Samaritan Girl (2004) Samaria

Movie Rating R Contains: Strong Language Violence Sex Mature Situations

Director: Kim Ki-duk Movie Genre: Drama, Character Study Country: South Korea Samaritan Girl Score Card The following scores are based on a 0.0 to 10.0 rating scale Hover your mouse pointer over the name of each scoring category below for a description Direction: 8.0 Writing: 7.0 Acting: 6.8 Cinematography: 8.5 Sound and Score: 5.0 Functionality: 7.0 Presentation: 6.8 Genre Comparison: 8.0 General Comparison: 7.0 Overall: 7.1 Reviewed 2005-12-19 22:26:34

Samaritan Girl is a touching story about two best friends and their dreams of traveling to Europe. In order to raise money for their trip, the girls decide to become prostitutes. They decide that Jae-Young will sleep with the clients, while Yeo-Jin will arrange the "appointments". When Jae-Young dies in a police raid, Yeo-Jin decides to have sex with all of Jae-Young's clients and pay them back the money that they spent on her friend. When Yeo-Jin's father finds out that his daughter is a prostitute, he tries to track down all of her clients.

Kim Ki-duk directs this movie in a painstaking and delicate fashion. As with most of his movies, Ki-duk uses these characters as exaggerations of reality, which enhances the structure and development of the characters. This story was never meant to be overly believable. There are just enough conventional story elements to allow the movie to be based in reality. The infeasibility of this story highlights the emotions and subtle nuances of the characters.

The cinematography is breathtaking. Sun Sang-Jae's attention to detail within the camerawork is among the best in the business. The colors, for the most part, are pale and muted. This adds a new dimension of intimacy to the film. The methodical tenderness in the camerawork is perfect for a movie of this nature.

Samaritan Girl focuses on the way that guilt affects the strong bonds between friends and family. When Jae-Young dies, Yeo-Jin is overwhelmed with guilt. She punishes herself by sleeping with Jae-Young's clients and then returning the money as a penance for her indiscretion. After realizing that his daughter is a prostitute, Yeong-ki is beside himself with guilt and feels that only drastic measures will suffice.

There is minimal nudity in this movie, which is surprising considering the subject matter. The lack of nudity preserves the girls' innocence and reinforces the integrity of the movie. If Samaritan Girl featured explicit sex, it would seem trashy and the message would be lost in all of the excess. Instead, this movie is a tender, touching story about shattered dreams and lost innocence.