Samaritan Girl / Samaria (South-Korea, 2004)

Samaritan girl is directed by the famous Korean director ‘Kim Ki-Duk’.

Two schoolgirls want to travel to Europe but need money for the airplane tickets. They find the solution in prostitution. In the beginning it seems to be fun but it the mood effectively changes when one of the girls kills herself by jumping out of a window when the police enter the room. The other girl takes over the clients and offers them for once her body along with the money they first got from the people. She wants to buy of the sorrow in fact.
Her dad, a police officer, begins to suspect something and chases the clients of his daughter down.

First of all, this isn’t an easy movie. Like no other director, Kim Ki-Duk can create a suffocating atmosphere. The entire time watching this movie you will feel uneasy, don’t really know how to react. It’s a film that most of all deals about changes in personality after the experience of some tragic event.
The movie can be split in two segments. In the first we see the events that unfold and how their life is before. The second part shows what happens after this horrible event happened. Frustration and the feeling of not being capable of doing something about it will give a nasty feeling in your stomach.

Though this film is maybe not as violent like some other work of Kim Ki-Duk, don’t underestimate it. Some scenes contain very explicit violence and the entire story has a devastating impact. Also, it is a Kim Ki-Duk movie, so a very slow pace of the story and not too many talking are included.

In my opinion it’s is a beautiful but bitter story about the relationship between a father and daughter. In intriguing film made by a brilliant director.

Hana-Bi (Japan, 1997)

Hana-bi by Takeshi Kitano is a tale about love, pain and violence.
While quiet and violent police officer Nishi is going to see his wife in a hospital, she is seriously ill, his partner gets shot. Nishi is slowly being consumed by guilt. At the same time he has some money borrowed by the Yakuza and they seem to want the money back. Nishi decides to rob a bank and split the money between his partner, who ended up in a wheelchair, his debts at the Yakuza and he takes his wife on one last trip, to make her happy for one last time.

It’s typical Kitano-style! Few words, the beautiful stills and with amazing works of art I have to say, like those brilliant paintings with an animal with has a sunflower head! Also the tender line between the love for his wife and the hard violent scenes make it a very intriguing film to watch. Takeshi Kitano doesn’t chose a very narrative way of telling it’s story but let the scenes tell the story. Like many other times, he himself Takeshi ‘beat’ Kitano acts really intelligent. He doesn’t speak much but has a good expression on it’s face. It’s also a very emotional movie, in fact is has everything that makes a film great, it is kind of poetry!

A interesting movie with a perfect balance between love and violence. In one word: Masterpiece!