Samaria (2004) Reviews

• Great Insight into Korean society

  mattysid2005-05-03

  I have lived in Korea for the last four years and have been fortunate enough to experience many excellent movies. Of course this is highly debatable, and maybe bias on my behalf, but South Korea is producing not only some of the best movies in the world at the moment but some of the most provocative and thought provoking movies, of which Samaria is probably the prime example. In NaBeunNamJa (BadGuy) Kim Di Duk already dealt with prostitution, however talking to Korean people I think that Samaria is a better account of the true nature of Korean society and the Korean sex industry as a whole. It is because of this that I would like to address some misconceptions that people have of the movie from previous posts and reviews. I promise that I will review the movie later, if you bear with me. First of all, Korean directors are making their movies for the domestic market (which is the third biggest domestic market in the world after Hollywood and bollywood) and therefore tailor their movies to the culture and beliefs that prevail in the domestic market. Teenage prostitution is an unfortunate, but common, aspect of Korean society. In this movie the Director, Kim Di Duk, is only portraying what is the norm in Korean society. It is not uncommon, although I am unable to provide statistics, that many high school and university students and even middle school students, pay for or supplement their tuition fees through the sex industry; although this is not always in the form of prostitution, but sometimes just 'entertaining' men in 'salon' bars. It is a sad reflection of a society that the 'education fever' is so strong that young girls will resort too any means too pay for their education. In this respect Kim Di Duk has hit the nail on the head. A couple of reviewers mentioned the 'shower' / 'sauna' / 'bath-house' scene between the two girls. For those that mentioned it, there is nothing absolutely remotely sexual (or as one reviewer mentioned 'Lesbian') in these scenes whatsoever! Visiting 'bath houses in Korean is an everyday part of Korean life, even as a Westerner I often frequent these places. It is considered normal for women to wash other women and also the same for men. Relationships between the sexes here is different, but refreshing, it is not uncommon to see people of the same sex walking down the street together holding hands or with their arm around another. It takes a while to get used to but once you get used to the nature of the touchy feely nature of Korean people it don't half help you get over any latent homophobic feelings you have! Anyhow, on to movie... I had heard a lot about this movie, the only Kim Di Duk movie I had seen before this was BadGuy, which I thought was OK, but a bit clichéd. This movie blew my mind. However the first part of the movie, the relationship between the two girls, although fairly accurate in terms of Korean society didn't grab me as much as the 'second act' of the movie. Previous reviews, have given enough details on the plot of the movie which I am not going to re-hash, however there is one scene in this movie that in my own humble opinion has to be one of the most incredible pieces of film making and script writing that I have ever seen on celluloid. PLEASE DON'T CONTINUE TO READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE. Because I think this scene should be seen in it's bleak and raw frankness that the director intended. For those that have seen this movie, I am talking about the scene where the father goes to the apartment of the man who is having sex with his daughter and confronts the man in front of his family. What is most shocking about this scene is that the man's daughter is older than the father's daughter. Never in all the movies have I seen a scene so heart breaking, thought provoking and shocking and so well filmed than this. For anyone still reading who hasn't seen this movie I will omit how this scene finishes... still sends shivers down my spine now writing about it! Well sorry to rant! Please watch this movie, and take into mind what I said about Korean society. For those who don't know Korean cinema, also please check out Chingoo (Friend) YupGiJeogInGeoNya(My sassy girl), Memories of Murder, NaBeunNamJa (BadGuy),TaeGeukki ... etc. etc.

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• Brilliant and frustrating at an equal measure.

  gtzam2004-10-30

  This is undeniably a work of considerable formal rigor. Director Kim Ki-Duk uses deceptively simple but tellingly precise visual compositions to narrate his seemingly simple tale of loss of innocence, guilt and redemption. Initially everything seems transparent and self-evident in the story until intangible elements slowly seep into the structure causing ambiguity and bringing emotional turmoil that remains mostly subdued. The main plot premise, however, might seem a bit exaggerated or overblown to someone who cannot easily accept the depicted motivations for the actions of the two main characters (the girl and its father), especially considering the scarcity of social or psychological signifiers. Consequently, the movie works better on a symbolic than dramatic level, as its wonderfully concise final scene demonstrates. A must see.

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• Abstract Korean movie

  evilhinata2005-11-15

  Director Kim Ki-Duk gives us insight about teenage prostitution in Korea, but is this really a movie about prostitution? Looking deeper than the visual settings, I found that the movie hits more emotionally about relationships, between friends and family. The movie is basically broken into two parts. Part one is about Jae-Young, an amateur prostitute and her best friend Yeo-Jin, her manager. The second part is about Yeo-Jin and her father. Each part has its tense moments, and the director, pretty much does a good job telling the story and showing the audience: tragedy and closeness. There's not a lot of sex or violence like typical prostitution movies, but then again it is not about prostitution, it only uses it as a medium to get the point across. Happy viewing!

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• Godforsaken and Full of Hope

  zolaaar2005-01-24

  In "Samaria" a Korean girl takes the holy assignment of devoting herself voluntarily to the suitors of her dead school friend. Her father, a police man, finds it out and takes revenge at the men. It is a film about charity, guilt, and the search for the right way, that gets near to the crassness of Kim's earlier work "Seom - The Isle" (2000) and "Bad Guy" (2001). The story is carried away by the director's typical big calm - a distance to the excitement, that is never cold and opens a breathtaking endearment even in the cruelest moments. "Samaria" is full of intensive scenes, a film you rather realize than understand: It hides its secrets and puts up a father-daughter-relationship-story under the shelter of metaphysical aspects. Great coherence flows out of every image, every tone. A film of godforsakeness and full of hope. Masterpiece! Watch it!

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• Ki-Duk is getting very close to becoming my favorite director

  Boris-572005-03-26

  This is my fourth film by Ki-Duk Kim (after Spring, Summer... / The Isle / 3-Iron), and he scores one minus (The Isle, despite stunning cinematography), one very good (Spring), and two absolutely magnificent. Despite the fact that I liked 3-Iron just a bit better because of the more straightforward story and consistent way of story telling, Samaria comes very close. I'm not going to spoil things for you, but I'd just point out that this is yet another highly symbolic film, so much in fact, that this second (symbolic) level is probably more easily understood than the basic story. Not that it's complicated, it's just that story and meaning are not as closely interwoven as in 3-Iron, where the overlap between the two made possible an ambiguous reality that led to sublimation. Here, it takes a while for the two levels to touch. The feeling following 3-Iron was that of reaching an asymptote - only the infinite was beyond. In Samaria, you feel like some serious stuff happened but what's done is done and the road lies open. We're at a starting point, which is not quite zero but feels like it. Well now, you can hardly call that a spoiler 'cause I hardly understand it myself. But you'll see what I mean after seeing it. The story, which seems to start out as something different that what it turns out to be, must be one of the most poignant symbolic depictions of the point at which a parent has to let his/her kid go and realise he/she's not needed anymore - or not like before. Also, silence, without being as overwhelming as in 3-Iron, plays an important role. In 3-Iron, good stuff happened because of silence; here, a lot of not so good things happen because of it, but some good things can happen in spite of silence. The ending can be very sad or neutral or have the potential for hope, if you choose my story interpretation. But who am I? What? Still reading this? - off you go to the video store. Chop chop! Note: does anyone realise just how brilliant Kim Ki-Duk is when shooting indoor scenes?! Framing, camera movement, light - you name it - sheer perfection.

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