Samaria

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!

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!

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.

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.

Will I ever see a Kim Ki-duk film I don't like? That's looking doubtful, now that I've watched SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER...AND SPRING, THE ISLE, and BAD GUY, and loved all of them. Like Herzog, he's an art-house director who really appeals me in the way he deals with dark and dismal themes that would be grim in the hands of a normal director but feel somehow oddly uplifting when he tackles the material. Perhaps it's because his films are so beautifully shot, I don't know.

SAMARITAN GIRL sees the director returning to the subject of prostitution after the unforgettable BAD GUY. A couple of teenage girls make extra cash by hooking, until tragedy strikes. What follows is almost impossible to predict, as the story has an episodic structure, although the vigilante bit is undoubtedly my favourite part: ferocious, powerhouse film-making. As is usual for a Kim Ki-duk film, the acting is exemplary and the mood sombre and moving; this is an expose of the human condition, warts and all, for better or worse, and it contains a level of raw emotion that few directors achieve. The ending is excellent in its sense of quiet, contemplative reflection.