Review of Seom
Year: 2000 Reviewer: Chris Docker
A memorable setting - a lake with several tiny floating homes. The fishermen (and visitors) also use the floats for liaisons with prostitutes - whether the local girl who ferries people across and brings coffee-to-go with her boat, or the more modern whores ordered in from town. Out local girl forms a bit of an obsession with one of the local weirdos, and he with her. After rescuing each other in various ways, our attention is turned towards gruesome things you can do with fish hooks inserted into orifices. The Isle teeters between serious cinema - much of it stunningly shot with an impressive minimalism- and voyeuristic sensationalism. As the plot ultimately fails to hang together, sensationalism maybe tips the scales. What is doubly amusing is how the filmmakers (or their Korean censors) seem happy to show us the most blood curdling sexual perversion, yet shy away from any on-screen genitalia, even when it is quite intrinsic to what is going on (I'll leave the gory details to your imagination).
Rating: 6/10
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