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3-Iron
Sony Pictures Classics


8.6

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 22 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for some sexual content

Starring Hee Jae, Hoon Jang, Seung-yeon Lee, and Se-jin Park

A battered woman finds an unlikely hero in a transient young man who breaks into empty homes while the residents are away.

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Ki-duk Kim
DIRECTED BY:	Ki-duk Kim
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 6, 2005 Theatrical: April 29, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	95 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	South Korea / Japan
LANGUAGE(S):	Korean (with English subtitles)

Original title "Bin-jip"; FIPRESCI Prize, Little Golden Lion and Special Director's Award, 2004 Venice Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Quiet, mysterious, sometimes violent, ultimately close to sublime.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Alternately witty, caustic, tender and endlessly imaginative and unpredictable.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Despite its cargo of meaning, 3-Iron feels marvelously weightless, like the lovers as they stand on a scale that the hero has fixed.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The insinuating quality of 3-Iron is irresistible.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This enigmatic and in some ways maddening motion picture has the power to haunt every viewer it reaches.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Creates a thoroughly curious combination of tension and eroticism.

Washington Post Philip Kennicott

It's a film that will stay with you.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The illicit lovers in this eerie South Korean drama communicate whole worlds without ever speaking.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

A teasing, self-conscious and curiously heartfelt demonstration of his (Mr. Kim) mischievous formal ingenuity.

Film Threat Eric Campos

It's a love story without all the verbal hooey and it hits harder than most.

Variety Derek Elley

A rarefied love story, conducted with no dialogue between the principals.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

3-Iron gains its hypnotic power by observing these characters through a slight remove. With total command of his effects, Kim transforms an already peculiar romance into something as otherworldly as a ghost story.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

It sounds high-minded, but 3-Iron is in fact simple and economical, blessedly straighforward, absorbing, and hard to forget.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Beguilingly odd.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Original, imaginative and stylish.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

3-Iron is like a Raymond Carver story that slowly, inexorably takes on the dimensions of a ghostly fairy tale.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Kim's wittiest effort to date, with a wordless performance by Jae Hee that recalls Keaton and Chaplin.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Dreamlike and the slightest bit precious, the film is a beautiful, over-cultivated hothouse flower.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The sooner you let yourself go with Kim's flow, the more likely you are to come away satisfied. Think of it as South Korea's answer to "Memento," just don't think too hard.

Village Voice Ed Park

Taut even when ridiculous, with flashes of comedy, 3-Iron has less to offer than its predecessors, but at minimum it's the playful exhaustion of a formal constraint.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The almost supernatural turn which Kim's lovely film takes during its final act, however, is totally unexpected, and just one reason why Kim ranks as one of the most justly celebrated talents in contemporary Korean cinema.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

It's actually quite satisfying, in a weird, magical-realism sort of way that manages to disturb and confound as much as it appeases the romantic.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

As a writer-director, he's (Kim Ki-Duk) a wizard with the camera but a plebe with a pen. His latest, 3-Iron, continues the frustrating trend.

Empire Steve O'Hagan

A compelling, if obscure, experience with evocative scene-setting and dreamy atmosphere.

The Hollywood Reporter Andrew Sun

The result is slightly less interesting and less appealing even as arthouse fare.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

3-Iron is at times deliciously sensual, creepily somnolent, whimsically spiritual and disturbingly violent. But it is never quite coherent.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

There is a vengeance motif that is worked out in a way that is both emotionally satisfying and completely unbelievable.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

As repellent and repellently opportunistic a piece of work as the various shock-horror provocations (The Isle, The Coast Guard) that helped to launch this worrisome career (Kim Ki-Duk).

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Denise B. gave it a1:
The premise was good so I watched it and was keenly dissapointed. It was slow with very little dialouge.

Paul H. gave it a9:
This is an incredible movie,mysterious and moving using just the barest brushstrokes to compose a gentle flickering masterpiece.It was interesting to see how the director would follow-up his previous film and in its quiet unassuming manner this is in no way a disappointment.It is refreshing to see a Korean director working against the stereotypical extreme cinema his nation has been churning out recently presenting characters and feelings with an honesty and imagination that is both refreshing and memorable.I think the jury at Venice got it spot on would recommend this movie for anyone interested in whats happening in contemporary world cinema.

M. Daye gave it a10:
Though it may discard prolix dialogue in favour of visuals, it is almost impossible to find yourself not moved in the slightest by the end.

V. N. gave it a10:
This is a fantastic movie! It is so original! There was no dialogue between the 2 main characters and I was creating it myself. You try to imagine what the motivation of the characters is what is in their heads. This movie touches humanity on a sublime level. With its simplicity it is close to perfection. I am so glad that I saw it ... I can't stop thinking about it. I will see it again … and I am sure I will find other planes … it kind of depends of your mood.

Cody K. gave it an8:
This is a very good movie. I’m glad I saw it… and I have no desire to ever watch it again. It’s uniqueness (completely silent characters) and simplicity equates to a delicate and beautiful film. It's a great rental, but its simplicity is not conducive to repeat viewing. There’s no mystery… it is what it is.

Cory T. gave it a4:
Sure, I can see what the effective elements of this movie are, but man, the ball (golf ball ...I guess!) is dropped in many places. One minute your egrossed, the next you're scratching your head dissapointed. Beautiful foreign film meets Hollywood- "eye watering, oignon cutting, first blood type crap!...Simon Says..work on 'yer swing at the range-not the course!

Chad S. gave it a9:
For the most part, the silence in "3-Iron" that's observed by both actors during their benevolent home invasions doesn't play like an art film joke (for instance, Gus Van Sant's "Gerry") because director Ki-Duk Kim gives this prolonged quietude a proper context to help efface some of the narrative's self-consciousness. "3-Iron" starts off as a deadpan comedy, and it's vaguely reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch's "Stranger than Paradise". At first, the male lead struck me as a metaphorical zombie who breaks into strangers' homes because he misses the routine of domestic life, and the woman he indoctrinates in his world of non-crime, pretends to have the same catalepsy as a means of escape from her abusive marriage. But then he's incarcerated, and in his cell, the man seems to change from a material being into something more incorporeal, which brings to mind a similar jail-cell transformation in "Lost Highway", when Bill Pullman inexplicably turns into Balthazar Getty. Ki-Duk Kim has the same "don't explain a thing" ethos as David Lynch, which will enthrall and frustrate moviegoers in equal numbers. We wait for the big revelation, a definitive answer to explain all of "3-Iron('s)" enigmas, like "The Sixth Sense", but the final frame leaves us with more questions.

3-Iron Sony Pictures Classics

3-Iron
Sony Pictures Classics