Samaritan Girl (2004)

Jae-Young is an amateur prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin "manages" her, fixing dates, taking care of the money and making sure the coast is clear. When Jae-Young... See full summary »

Director:

Kim Ki-duk

Writer:

Kim Ki-duk

Stars:

Eol Lee, Ji-min Kwak, Yeo-reum Han

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eol Lee	...	Yeong-ki
Ji-min Kwak	...	Yeo-jin
Yeo-reum Han	...	Jae-yeong (as Min-jeong Seo)
Hyun-min Kwon	...	Salesman
Yong Oh	...	Musician
Gyun-Ho Im	...	Tidily Guy
Yun-su Jeong
Jong-gil Lee	...	Happy Guy
Taek-gi Sin	...	Suicide
Jung-gi Park	...	Murder Victim
Gul-seon Kim	...	Second Salesman
Seung-won Seo	...	Man in his 30s
Jae-ik Yu	...	Pedestrian
Soo-Jeong Lee
In-gi Jeong	...	Ki-Su

Storyline

Jae-Young is an amateur prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin "manages" her, fixing dates, taking care of the money and making sure the coast is clear. When Jae-Young falls in love with one of those man she suppresses her feelings towards him in respect of her friend who's jealous. One Day Yeo-Jin fails in doing her job overlooking police officers looking for under-aged prostitutes. In order to not get caught Jae-Young jumps out of a window almost killing herself. On her deathbed, she wishes to see the man again whom she fell in love with and turned away from. But the man only agrees if Yeo-Jin sleeps with him. She does but as they arrive in the hospital Jae-Young is already dead. Trying to understand her best friend, Yeo-Jin tracks down every man she slept with and does the same. As her father learns about this he gets on revenge with fatal consequences...

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | girl girl kiss | south korea | prostitute | police officer | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and sexual content

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the time of the film's release, the actress who plays Yeo Jin, Kwak Ji-Min, was still a minor and in high school. Since the film's movie poster is a half-naked photo of Ji-Min, the film director did not want to hurt her chances of getting into college. This half-naked movie poster version was not released publicly until after Ji-Min graduated high school.

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Goofs

When the car is stuck on the down-hill dirt road, the angle of the front wheels changes between shots.

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Soundtracks

Prelude in E minor
(Op.28 No.4)
Written by Frédéric Chopin

User Reviews

Brilliant and frustrating at an equal measure.

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.

Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

5 March 2004 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Samaritan Girl

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$328,161

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kim Ki-Duk Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1