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Rating:
THE REVIEW
Plot
Korea, 2012. Kang-do is a thirty-year-old orphan who grew up in the suburbs of Seoul, becoming a sadist working for a loan shark. His job is to visit the latter's clients to collect the money they owe, and if they don't settle their debts, as is almost always the case, he inflicts serious physical harm on them to collect the money owed thanks to accident insurance that clients are forced to sign before completing the transaction. One day, Kang-do notices he is being followed by a middle-aged woman, whom he always harshly dismisses. This woman one day confesses to him that she is his mother, who abandoned him at birth because she was very young and afraid to keep him. The man doesn't know whether to believe her or not, but over time he is convinced of the woman's sincerity.
Pietà is a highly dramatic film. There's never any laughter. There is no hope, on the contrary, the agony and pain constantly, inevitably build up.
Around them, the damned loan-shark son of a dog must come to terms with his misdeeds. Now that he has found his mother, he is embarking on the path to redemption, retracing the trail of blood left behind him.
The squalor, the degradation, and the poverty of the Seoul suburbs and its desperate humanity, the crippled made so by Kang-do, frame this tremendous film by Kim Ki-duk.
The money.
Always them.
The damned money that marks the daily life and conducts the orchestra of life and its feelings: hate, love, greed, compassion, revenge.
Your life is a joystick, and the hand that moves it at will is money.
The direction is stark. Tight shots, neutral photography. There's no sun, no sea, no children running and playing in the fields, no wide American smiles.
At some point, there’s a landscape, a few seconds... and one of the paralytics, a victim of the loan shark, admiring it from his wheelchair, realizes (too late) that this is life...
A symbolic, cruel film that halfway through reveals its cards... but in any case, the player didn't keep them well covered, the twist isn't important, if you're not really a fool you knew how things stood...
Golden Lion in Venice in 2012.
***here too there is money, a metaphor of power, of consideration. They are the stars and the de-ranking***
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Summary by Bot
Kim Ki-Duk's Pietà is a highly dramatic film about Kang-do, a ruthless loan shark who confronts his past after reuniting with his mother. Set in the bleak suburbs of Seoul, the film explores themes of pain, money, and redemption through stark cinematography and symbolic storytelling. Awarded the Golden Lion in Venice 2012, Pietà presents a powerful, unforgiving look at humanity and the forces driving it.
Kim Ki-Duk
South Korean film director and screenwriter known for minimalist dialogue, visual lyricism, and stark explorations of pain, love, and spirituality. His films include 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring; Pietà won the Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival. Active from the late 1990s until 2020.07 Reviews
Other reviews
By RIBALDO
There is never any laughter. There’s no hope; instead, anguish and pain constantly, inevitably rise.
Your life is a joystick, and the hand that moves it at will is money.
