61
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoDaring, mesmerizing and exceedingly hard to forget.
- 80The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenA movie of extremes, and that goes for its aesthetics. As gory as the scenes of torture and self-mutilation may be, they are pitted against shimmering cinematography that lends the setting the ethereal beauty of an Asian landscape painting.
- 80Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonKim's movie rocks -- I saw it cold a year ago, and I don't think I've been as entranced and appalled by an Asian film since Shinya Tsukamoto's "Iron Man."
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis is the most gruesome and quease-inducing film you are likely to have seen. You may not even want to read the descriptions in this review. Yet it is also beautiful, angry and sad, with a curious sick poetry, as if the Marquis de Sade had gone in for pastel landscapes.
- 70The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasAt once predatory and vulnerable, Jung has a primitive intensity that speaks louder than words, carrying an enigmatic and often maddeningly elusive film that's short on dialogue, rational behavior, and narrative logic.
- 60Film ThreatFilm ThreatThe increasingly creepy plot is counter balanced by a genuinely tender romance, which makes the film impossible to categorise, and will no doubt limit it to obscure arthouses and cinephiles who have very strong stomachs. They won't be disappointed.
- 50New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanEerie, opaque and unblinkingly sadomasochistic.
- 50Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesNotorious on the festival circuit for its excruciating scenes of self-mutilation.
- 25Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittSouth Korean melodrama uses a unique location, dominated by fishermen's floating huts, as the background for an overheated story that grows steadily more grotesque and unpleasant as it proceeds.