversy you can think of can be found in this movie..rape, prostitution, poverty, animal cruelty, torture, lust, murder, name it. It's all here.I can totally understand how some scenes probably scared and scarred a lot of viewers. And I can totally understand how some might view him as a provocateur. I, on the other hand, believe otherwise. The movie might not be accommodating to those who have weak stomachs, but there lies the beauty of this film.The Isle won't bore you, because its either the explicit sex scenes will hold your attention, or the previous metal-eating, vomit-inducing, scene still consumes your thoughts. This for me, is a timeless masterpiece.

Desertman84 Kim Ki-duk's The Isle is definitely a great film that has an unlikely appeal and it is definitely not for the weak at heart. It stars Suh Jung and Kim Yoosuk as the mute Hee-Jin and a man running from the law,Hyun- Shik respectively.Both are an unlikely couple who develop a love for each other despite the unusual circumstances. The story is about Hee-jin, who operates a fishing resort, where she rents out small floating cottages and ferries her customers back and forth between land and the floats, controlling the only means of transport around. She also dispassionately takes care of her customers' needs by selling supplies, providing prostitutes or occasionally acting as one herself. However, when a man running from the law,Hyun-shik,comes to the resort, a bond starts to form between them.He arrives at the resort and is ferried to his float by Hee-jin. There is nothing unusual about their business relationship from the onset, but eventually Hee-jin is intrigued by Hyun-shik's feelings of depression and desolation. When visiting his float one time, Hee-jin still resists Hyun-shik's forceful advances but does call in a prostitute to service him. Hyun-shik, however,only wants companionship from the prostitute and a relationship starts to form between them.However,an unlikely bond and relationship developed between them.Hee-jin looks after Hyun-shik, even saving him from two suicide attempts,the second one accomplished gruesomely by swallowing a string of fish hooks. A prostitute continues to take more and more time off her schedule to visit Hyun-shik, oblivious to his troubles and eventually Hee-jin becomes jealous. During one visit, Hee-jin ferries the prostitute to an empty float instead of Hyun-shik's, ties her up and duct tapes her mouth shut, which eventually leads to her death as she falls into the sea.The prostitute's pimp, who comes to find out what's happening, is also killed by Hee-jin.After the murders, Hyun-shik's and Hee-jin's relationship stalls.He wants to leave the resort,but she won't let him. When he attempts to swim out,she has to save him and take him back to his float.Then he takes the boat and is set to leave. Hee-jin apparently attempts suicide in an effort to stop him by stuffing fish hooks into her vagina and falling into the water. This time it's his turn to save her, by reeling her in with the still attached hooks.Both continue their troubled relationship. A prostitute accidentally kicks a man's rolex into the water, infuriating him. He calls divers to have them retrieve the watch. The divers discover the bodies of the prostitute and the pimp while Hee-jin and Hyun-shik wordlessly take off on his float. The film concludes in enigmatic fashion when it shows Hee- jin's dead body floating in the boat.The movie tries to explore about two people who are affected by depression and desolation as well as the primal behavior and brutalities men are inherently capable of.Aside from that,it also tries to examine the complexity of the relationship between Hee-jin and Hyun- shik especially the emotion of loneliness and one's need of companionship.The movie is not without controversy as some elements of the film like the use of fish hooks during attempted suicide scenes can present horror to the viewers. Finally,this film will definitely leave a big imprint into one's thoughts especially the final scene wherein it seems that Hyun-shik apparently killed Hee-jin in the end.It will encourage discussions in terms of the sense of brutality a human being is capable of.The film was well-acted.Sexy Korean actress,Suh Jung,whom I have previously seen in Green Chair and Yellow Flower,shines in this movie as her capability to show emotion without uttering a single word is a feat indeed.She truly captured the emotion of unhappiness and need for love that Hee-jin wants.I find a lot of honesty in her performance as she managed they get the viewer's sympathy for her character.This is the best film I have seen her to date.No question that she is not only a good looking actress with a sexy body but a talented one as well.She also shared a great chemistry with Kim Yoosuk,who was credible as Hyun- shik. Added to that,Kim Ki-duk's direction was masterful as the viewer is completely engaged in the story from beginning to end.Aside from that,he also managed to get us interested and make us care about Hee-jin and Hyun-shik and the development of their complex relationship.Overall,this is one film that would definitely not into everyone's liking but nevertheless,it also would once more prove that movies can be used to examine even the most awkward of themes which is that of the primal behavior of human beings and as well as the fact that Koreans are once more one of the most creative when it comes to making movies.

maeble First of all. I don't care enough about all the animal violence portrait in this film to let it change my opinion. So i'll drop that. Animal cruelty is in fact used as a mirrors for showing the suffering of the several characters. It' still not OK, though.Also the physical violence is not so shocking, considering that there are "worse" (asian and not) films around. The violence in this film is shocking though, because the carnal gore is combined with the much deeper psychic violence the characters inflict each other. Also the massive amount of slapstick make actions even more cruel. I laughed quite a lot during the movie, and by doing so i realized that the scenes sometimes were just not acted as if they were intended to be funny. Laughing for me in that precise moment was often more a relief than a expected reaction. Maybe the director used this to mask or soften an unbearable violence, maybe even to make the viewer feel guilty by confusing the borders between comedy and drama. I think comedy is partly used to make pure dramatic moments even more intense and sometimes to make the viewer doubt if it was intended sarcastically in the first place.Sometimes though funny moments were so plain, that i had serious doubts if i schould take the film seriously in the first place. SPOILER: 2 hooks taken out of the keepers vagina form a hearth END OF SPOILERAnyways in my opinion a very intense, pessimistic movie. Which can shock with its exaggerated violent scenes, and which sometimes cross the border to grotesque. Surely it will make you doubt and think.