Samaritan Girl

Samaritan Girl
Samaritan Girl
Hangul	사마리아
Revised Romanization	Samaria
McCune–Reischauer	Samaria
Directed by	Kim Ki-duk
Written by	Kim Ki-duk
Produced by	Kim Ki-duk ; Bae Jeong-min
Starring	Kwak Ji-min; Seo Min-jeong; Lee Eol
Cinematography	Seon Sang-jae
Edited by	Kim Ki-duk
Music by	Park Ji-woong
Distributed by	Cineclick Asia; Tartan Video USA
Release date	March 5, 2004;
Running time	97 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Box office	US$328,161

Samaritan Girl (Korean: 사마리아; RR: Samaria) is a 2004 South Korean film written and directed by Kim Ki-duk.^[2]

Synopsis

Yeo-jin and Jae-yeong are two teenage girls who are trying to earn money for a trip to Europe. To reach this end, Jae-yeong is prostituting herself while Yeo-jin acts as her pimp, setting her up with the clients and staying on guard for the police. Things take a turn for the worse when Yeo-jin gets distracted from her duty and the police raid the motel where Jae-yeong is meeting with a client. To avoid getting caught, Jae-yeong jumps out of a window, fatally injuring herself.

After Jae-yeong's death, Yeo-jin blames herself and to ease her own conscience, sets to return all of the money they earned to the clients while sleeping with them herself. Eventually Yeo-jin's father, a policeman, is devastated when he discovers what she is doing. He starts following her discreetly and confronts her clients with increasingly violent results. Finally, he ends up brutally killing a client.

For the rest of its duration, the movie follows the father and daughter on a short trip to the countryside, where they both sense something is wrong with the other, but are unable to confront each other directly. In the end, the law catches up with the father, who hopes to have done enough to prepare Yeo-jin for her life without him.

Cast

Kwak Ji-min - Yeo-jin
Han Yeo-reum (credited as Seo Min-jeong) - Jae-yeong
Lee Eol - Yeong-ki, Yeo-jin's father

Reception

As with other films by Kim Ki-duk, Samaritan Girl was not a box office success in its home country, but was better received overseas.^{[citation needed]} After it won the Silver Bear, the second place award at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, it became a sought-after film for other international film festivals.^[3]

References

^ "Samaria" Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
^ "Poster for New Kim Gi-duk Film to Provoke Controversy". The Chosun Ilbo. January 16, 2004. Archived from the original on 2023-04-27. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
^ Hartzell, Adam. "Samaritan Girl". Koreanfilm.org. Archived from the original on 2011-10-08. Retrieved 2013-09-09.

External links and references

Samaritan Girl at IMDb
Samaria at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)

[Boxofficemojo-1] "Samaria" Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-03-04.

[2] "Poster for New Kim Gi-duk Film to Provoke Controversy". The Chosun Ilbo. January 16, 2004. Archived from the original on 2023-04-27. Retrieved 2013-09-09.

[3] Hartzell, Adam. "Samaritan Girl". Koreanfilm.org. Archived from the original on 2011-10-08. Retrieved 2013-09-09.

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