User reviews

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!

Ultimately I liked this a lot, although it was very strange. It went through at least three completely different, distinct tones and styles over the course of the film. At first it played like a slightly skewed, but still rather melodramatic, teen drama, almost like one of those Korean soap operas. Very different from my previous exposure to Kim Ki-Duk. Then it started to become a violent revenge story, like something Chan Wook-Park would do. Still sort of more conventional than other Kim Ki-Duk though, not at all minimalistic or slow. The beginning part was actually somewhat contrived, not like an "art" film at all, in any sense of the word. But then, in it's last third, the film becomes an abstract road movie, much more in the style i've previously associated with Kin Ki-Duk. I certainly can't say that this is a consistent film, and the pacing was obviously rather uneven given the gradual transition from borderline-conventional melodrama into minimalistic, impressionistic art film, but overall there was something about it that I liked a lot. Through all the muddledness, i can tell that Kim Ki-Duk is an interesting filmmaker. There's obviously something going on in his films worth taking note of.

I had the chance of watching this movie at the Montreal World Film Festival. This is the third Korean movie I've seen ('Oasis' and 'Spring Summer...' being the other 2)and believe me, these guys know how to make good cinema.

This movie deals with juvenile prostitution and its consequences. How would you react if you found out that your 15 year old daughter prostitutes herself after school? This powerful movie has excellent acting and some great silent scenes, such as eating sushi at the grave and the driving lesson. The ending is of a great beauty.

Very good movie. 8/10

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.

Addressing a variety of themes such as underaged prostitution, grief and mourning, resulting in a series of bad decisions that are devoid of sanity, but full of emotion.

Although prostitution is illegalized in Korea, it is still a national phenomenon. Many young women resort to sell their bodies to cover for tuition costs and the demands of an exceptionally materialistic society.

Kim Ki-Duk cleverly explores the issue by adding a morality check, introducing religious motives from Buddhist and Christian beliefs in the dialogue of his characters. In doing so he leaves us to speculate about the intent of an already ambiguous ending scene.

My only problems with this movie stem from its pacing, at times scenes were so drawn out that it lost my attention for a while. However it always got me back in the next scene.

If you want to see a dark and unsettling drama, give this one a shot.

To say that Kim Ki Duk is a great director would be a major artistic blunder as well as an understatement which might put a veil on his talent.The best tribute that can be paid to the new master of South Korean cinema Kim Ki Duk is to say that he is one of the most informed directors working in the realm of contemporary world cinema.Just to give a few examples:whether it is mention of the paintings by Egon Schiele or the description about an ancient Indian prostitute called Vasumitra who lived during the time of Buddha.These are some of the details (may be minor to some people)whose inclusion happens under the proper care of Kim Ki Duk."Samaria" is about the scourge of teenage prostitution which is inflicting umpteen emotional wounds in the lives of Korean families. As this is a taboo topic the reaction of Korean audience has not been very favorable.Most of the positive reactions have come from western audiences who have a mature thinking as far as their handling is concerned.Although there is good acting by the two leading ladies,it is the role played by the cop father of one of them who grabs all the attention.Samaria is not a moral story but a tale of human responsibility. Its message is loud and clear : do not do to others what you do not wish to happen for yourself.

i watched this movie yesterday and it was a very refreshing viewing. though i don't see how anybody could see the logic behind the young girl's actions and her reasons, i fell in love with the way the movie is wrapped about in the end. it all makes sense in a very abstract way. leaving you to savor the taste of the movie long after you have watched it. even though the first half is a bit unconventional the latter half adds up so much to the confusion. you fall in love with the 2 protagonist. the father and the daughter. and the way the final message that comes out of the movie, of forgiveness, unconditional love, and acceptance, is very beautiful and at the same time so tragic. you are torn between the girl's stupidity and grief and sorrow of a loving father. in the base both are a epitome of sacrifice for their beloved, and both show what unconditional love is. you will love it after you have watched it.

Uneven, marginally interesting Kim ki-Duk film. Ultimately, it is about a father coming to terms with his daughter growing up. Her "growing up" is prostituting herself to her dead girlfriend's ex-clients as a way of dealing with the grief. The film is broken up into three distinct chapters and is as tonally different as each third. The center section is the most kinetic and bloody, while the concluding section is the most protracted. The opening section focuses on the friendship between the two girls and is the most cohesive of the three. Unfortunately, ki-Duk is in danger of becoming irrelevant because his films are becoming very conventional in one sense, but very inaccessible in another sense. For exploitation fans, there is some mild female nudity, a couple of very bloody beatings, and a terrific dinner table confrontation.

Will I ever see a Kim Ki-duk film I don't like? That's looking doubtful, now that I've watched SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER...AND SPRING, THE ISLE, and BAD GUY, and loved all of them. Like Herzog, he's an art-house director who really appeals me in the way he deals with dark and dismal themes that would be grim in the hands of a normal director but feel somehow oddly uplifting when he tackles the material. Perhaps it's because his films are so beautifully shot, I don't know.

SAMARITAN GIRL sees the director returning to the subject of prostitution after the unforgettable BAD GUY. A couple of teenage girls make extra cash by hooking, until tragedy strikes. What follows is almost impossible to predict, as the story has an episodic structure, although the vigilante bit is undoubtedly my favourite part: ferocious, powerhouse film-making. As is usual for a Kim Ki-duk film, the acting is exemplary and the mood sombre and moving; this is an expose of the human condition, warts and all, for better or worse, and it contains a level of raw emotion that few directors achieve. The ending is excellent in its sense of quiet, contemplative reflection.

Samaritan Girl is one of the earlier film by South Korean director Kim Ki-duk, who's known for his sexual themes and minimalistic use of dialogue. And this movie showcases that rather well, while also showcasing the fine balance between art and artsy that many of his movie straddle.

Yeo-jin (Kwak Ji-min) and Jae-yeong (Han Yeo-reum) are two teenage girls wishing to travel to Europe. But they lack money to do that so they've decided to pimp Jae-yeong out as a prostitute, with Yeo-jin acting as the money handler and lookout. But then everything goes horribly wrong when the police busts in, causing Jae-yeong to leap from a window to her death. The rest of the movie is Yeo-jin coming to terms with her friend's death by offering herself to men, and her father, a policeman, learning about this and coming to terms with it through sheer violence.

It is a skilfully crafted film, with lots of layers and themes only hinted at through subtext. I especially love the final third with Yeo- jin and her father facing each other and slowly trying to reach each other over a gap neither of them expected to ever face. Unfortunately I also think that the first third of the film is pretty weak. I don't really buy the friendship between Yeo-jin and Jae-yeong. They have a few good moments, but overall the film overplays the hinting aspect and doesn't give us enough material to work with.

Overall I think it's a film worth seeing. Compared to other Ki-duk films, it lacks that certain spark, but it's still full of his signature touches and is certainly a movie you won't see every day.

The movie's three main acts nicely shows seamless focus shift from Yeo Jin to her father and to their relationship. Yet the whole story is filled with indecisiveness that lets all the sub-stories to have no definitive end. Strangely for me, with only standard run time of 100 minutes or so, the movie is successful in creating the impression that it was longer than that. Unfortunately the movie doesn't really impress me. The technicalities don't offer anything special. The story is solid enough with constant mood and flow kept all along the entire duration. But the characters' indecisiveness in the story seems weird for me. The acting overall is not so good. None of the actors show enough face expressions to express their respective roles.

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!

Kim Ki-Duk is one of my favorite directors. 3 IRON and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring are included into my top 50 movies list, among the thousands i have watched. And i like a lot many other movies of his.

SAMARIA is probably my least favorite Kim Ki Duk movie. It was so unexpected;y mediocre that make me want to revisit other movies of his, because many years have passed since i watched his movies, and now i think there is a chance i overestimated him as a director. Yes, SAMARIA is that mediocre.

The premise seems dumb and unrealistic. But i bought it because his movies overall are not that realistic. Still, i couldn't connect with this. A terrible thing happened without any reason and then, another thing happened, even more outrageous. But still i could roll with it, until the movie changed its perspective, and then, the protagonist was different. It was even more ridiculous.

And i couldn't understand what Kim Ki Duk was trying to say. Or i did understood it, but it was so shocking and dumb that i prefer to pretend it's vague.

In any case, it's well acted, it's interesting and it's so unpredictable that make want to see where it goes.

Sadly, it goes nowhere.

I have to say this might be Kim Ki-Duks finest work so far. Ever since his debut he has produced some of the most interesting movies in asia cinema, especially. The Isle, Bad Guy, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring and now Samaria.

The movie moves in a very beautiful pace with great camera work and a beautiful soundtrack. The main actress does a very convincing performance, especially considering her age and that this is her debut. The plot itself is also very strong, with probably a mainly symbolic story. But a very beautiful story nevertheless. And the ending is just "perfect".

Kim Ki-duk has really improved his visual style since his debut, and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us in the future.

SAMARITAN GIRL (3 outta 5 stars) Two high school girls finance a holiday trip they want to take by turning to prostitution. Yeo-Jin lures men via internet chat rooms and her cell phone while Jae-Yeong actually has sex with them. All goes well until Jae-Yeong dives out of a three story window to evade the police. Overcome with remorse, Yeo-Jin contacts all their old customers to sleep with them and return their money. In the meantime, Yeo-Jin's father discovers what his daughter is doing when she should be in school and his vengeance against the men despoiling his daughter keeps escalating. A simple story... the plot sounds very sleazy but the emotional subtext elevates the story into a truly heartbreaking drama. The scene where the father confronts one of his daughter's clients in front of his family is extremely powerful. The sad, tender finale is also well portrayed.

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.