|
75
|
San Francisco Chronicle
The film is filled with lovely images (Kim studied painting in France), and ultimately becomes, against all expectations, quite moving.
|
|
70
|
TV Guide Ken Fox
Beautifully shot and lushly scored, this may be one of the least P.C. love stories ever filmed. But it's one of the most deeply felt.
|
|
63
|
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Low, mean and depressingly plausible.
|
|
60
|
The New York Times
If there is anything worth discovering in this sad slog of a story, it is the two fierce performances by Cho Je-Hyun and Seo Won, who play the lovers and turn the harsh drama into a showcase for their pained expressions.
|
|
50
|
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
What begins, rather promisingly, as a visceral yawp against class difference in contemporary South Korea slowly devolves into a prolonged exercise in pointless sadomasochism.
|
|
50
|
The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
The filmmaker's attempt to explore the outer boundaries of erotic and violent obsession are undone by the murkiness of the execution, and only the highly committed and forceful performances by the two leads give the aptly titled Bad Guy any distinction.
|
|
50
|
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Certainly offbeat, but not on a level with director Kim's previous work about marginalized people.
|
|
42
|
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Really, who needs a bad guy who's this guilty about being bad?
|
|
38
|
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
South Korean director Kim Ki-duk does a bizarre riff on the twisted macho ethos of abusing women until they learn to love you.
|
|
25
|
New York Post V.A. Musetto
Becomes more and more confused, unpleasant and preposterous.
|
