Pieta TIFF 2012 Review

Posted 11 years ago by myetvmedia

Pieta made history at the 69th Venice International Film Festival where it won the Golden Lion: the highest award given to a film at the festival. It is the first Korean film to win a top prize at one of the three major film festivals: Cannes, Berlin and Venice. It then made its North American premiere at TIFF.

Ki-Duk’s amazing story truly showcases the human ability to possess the duality of torturer and victim simultaneously, playing out like a tragic ballet. Every scene is fluid, graceful and gripping with moments so beautifully shot that you’ll recoil from the violence but are unable to look away.

Pieta is a shocking masterpiece of a film by director, Kim Ki-Duk. Savage, offensive imagery is everywhere and extremes of humanity are shown without censorship causing Pieta’s contents to be somewhat hard to swallow. Both Lee Jeong-jin and Cho Min Soo give outstanding performances, wreaking emotional havoc on viewers, leaving the audience at the TIFF screening devastated and contemplative. Several minutes after the credits rolled I looked around and noticed the theatre was still full, all of us silent and still, a seriously eerie vibe and an attestation to why this film won big time at Venice.

Pieta is highly controversial, immediately polarizing critics.  Kang-Do played by Lee Jeong-jin is a sadistic, violent loans collector, without a family or mercy. Kang-Do goes around to collecting debts from local shop workers he injures to the point of disability in order to claim their insurance money. In a particularly violent and cringe worthy moment Kang-Do instructs a recent “cripple” not to murder himself, his insurance won’t pay enough. One day when a mysterious woman, played by Cho Min Soo appears at his door claiming to be his long lost mother. Kang-Do begins to reconsider his ways, but as he begins his journey of redemption, the truth and tragedy of what brought his mother to him starts revealing itself. Aptly named after one of the most sorrowful representations of the Virgin Mary in Christian art, The Pieta depicts Jesus on the lap of his mother. This is an image that Kim Ki-Duk has had with him for many years.

The embrace of the Virgin Mary, as a Mother embracing her son …is the image of an embrace for all humankind. An embrace for pain and suffering inherent in the entire human race”-

                       Kim Ki Duk- Pieta panel at Venezia 69

 ‘My films are about reality, we don’t have to do nice films’

                       Lee Jeong-jin, Pieta press conference, Venezia 69

A particularly haunting moment comes at the end of the story when Kang-Do realizes there is no redemption for his torturous ways. Confronting those he’s maimed in the past he sacrifices himself for all his past sins in a rather gruesome way. Pieta is a beautiful, messed up and powerful story, worth the view but certainly not for the faint of heart. Winner Best Movie at Venezia69, The Venice International Film Festival.

-Lauren Schell

Trailer

Gallery

  • Pieta 03
  • Pieta 02
  • Pieta 06
  • Pieta 04
  • Pieta 05
  • Pieta 01

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