Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the imprecise but effective way Kang-do destroys human bodies is the frank simplicity with which Kim presents it.

| Mar 18, 2021

Young-jik manages to tap into the dreary desolation of Ki-duk's screenplay, and we're left in a perpetual nightmare until the final frames.

| Nov 13, 2020

Bad people doing bad things that will occasionally make your stomach churn.

| Original Score: B | Jul 9, 2020

Die-hard devotees may still find some vague form of enjoyment lurking beneath Pietà's drab and depressing exterior, but for the majority there's little on show here to make it worth wholly recommending.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 2, 2019

It's agonising to watch the two lead performers going deep into the sludge.

| May 10, 2016

A vicious, torture-happy debt collector with some severe sexual peccadilloes is, erm, softened by the return of his estranged mother in Kim Ki-duk's deeply unsettling Pieta.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 2, 2013

Possesses a sad, quiet power. Kim's film isn't as a cool as those made by his compatriots. But it is, in its own way, just as memorable.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 16, 2013

Succeeds in repulsing and enlightening viewers simultaneously, even if its views on self-sacrifice and redemption are cynical.

| Nov 4, 2013

This is a grisly fable that never goes where we expect it to. And it has some important things to say about both revenge and sacrifice.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 13, 2013

Nasty is as nasty does, and this lurid if aspirational potboiler does its thing, but the camera could have been let in on the joke.

| Original Score: C | Sep 11, 2013

Oedipal metaphysics give way to something altogether more mundane, but Jo and Lee are committed leads, the former carrying the burden of the movie with motherly care and attention.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 9, 2013

Kim intends a parable about capitalism run amok, which is about as subtle as a wrecking ball aimed at the World Bank.

| Sep 6, 2013

Dark and twisted but without the depth to back it up, Piet is determined to provoke controversy at the expense of characterisation.

| Sep 6, 2013

The film is far from a masterpiece ... but it bristles with Kim's trademark anger and agony.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 5, 2013

A vicious, unrelenting and bleak drama depicting the devastating effect of the current economic climate on society.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 5, 2013

Repellent on every level.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 5, 2013

Anyone who can get past its surface aggression will discover one of the more delicately crafted character studies of modern cinema, and a testament to the talent of director Kim Ki-duk, who continues to shock and astound in equal measure.

| Sep 5, 2013

This film will split opinions, but one thing we can all rejoice in together, is witnessing the unhappiest blowing out of candles on a birthday cake you'll see on the big screen in a long while!

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 5, 2013

Pieta is the kind of film that sends sensitive audiences rushing towards the exit and yet for those who remain to the bitter end there is method in all of this savagery, purpose visible through the grey clouds of unrelenting bleakness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 3, 2013

As the intensity ramps up, Pieta skews more towards silliness than shock.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 2, 2013