Netpac Award - Special Mention
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also known as Seom
The Isle2001
The arthouse thriller that caused a sensation at the Sundance, Toronto, and Venice Film Festivals, THE ISLE tells the tale of a beautiful woman who lives on an eerie, remote lake selling food to fisherman by day, and her body by night. The woman becomes obsessed with a former police officer who is haunted by the murder of his unfaithful girlfriend.
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4 members like this review
Fans of South Korean films are bound to love this one. The plot is as unique and unpredictable as you would come to expect from the best Korean movies of recent years.
If you like offbeat story lines along with some hair-raising scenes, check this out. Not for the faint of heart.
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Starring
- Han Da-hyeon - Jeong-A
- Jang Hang-seon - Middle-aged man
- Jo Jae-hyeon - Mang-Chee
- Suh Jung - Hee-Jin
- Sung-hee Park - Eun-A
- Min-seok Son - Dal-soo
- Kim Yoo-suk - Hyun-Shik
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Member Reviews (7)
top reviewer
Fans of South Korean films are bound to love this one. The plot is as unique and unpredictable as you would come to expect from the best Korean movies of recent years.
If you like offbeat story lines along with some hair-raising scenes, check this out. Not for the faint of heart.
4 members like this review
Creepy, sexy and darkly humorous. I'm not sure what the lead character does, exactly - she delivers people and things to the little fishing huts on the water and occasionally sells herself to the fishermen. She becomes obsessed with a fisherman for no apparent reason and things start to spiral out of control. Not for the squeamish - there's a few stomach-churning fish hook scenes - and certainly not for those who like their plots neatly wrapped up in the end, but there's murder, violence, sex, whores and sushi-on-the-hoof. I loved it. The lead actress is a knockout .
2 members like this review
top reviewer
Surely the weirdest movie ever made about fishing. Or else it's some kind of metaphor. Here's what's there for you to interpret: a remote lake with a bunch of colorful little houses on pontoons floating around, a mute ferrywoman, and lots of prostitution. So yeah, duh, it's about the push-and-pull of human relations--vividly illustrated with the very painful use of hooks, a few scenes of animal cruelty, and homicide. The dreadful new-agey soundtrack drives home that seasick sensation of living with as much purpose as a lustful scaly thing swimming in its own waste. If this movie were French, Isabelle Huppert would play the lead. Fabulous.
1 member likes this review
top reviewer
Not what I was expecting based on the description above.... "erotic arthouse thriller"? Well, it's definitely a thriller, and I suppose it's arthouse because it's too weird not to be. Not very erotic though. Mostly just violent, with inscrutable characters that have no emotional weight.
Maybe it is my unfamiliarity with the South Korean culture that kept me wondering throughout this whole movie. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but notice and love the beauty of its visual poetry — from beginning to end — despite the fact some scenes are quite shocking.
So many twists & turns. Very good easy to watch.
GREAT MOVIE