Essentially I'm a great fan of Kim Ki-duk since I was fifteen and a teacher brought my literature class to see Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring, so when he won the golden lion in Venice I was really excited that finally this great film-maker earned the praise he deserves from the western world. Unfortunately in my humble opinion he earned it with the wrong film. Pietà is shallow, weak, the cinematography is awful and annoyed me a lot. This film tries hard being something new compared to the previous production of Kim Ki-duk but misses unbelievably the spot. It's predictable, prosaic, and it owns Park Chan-wook too much without being able to reach his poetic peaks; the squalor, the violence are faked and almost for their own sake. The major twist is clear from the beginning and the entire script could have been handled in a better way. Jeong-jin Lee (Gang-do) had one facial expression all film long, he looked like someone injected him with botox few minutes before the shoot. Min-so Jo struggled to make some efforts but unfortunately the Italian dubbing killed her performance for good (by the way dubbing is going to kill me too). This film is overrated, plagiarized and also boring. Don't waste your time : choose to watch and prepare yourself to love instead one of the great works of Master Kim such as 3-IRON, The Bow, or the Samaritan.
Review of Pieta
