Director – Kim Ki-duk – 2000 – South Korea – Cert. 18 – 89m
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Review originally published in What’s On In London to coincide with the film’s UK theatrical release.
Latest UK release from Korean maverick director Kim Ki-duk (Bad Guy; Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…and Spring) has a unique setting: an isolated lake upon which float small chalets on rafts available for hire by punters. The proceedings never leave these immediate surroundings, which include the shack with a jetty on the shore – from which proprietress Hee-Jin (Im Suh Jung) hires out the chalets and sometimes her body – and a mysterious isle in the lake’s centre.
![](http://jeremycprocessing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Isle-The-proprietress-2-chalets-800-x-450.jpg)
She embarks upon a relationship with life-weary punter and ex-cop Hyun-shik (Kim Yoo-suk), bringing unexpected changes to them both.
This is not a film for the faint-hearted, containing as it does some pretty unsettling imagery involving physical sexual activity and fish hooks, even if much of this is suggested rather than shown.
![](http://jeremycprocessing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Isle-The-couple-800-x-450.jpg)
What we’re seeing here has been slightly pruned at the request of the UK censor the BBFC, notably of scenes involving the slicing off of a live fish’s sides before the camera which have been removed on grounds of animal cruelty.… Read the rest