Have you seen more Kim Ki duk's films? With this one, it's the 9th film that i have seen. Why see so many films from same director, because he became one of my all time favorite. So why the hell did he make this movie like this? Let's admit, it's definitely a Kim Ki duk story, no doubt, but everything else seems like an amateur work. The DOP is extremely weak. All of he's films were like a perfect interaction of images, and this one is bad in shots and in the edition of the shots - the so called perfection that he seeks in the other movies, all the symbolism, all the perfect actors - where is all this? For me the scene where the man want to cut his hand to give money to his son, could me the ultimate beauty scene, but then the actor seemed to take this things so light, like "it's only my hand", and after that he asks for the second one. At that time it turned ridiculous instead of beautiful. And this was the first time that i saw a bad scene in one of Kim Ki duk's film. Don't get me wrong, but Kim Ki duk could win in Venice with any movie, but not this one.