The increasingly creepy plot is counter balanced by a genuinely tender romance, which makes the film impossible to categorise, and will no doubt limit it to obscure arthouses and cinephiles who have very strong stomachs. They won't be disappointed.
The Isle(섬)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Korea · 2000
1h 30m
Director Kim Ki-duk
Starring Suh Jung, Kim Yu-seok, Seo Won, Son Min-seok
Genre Drama, Thriller
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Mute Hee-Jin is working as a clerk in a fishing resort in the Korean wilderness, selling baits, food and occasionally her body to the fishing tourists. One day she falls in love with Hyun-Shik, who is on the run from the police, and rescues him with a fish hook when he tries to commit suicide.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
South Korean melodrama uses a unique location, dominated by fishermen's floating huts, as the background for an overheated story that grows steadily more grotesque and unpleasant as it proceeds.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Eerie, opaque and unblinkingly sadomasochistic.
Notorious on the festival circuit for its excruciating scenes of self-mutilation.
The film nevertheless exerts a strange sort of power that makes for compelling viewing, even as its images force one to repeatedly look away.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Kim's movie rocks -- I saw it cold a year ago, and I don't think I've been as entranced and appalled by an Asian film since Shinya Tsukamoto's "Iron Man."
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
This is the most gruesome and quease-inducing film you are likely to have seen. You may not even want to read the descriptions in this review. Yet it is also beautiful, angry and sad, with a curious sick poetry, as if the Marquis de Sade had gone in for pastel landscapes.
At once predatory and vulnerable, Jung has a primitive intensity that speaks louder than words, carrying an enigmatic and often maddeningly elusive film that's short on dialogue, rational behavior, and narrative logic.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
A movie of extremes, and that goes for its aesthetics. As gory as the scenes of torture and self-mutilation may be, they are pitted against shimmering cinematography that lends the setting the ethereal beauty of an Asian landscape painting.
Daring, mesmerizing and exceedingly hard to forget.
Users who liked this film also liked
The Blue Angel
(Der blaue Engel)
A professor becomes obsessed with a cabaret dancer.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 1930
- Director Josef von Sternberg
- Cast Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti, Hans Albers
- Genre Drama, Music
- Available on Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Kanopy
Samaritan Girl
(사마리아)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2004
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Han Yeo-reum, Kwak Ji-min, Lee Eol, Jeong In-gi, Kwon Hyun-Min, Oh Young
- Genre Drama
- Available on Fandango At Home, VUDU Free
Oggy and the Cockroaches
(Oggy et les Cafards)
Follow the antics of Oggy the cat and his three cockroach roommates.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Canada • 1999
- Creator Jean-Yves Raimbaud
- Cast
- Genre Animation, Comedy
- Available on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel
Birdcage Inn
(파란대문)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 1998
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Lee Ji-eun, Lee Hae-eun, Ahn Jae-mo, Jeong Hyeong-gi, Son Min-seok, Lee In-ok
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Princess and the Warrior
(Der Krieger und die Kaiserin)
Somewhere Out There You Can Find Love
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 2000
- Director Tom Tykwer
- Cast Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann, Joachim Król, Lars Rudolph, Ludger Pistor, Jürgen Tarrach
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Amazon Video, YouTube, The Roku Channel
Time
(시간)
A woman puts herself through intense plastic surgery in an attempt to save her relationship.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, Korea • 2006
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Park Ji-yeon, Sung Hyun-ah, Ha Jung-woo, Kim Sung-Min, Kiki Sugino, Jung Gyu-woon
- Genre Drama, Mystery, Romance
- Available on FlixFling, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Hoopla
Bad Guy
(나쁜 남자)
A young college student is trapped into a life of prostitution after she rejects a mysterious man on the street.
- ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2001
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Cho Jae-hyun, Seo Won, Kim Yun-tae, Choi Deok-moon, Choi Yoon-young, Yoo-jin Shin
- Genre Drama, Romance, Thriller
- Available on Cineverse, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Popflick, Plex Channel
Address Unknown
(수취인불명)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2001
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Yang Dong-geun, Ban Min-jung, Kim Young-min, Son Min-seok, Pang Eun-jin, Lee In-Ok
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Popflick
Real Fiction
(실제상황)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2000
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Ju Jin-mo, Kim Jin-ah, Lee Je-rak, Son Min-seok, Bae Joong-sik, Yang Seung-byeong
- Genre Thriller, Horror
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Peppermint Candy
(박하사탕)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea, Japan • 2000
- Director Lee Chang-dong
- Cast Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri, Kim Yeo-jin, Suh Jung, Go Seo-hee, Kim In-kwon
- Genre Drama
- Available on Metrograph, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Jane B. by Agnès V.
(Jane B. par Agnès V.)
Newly 40, actress Jane Birkin reflects on her past in a series of interviews and vignettes.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1988
- Director Agnès Varda
- Cast Jane Birkin, Agnès Varda, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Laura Betti, Farid Chopel, Alain Souchon
- Genre Documentary, Fantasy
- Available on Criterion Channel
Are We Men or Corporals?
(Siamo uomini o caporali)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1955
- Director Camillo Mastrocinque
- Cast Totò, Paolo Stoppa, Fiorella Mari, Agnese Dubbini, Franca Faldini, Rosita Pisano
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
One Fine Spring Day
(봄날은 간다)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea, Japan, Hong Kong • 2001
- Director Hur Jin-ho
- Cast Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Young-ae, Baek Seong-hee, Park In-hwan, Shin Shin-ae, Baek Jong-hak
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
This Country’s Sky
(この国の空)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2015
- Director Haruhiko Arai
- Cast Fumi Nikaido, Hiroki Hasegawa, Youki Kudoh, Yasuko Tomita, Go Riju, Koichi Ueda
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Net
(그물)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2016
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Ryoo Seung-bum, Lee Won-keun, Kim Young-min, Choi Gwi-hwa, Lee Na-ra, Kim Su-an
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Human, Space, Time and Human
(인간, 공간, 시간 그리고 인간)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2018
- Director Kim Ki-duk
- Cast Mina Fujii, Jang Keun-suk, Ahn Sung-ki, Lee Sung-jae, Ryoo Seung-bum, Joe Odagiri
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
A Little Princess
(감쪽같은 그녀)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2019
- Director Heo In-moo
- Cast Na Moon-hee, Kim Su-an, Lim Han-bin, Kang Bo-kyung, Chun Woo-hee, Shim Wan-jun
- Genre Drama, Family
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Meenakshi Amman & the Marvel of Madurai
Beautiful celebration of divine wedding of goddess Meenakshi amman and Lord Sundareshwar.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- India • 2020
- Director Avinash Kumar Singh
- Cast
- Genre Documentary, History
- Available on No streaming locations found.