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34 out of 35 people found the following review useful: Brilliant and frustrating at an equal measure., 30 October 2004 Author: George Mpoukatsas from Europe
This is undeniably a work of considerable formal rigor. Director Kim Ki-Duk uses deceptively simple but tellingly precise visual compositions to narrate his seemingly simple tale of loss of innocence, guilt and redemption. Initially everything seems transparent and self-evident in the story until intangible elements slowly seep into the structure causing ambiguity and bringing emotional turmoil that remains mostly subdued. The main plot premise, however, might seem a bit exaggerated or overblown to someone who cannot easily accept the depicted motivations for the actions of the two main characters (the girl and its father), especially considering the scarcity of social or psychological signifiers. Consequently, the movie works better on a symbolic than dramatic level, as its wonderfully concise final scene demonstrates. A must see.
24 out of 27 people found the following review useful: Great Insight into Korean society, 3 May 2005 Author: mattysid from United Kingdom
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I have lived in Korea for the last four years and have been fortunate enough to experience many excellent movies. Of course this is highly debatable, and maybe bias on my behalf, but South Korea is producing not only some of the best movies in the world at the moment but some of the most provocative and thought provoking movies, of which Samaria is probably the prime example.In NaBeunNamJa (BadGuy) Kim Di Duk already dealt with prostitution, however talking to Korean people I think that Samaria is a better account of the true nature of Korean society and the Korean sex industry as a whole. It is because of this that I would like to address some misconceptions that people have of the movie from previous posts and reviews. I promise that I will review the movie later, if you bear with me.First of all, Korean directors are making their movies for the domestic market (which is the third biggest domestic market in the world after Hollywood and bollywood) and therefore tailor their movies to the culture and beliefs that prevail in the domestic market.Teenage prostitution is an unfortunate, but common, aspect of Korean society. In this movie the Director, Kim Di Duk, is only portraying what is the norm in Korean society. It is not uncommon, although I am unable to provide statistics, that many high school and university students and even middle school students, pay for or supplement their tuition fees through the sex industry; although this is not always in the form of prostitution, but sometimes just 'entertaining' men in 'salon' bars. It is a sad reflection of a society that the 'education fever' is so strong that young girls will resort too any means too pay for their education. In this respect Kim Di Duk has hit the nail on the head.A couple of reviewers mentioned the 'shower' / 'sauna' / 'bath-house' scene between the two girls. For those that mentioned it, there is nothing absolutely remotely sexual (or as one reviewer mentioned 'Lesbian') in these scenes whatsoever! Visiting 'bath houses in Korean is an everyday part of Korean life, even as a Westerner I often frequent these places. It is considered normal for women to wash other women and also the same for men. Relationships between the sexes here is different, but refreshing, it is not uncommon to see people of the same sex walking down the street together holding hands or with their arm around another. It takes a while to get used to but once you get used to the nature of the touchy feely nature of Korean people it don't half help you get over any latent homophobic feelings you have! Anyhow, on to movie...I had heard a lot about this movie, the only Kim Di Duk movie I had seen before this was BadGuy, which I thought was OK, but a bit clichéd.This movie blew my mind. However the first part of the movie, the relationship between the two girls, although fairly accurate in terms of Korean society didn't grab me as much as the 'second act' of the movie.Previous reviews, have given enough details on the plot of the movie which I am not going to re-hash, however there is one scene in this movie that in my own humble opinion has to be one of the most incredible pieces of film making and script writing that I have ever seen on celluloid.PLEASE DON'T CONTINUE TO READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE. Because I think this scene should be seen in it's bleak and raw frankness that the director intended.For those that have seen this movie, I am talking about the scene where the father goes to the apartment of the man who is having sex with his daughter and confronts the man in front of his family. What is most shocking about this scene is that the man's daughter is older than the father's daughter.Never in all the movies have I seen a scene so heart breaking, thought provoking and shocking and so well filmed than this. For anyone still reading who hasn't seen this movie I will omit how this scene finishes... still sends shivers down my spine now writing about it! Well sorry to rant! Please watch this movie, and take into mind what I said about Korean society. For those who don't know Korean cinema, also please check out Chingoo (Friend) YupGiJeogInGeoNya(My sassy girl), Memories of Murder, NaBeunNamJa (BadGuy),TaeGeukki ... etc. etc.
20 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Godforsaken and Full of Hope, 24 January 2005 Author: zolaaar from Berlin, GER
In "Samaria" a Korean girl takes the holy assignment of devoting herself voluntarily to the suitors of her dead school friend. Her father, a police man, finds it out and takes revenge at the men.It is a film about charity, guilt, and the search for the right way, that gets near to the crassness of Kim's earlier work "Seom - The Isle" (2000) and "Bad Guy" (2001). The story is carried away by the director's typical big calm - a distance to the excitement, that is never cold and opens a breathtaking endearment even in the cruelest moments. "Samaria" is full of intensive scenes, a film you rather realize than understand: It hides its secrets and puts up a father-daughter-relationship-story under the shelter of metaphysical aspects. Great coherence flows out of every image, every tone. A film of godforsakeness and full of hope.Masterpiece! Watch it!
21 out of 31 people found the following review useful: very good movie, 30 August 2004 Author: ridwane from Connecticut, USA
I had the chance of watching this movie at the Montreal World Film Festival. This is the third Korean movie I've seen ('Oasis' and 'Spring Summer...' being the other 2)and believe me, these guys know how to make good cinema.This movie deals with juvenile prostitution and its consequences. How would you react if you found out that your 15 year old daughter prostitutes herself after school? This powerful movie has excellent acting and some great silent scenes, such as eating sushi at the grave and the driving lesson. The ending is of a great beauty.Very good movie. 8/10
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Abstract Korean movie, 15 November 2005 Author: nicholas Chin from United States
Director Kim Ki-Duk gives us insight about teenage prostitution in Korea, but is this really a movie about prostitution? Looking deeper than the visual settings, I found that the movie hits more emotionally about relationships, between friends and family. The movie is basically broken into two parts. Part one is about Jae-Young, an amateur prostitute and her best friend Yeo-Jin, her manager. The second part is about Yeo-Jin and her father. Each part has its tense moments, and the director, pretty much does a good job telling the story and showing the audience: tragedy and closeness. There's not a lot of sex or violence like typical prostitution movies, but then again it is not about prostitution, it only uses it as a medium to get the point across. Happy viewing!
11 out of 14 people found the following review useful: Tocata, Sonata and Fuga, 18 May 2005 Author: acorral-1 from Mexico
Director Ki-Duk Kim gave us an emotive history divided in three parts. Probably a lot of viewers think on this movie as sad, frustrating and even violent, but in fact this film is nothing but an optimistic way to see life and to bring people with simplicity and second chances. We are humans and we have the right to make mistakes, some times you won't have the chance to redeem your self, but in other cases you have that opportunity.In the first history, we can witness the deep friendship between two teenager girls (Yeo-Jin and Jae-Yeong). Both have different characters: one is a happy and optimistic girl, she always has a smile in her face; the other girl on the contrary has a terrible attitude against everyone but her father and girlfriend. They are prostitutes, at least one arranges everything and the other do the "dirty job". So far the main history involves only the two young girls. They have a detailed black book with the names and telephones of their clients. Then the ending, a fatal catastrophe. Police finds out that a minor is in a room with and adult. The girl jumps out of a window and hits her head against the floor. She dies the day after with a big smile. The other girl starts shouting: Stop laughing! Stop laughing! The second history is about redemption: The girl feels guilty about her friend, so she decides to settle up appointments with all the customers to have sex with them and to return the payment made to the other girl. She changed her attitude radically and starts smiling, just like her friend. She realizes that every time she returns the money, she starts feeling better and better. One day she was with one client and her father was in the opposite building. He saw his daughter in a room with a man. He can't believe it and in this exactly point is where the third story begins.This sub-plot, is the most violent and in the same time the most beautiful of the movie. Violent at the beginning because the police officer (father of the girl) wants revenge. In his quest he attacks the man who was with his little one at the motel, he is responsible of a man's suicide and responsible of a murder, violent murder. The list was complete and then the history becomes beautiful. The father looks with his daughter forgiveness and a new beginning. In the grave of the death mother, they started a ritual. In the way back from the grave, took place the most beautiful scene of the movie: the car is stocked, the father removes some rocks from the stocked tire, but not enough. Returns to the car and close his eyes. The girl got out of the car and starts to remove the remaining rocks. An excellent sequence, we can solve our problems together! We are here for that. They spend the night in an old cabin. He told his daughter a history about one's virgin appearance in the top of a hill. They did the same. He returned the virginity to his daughter. She realizes that he knows. In the middle of the night he cries. By the end of the movie the girl has a dream where the father is killing and buried her, but when she woke up her father made something totally different: taught her how to drive car. They started the lessons and the father said: Now is the turn to drive by your own! A police car arrives and the father got in. The girl started to drive but she was unable to follow the police car. She is now by her own, but with a new beginning.A very emotive film, with excellent cinematography. Kim, besides to be the director, is responsible of writing, editing, producing and even set decoration. I recommend this movie to watch, analyze and comment about it. Another thing about this film is the acting performances by the two young girls. A must see movie.
17 out of 26 people found the following review useful: Ki-Duk is getting very close to becoming my favorite director, 26 March 2005 Author: Boris-57 (bonzothegod@hotmail.com) from Brussels, Belgium
This is my fourth film by Ki-Duk Kim (after Spring, Summer... / The Isle / 3-Iron), and he scores one minus (The Isle, despite stunning cinematography), one very good (Spring), and two absolutely magnificent. Despite the fact that I liked 3-Iron just a bit better because of the more straightforward story and consistent way of story telling, Samaria comes very close.I'm not going to spoil things for you, but I'd just point out that this is yet another highly symbolic film, so much in fact, that this second (symbolic) level is probably more easily understood than the basic story. Not that it's complicated, it's just that story and meaning are not as closely interwoven as in 3-Iron, where the overlap between the two made possible an ambiguous reality that led to sublimation. Here, it takes a while for the two levels to touch.The feeling following 3-Iron was that of reaching an asymptote - only the infinite was beyond. In Samaria, you feel like some serious stuff happened but what's done is done and the road lies open. We're at a starting point, which is not quite zero but feels like it. Well now, you can hardly call that a spoiler 'cause I hardly understand it myself. But you'll see what I mean after seeing it.The story, which seems to start out as something different that what it turns out to be, must be one of the most poignant symbolic depictions of the point at which a parent has to let his/her kid go and realise he/she's not needed anymore - or not like before. Also, silence, without being as overwhelming as in 3-Iron, plays an important role. In 3-Iron, good stuff happened because of silence; here, a lot of not so good things happen because of it, but some good things can happen in spite of silence. The ending can be very sad or neutral or have the potential for hope, if you choose my story interpretation. But who am I?What? Still reading this? - off you go to the video store. Chop chop!Note: does anyone realise just how brilliant Kim Ki-Duk is when shooting indoor scenes?! Framing, camera movement, light - you name it - sheer perfection.
10 out of 14 people found the following review useful: Kim Ki Duk just keeps moving forward, 8 November 2004 Author: krikit from Europe
I have to say this might be Kim Ki-Duks finest work so far. Ever since his debut he has produced some of the most interesting movies in asia cinema, especially. The Isle, Bad Guy, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring and now Samaria.The movie moves in a very beautiful pace with great camera work and a beautiful soundtrack. The main actress does a very convincing performance, especially considering her age and that this is her debut. The plot itself is also very strong, with probably a mainly symbolic story. But a very beautiful story nevertheless. And the ending is just "perfect".Kim Ki-duk has really improved his visual style since his debut, and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us in the future.
14 out of 22 people found the following review useful: How enigmatic is your smile?, 11 December 2004 Author: damien-16 from Lao People's Democratic Republic
Passing through Bangkok, this was the only English-subtitled film on show that was not a Hollywood zero-brainer. I had no idea what I was going to see at all, but I was pleasantly surprised. I did not understand why people were always shouting at one another, even when they were having a friendly chat or an intimate tête-à-tête, but I guess that must be a Korean thing. The film was quite intelligently constructed, suggesting many powerful events and emotions off-screen by a clever choice of what was not shown. The highlight of the movie, however, was Min-jeong Seo's smile. Whether she was happy or sad, excited or afraid, it was always there, beautiful and enigmatic. Even in death.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Strange, slightly uneven, but ultimately worth the effort, 14 December 2005 Author: bastard wisher from Hawaii
Ultimately I liked this a lot, although it was very strange. It went through at least three completely different, distinct tones and styles over the course of the film. At first it played like a slightly skewed, but still rather melodramatic, teen drama, almost like one of those Korean soap operas. Very different from my previous exposure to Kim Ki-Duk. Then it started to become a violent revenge story, like something Chan Wook-Park would do. Still sort of more conventional than other Kim Ki-Duk though, not at all minimalistic or slow. The beginning part was actually somewhat contrived, not like an "art" film at all, in any sense of the word. But then, in it's last third, the film becomes an abstract road movie, much more in the style i've previously associated with Kin Ki-Duk. I certainly can't say that this is a consistent film, and the pacing was obviously rather uneven given the gradual transition from borderline-conventional melodrama into minimalistic, impressionistic art film, but overall there was something about it that I liked a lot. Through all the muddledness, i can tell that Kim Ki-Duk is an interesting filmmaker. There's obviously something going on in his films worth taking note of.
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