DO NOT SEE THIS FILM. A dog being hit and abused multiple times is just unacceptable. It wasn't acted. Everyone involved in that should go to jail, starting with the director.

gosh... i knew what i was getting into before watching this one - & it did deliver all the disturbing imagery it promised - but the rest of the film just wasn't good. the mute girl played her part well, but everyone else was kind of just ridiculous. not sure if that was purposeful or not, but i thought it took away from the story they were trying to tell. idk. it more or less just seemed like a random movie with random gross happenings. she had no real reason to take an interest in yellow-boat-house-guy & he had no real reason for being there anyway. & he waited like 3 days to ask her if there was a bathroom? didn't you have to go the first day you got there? & what are all these people eating? idk. i like the premise, but i thought it was sloppy & gross.

The moment I listened to this movie, my thoughts seemed to be seeing the world of mankind destroyed by zombies. It is a film in a dreamy fantasy world that looks like watching a post-apocalyptic movie. Or it's like a science fiction movie. The movie Waterworld came to mind.

I remember this as the first film of Kim Ki-Duk that I watched. Been a fan of his films since then. And perhaps this would still be my favorite out of his portfolio. It's a touching and weird love story. The visual storytelling is superb. Even without an audio, you'd understand, and that is the nirvana state of any filmmaker.

Brilliant acting! Innovative plot!

When you go into a kim-ki-duk movie, dont expect a great storyline or a good plot. The movie is filled with emotion,drama and the spirit that you can do anything if you want something. The isle is a strange love story, which like all kim-ki-duk movies contains very less dialogue but the actors communicate via action and a pretty solid screenplay and direction. It is very graphic at times, but that what Kim-Ki-Duk is. Its sheer execution of his direction that sails this film through. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it surely is fantastic if get the essence of the film.

Director Ki-Duk Kim wanted to make a metaphorical movie about isles and love... he creates a mysterious and fascinating, but at the same time disturbing atmosphere in this movie about poor people living in their own world like on... an isle far away from modern civilization..... on the other side, undefendable shots of gruesome violence against animals and some scenes involving fishing hooks make for a hard experience to sit through, and plot-wise too just not everything made sense in the intended way to me.... bizarre and very different from "common" movies, I'd recommend "The Isle" to everyone interested in Asian cinema....

A haunting tale about two damaged and very lost souls that find salvation in each others dark heart's! An arthouse film that some will find strangely beautiful while others will find it obscenely vile! My response would be... both of those views could be used to describe life! In everything beauty and ugliness resides and this film is no different!

The Isle is a quiet and subdued film, but it is a powerful and at times, horrifying film. What really makes this film so great is how it presents itself. It's nothing bombastic, but it requires the viewer to pay attention to the little details like small interactions, facial expressions, and the overall behaviors of the characters which are almost always subtle. It's a film about two broken souls finding each other, but slowly destroying one another as they descend into self-destruction and do horrifying things to keep their love alive. I've seen plenty of gruesome and gory horror films and thrillers, but this one hit me like one hasn't hit me since I watched Suddenly, Last Summer. This is easily one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, not only because of some of the things that occur in the film, but how it forces you to figure out what makes the two lead characters tick through their actions - and it is terrifying. It's truly a superb film that does a sublime job of displaying the darkest aspects of human nature and how far some will go to get what they want. If you enjoy a good, harrowing drama, The Isle is definitely a film to see.

fun with fish hooks, animal cruelty, mentally ill characters, scenes of people pooping and genital mutilation ... in other words, a typical Korean art film :D

A mute woman running a small business in the sticks lives with her dog and some fish for company. Slow, but still very engaging. "A creepy, gruesome, and flabbergasting treatise on romantic obsession and violent, nasty male-female relationships." "Ki-duk Kim has created a provocatively violent and sexual film with an oddly idyllic sensibility. It's a mysterious but ultimately rewarding experience." "A gorgeous and grotesque Korean film"

A mute woman who runs a fishing resort becomes obsessed with a suicidal fugitive hiding out in one of the floating cabins. A bizarre, perverted sadomasochistic love story in a unique setting; animal lovers may feel like boycotting this one, though.

Bleak portrayal of human condition & relationships, Not so similar but the main character somehow reminded me of the main character in Haneke's La Pianiste the way she repress her feelings & ends up hurting herself

A very peculiar movie with a unique story telling.. Quite urban I guess~

I couldn't bear to watch some scenes..... It was an interesting experience.

"L'isola di un uomo è una donna, quella della donna un uomo". Veramente estremo.

The characters are just too mean and ugly (metaphorically, Seaoh Jung is very beautiful) for me to get into.

A very twisted movie, they do some creative things with fish hooks.

Kim Ki-duk serves up another dark and twisted love-story themed film set on a fishing lake where a mute woman and a man with a troubled past find attraction with eachother. The movie is very picturesque and beautiful to look at at times, then we have some rather unpleasant scenes that add the disturbing quality to it all. There's a couple of very nasty moments of self-harm involving fish hooks and moments of animal cruelty - fish mutilated, a drowning finch, a dog takes a beating and a frog gets ripped apart. I wouldn't really describe this as an erotic film at all, yes there are sex scenes but they are not romantic and the majority of them are done fully clothed without any titilation. The acting was very good all round, especially by the mute woman, a little bit more background on the male character would have been nice though. But I was really hooked from the start with this one despite the slowness of it all and the very little dialogue. I enjoyed it more than "Bad Guy".

Korean film by Kim Ki-Duk. Very little dialogue in this movie but an excellent film.