Oasis

Oasis is a love story of truly unique proportions. It is simply unlike any movie you are likely to see.

Confronting, unusual, at times violent, but also heartbreakingly honest.

Lead by a stunning performance by So-ri Moon, and ably assisted by Kyung-gu Sol. The two bring amazing humanity to two very difficult and unusual character. So-ri in particular is brilliant, flawless and complex in her portrayal of the disabled Gong-ju Han. Her performance should be watched by any aspiring actor or actress as it is astonishingly good.

The plot is difficult to describe without it sounding bizarre and unrealistic, but the direction and script transcend any difficulties the subject matter brings up, and ultimately deliver the viewer with an unrivaled experience in what cinema was meant to do. That is, show us life, in all it's intricate forms, to inspire us, challenge us and help us grow.

Oasis is a power-house of modern cinema. An instant classic. It shows difficult characters, going through difficult situations, and the director has refused to water-down any aspect of the film, making it very confronting for the viewer.

Yet another in a growing list of Korean films that have blown me away. Their industry is the best around in my opinion, combining the technical abilities of the big-budget Hollywood films, with the personal, human stories that you would see in European cinema, but doing this with an obviously Asian aesthetic. If you like Kong Kong or Japanese films, I recommend stepping up to Korean films, they are generally more personal, and shot with as much visual gloss as anything from the US.

This is one of the most beautiful and sensible films you can ever see. So-ri Moon's performance is incredibly real that until a dream-like sequence I thought that she really had had cerebral palsy. Kyung-gu Sol was transmitting perfectly the behaviours and the glances of a 10 yeas old boy in the body of a 29 year old men.

The visual effects were applied brilliantly: white dove and the passing from reflection of light to white butterflies... Gong-ju's favorite color.

This is a film which can make you believe the purity of an man who committed 3 crimes and who tempted to rape a disabled young woman. This is film makes you believe in love, makes you sad, angry, happy. Shortly; this film gives you all that cinema should.

We talk a lot about love in our society but often love is only acceptable to us if it fits our pictures. For example, the love of an older person for a younger, love between members of the same sex or between disabled individuals may make us uncomfortable and rejecting. Winner of five awards at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, Oasis, a film by Lee Chang-dong, stretches our comfort zone to the limit with a boldly unconventional portrait of the love of a mentally retarded young man for a woman suffering with cerebral palsy. The film is both emotionally honest and powerfully realized and will keep you pondering its implications for a long time. Moon So-ri's performance as Gong-ju is nothing short of astonishing. She goes through contortions to make us aware of the agony of her illness, but is never inappropriate or over-the-top. Her movements are spasmodic and uncoordinated and she appears to be in constant pain but there is a kindness in her face that allows us to see the person behind the pain.

As the film opens, Jong-du (Sol Kyung-gu) has just been released from prison and is freezing in his short sleeve shirt in the middle of winter. Jong-du is a sociopath who flaunts society's rules, unaware of or unconcerned with the consequences of his actions. Unable to hold a job and always on the edge, he has been in jail three times: for attempted rape, causing an accident while drunk (he took the rap for his elder brother), and armed robbery. On the spur of the moment, he decides to visit the family of the man killed by his brother and apologize. When he arrives, he finds a husband and wife moving out of their apartment, leaving the husband's seriously disabled sister, Han Gong-ju (Moon So-ri) for the neighbors to look after.

Jong-du is attracted to the disabled woman who seems barely in control of her own body. He returns for another visit but it sadly ends up in a disturbing sequence that is very difficult to watch. Surprisingly, Gong-ju invites him back once more and the two slowly begin a friendship based on their mutual feelings of isolation. He provides her with the closeness she desperately needs and she finds someone to care for, maybe for the first time in her life. As their relationship becomes known, both families are scandalized and, aided by the prejudices of society, transform the innocence of their love into something sick and twisted.

Oasis is a thought provoking film that does not stack the deck towards one point of view. It depicts the joy that the relationship brings to the lovers but also shows the understandable unease of the families about the fitness of a man who has demonstrated his emotional instability. The film shows the thin line between the desires of the individual and the needs of society and forces us to look at the disparity between the reality we see and that seen by others. While his ultimate message may be ambiguous, Lee makes us brutally aware that for many people life is a party to which they haven't been invited. Out of a willingness to have his characters confront the truth of a world that will be forever hostile, he offers a compelling vision of what love truly means and allows us to experience the oneness that defies reason and logic.

"Oasis" is the story of the relationship of a man imprisoned by his mind with a woman imprisoned by her body. That they establish a relationship comes as much because of their handicaps as in spite of them.

I knew before seeing the film that Moon So-ri was an able-bodied actress. As a result, at first I wasn't convinced she was playing someone with cerebral palsy. But Lee Chang-dong does a brilliant thing. He films several scenes that become the imaginings and fantasies of Gong-ju, Moon's character, as an able-bodied woman. This had the effect on me of seeing Gong-ju as disabled. And it spells out clearly that cerebral palsy is a physical condition not a mental one.

Sol Kyung-gu as Jong-du is perfect. I've been describing Jong-du as "simple-minded" to others but that doesn't pinpoint his mental condition. I might say he is carefree but it's not just an attitude; he is carefree to the point of mental illness. His condition makes him act both bad (he's been in prison three times) and good (he absolutely sees right through Gong-ju's handicap and truly comes to care for her). While Gong-ju is frustrated over her condition and how others use her it, Jong-du appears so utterly accepting of his fate that he doesn't even defend himself. I can't stop thinking about how Mr. Sol has played this interesting character.

Both Gong-ju's and Jong-du's families scorn and pity their conditions. But watch how they also come to exploit them as well.

I highly recommend this film.

I get to see a Korean Movie now and then, and, even though i didnt understand a word of dialogue in this film, it was easy to tell what was going on. Oasis is the tale of a mentally disabled man who has recently been released from prison. Shortly after leaving, he attempts to rape a young physically disabled woman in her apartment. He comes to his senses, and apologizes later, and forms a powerful bond of understanding. while to most americans, Gong- Ju's fantasies might seem a little...odd (the dancing woman and the elephant is a perfect example,) it just goes to show that our cinema has lost most (if not all) heart. I would strongly urge anyone who is into Korean cinema to watch this film, it is a truly touching experience.