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THE ISLE is a remote fishing ground where people go to forget their deepest problems. It's an unearthly locale crouched in awe-inducing early-morning light. The lodgings are a series of small huts floating on an isolated lake and managed by Hee-Jin, a woman who lives alone without speaking, who sells food, beer, night crawlers, and often her body, to the vacationing fishermen. One day, a mysterious man named Hyun-Shik arrives, and before long, Hee-Jin becomes obsessed with the former police officer... (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (4)
Ki-duk Kim messed with my head as always. The Isle is another one of those films of his that I loathe and admire at the same time. Again, the main role here is played by the combination of beauty and innocence with ugliness and evil. The acting is not particularly distinctive, rather subtle, probably to avoid disturbing the atmosphere of the film. As a whole, it's an interesting film, but a lot of scenes were downright distasteful to me. 2.5 stars.
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The contrast between nature and violence and sex should be obvious to everyone right away. They all mention hooks that go where they shouldn't (I watched it with my classmates, so quotes like: “He'd like to do her, but there's a hook" were commonplace, which is probably why I couldn't take the movie seriously, I understood most of it, I figured out the ending on my own). This film is quiet. It doesn't shout anything at you, it doesn't force anything on you, and neither do the characters. I think it's best to watch it with more people and then talk about it. Why it ended the way it did. Was Kim Ki-duk trying to say something or did he just get an idea, "manufactured" it without meaning to say anything? Maybe he just wanted to show something. It's certainly a compelling film, and one that's delightfully spurs debate. It's just the ending that may disappoint some people. A weaker 4 stars.
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With minimal dialogue, The Isle is a poetic, narratively very simple film in which everything is told through the actions of the characters. However, it is not a challenging work with strong symbolism, but rather a simple story shot with the minimalist concept of an independent film. Human sexuality and physical pain are important means of expression in it. This small film is unobtrusive but remarkable. That is, if you ignore the last two brief shots and don’t let them spoil the overall impression. In fact, those shots form a very contradictory and, on the director’s part, cheap and nasty interlude that adds a new, needlessly confusing dimension to the preceding plot.
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