Rent The Isle (2000)

A bizarre, calm and horrific piece of cinema. - The Isle review by CP Customer

The story of 'The Isle' revolves around a dark twisted and gruesome love affair between a depressive male and a mute female. Hee-Jin runs a group of small floating fishing cabins on a lake, she ferries her customers to and from their floating huts, supplies food, drink and her body to those who are lonely at night. She becomes fascinated by a customer named Hyun-Shik and slowly falls in love with him; both of them find it hard to express their love for each other by conventional methods which leads to a fragile relationship that relies as much from pain as it does from affection. Overall, it's not an easy film to watch, it's explicitly violent, features some graphic self mutilation and even in this edited UK version there's some pretty disturbing scenes of animal cruelty. That aside, like Ki-duk Kim's other films, it's well directed, with stunning cinematography and superb acting.