Samaritana (2004)

Religious Theme All Th e Way Through This Kim Ki Duk Masterpiece here!

This is the tenth movie written and directed by Kim Ki Duk...known for his "way out" movies and plot twists all through his films.
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Significance of the word "Samaritan":
A Samaritan in the Bible was a person from Samaria, a region north of Jerusalem. In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people of Galilee and Judea shunned the Samaritans, viewing them as a mixed race who practiced an impure, half-pagan, or in their eyes, "false" religion.

The historian Josephus and Jewish tradition trace the origin of the Samaritans to the captivity of the northern kingdom under Assyria in 721 BCE. Jews of the northern part of the old kingdom intermarried with Assyrians after their captivity and produced the half-Jewish, half-Gentile Samaritan race. When the Jews accused Jesus of being a “Samaritan” in John 8:48, they were rudely suggesting that He was a half-breed, born of an unfaithful mother.

The Jews of Jerusalem wanted NOTHING to do with them!

However, Jesus told a parable of a man in need, portraying the Samaritan as the hero in the story, the only one who would help the person in need. This story of the "Good Samaritan" shocked his audience of the other, stuck-up Jews. The Protestant Jesus showed that His love must transcend all human boundaries of race, religion, nationality, economic class, and educational status.

With this brief explanation, you can undertand the title of this movie better.
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Girls Jae Young (Han Yeo Reum) and Yeo Jin (Kwak Ji Min) want to go to Europe; and without money, they must make it 'somehow'... therefore, Jae Young acts as a a "socail worker" and Yeo Jin schedules her "working" gigs with clients.

Everything is fine until Yeo Jin fails at her second half of her job (security) and Jae Young jumps from a hotel window to avoid arrest by the police.

Jae Young and Yeo Jin are very close, as in "kissing" and otherwise personal 'closeness', but Yeo Jin hates the businessmen whom 'work' with Jae Young; but she has to get the one business worker that Jae Young loved so much, (as she was dying in the hospital) she then is forced to take the plunge herself. Jae Young has said that she 'loved' the men she worked with, but I feel that she would never have left Yeo Jin for any of them, as she said to Yeo Jin earlier .

What follows is a kind of penance of Yeo Jin as she is returns all the money: however, I cannot decide if Yeo Jin is doing simple penance or simply regretting not helping in the "working" part of the business that they got themselves into. I am going to say a little of both!

I see so much in this movie that I have to watch it over and over, seeing more each time that I watch it. Kim Ki Duk combined so much in the three segments, especially in the first segment, setting up the relationship of the two friends and their differing opinion on the men they obtained money from.

Yeo Jin is thrown into turmoil over losing Jae Young, and she takes her notes and returns the money to the men who had paid Jae Young in the beginning. All of the men, if i remember right, have a catharsis of sorts after sleeping with Yeo Jin and having their money returned.

Another Ki Duk's movie plays on these same themes (maybe more, since I have not seen all of them yet!); Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (2003, where Ki Duk plays the old monk).

I am pretty sure that Yeo Jin felt remorseful in her failure to protect Jae Young, and I believe to a lesser extent, for her not 'working' as hard as Jae Young in making the money they needed for their trip.

In the process of returning the money, Yeo Jon's father Yeong Ki (Lee Eol) catches her, as he is working a case where another young girl, possibly a under-aged prostitute, loses her life. Her father is already distraught over losing his wife, and senses that his daughter, for whatever reason, is about to become a homicide victim as well.

He starts following his daughter around after class, watching her see different men (not knowing her and Jae Young's former relationship with each man encountered.

I look upon his relationship with his daughter as with the father and daughter(s) in 'Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)' or ''The Gangster's Daughter (2017)' or even 'The Closet (2020)' a father who loses the wife/mother too early and has problems talking to his daughter; had he been able to think rationally, he could have asked her what she was doing with the men and not have taken his own personal vengeance on them!

I also believe that he called his police friends and turned himself in, knowing the last trip to his wife's grave, with Yeo Jon, would be his last for quite awhile.

The film's ending, with Yeo Jin desperately trying to catch up with her father in his car but spinning out after only one driving lesson is perfect, although I didn't at first. Both of their futures were changed by unanticipated turns f events.

I hope some young, free-thinking director in the future gets the two main cast members together again, and have him tell us what happened after years of prison for the father and years of isolation of his daughter, Yeo Jin...or did she find someone to trust and live happily with while 'daddy' was in prison?

I also liked Yeo Jin's dream just before the driving lesson, another example of Yeo Jin seeking forgiveness for what she allowed happen to jae Young! Again, I see more and more religious motifs every time I watch this movie.

There are 'images' in the film that also appear to point toward this as well, with under-aged prostitution and her father's self-serving justice being only the dressing for the more important underlying themes of redemption and penance.

As a Religious Studies major, I feel that is the reason that I fell in love wit this movie, from the first time i saw it!

The imagery (cinematography) is somewhat jagged but this adds to the story rather than detracting from it, and the music was fine for the scenes in which it was used.

The main cast members, the two girls at first and then Yeo Jin and her father in the last segments, acted perfectly, making their pairing in the segments play very well, with you believing the relationships as being real.

The support cast all did their parts as well, with their acting adding to the main story lines and making the main casts' work all the more believable.

My major complaint is that I would like for father and daughter to have talked, and possibly coe to some other conclusion.

RE-WATCH VALUE: Definitely, and watch for all the religious iconography in the film from start to finish!

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