The Isle 섬 (Seom) [2000] • South Korea

Pain is the most sincere emotion. Kim Ki-duk likes pain. He likes showing us pain. We don't question the motivation when its genesis is pain. When people speak about pain there is always room for a misunderstanding made possible by the distracting literalness of the communication. The characters in many Kim Ki-duk films never speak at all, navigating and exposing their pain with silent clarity.

This is one of the films that got me interested in East Asian cinema. I had previously seen Kim's Bad Guy and thought it was interesting, if not a great film, but it sure made me want to see more from the guy who made it.

I've gone on to see most of Kim's films and this one still stands as my favorite. I think Jung Suh's performance as the caretaker of a remote fishing village who doesn't say a word in the entire film is the strongest performance in all of Kim's films, and I think her character is one of the strongest characters that Kim has given us. Of course it's a symbiotic relationship where a good actor can make a character come alive and where a well-written character allows a good actor a chance to shine. Suh (sometimes romanized as Seo) plays the caretaker Hee-jin with a frightening intensity, and is all the more enigmatic because she never speaks. I also think this is Kim's best looking film. His background as a painter is obvious in the color composition and framing. The misty lake with the little colored cottages floating about are beautifully photographed.

As for the pain quotient, it's a toss up between this and Address Unknown. I'm not sure why Kim abuses animals in his films. I don't like it but it's not enough for me to ignore his work. And it's not really where the pain comes from in this film. The infamous fishhook scenes are obviously a source of physical pain but there's also the emotional pain we witness between Hee-jin and the man who killed his girlfriend and has come to her fishing village to hide, or die if that doesn't work out. There's murder, rape, and multiple suicide attempts and I'm not sure that Kim's isn't presenting all of this with a little bit of tongue in his cheek. Kim is someone who works in the extreme, that's for sure.

The ending of the film, where the man swims into the weeds which in turn become the pubic hair of Hee-jin lying naked in the boat, suggesting a metaphorical attempt to return to the womb, is a little silly. Many see this as tacked on for some crazy reason and would have preferred the film end with the two of them floating downstream together. I don't think the extra, symbolic, ending is necessary but I also don't think it ruins the film. Great films succeed in spite of their weaknesses. The ending may be weak but this is a great film.

★★★★★

Director: Ki-duk Kim
Starring: Jung Suh, Yoosuk Kim, Sung-hee Park, Jae-hyeon Jo, Hang-Seon Jang

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Spider Forest (Geomi sup) (2004) • South Korea

I had to watch this film once, visit the IMDb and read all I could from other folks attempting to explain it, then watch it again before arriving at a score of nine. The first viewing left me bewildered. The Spider Forest is a place where the souls of those who die alone or unloved live in limbo, as spiders, until someone remembers them. That's a cool premise. Then it's a story about murder and memories. The Spider Forest is also the cobwebbed memories each of us navigate as we attempt to deal with trauma, guilt, shame, etc., but in the Spider forest memories are erased and must be discovered anew.

This is one of those Korean films which could not exist or be told with a traditional narrative structure. There are shots and scenes that come out of nowhere and seem not to touch anything around them until much later in the film. This can be frustrating. So why watch it again? As one can imagine, these out-of-nowhere scenes look completely different after you've been to the end once. All the nuances of a simple story blossom the second time through. And the film is shot and played so well it's satisfying just looking at it. I wasn't confused while watching the film. Only when it was over and I tried to 'sum it up' did I find myself puzzled by loose ends.

The film is beautifully photographed and the acting top notch. Jung Suh, from Green Chair and The Isle is beautiful and captivating in a very understated performance in dual roles, which, by the way, is a huge spoiler (this info is absent from the credits) that doesn't spoil a thing.

This film is incredibly complex without being obtuse. It is more of a journey than a story. I will be watching it many more times.

★★★★★