Review of The Isle (2000) by Jean B — 18 Oct 2008

KKD sets one of his most controversial films on yet another scenic water landscape with colorful floating mini-huts. But that's where the viewer's ability to comfortably connect with the film ends. Along with an unconventional love story (for lack of a better term), Kim shows men acting upon their violent and/or sexual compulsions in an environment where they face no scrutiny or censure. One relatively mild scene shows a fisherman and his escort-of-the-moment sitting atop their rental unit, waiting for a fish to take the bait. One unfortunate fish does, and the man proceeds to carve off chunks from the live fish and gives it to the escort as "freshest" sashimi. The woman, in service to this patron, has no choice to play along with this cruel man, and continues to supply him with enthused chatter. He enjoy several slivers from one side of the fish, then the other. A few minutes later, the man releases the fish - its sides now raw and bleeding - back into the water, and without any attempt at a segue, takes the woman into the hut to proceed with the business they came for. Using other more raw and violent mini-episodes within each hut, Kim makes quite obvious his theory of men existing on a level below where women operate.

The tortured love story unfolds between Heejin, the rental community's silent proprietress, and Hyunshik, an ex-cop on the run after killing his cheating girlfriend. Heejin recognizes that Hyunshik, like herself, carries an impossible burden when she stops him from committing suicide twice. The two embark on what might be loosely labeled a relationship but only after near-death experiences of self-mutilation on both parts involving multiple tiny fish hooks - I'll leave this up to your imagination until you decide to watch, if ever - and the other restoring the bloodied person back to health. Their deranged version of a symbiotic relationship somewhat characterizes the director's intent behind the title and his statement that woman is an island to man, and vice versa. They can be the world to each other, but at the same time, the resulting isolation can be both beneficial and damaging.

The Isle, a movie voted as one of the Top 10 movies most difficult to watch. A movie that seems to defy critics and art film enthusiasts in their attempts to hone in on exactly which questions Kim is posing. Easily one of the most controversial KKD films I've seen so far, I saw that other people had felt the same. (First screenings in NY and Venice a few years produced fainting and vomit.) It took me several days of googling reviews that this film received, both from newspapers to bloggers, to start making any sense of it. Most stuck to safe grounds of a synopsis and a praise or a flame for its use of very raw, very visceral violence. Even as a new fan of Kim's work, I had a hard time whether to view the sensational scenes as gimmicks to come out on top at festivals (as many reviews claimed), or whether they propelled the story forward. The answer to this is not readily available within the film, but judging from what I've seen in his other, more recent films, he is very economical in his use of words, characters, and scenes. That said, his films following this one have been far easier on the gag reflex though no less provocative.