The Isle (2000) Seom (original title)

Director:

Ki-duk Kim

Writer:

Ki-duk Kim

Release Date:

22 April 2000 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Fishing | Fish Hook | Fish | Mute | Food

Awards:

5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Jung Suh	...	Hee-Jin
Yoosuk Kim	...	Hyun-Shik
Sung-hee Park	...	Eun-A
Jae-hyeon Jo	...	Mang-Chee
Hang-Seon Jang	...	Middle-aged man
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yeo-jin Kim
Won Seo

Directed by
Ki-duk Kim

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ki-duk Kim

Produced by
Eun Lee	....	producer

Original Music by
Sang-yun Jeon

Cinematography by
Seo-shik Hwang

Film Editing by
Min-ho Kyeong		(as Min Hokyung)

Production Design by
Ki-duk Kim

Costume Design by
Eun-jung Joo

Art Department
Ki-duk Kim	....	set designer

Sound Department
Seung-cheol Lee	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Seongho Jang	....	visual effects supervisor: Mofac Studio

Other crew
Judy Dixon	....	press publicist

Production Companies

• Myung Film Company Ltd.

Distributors

• A-Film Distribution (2003) (Netherlands) (theatrical) (for)
• Asociace Ceských Filmových Klubu (ACFK) (2003) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• CJ Entertainment (200?) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Empire Pictures Inc. (2002) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Golden Scene (2001) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• Rapid Eye Movies (2002) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Steward (2001) (France) (theatrical)
• Tartan Films (2004) (UK) (theatrical)
• Teleseis S.L. (2001) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Upstream Pictures (2003) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Filmfreak Distributie (2003) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• First Run Features (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Future Film (2002) (Finland) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Palisades Tartan (2009) (UK) (all media)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2004) (UK) (DVD)
• Raro Video (2007) (Italy) (DVD) (boxed set)
• Star Media Entertainment (2004) (Norway) (DVD)
• Sunfilm Entertainment (2003) (Germany) (DVD)
• Tartan Video (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Universe Laser & Video Co. Ltd. (2001) (Hong Kong) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Mofac Studio (visual effects)

Also Known As:

"Seom" - South Korea (original title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-15/13 | France:-16 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:18 (cut) | USA:Unrated | Ireland:18 (heavily cut) | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R18 | Japan:R-18 | Italy:VM18 (DVD) (self-applied) | Singapore:R21

Company:

Myung Film Company Ltd.

Bizarre and disturbing movie

A mentally retarded young woman is living near a remote small lake. She makes her living by supplying useful goods, fishing tools and prostitutes to the fishermen and sometimes sleeps with them for money. The fishermen are living in very small cabins floating on the lake. One day, she falls in love with one of them. Besides this, one of the call-girls becomes attracted to him and visits him in her spare time. But he has a dark past and came to this remote place to commit suicide. After an unsuccessful try involving fishing hooks (!), he is saved by the retarded girl, who became jealousy of the call-girl and then kills her by accident...

Here we have another strange Asian movie that somehow plays like an arthouse horror film. Director Ki-Duk Kim wanted to make a metaphorical movie about isles and love ("a woman's isle is a man, a man's isle is a woman"). He creates a mysterious and fascinating, but at the same time disturbing atmosphere in this movie about poor people living in their own world like on... an isle far away from modern civilization. On the other side, undefendable shots of gruesome violence against animals and some almost unwatchable scenes involving fishing hooks make for a hard experience to sit through, and plot-wise too just not everything made sense in the intended way to me. Bizarre and very different from "common" horror movies, I'd still recommend "The Isle" to everyone interested in Asian cinema.