Reviews

The other reviews here truly provide absolutely nothing for the film so heres some background and context.

The film is fine, I wouldn't rank it up there with some of Marian Dora's more notorious works (MDE which was aesthetically obliterating to the eyes and psychologically damaging) or Cannibal/Voyage which had "enough" plot while still maintaining the mainstay of MD's movies that is horror/arthouse/disturb etc. Instead the film orients more around general aesthetic and lovely (out of context/clashing with imagery and filming style) sound or audio.

The purpose of this film was also unique though, in that it played a role in "clearing up some confusion" for dedicated MD fans who had heard discourse from within the community/actors etc. For that reason I would say the movie really won't peak much interest for most and likely doesn't really have much value for them. An issue within this is that the film still didn't clear a lot up for the die-hard fans as it kind of lacked transparency and direct answers/involvement of some needed individuals. (At least for us English speaking individuals relying on potentially flawed translation).

I don't really know who the film was made for. If your here becuase Melancholie Der Engel scarred you and you want more this won't do it for you. If your an immense MD fan and wanted answers about community discourse this won't do much for you. At best you can understand a bit more context and rationale but no definitive answers were provided. However, all in all, it still has very beautiful cinematography entirely unique to MD and has some very grotesque scenes. Its beginning to feel repetitive (coprophilia/emitophilia yada yada) but its there and will likely be acceptable to the MD fans who will "eat up anything he produces" iykyk.

Genuinly unsure what the other reviewers of this movie are talking about. This is literally a movie 1/2 in claymation where a girl tells a story about her grandmother's upbringing and her relationship with her twin sister. Sure there is some abuse... but 80% of it is between actual balls of clay.

The plot isn't all that bad. Actually, for what it is, I enjoyed it. The movie shouldn't be listed as "extreme disturbing traumatic stick with you forever" etc. But instead a dark themed drama with some abusive characteristics. The acting was good, when there were live actors, and although I don't like claymation style art it was done very well. Additionally, the scenery and quality of the film was very good.

Overall 6/10.

I don't know that I am capable of writing a review good enough to capture this movie's depth but I'll try. The entire movie is devastating and holds no punches, the tragic tale addresses one of the only forms of addiction we as a society seem to have deemed unacceptable to accept/understand. Instead, treating it as if it were a disgusting choice made by those who suffer from it. While mental health and substance abuse have become movements we strife to improve upon, food addiction is treated as though the person is simply lazy or stupid. I'm sure most of us, myself included, are guilty of those subconscious thoughts.

This isn't a lecture but I ensure you this isn't the case with food addiction. If you believe it is take the time to google leptin resistance, epigenetic role in obesity (ob gene), and the various forms of microbiome development.. This is my request as an obese medical student who finds himself in awkward positions and feeling like a hypocrite in many patient interactions.

Beyond the looming subject of food addiction the film further interwinds the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community and how religion participates in the historical treatment of those within the community. The relationships Charlie forms with his friends and family and even random strangers. Such as Dan the pizza man, who is friendly and kind until the day he seems Charlie, at which time all of which changes. Or his students, who upon a face reveal instead of being kind or even normal, appear disgusted or as if they want to snicker at his appearance.

There is likely a great deal of symbolism I am missing in the film. Such as the bird and its plate, which then break just prior to Charlie's death. If you haven't, watch the movie for yourself.

Acting: 10/10 Story: 10/10 Emotion: 10/10 Effects: - No need.

Cinematography: 10/10, overly simple, boring, dark, all of which add to the film's purpose.

Movie Score Breakdown / Appreciation Paragraph / Perception of Symbolism

Story 8/10 Intensity 8/10 Cinematography 9/10 Emotion 10/10 Scenery 10/10 Acting 10/10 Symbolism 10/10, too much?

Other reviews have already summed the plot up, and wonderfully expressed how FANTASTIC this movie's pacing, editing, cinematography, and story blends together. So instead lets dive a bit deeper into some symbolism. Disclaimer: this is purely my perception and I could be 100% wrong, that's the beauty of this level of symbolism. DISCLAIMER #2: I think many users who didn't enjoy this film took no note of the depth this film goes into.

The Sea, and the Mountains: We begin this movie in the mountains, and end in the sea. And everything between is a descent and ascend to or from one, to the other. Tang Wei likely represents the sea as this is where she returns. However, she is also said to have a mountain assigned to her by her family, and her phone's wallpaper and case are both the sea and the mountains depending on when we see them, and which phone we are looking at. She also choses to wear clothes that are green or blue, and later on an interesting comment is made regarding different characters seeing the colors differently where only our protagonist sees her in blue.

The mist: Hae Jun's wife never leaves the fog of Ipo. She is shrouded throughout the film and honestly, clueless. Hae Jun and Tang Wei are free from the mist, until Hae Jun choses to return to his wife. This lasts 13 months until Tang Wei moves to Ipo and the fog immediately lifts but just for these characters, when they go to the mountain and officially address their feelings for the first time. This is when we see Tang Wei not push our MC off the cliff and can truly confirm she isn't a psychopath murderer, as much as she is in love with him. Once they return to the town, he even remarks "It didn't snow here", for our 2 lovers the snow brought with clarity, clarity that was only shared between the two of them.

The crow and the turtle: This one's tough, and honestly I am not the right person to answer this one. It is very likely Park knows something about crow & turtle symbolism between the Chinese/Korean cultures and that these may have represented something much deeper than I can fathom. But my simplistic explanation: the crow is the sky (mountain) and the turtle is the sea. The crow dies, and the turtles are set free. The turtles are also set free in a misplaced scene between the love tension we are constantly indulged in. After the crow died Jun keeps a feather and seems to hold it close to him. The last time we see it is post 13month gap, when the new female officer picks it up and he slaps it from her hand and places it back in the safety of a pen mug. Clearly the deceased symbol of Tang Wei's mountain association was something dear to the character.

That's where I'm going to leave it as I feel this review could otherwise be a short novel. Things not addressed that are most peculiar: was Hae Jun truly abused? We see she faked a great deal of the scenarios she was placed in such as the police ravaging her house. Was there more to her arrival from China by boat and trauma regarding the 10 days at SEA covered in feces? Did Jun's wife leave him? We see her leave with her recently divorced June coworker, both with luggage and then Jun is sleeping alone with his CPAP machine. Also why is she carrying away the last turtle Jun had brought home?

TA, JV, AA.

Sadly this is just a poorly written mess of a movie with no real plot. The scenes seem to have no real string tying them together and your left with a mass of bloody/gore meaningless scenes. The characters go about living their lives and just killing for the sake of it, it would appear. Every now and then it's suggested they (maybe) eat one another, again for no real reason. This is what I'd imagine directing a 5th grader's idea of a horror movie would look like.

Short review, but this movie is spectacular and bridges found footage with extreme cinema perfectly. Another user already compared this to Marian Dora's work or A Serbian Film and it is justified. CERTAINLY not a film for everyone, and I'd steer anyone borderline on watching it away from the film, unless your familiar with other brutal pieces.

6/10 from me. The plot existed but fell short, and the stupid "SiStEr iS aLiVe" thing took the movie down a huge "peg" for me.

Dear lord you couldn't find a narrator to write the script with more than a 5th grade education? The concepts are so simple it's painful. And there's literally zero abstract features of this film. Severe blood and violence? The movie's torture scenes are PG-13 quality movie effects with minimal blood.

The film is literally hours of some upbeat spoken women talking about how aweful her life and history has been. There's no despair or misery in her voice it's just monotone sub-upbeat speaking which matches the wannabe tone 0%. This movie makes me want to produce a simple exploitation narrative and blow this attempt out of the water.