IMDB Score – 7.0
RT Score – 75%

I think this statement has been true for a while but South Korea owns the revenge genre. Nobody else could match with the films that come out of that country that deal with the sweet yet cold dish of revenge. Kim Di Duk, the auteur who gave us 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring, dished up the bizarre and disturbing in his new film Pieta. The film centers around a vicious loan shark who encounters a woman one day claiming to be his mother who abandoned him 30 years ago.

The film is of course beautifully filmed as are most films that come out of Korea. I don’t know what kind of film schools they have out there but every single director I’ve seen is a master at crafting these darkly lit shots that just pour on dread and misery unlike anybody else besides the likes of David Fincher. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the events of this film as it doesn’t treat us like children and relies on us to put the pieces together ourselves. I’ve always respected that in a film. It also makes for repeated viewing which is something I find necessary when trying to get a hold of the essence of a particular film. It also helps that this film is gorgeous to look at.

Pieta is another wonderful example of how South Korea is rising to the top of the art film culture.

4/5