The Isle

A fishing resort made of floating huts. A relationship forms without words between Hee-jin, the mute woman who runs it, and Hyun-shik, a fugitive hiding there. It is Kim Ki-duk's fourth film and the first to get international attention. The telling is almost entirely visual, with very little dialogue. What made it notorious is the violence. Two sequences involving fish hooks go past any usual limit. Roger Ebert described it as the most gruesome and quease-inducing film you are likely to have seen, and screenings at Venice reportedly had viewers fainting or becoming ill. It underperformed in South Korea while finding an audience abroad. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 76 percent and Metacritic at 61, and it took a NETPAC special mention at Venice. Who it is for: viewers prepared for wordless storytelling and art cinema at its most extreme. Who it is not for: almost everyone. What is shown is not a matter of style but the thing the film is most criticised for.