49
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80VarietyDerek ElleyVarietyDerek ElleyThe most emotionally satisfying pic to date by Korean iconoclast Kim Ki-duk.
- 70The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe film works best as a passionate tale of obsessive love, with two people brought together under harrowing circumstances.
- 70TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxBeautifully shot and lushly scored, this may be one of the least P.C. love stories ever filmed. But it's one of the most deeply felt.
- 60Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonBad Guy, one of the seven films in Kim's fascinating back catalog, is another kind of cocktail--simple, bitter, served straight and in an unwashed glass.
- If there is anything worth discovering in this sad slog of a story, it is the two fierce performances by Cho Je-Hyun and Seo Won, who play the lovers and turn the harsh drama into a showcase for their pained expressions.
- 50Chicago ReaderHank SartinChicago ReaderHank SartinThe audience is subjected to a series of emotional contortions, encouraged to experience them voyeuristically, and then scolded for doing so. The bathetic music Kim favors is profoundly at odds with his chilly attitude toward the characters.
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittCertainly offbeat, but not on a level with director Kim's previous work about marginalized people.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanReally, who needs a bad guy who's this guilty about being bad?
- 38New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsSouth Korean director Kim Ki-duk does a bizarre riff on the twisted macho ethos of abusing women until they learn to love you.
- 25New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoBecomes more and more confused, unpleasant and preposterous.