Won’s critique of the abuse of power in South Korean society lacks trenchancy, but he subverts convention with an incisiveness lacking in much transatlantic horror.
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10/24/08
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A Bloody Aria (2006)
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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:11
Rotten:15
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Pulpy, bloody and violent, this Korean shock-fest is blackly comedic but disappointing overall.
Theatrical Release:Jan 4, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: In this award-winning, bloody shock-fest, a young opera singer runs through the woods in an attempt to flee a lecherous professor, but soon finds herself--and the professor-- held captive by a... [More]
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Reviews for A Bloody Aria
Still, Won pulls off a rare trick: to be funny and frightening while continuing to ratch the tension up and up. Performances, too, are top notch.
10/24/08
A gripping, disconcerting and thought-provoking exercise that eschews graphic horror in favour of complex, darkly funny psychological drama.
10/24/08
It’s slow, bloody and pretty much devoid of merit.
10/24/08
Time should surely now be called on the vogue in Korean cinema for black-comic ultraviolence.
10/24/08
Director Won Shin-yun infuses the moralisms with a pulpy energy that recalls cheery shockers such as Hostel and Saw, while also indulging in Three Stooges-style bumpkin-knockabout humour.
10/24/08
Despite the title, A Bloody Aria is unlikely to be music to the ears of extreme cinema fans.
10/24/08
Sore disappointment is in store for anyone expecting Won Shin-yun’s revenge/psycho thriller to emerge as the new Oldboy.
10/24/08
Won’s critique of the abuse of power in South Korean society lacks trenchancy, but he subverts convention with an incisiveness lacking in much transatlantic horror.
10/24/08
A laboured and unpleasant meditation on power and violence.
10/24/08
It's supposedly an essay on the nature of human brutality and there is a certain amount of narrative deftness at play, but whether in the sequences of dialogue or violence, in both cases extended, the film is not merely unattractive but also uninteresting
10/24/08
I suspect it falls between two stools: not nearly grisly enough for the aficionado of extreme Asian cinema, rather too grisly for everyone else.
10/24/08
It all looks like Michael Haneke-lite but, as a comment upon the fact that people tamed by violence tend to promote it when given half a chance, it has its grimly amusing merits.
10/24/08
Korean filmmaker Won uses a startlingly in-your-face style for this outrageous examination of bullying at all kinds of levels. Both unsettling and entertaining, it also finds real terror and black humour in the least likely places.
10/24/08
although the degeneration of events from bad to worse is made unbearably tense, Won also peppers his film with black humour, without ever abandoning his allegiance to social commentary.
09/29/08
It would have been fine but the acting is pretty over the top, making scenes almost laughable.
06/18/08
will ultimately confound American audiences who don't appreciate the complexities of the Korean national psyche
03/22/08
A simply unpleasant experience.
01/24/08
Top CriticFor the most part A Bloody Aria has an adept way of muddying these themes for audiences expecting the usual gore-thirsty trip.
01/17/08
Top CriticIt may seem an odd thing to say about a film in which a baseball bat as an instrument of assault and rape is a recurring theme, but what makes A Bloody Aria a darkly delightful surprise is its restraint.
01/11/08
Top CriticLatest News for A Bloody Aria
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