THE ISLE (SEOM) --------
Hee-Jin (Suh Jung, "Peppermint Candy") survives by renting a few color-coded fishing pontoons and supplying their inhabitants with bait, supplies and prostitutes, or, should they choose, her own services. When one of her clients, Hyun-Shik (Yoosuk Kim), attempts suicide one evening, she saves him, and the two desperate souls engage in a dance of sex and death on "The Isle."
Writer/director Ki-duk Kim has created a quiet, pensive reflection on two unhappy people who connect via horrific acts of self-mutilation. While not for all tastes, "The Isle" is a compelling meditation, although unravelling its mysteries may require multiple viewings.
While the mute Hee-Jin would, on first impression, appear subservient to the men who rent her cabins, she holds their lifeline to shore in the guise of her leaky boat. Her elaborately stylized eyebrows suggest a Japanese kabuki mask - is Hee-Jin a natural spirit or witch of some sort?
Her customers are men grounded in bodily needs. They defecate into the water through trap doors in the pontoons or over the side, stop mid-thrust with a prostitute to reel in a fish. Hyun-Shik, though, is a more sensitive individual, an artist who creates mini-sculptures out of wire, clearly haunted by something in his past. Eun-A (Sung-hee Park), a girlish prostitute, likes Hyun-Shik despite his withdrawn nature, but Hee-Jin already has her hooks in him.
Animals of "The Isle" may be a metaphor for the human inhabitants. Hee-Jin rips apart a live frog to feed Hyun-Shik's pet, a caged bird. She strands her dog on a pontoon, but picks him up again.
A customer fillets the sides of a live fish to feed sashimi to his girl before throwing it back into the water (it is later recaught, its sides still stripped bare). When Hyun-Shik once again attempts suicide, this time with fishhooks, Hee-Jin props his mouth open to save him, making him resemble a gasping fish himself. Her own sexuality is later tied to the landscape.
Cinematographer Seo-shik Hwang photographs the lake like a strange little mirage enshrouded in mist. Characters are seen from above and below the water, sometimes separated from the foreground by glass. Ki-duk Kim has created a provocatively violent and sexual film with an oddly idyllic sensibility. It's a mysterious but ultimately rewarding experience.
B
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