zacknabo Lars von Trier has said art or film should be like a rock in your shoe. Well, Chang-dong Lee's film Oasis is that rock. Beautiful, well written, well acted, subtle use of camera-work to create a tighter, more claustrophobic experience with characters that you do not want to be forced to stare at. Oasis will make you cringe, cry, laugh, think...think about many things, one of which being the genius that is Chang-dong Lee. The man made his debut with Green Fish around 1997 and it was a mediocre low-level gangster genre film; it had its nice flourishes, good writing, etc. But since then, starting with Peppermint Candy in 1999, Lee has only made masterpieces.

allahero This film is played with such precise acting of natural behaviour that the outcome of the story just deepens your heart and mind in believing why we humans do such cruel activities and leave those who cannot enact decisions for themselves to suffer from our greed and desired darkness that makes us the monster that we are ..... This film is a prime example on why we should look deep in the well of our hearts and souls and try to forgive and understand the simplest of cruel intentions we blind out which then snowballs to this extent of cruel injustice to the innocent that are fallen angels amongst us... This truly is a magnificent movie for those who want to understand the eternal darkness of a corrupted mind...

Alice Wakefield mitsounob from Yokohama, Japan commented that the director made this film about communication, among other things. That's what it was largely about for me too.I'm thinking mainly of the scene where Jong-du and Gong-ju are both at the police station. When Gong-ju is being asked for her account of the incident, her sister keeps speaking for her. The policeman doesn't give Gong-ju time to speak for herself. One of the most difficult scenes for me is when Gong-ju repeatedly bashes herself against the cabinet to try to get somebody to listen to her. Similarly, her brother, when trying to reach a "settlement" with Jong-du's family, speaks for Gong-ju. When talking about how traumatised Gong-ju has been, he says, 'Just look at her'. As if she could never enjoy physical love.This brings me to the second theme of the movie, as far as I am concerned. The world is set up for people with a certain range of abilities. Which means that people who fall within this range can exploit people who fall outside of them. Which is exactly how Gong-ju and Jong-du are treated by their families.Jong-du is the fall guy for his brother, who has a family and a career and can't 'afford' to do time. To add insult to injury, Jong-du gets out of jail to find that his brother has moved, without leaving a forwarding address! Gong-ju's family similarly exploits her. Jong-du and Gong-ju are fairly forgiving of their families' despicable behaviour.My final comment on this film is that Gong-ju and Jong-du know their place in the world. They know not to even bother trying to convey the truth. In fact, I get a fleeting, disturbing feeling that their families are the only people whose behaviour towards them is a true and honest symptom of how the world really works.

gamutoflove Before watching this film, I thought of Korean movies as sweet, tear-dripping melodoramas. And I was waiting for a movie to totally change my stereo type. So, here comes this movie. Yes, it is about a physically challenged person. Yes, it is about prejudice and sexual violence. This might not be a movie that many Korean movie (Last Presents or Love letter...) lovers like. This movie is not sweet, but very bitter. The people around the two protagonists seems terribly selfish. But most of us are on that side, not the two outsided protagonists. Watching them treated badly by the world full of prejudice which we might commit in real life,is really painful. But still, the live the protagonists lead are very beautiful, sometimes even laughable.