That was an excellent one.

Great Film overall

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Addressing a variety of themes such as underaged prostitution, grief and mourning, resulting in a series of bad decisions that are devoid of sanity, but full of emotion.Although prostitution is illegalized in Korea, it is still a national phenomenon. Many young women resort to sell their bodies to cover for tuition costs and the demands of an exceptionally materialistic society.Kim Ki-Duk cleverly explores the issue by adding a morality check, introducing religious motives from Buddhist and Christian beliefs in the dialogue of his characters. In doing so he leaves us to speculate about the intent of an already ambiguous ending scene.My only problems with this movie stem from its pacing, at times scenes were so drawn out that it lost my attention for a while. However it always got me back in the next scene.If you want to see a dark and unsettling drama, give this one a shot.

The movie's three main acts nicely shows seamless focus shift from Yeo Jin to her father and to their relationship. Yet the whole story is filled with indecisiveness that lets all the sub-stories to have no definitive end. Strangely for me, with only standard run time of 100 minutes or so, the movie is successful in creating the impression that it was longer than that. Unfortunately the movie doesn't really impress me. The technicalities don't offer anything special. The story is solid enough with constant mood and flow kept all along the entire duration. But the characters' indecisiveness in the story seems weird for me. The acting overall is not so good. None of the actors show enough face expressions to express their respective roles.

This is the only Kim's movie I've seen up to this day, but after "Samaria" I know I got to dig! The story's told in a very subtle, delicate way. The movie transforms itself slowly with time, which makes it more entertaining. The script is solid and the acting is good (these young girls sure can play!), which combined gives what every movie fan probably wants to see, although you got to be in the specific mood for this one. It's not a comedy, it's not an action flick. Kim gives us fragment of three people's existence, which leaves viewer with subtle and melancholic after-effects. If you're into that kind of stuff, you should sure as hell get it.

I have lived in Korea for the last four years and have been fortunate enough to experience many excellent movies. Of course this is highly debatable, and maybe bias on my behalf, but South Korea is producing not only some of the best movies in the world at the moment but some of the most provocative and thought provoking movies, of which Samaria is probably the prime example.In NaBeunNamJa (BadGuy) Kim Di Duk already dealt with prostitution, however talking to Korean people I think that Samaria is a better account of the true nature of Korean society and the Korean sex industry as a whole. It is because of this that I would like to address some misconceptions that people have of the movie from previous posts and reviews. I promise that I will review the movie later, if you bear with me.First of all, Korean directors are making their movies for the domestic market (which is the third biggest domestic market in the world after Hollywood and bollywood) and therefore tailor their movies to the culture and beliefs that prevail in the domestic market.Teenage prostitution is an unfortunate, but common, aspect of Korean society. In this movie the Director, Kim Di Duk, is only portraying what is the norm in Korean society. It is not uncommon, although I am unable to provide statistics, that many high school and university students and even middle school students, pay for or supplement their tuition fees through the sex industry; although this is not always in the form of prostitution, but sometimes just 'entertaining' men in 'salon' bars. It is a sad reflection of a society that the 'education fever' is so strong that young girls will resort too any means too pay for their education. In this respect Kim Di Duk has hit the nail on the head.A couple of reviewers mentioned the 'shower' / 'sauna' / 'bath-house' scene between the two girls. For those that mentioned it, there is nothing absolutely remotely sexual (or as one reviewer mentioned 'Lesbian') in these scenes whatsoever! Visiting 'bath houses in Korean is an everyday part of Korean life, even as a Westerner I often frequent these places. It is considered normal for women to wash other women and also the same for men. Relationships between the sexes here is different, but refreshing, it is not uncommon to see people of the same sex walking down the street together holding hands or with their arm around another. It takes a while to get used to but once you get used to the nature of the touchy feely nature of Korean people it don't half help you get over any latent homophobic feelings you have! Anyhow, on to movie...I had heard a lot about this movie, the only Kim Di Duk movie I had seen before this was BadGuy, which I thought was OK, but a bit clichéd.This movie blew my mind. However the first part of the movie, the relationship between the two girls, although fairly accurate in terms of Korean society didn't grab me as much as the 'second act' of the movie.Previous reviews, have given enough details on the plot of the movie which I am not going to re-hash, however there is one scene in this movie that in my own humble opinion has to be one of the most incredible pieces of film making and script writing that I have ever seen on celluloid.PLEASE DON'T CONTINUE TO READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE. Because I think this scene should be seen in it's bleak and raw frankness that the director intended.For those that have seen this movie, I am talking about the scene where the father goes to the apartment of the man who is having sex with his daughter and confronts the man in front of his family. What is most shocking about this scene is that the man's daughter is older than the father's daughter.Never in all the movies have I seen a scene so heart breaking, thought provoking and shocking and so well filmed than this. For anyone still reading who hasn't seen this movie I will omit how this scene finishes... still sends shivers down my spine now writing about it! Well sorry to rant! Please watch this movie, and take into mind what I said about Korean society. For those who don't know Korean cinema, also please check out Chingoo (Friend) YupGiJeogInGeoNya(My sassy girl), Memories of Murder, NaBeunNamJa (BadGuy),TaeGeukki ... etc. etc.