Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Leofwine_draca As a massive fan of Korean director Kim Ki-duk - I've never seen a film of his I haven't loved - I was eager to see what delights his new film PIETA had in store for the viewer. In some ways it's similar to a lot of his previous filmography, like BAD GUY, in which the protagonist is also the antagonist, and also similar to other Korean films I've seen like BREATHLESS.The main character is a ruthless loan shark who makes a living from crippling those who owe him money; he gets the money back from their insurance claims. The glacial Lee Jeong-jin gives an icy turn as a truly horrible creation, but inevitably he thaws a little once you get to know him, and once the plot kicks in. This is a revenge story, but one done in a way that's both subtle and convoluted; it's a film that rewards close attention, else you won't have a clue what's going on.Jo Min-soo bags the film's most interesting role of the long-lost mother who turns up seeking reconciliation. It's a difficult, unsympathetic part to play, and there are one or two sexual situations which go way beyond the realms of bad taste into some of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. As ever, though PIETA isn't really an explicit film, despite the sheer quantity of violent incidents that happen during the running time, and as a story it gets more and more engrossing as it goes on. The end is particularly profound, and the lush cinematography on a tiny budget makes this a beautiful film to watch, despite the depravity.

veronikastehr Ki-duk Kim built his career on films containing bizarre motifs that outline deeper layers of human nature. However, in some of his latest works the priorities have changed. Complex themes have become superficially elaborated frameworks within which a whole range of disturbing contents has been featured. So, in his film Amen (2011), we follow the story of rape (the director himself plays the rapist) to finally understand the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. In his latest work Moebius (2013), the castration of a minor reveals to us that the family goes through a crisis, while in Pietà-I (2012.) Kim teaches us that the obedience by the suffering of rape and humiliation may warm up even the coldest hearts. But this is not where the director stops; he gives to his film a politically involved prospective, as well, criticizing the capitalist system through the mutilation of the poor.The debt collector Gang-Do (Jung-Jin Lee), fear and trembling of the neighborhood, totters through the overcrowded city suburb. He perambulates stuffy hovels of helpless debtors just following his orders. There, he mutilates them, remaining completely cold, in an ambiance filled with menacing machines that impose by themselves the variation in the choices of the ways to inflict lesions ... This established routine is disturbed by a mysterious woman Mi-Son (Jo Min- su) that abruptly enters into Gang-Do's life stating to be his mother. The son reacts to this information by raping her, as it wouldn't be okay to leave her non-raped – because in such a case the director would miss the strike combination of incest and rape! However, regardless of violence she was subjected to, Mi-Son offers unconditional love through which she gradually acquires confidence of her son.Pietà has won the Golden Lion at Venice. The film has a really intriguing plot (although the South Korean revenge film patterns were entirely followed), as well as visual homogeneity in the representation of cold atmosphere and nauseating thematic. However, shock effect is here mostly to affect the audience, and Kim uses it artfully to cover the weaknesses of the film such as poorly dramaturgically elaborated theme of empathy. Its elaboration is so shallow that the director resorted to an awkward explanation of his work. We had to endure the final monologue of the female protagonist who in an outburst of pathos explains from alpha to omega motives of the film and its punch-line. Through the accentuation of flaws present in the character of victims (wimps, invertebrates, people with a lack of morals ...) he supports his misanthropic vision of life and thus calls into question the alleged message of the film and whether the motives of the director were indeed humanistic.

CinemaClown The 18th feature film written & directed by Korean cinema's most notorious filmmaker, Pietà tells the story of a sadistic loan shark who ends up crippling people for not paying their debts, which after added interest is 10 times the amount they borrowed. Torturing with no feelings, his life takes a changing course when a middle-aged woman claiming to be his long lost mother comes into his life out of nowhere.The film has all the disturbing elements one expects from Kim Ki-duk and although the first half has no easy-to-digest moments, the second half plays out very well to end on a satisfying, even rewarding, note. Cinematography reflects the appalling nature of the subject matter while editing presents a well-sought balance. The performances are pretty impressive from its two leads & the rest of filmmaking aspects are finely executed as well.On an overall scale, Pietà is a highly tragic story of love, loss, revenge & redemption that has much more to offer than just disgust its viewers. Sure, Kim Ki-duk takes extreme pleasure in making his audience flinch but he also backs it up with enough justifications for the violence in his films. Shocking, unnerving, pitiful, haunting & infused with Christian symbolisms, Pietà is an unsettling psychological study of a mother-son relationship that also presents a fascinating take on what famously is Korean cinema's favourite genre.

Badar Munir Pieta is the story of revenge in a most brutal way possible by giving one's own life, a story of mother's love for his son. Story tells us the extreme measures taken by a mother to take the revenge from a non-human brutal loan shark.Jung-Jin Lee is living a lonely life whose sole purpose is to recover the loan from other people by making them cripple and claiming their insurance money. In doing so he has become so cold inside that he feels nothing and know no pain. Brutality is the everyday life matter.Enters a woman stirring everything by claiming that she is his mother. she make him feel love, make him angry and make him feel pain just to take the revenge of her son. And when Jung-Jin starts to feel human again, she inflicted the deep scar into his soul by giving her own life.Movie is full of disturbing content and makes for a haunting viewing. I am a fan of south Korean cinema and this movie takes the love affair to another level.8/10