Seom (The Isle) (2000)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Lee ?

  
  Kim Ki-duk serves up another dark and twisted love-story themed film set on a fishing lake where a mute woman and a man with a troubled past find attraction with eachother. The movie is very picturesque and beautiful to look at at times, then we have some rather unpleasant scenes that… More
  Kim Ki-duk serves up another dark and twisted love-story themed film set on a fishing lake where a mute woman and a man with a troubled past find attraction with eachother. The movie is very picturesque and beautiful to look at at times, then we have some rather unpleasant scenes that add the disturbing quality to it all. There's a couple of very nasty moments of self-harm involving fish hooks and moments of animal cruelty - fish mutilated, a drowning finch, a dog takes a beating and a frog gets ripped apart. I wouldn't really describe this as an erotic film at all, yes there are sex scenes but they are not romantic and the majority of them are done fully clothed without any titilation. The acting was very good all round, especially by the mute woman, a little bit more background on the male character would have been nice though. But I was really hooked from the start with this one despite the slowness of it all and the very little dialogue. I enjoyed it more than "Bad Guy".

• familiar s

  
  Unforgettable quotes and dialogues... No, no, wait. The movie speaks volumes through its silence... Damn it. FML that I happen to stumble upon such films these days around.

• xGary X

  
  A suicidal young man who is on the run from the police enters into an obsessive relationship with the woman who services the small fishing community in which he is hiding. The Isle is one of those "arthouse" films which relies far more on a keen visual eye and twisted sexual… More
  A suicidal young man who is on the run from the police enters into an obsessive relationship with the woman who services the small fishing community in which he is hiding. The Isle is one of those "arthouse" films which relies far more on a keen visual eye and twisted sexual character study than plot and narrative momentum. It is strikingly shot, full of arresting images and visual analogies and the beautiful Jung Uh is a formidable presence, especially since she does not utter a single word for the duration of the entire film; she is somewhat reminiscent of Asami from Audition if she were a few sandwiches short of a picnic instead of the whole hamper. It also reminded me of Betty Blue for its obsessive and self destructive overtones, showing a relationship that is sado-masochistic but not in the usual gimps and bondage sense of the word. Some of the metaphors are a little clumsy and these damaged characters don't make for the most engaging protagonists but it is certainly an interesting character study that is lovely to look at.

• Lady D

  
  The first thing I did immediately after watching this, was to grab the dvd case and read the synopsis to try to understand the hidden theme to the film. The dvd synopsis claims ?The Most sexually perverse movie to hit our screens since David Cronenberg?s CRASH? Totally untrue,… More
  The first thing I did immediately after watching this, was to grab the dvd case and read the synopsis to try to understand the hidden theme to the film. The dvd synopsis claims ?The Most sexually perverse movie to hit our screens since David Cronenberg?s CRASH? Totally untrue, yes it has sex in the film, but certainly not to the degree of ?CRASH? Also says: ?Asia Extreme at it?s best? ? sadly I feel it?s Asia Extreme at it?s worse. In truth it surprises me I made it to the end, it seems a much loved film, I just can't see the brilliance.

• Arash X

  
  Bleak portrayal of human condition & relationships, Not so similar but the main character somehow reminded me of the main character in Haneke's La Pianiste the way she repress her feelings & ends up hurting herself

• El Hombre I

  
  A creepy, gruesome, gorgeous, obsessive, violent, nasty relationship. A harsh love story between two people beaten down by life and unable to express themselves except through pain. It hardly relies on just the shock value, which it has plenty of, but shows the acts commited as an… More
  A creepy, gruesome, gorgeous, obsessive, violent, nasty relationship. A harsh love story between two people beaten down by life and unable to express themselves except through pain. It hardly relies on just the shock value, which it has plenty of, but shows the acts commited as an ultimate expression of need. Great cinematography and Ki-duk Kim's direction are the main reasons I enjoyed it.

• Ross C

  
  Another very sick Korean movie, shot out-of-focus, and with very little dialogue about a group of people living on floats on a lake.

• Daisy M

  
  This is definitely not a film for all tastes. The Isle not only shows some of the most disturbing images on film ( animal mistreatment) but it also makes the viewer work hard to figure out what it all about. Specially the very last scene which I think was put there for each viewer to… More
  This is definitely not a film for all tastes. The Isle not only shows some of the most disturbing images on film ( animal mistreatment) but it also makes the viewer work hard to figure out what it all about. Specially the very last scene which I think was put there for each viewer to make they're own interpretation.There is so little dialogue that this is almost like a silent film.. There's people violence in the film too, there are some cruel moments in the film, and there's a good deal of dark intrigue.The film just didn't seem quite meaningful to me. I could certainly have done with more dialogue and more compelling characters, this would have helped me understand more of what the film was trying to say. I did not like it. Not my type of film.

• Dimitris S

  
  The purpose of shocking is extremely difficult to achieve.Ki-duk overcomes the barriers of cine-language by explicitly showing the human condition...maybe enjoying this as well?All in all,the Isle is poignant and on his top 5.

• Christopher B

  
  One of the most disturbing love stories ever. Loved it.

• Wu C

  
  Facinating film. Very well shot. This director loves telling stories with little dialogue. Watch all his films.

• FanGirl B

  
  This really disappointed me, I like Ki-duk Kim's other films, but I hated this one. A lot of people talk about the fish-hook scene but frankly after what they did to the animals (fish and bird especially) I could care less what the people pretended to do to themselves with fish… More
  This really disappointed me, I like Ki-duk Kim's other films, but I hated this one. A lot of people talk about the fish-hook scene but frankly after what they did to the animals (fish and bird especially) I could care less what the people pretended to do to themselves with fish hooks. I didn't watch the credits but I bet there wasn't anything about "no animals were harmed in the making of this film."

Read all 12 featured audience ratings