Io Island (1977) User Reviews

Great dramatic social genre films but mostly mystery!

[dreist · 8/10 · 1 March 2016]

Do you know why I love especially the Korean cinema at the turn of the 60s and 70s? Because there were directors like KimKi-Young bold and courageous that defied the strict rules of the censorship of the period and were able to direct authentic cinematic pearls, full of originality and beauty. Iodo considered and re-evaluated (during the period when the film came out was not so) as one of the best films of the director as well as 70s. The film deals with various issues, but the most predominant part is the mystery with some sprinkling of horror. Boys do not exaggerate when I say that certain scenes are chilling and disturbing and the final part then ... a scene that I think would be too strong for today's production, in fact, the end of time was censored. I would like to report good use of flashbacks, present at the right time that give the viewer a more step in order to understand the intricate plot, even if after the end of the film remain the open questions, it is needless to say that the viewer can draw their own personal interpretation Regarding Iodo environments looks a lot like A Splendid Outing (mainly in the island's environment), both films have something in common, I repeat "something" though summing up in the end the two films are quite different

Nice really nice, this is one of those films that will remain impressed after watching for a long time in the viewer's head! really cool movie

Yet another, unclassifiable movie gem decades ahead of its time

[XxEthanHuntxX · 8/10 · 29 December 2020]

On the way to the mysterious island "Ieodo" the journalist and environmental activist Chun disappears without a trace from board a ship. An employee of the hotel chain, which organized the boat trip for promotional purposes, and a newspaper employee who worked with Chun, set off together to the isolated Korean island from which Chun came, and which is now inhabited exclusively by female divers. Superstitions and legends are widespread there, and it is said that whoever sees Ieodo is doomed to die and will fall to the water spirits.

Director Kim Ki-young was never a master of logic, but his hardly summarizable "Ieoh Island" takes the viewer into the Korean island world near Cheju Island and unfolds a mystical world full of secrets and inexplicable events. With a densely structured but well though out narrative, containing flashbacks upon flashbacks, Kim tells the intricate events and backgrounds that ultimately led to Chun's disappearance, and leads both his main characters and the audience deeper and deeper into the island world of Korea, which is isolated from the outside world.

Kim's Korean answer to "Wicker Man" is qcryptic, frustrating, and disorientatingly cobbled together cinema. But tremendously fascinating nonetheless with a singulary unusual atmosphere and story about ritualistic beliefs in modern reasoning, a film about how myths might operate in the modern world. Kim knows that by imbuing his work with a right tinge of supernaturalism and, of course, absurtity: Peppered with mystery, eroticism and disturbing images. He also includes themes of environmental destruction, fertility, superstition, and the spread of capitalism (1970s Korea experienced rapid economic growth, although governed by a right wing military dictatorship at the time).

Ieoh Island is a film with a notoriously graphic climax, even by today's standards (initially cut out of prints) with depiction of necrophilia and an impaled penis, but for most of its running time the director handles the rather bizarre content very pragmatic and without exploitation. Its an incredible feminist folklore about the masculine capitalist dream rotting out our Earth and keeping everyone sexually frustrated. It explores the realms of the sexes, placing a beleaguered male protagonist within an isolated community of women.

The covered and the found.

[disole-2 · 12 September 2000]

This movie has been looked away for many years because of Korean Audiences' ignorance. I firmly assert that this movie could be the most bizarre and flawless over the Korean film's history. We can find easily the features of Kim. For example, Almost lines are made up of a literary style. However it looks very seriously intended.