The Isle
Empire Pictures Inc. | Release Date: August 23, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Daring, mesmerizing and exceedingly hard to forget. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
A movie of extremes, and that goes for its aesthetics. As gory as the scenes of torture and self-mutilation may be, they are pitted against shimmering cinematography that lends the setting the ethereal beauty of an Asian landscape painting. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Kim's movie rocks -- I saw it cold a year ago, and I don't think I've been as entranced and appalled by an Asian film since Shinya Tsukamoto's "Iron Man." Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is the most gruesome and quease-inducing film you are likely to have seen. You may not even want to read the descriptions in this review. Yet it is also beautiful, angry and sad, with a curious sick poetry, as if the Marquis de Sade had gone in for pastel landscapes. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
At once predatory and vulnerable, Jung has a primitive intensity that speaks louder than words, carrying an enigmatic and often maddeningly elusive film that's short on dialogue, rational behavior, and narrative logic. Read full review
60
Film ThreatRich Cline
The increasingly creepy plot is counter balanced by a genuinely tender romance, which makes the film impossible to categorise, and will no doubt limit it to obscure arthouses and cinephiles who have very strong stomachs. They won't be disappointed. Read full review
60
EmpirePatrick Peters
Sadly, though, all this arthouse exploitation fails to reveal as much about contemporary Korea as, say, "Texas Chainsaw" did about the States. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The film nevertheless exerts a strange sort of power that makes for compelling viewing, even as its images force one to repeatedly look away. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Eerie, opaque and unblinkingly sadomasochistic. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Notorious on the festival circuit for its excruciating scenes of self-mutilation. Read full review
50
Washington PostMark Jenkins
"Spring, Summer" fans should only have their appreciation of that film expanded by seeing this rougher take on similar themes. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
South Korean melodrama uses a unique location, dominated by fishermen's floating huts, as the background for an overheated story that grows steadily more grotesque and unpleasant as it proceeds. Read full review
More From This Movie

61 Critic Reviews

7.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL