Iodo is full of metaphors by KIM Ki-young.
Maybe he must have used metaphoric languages due to the strict censorship in
1970s, but I say he was genius to do that. Repeat viewing will help you find them out.
The director of photography, JUNG Il-sung,
told that KIM Ki-young asked him to shoot like an amateur film, because it
should not be realistic. Unsophisticated structure by flashbacks and saturated red and blue tones express the surrealistic atmosphere. The characters left or right side in the Cinemascope makes it more
mysterious.
Woo-hyun invites press to ferry heading for
Iodo to promote a hotel construction in Jeju Island. One journalist, Nam-suk
who opposes to go to Iodo, is suddenly missing. Woo-hyun can be wrongly
accused, so he is visiting Parang Island to investigate Nam-suk’s death.
Nam-suk’s past unveils. He came from the island, and was back to farm abalone because his dream was to make the island rich. He borrowed
money for it, but failed by sea pollutions. He became a ecology journalist to report environmental
issues.
However, Woo-hyun finds there was
something mysterious around Nam-suk. They were Mrs. Park, Min-ja, a female
shaman, and sea divers. Nam-suk lived with Mrs. Park planning to farm abalone.
Min-ja was a waitress but she had been the fiancée
of Nam-suk when they were young. She had wanted to leave the island with him, but he had deserted and raped her tying her in rocks of the seaside.
Min-ja hiding herself from Nam-suk lent money and seduced him. It is strange in this scene, he said to her "you are barmaid but still have virginity."
Min-ja hiding herself from Nam-suk lent money and seduced him. It is strange in this scene, he said to her "you are barmaid but still have virginity."
Min-ja tells all the truth to Woo-hyun about
Nam-suk, and sleeps with him. Before Nam-suk left he asked her to have a baby of
who he would send. Woo-hyun is a kind of
Nam-suk’s reincarnation to her.
Meanwhile, the shaman pulls Nam-suk’s dead
body from sea through exorcism. The exorcism looks like a sex with an invisible ghost.
And the shaman judges who, Mrs. Park and Min-ja, deserves the body saying the sperms are alive. Min-ja takes the body and has sex to conceive a child. It is an incredibly shocking scene.
Years after, Woo-hyun visits Min-ja
with a kid. Min-ja says he is Nam-suk’s, but they know he is their son. He
leaves the island behind them.
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