DVD Review: The Isle
Published August 21, 2004
One thing is for sure, when it comes to strange, surreal, cringe inducing films, no one does it quite like Asian filmmakers. This film is no exception. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started watching this film. I had read some good things about it in some forums that I frequent, seemed like an interesting horror type film with a touch of th bizarre, seemed right up my alley. So on a recent order from Hong Kong through DDDhouse.com, I ordered it from their cheap sale. This means, if I didn't like it, I would only be out about $4-5. It is a region 3 disk, so most of you folks in my neck of the woods wouldn't be able to play this disk, although I believe there is a region 1 version available. On to the movie.
What I expected was some type of horror film, what i got was rather slowly paced (not a bad thing) drama with some creepy moments. The setting is one I haven't seen before, something of a fishing camp. There is a lake with small platforms floating on it with small enclosed cabins on them. People rent them and are taken to them by motorboat, and there they fish or do whatever else they wish. Hee-Jin (Jung Sue) is the mute woman who operates the business, delivering food and other, umm, services to her clientele. The story takes a turn when Hyun-Shik(Yoo-Suk Kim) rents a platform, with the possible intent of committing suicide. The reason for this desire we learn through a nightmare he has, he is hiding out due to something bad that he had done. The turn is that Hee-Jin takes an interest in this visitor. An odd love/hate relationship develops between the two, although one last suicide attempt ensues.
This attempt to kill himself is one of the most cringe inducing scenes I have ever witnessed on film. Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you do not wish to know. In an attempt to off himself, he swallows a fishing line with a cluster of fish hooks on the end and then attempts to pull it back out of his throat. Of course it is unsuccessful, and eventually leads to Hee-Jin's use of fish hooks for another reason, not to be discussed here.
Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn't sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the "Movie Guy" and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99's Musings and Draven99's Media Center. 
- DVD Review: The Isle
- Published: August 21, 2004
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- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Art House, Video: Drama, Video: Foreign Language, Video: Horror, Video: Suspense and Mystery
- Writer: Chris Beaumont
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Without a doubt, if you are region free, it is R3/NTSC, for $25HK it's hard to go wrong even if you end up not liking it. I read somewhere that the UK release was to be trimmed by like 1.5 minutes or something like that. I was surprised by the animal cruelty in it. It is definitely an interesting movie.
The theme of The Isle seems to be jealousy or obsessive love.
You refer to something bad that he has done. He has murdered his former lover out of jealousy.
We see this pattern repeated when the mute woman murders the young prostitute because she wants the man for herself.
I'm not sure why you compare this to The Audition. Both are movies where the women are involved in murders, however, in the Korean film, the woman pursues the man.
In the Japanese film, the man is pursuing the woman, starting out with a deception. She is his ideal woman--demure, modest and submissive. But in the end, as is hinted at several times in the beginning sequences, we see that she is disturbed and these unreal qualities hide greater problems.
There is an aspect of horror in The Isle, but it isn't essentially a horror film as is The Audition. Some of Kim Ki-duk's shots seem like standard poses from Asian comic books. There's a sense of voyeurism and misogyny in Kim Ki-duk's films that I have seen that I don't feel necessarily exist in Takashi Miike's.
I am aware of what he had done in the past, often when I write I try to avoid some specific details so that people will see them themselves when viewing, it is a weakness in my writing. I'm still pretty much a rookie at the writing game.
I made the comparison to Auditon primarily for the languid pacing. Both have a slow build up which I found effective, as opposed to a barrage of action or whatever.
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Chris, good work. I've been waiting for this flick to arrive in the UK for some time now. It's been held back on account of the BBFC want to cut the scenes of animal cruelty, and the distributors are fighitng for an uncut release. I tihnk in the end its gonna be cut by something like three minutes. Maybe this import is the way to go.