3-IRON
The mesmerising 3-Iron, which won him the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival, again proves Kim Ki-duk deserves his reputation as one of the world's leading outsider filmmakers. Exemplifying Kim's rare ability to combine elegance, poetry and raw power in his filmmaking, 3-Iron - like his recent Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (MIFF 04) - is a singular creative vision. Homeless Tae-suk lives like a phantom, temporarily squatting in houses he knows to be vacant. Never stealing or damaging his hosts' homes, he's like a kind ghost, helping out around the house, doing the laundry, making repairs, watering the plants. When he meets Sun-hwa, a living shadow who's been imprisoned in her life by an abusive husband, he's unable to remain anonymous. Bound by unseen ties, they go about forging their own strange future. Structured around a series of beautifully orchestrated metaphors, 3-Iron is a profound allegory about possession, the visible and invisible, and speech and silence. It's also one of Kim Ki-duk's best films. Contains scenes that may offend some viewers