3-Iron

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).