Multilayered psychological mystery/thriller with strong overtones of horror and neo-noir and even the Gothic.
Beautifully filmed, scored and written to reach the viewer on both conscious and subconscious levels. The strangeness of the culture may put off American viewers but if they give it a chance it has all the things that haunt and traumatize us as on the human level: forbidden love, war, rape, incest, gender conflict, misogyny on the level that always women to be treated as abject and objectified to fit what a patriarchal culture needs to maintain power. The film definitely has an agenda, but it never overpowers the narrative.
Think David Lynch ( Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, Blue Velvet) in an Eastern setting and you may find it easier to relax and enjoy the ride.
You don't have to be familiar with Freud or Jung for the archetype mythology and symbolism to disturb you. The script is more poetic than the typical dialogue of most films, but it becomes more like a beating drum or the building musical themes of the thriller and horror films that American audiences are more familiar with...and at times the subtitles don't even need to be read, but the words only heard-they are more atmospheric than a narrative driver.
Beautifully filmed, scored and written to reach the viewer on both conscious and subconscious levels. The strangeness of the culture may put off American viewers but if they give it a chance it has all the things that haunt and traumatize us as on the human level: forbidden love, war, rape, incest, gender conflict, misogyny on the level that always women to be treated as abject and objectified to fit what a patriarchal culture needs to maintain power. The film definitely has an agenda, but it never overpowers the narrative.
Think David Lynch ( Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, Blue Velvet) in an Eastern setting and you may find it easier to relax and enjoy the ride.
You don't have to be familiar with Freud or Jung for the archetype mythology and symbolism to disturb you. The script is more poetic than the typical dialogue of most films, but it becomes more like a beating drum or the building musical themes of the thriller and horror films that American audiences are more familiar with...and at times the subtitles don't even need to be read, but the words only heard-they are more atmospheric than a narrative driver.
