Samaritan Girl (2004)
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This ludicrous melodrama contrives to sanitise, glamorise and deplore teenage prostitution, all at the same time. Schoolgirl Jae-Young (Seo) hooks for pocket money, apparently identifying with the legendary Indian prostitute Vasumitra, whose clients became devout Buddhists. During a police raid, she suicidally jumps from the third storey of a cheap motel. After her death, disapproving classmate Yeo-Jin (Kwak) starts having sex with Jae-Young's clients and returning their money. Many are conscience stricken and mend their ways. But Yeo-Jin's father (Lee), a widower cop, gets the wrong end of the stick and starts hunting down the men - eventually killing one of them in rage. The actual paedophile sex is kept offscreen, but Kim's enraptured gaze at the two naked girls washing each other in a public bath is as prurient as they come. The whole film would be offensive if it made any sense. It won Kim his first 'Best Director' prize, in Berlin.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Producer: Bae Jeong-Min, Kim Dong-Joo, Kim Yoon-Ho
Cast: Lee Uhl, Kwak Ji-Min, Seo Min-Jung full cast
Duration: 95 mins
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