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Oasis
UniKorea


8.2

based on 14 reviews
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based on 7 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri, Ahn Nae-sang, Ryoo Seung-wan, Chu Kwi-Jung, Son Byung-ho, Yun Ga-hyun, and Park Myung-shin

A hardened ex-con falls for a severely disabled woman in this psychological drama.

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Lee Chang-dong
DIRECTED BY:	Lee Chang-dong
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 23, 2004 Theatrical: May 7, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	132 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	South Korea
LANGUAGE(S):	Korean (with English subtitles)

Best Actor and Best Actress, 2003 Seattle International Film Festival; FIPRESCI Prize (For the audacity and courage of its imaginitive exploration of the difficulties of communication, and for its remarkable actors), 2002 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

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An unforgettable experience from yet another filmmaker who is making South Korean cinema one of the most vibrant of any emerging on the international scene.

LA Weekly John Powers

At once a romantic melodrama, a sharp social comedy and a fierce political commentary on Korean society's cruelty to social outcasts. It's also a triumph of artistic indirection: Not a single scene plays out the way you expect. This is a film that gives humanism back its good name.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Oasis is utterly beguiling because Lee, like many other percipient Asian filmmakers, is simply more attentive to his characters' emotional tumult than the audience's.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Director Lee Chang-Dong has boldly crafted a challenge rarely found on film. But if you choose to meet it, you'll be rewarded with one of the most original, indelible romances in recent memory.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Oasis is that rare miraculous whirlwind romance that moves from attempted rape to reverence without kicking up a lot of dust.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In a sense, Oasis is an unabashed tearjerker, but Lee keeps knocking the melodrama off-balance, making all the big emotional payoffs a little discomforting, because they're not that far removed from something really disturbing.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The remarkable if overlong Korean film Oasis strips away much of the sentimentality and goody-two-shoes attitudes that the movies traditionally display toward disabled people.

Variety David Rooney

An eloquent expression of both unorthodox romance and bitter disillusionment with the hypocritical institutions of family and society.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

You'll have to look long and hard to find a performance as emotionally raw as that of Moon So-ri in the startling South Korean love story Oasis.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A brave film in the way it shows two people who find any relationship almost impossible, and yet find a way to make theirs work. The problems with the film come because it overstays its welcome.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

In the 2002 South Korean film Oasis, one can appreciate one of Asia's best directors (Lee Chang-dong) and one of the region's best actresses (Moon So-ri).

Chicago Reader Martin Rubin

Skating fearlessly on the edge of tastelessness and sentimentality, Oasis is another strong, provocative film by Lee Chang-dong.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Although overlong and diffuse, Oasis, written and directed by Lee Chang-dong, boasts many powerful moments.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The combination of Lee's discomforting subject matter and distancing style -- calculating artlessness punctuated by occasional flights of lyrical fantasy -- makes this slow-moving drama a challenge that doesn't seem entirely worth the effort.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ed B. gave it a9:
A daring, disturbing film encompassing practically every universal theme and emotion facing any human being. This film takes the concept of the literary "fool" and twists it a turn tighter, in a wrenching portrayal of taboo love, family, deceipt, betrayal, prejudice, exploitation, sibling rivalry, misapprehension, public humiliation, greed, guilt, shame, and at the very least Hope, truly a masterpiece of story-telling, told with so little guile and pretension as to be almost child-like in its innocence. The Oscar-deserving scene of the public, psychological melt-down by the leading male actor at the birthday dinner is a performance of a lifetime and stunning in its emotional clarity. This film puts to shame almost everything coming out of Hollywood these days.

Jake gave it a3:
Another dishonest film about mental retardation and physical disability, meant to flatter the audience with its own (presumed) benevolence, in contrast to the unfeeling or selfish characters in the film. The male character is evidently mentally retarded, but his traits and behavior belong strictly to the movies. The woman apparently has cerebral palsy, but with normal intelligence. Consequently, the "affair" between makes no sense, unless (like the filmmaker) you can't distingiush between physical and mental disability. I can only suggest that the critics who loved the film devote time to caring for a severely disabled person, and see if their experience conforms to this nonsensical film.

Chad S. gave it a 9:
"Oasis" is "Pumpkin" with a straight face, a take-no-prisoners portrait of loving, really loving, the disabled. Our (anti-)hero reminded me of Arnold Friedman. Both men are guilty, but they're guilty for the wrong crime. What prompts the love affair between Jong-du (Sol Kyung-gu) and Gong-ju (Moon So-ri), plays like a variation of the male nurse/woman in a coma coupling in Pedro Almadovar's "Talk to Her", but here, the cretin redeems himself, sort of. Director Lee Chang-Dong will be accused of being tasteless when Jong-du and Gong-ju consumate their love, but it's a test for the audience, I think. We join the people in "Oasis" who treat the cerebal palsy like they're mentally impaired. Gong-ju projects a double, a normal and healthy woman, which is Chang-Dong's way to convey that the affair is composed of two consenting adults. "Oasis" is an amazing film. Moon So-ri make Cuba "Radio" Gooding and Dustin "Rainman" Hoffman look like amateurs in depicting the "handicapped". "Oasis" is one of South Korea's many calling cards as a major player in the international film marketplace.

Hendar P. gave it a 9:
This is a very heart-breaking, tears-shedding, and taboo-wrenching romance film! An unlikely piece of being "fall in love."

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Oasis UniKorea

Oasis
UniKorea