ASIA ASSAULT: THE ISLE (2000)

As you can tell from this blog so far, I am a massive movie film. In the early 2000's I began to an adventure in exploring movies on the other side of the world. 18 years later my favorite movies come from Asia. When I was at University I wrote a dissection about the decline of the Tartan Asia Extreme dvd Label. I decided to produce this blog as a means to highlight stuff I am passionate about. I hope with this series of articles that I am able to turn readers onto films that deserve a wider audience. In this week entry I highlight Korean auteur Kim Ki Duk's The Isle (2000). 

Widely misunderstood and often labelled as another Asian extreme film, The Isle is an unconventional erotic drama with mixes humour and pain to a quietly profound level. Hee-Jin (played wonderfully with conviction by Jung Suh) is the grounds keeper of a dingy fishing resort. The place is a refuge of sorts for fugitives or cheating spouses looking for an escape from their everyday lives. Hee-Jin ferries and houses these lost souls in compact fishing huts. There is a strangeness to Hee-Jin. Throughout the film she never utters one word to the confusion and anger of guests or pimps, that are looking for their 'property' which often visit the resort. For a woman that is devoid of words she holds a mystical presence of the Isle. On the surface people could reduce her down to a glorified prostitute as she waits hand and foot on the guests. She also offers her body. There is however a great pain that we can feel under the surface. 

Hee-Jin holds great power over these people, not just because she holds their freedom in her hands (a boat transports them back to land) and also their lives. Hee-Jin erupts into flurries of violence unsuspecting to the guests. Although the narrative does not go into great depths why this is, there is another hints which suggest she has experienced loss in her life. It's only when a fugitive Hyun-Shik (played by Yoosuk Kim) that an urge for connection is felt. This is where the Isle becomes something truly transcendent. Just like with Duk's previous works 'Bad Guy' and 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring', there is an underlying sense of everyday people trying desperately to cure their inner loneliness. Hyun-Shik is unlike the other guests. He is quiet and doesn't immediately throw himself onto Hee-Jin. This creates a lust as both characters interact in subtle, playful ways.  When he eventually tries to act on his carnal desire, she rejects it. Unconventionally she chooses to call a prostitute. This backfires as the prostitute actually falls in love with him. It's only when police officers come to the Isle that Hyun-Shik and Hee-Jin connect.

It's at this moment that the movie earns it's notoriety. If you are squeamish, Hyun-Shik attempt at suicide by fish hooks is truly stomach churning. Kim Ki Duk is a lot more restrained than he compared to his film Moebius or Bad Guy. There is a senstivity to these moments which elevates this from simple shock value. You soon realise the 'hook' of this film is two people connecting through their shared connection of pain. Although the film has a fair few kills, animal cruelty and self-mulitation, The Isle is a film about love. The Isle is a grisly place. In some ways you get the sense it's a place that people go to vanish. The men that live there are truly repugnant. There is nothing funny about their retrograde attitudes to women or life in general. There is a cathartic power when these two people connect. We feel a great sense that both of these souls are damaged. Whether being together will solve their issues is unclear. Both exhibit great performances of violence to each other to prevent this. It's only when they realise that they cannot face life without each other that The Isle truly takes form. 

This is a film that is not for everyone. It will confuse, making you wonder whether you should be happy, sad or appalled. It will cause many different individual reactions which is the film's intent. Kim Ki Duk masterfully doesn't make this fall into a morkish melodrama or suddenly fall into being too artsy. 'The Isle' is a deeply moving and emotionally which will reward thoses that are looking to be challenged.