Such a frustrating disappointment

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I have seen "I saw the devil',"the flu"and the "terror live"and all these films seem to have in common that you make your mind up of were they are going and at a point they turn the whole thing upside down.And this one is, according to me, no different all though it feels some what smaller in scale but still gives you a punch to the stomach leaving you gasping for air.It starts out with the main character witnessing a crime but because she's afraid of repercussions she says she didn't see anything.Haunted by her own failure she gets tough against once of her female co workers and ends up hitting her so she has to take a leave of absence and decides to go on holiday on a small island were she grew up.When she gets to the island she sees the girl she grew up with who is very happy to see her while the other islanders don't seem to like her at all simply because things are still very old-fashioned on the island and women are still being treated like it was the in the middle ages and these mostly older women actually see this as a virtue.As happy as her old girlfriend acts she soon realizes that they treat her like a dog and that she's afraid to leave the island thinking he husband would find her any way and kill her and her little daughter.The abuse keeps building up and you know it's gonna have an outburst but that takes quiet a lot of time to get to that point and I can understand people might have a problem with this and think that its some what over done. But...stick with it cause when the turn around comes its like the scene of evil dead 2 were Ash comes out the fruit cellar and decides from that point on not to give an F no more.Also the double betrayal is important because for me it really changed who the main character is in this movie and that's the kind of plot twist you don't see that often in movies.These are really world movies and the kind every one should see at least once in their lifetime and I am surely glad I did.Next time some one says:I'm going south,I will think...yeah,Korean. Peace!

Here's one of those better Asian shockers. Actually it's quite excellent and bravado film making. But also this movie is truly unsettling for most of the part. It's the heartless if inhuman characters that make it so, void of compassion or soul. This is revenge at extremes. A young woman and her little girl are subject to cruelty over decades, mostly at the hands of the arsehole husband, where I was cheering loudly inside at his demise, which was well overdue, in light of what I saw before. The husband, a bad man, like his mates, are guilty of many things, even interfering with the little daughter. They live off the mainland on this island, where even this island itself creeped me out. This whole unsettling scene to be honest was like something out of The Wicker Man. Retreating to this island, in light of a rape on the mainland, is this young beautiful, yet very self centered woman, who I must say kind of annoyed me, but also intrigued me. She befriends the woman and child, but really doesn't really get involved with what's going on. After a physical fracas leads to a tragic incident, our long suffering soul turns rabid, and with a nearby sickle, becomes vigilante and murderess, where some quite graphic bloodshed ensues. Be ready for it. I did not feel sorry for any of her victims either. They all deserved to die, and I kind of first wanted Miss self centered to die, but then I was glad to see some emotion, compassion, and regret, attack her in the final frame. Bedevilled in it's almost two running time duration, has you hook line and sinker from the start. When the violence comes it's grand. I really wanted to see this girl send blood spilling on this island folk, her supposed family who had me pondering earlier if they were actually cursed or something, as they weren't the norm, and very bitter, and again, void of little or no compassion. Daring and disturbing films like this, are what really gives highs in movie land, though a certain audience will shun away from this heavy film of unrelenting revenge, and unstoppable violence.

The bystander effect: choosing to do nothing when someone you can help is clearly suffering - a thing that, sadly, most will do out of fear for their own safety. Selfishness is a mental condition.Hae-won is an apathetic bank teller who feels nothing for anyone around her, especially if they are lower down on the social hierarchy. After witnessing a brutal beating in the street she takes off to the quiet island of Mudo where she once spent time with her grandparents as a kid. There she meets with old 'friend' Bok-nam and tries to relax. Any decent person wouldn't be able to relax around the island who brutally beat, degrade, and humiliate Bok-nam on a minute-by-minute basic. Hae-won just turns a blind eye to it, but her old friend is about to be pushed past her limits and seek very bloody retribution.Happy endings are not in the future for anyone in this movie, but strangely, there is no real sense of hopelessness. Bok-nam is a character who eventually takes charge of her misery and despair, while Hae-won merely lets bad things happen. There is a fine line between fighting for your life and choosing apathy. The future depends on how much you care about it, for yourself and for others.Despite the gloom, it is a very well shot movie with lots of gorgeous shots of the island and blue sky (and the red blood soaking into the mud). However, I would not watch this movie if you are in the mood for something light and fun. It will depress you, a lot.

I went into this expecting a supernatural horror of some sort solely based on the title. What I got instead was a terrifying, powerful movie in regards to the emotional toll its depicted mental, physical, and sexual abuse take. The movie has an amazing build up, garnering much sympathy for Bok-nam before anything commonly defined as "horror" starts, and it ends up being the scariest part of the movie.The director, Jang Cheol-soo, has worked as an assistant director for Kim Ki-duk, and the movie is reminiscent of him in many ways. It revolves around women ready to snap and evil men. One of the most obvious connections is the very ending, which is practically the ending of The Isle in reverse. A woman becomes an island, rather than an island becoming a woman.What's really scary is that anyone could do this to you if they wanted. They could knock you out, take you home, tie you up, and abuse you however they wanted with you having no way to get free. Not everyone is born on a remote island where it's easier to do so with no fear of the law, and it's interesting to think about how much the fear of the police may hamper this. It obviously doesn't for some people. Watch the news. That could be you.