Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

gradyharp Ki-Duk Kim has done it again. The South Korean writer/director is best known universally through his 2003 minimalist, Buddhism-inspired fable 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring' and once again he demonstrates that with very minimal resources he can create a story at once complex and compelling in this new film BREATH. Not only are his ideas for film unique in the technical aspects, his concept of telling a story is always surprisingly subtle. Jang Ji (Chen Chang) is on death row in a Korean prison for the murder of his family. He shares the bleak cell with three other prisoners, one of whom (In-Hyeong Gang) is young and obviously in love with and is very possessive of Jian Ji. Jian Ji attempts suicide and the media focuses on the transfer of the prisoner to the hospital where he barely survives his self- inflicted stab wound to the throat. One woman on the outside, Yeon (Zia - or Ji-a Park) watches the coverage on the media in silence (: she is married to a man (Jung-Woo Ha) who apparently is having an extramarital affair and pays little attention to her, finding Yeon's obsession with the prisoner 's exposure in the media this foolish and repulsive. They have a young daughter who observes the lack of interaction between her parents. Yeon is a sculptor and quietly works at her art, watching the coverage of Jian-Ji's plight. Something in her relates to the prisoner and she begins making trips to the prison where she sets up the visitor room with wall photographs, paintings and flower props that look like Spring. It is in this atmosphere that she meets the handcuffed Jian Ji and there is obvious exchanged compassion between them. She returns to the prison, each time to visit Jian Ji in a room she has transformed to Summer and to Autumn and with each visit she sings a seasonal song of love to him. The relationship becomes physical: of note, in a room behind one way glass a prison official (Ki-duk Kim himself, as though he were directing the romance) observes the trysts. Yeon finds evidence, a broach, of her husband's affair and confronts him: the husband explores the reason Yeon visits the prison and follows her, observing her passion behind the one way mirror. The husband parts with his lover, demanding Yeon do the same, and the last visit to the prison is a Winter scene where Jian-Ji and Yeon consummate their passion. The ending is a surprise to all and sharing that would spoil the effect of the film: the key is in the title. Ki-Duk Kim weaves so many subliminal aspects into this film, a technique few other directors can match. He explores alienation, contemporary relationships between husbands and wives, prison tensions that result in other kinds of relationships, and again uses the cycle of season changes to mark the steps of his story. His cast is small and incredibly fine. This is a very small film with a very big message. It is a gem. Grady Harp

clg238 In the old silent movies, captions were needed even as the actors did their best to convey emotions, often (by today's standards) way overdoing it. The actors in "Breath" skillfully convey practically all we need to know about what is going on in their internal lives, without dialogue. There is, in fact dialogue--not a lot, just exactly enough. This is a daring and brilliant film, and, sorry to say, one that doesn't seem to appeal to many people. I find the film quite transparent, but reviewers seem stymied by the odd situation (a woman in a broken marriage goes to visit a stranger on death row to offer him comfort). What is so difficult about this? She feels as if she is dying so she reaches out to someone else who is dying, even before his sentence is carried out. DUH. How she reaches out is quirky; not for a moment did my attention flag. The relationship motif is enhanced by what transpires in the prison cell of the condemned man, which he shares with three other men, one of whom is in love with him. This is not a film for those who want everything laid out for them so that they don't have to participate in elucidating the meaning. However, for those who are willing to put together the few pieces of the puzzle in this spare and gorgeous film, the effort will be rewarding. I found the film deeply touching, painful, beautiful, and haunting.

Harry T. Yung In commenting on Kim's (that is his surname) movies, I am aware of my limitation of not having seen "Spring, summer, fall, winter….and spring" (2003) which purported is his best film. "Samaria" (2004) I really like, seeing it as a depiction of polarization (in more ways than one) as well as a touching father-and-daughter story. "Bin-jip" (2004), unfortunately, I cannot bring myself to join the general chorus to praise. If found it unconvincing and shallow, "4 clever ideas adding up to a prank" as I put in my summary line."Breath" (or "Soom") I found to be a distant cousin of "Bin-jip" although more serious and less haphazard. Like any of Kim's movies, "Breath" has things enigmatic that seem to require explanation. But Kim is a director that had openly declared that he won't bother explaining his movies. Indeed, explanations are not even required.Shot with imaginative camera work and Kim's usual attention to details, this movie tells the story of how a woman whose marriage is on the rocks starts visiting a prisoner on death roll and gradually develops a subtle relationship with him. Her family life is however not entirely unbearable. Although it is unfortunate that her husband has an affair, he is not depicted as a particularly despicable character. He genuinely cares about their pre-teen daughter and reacts with restrained sense when he discovers his wife's strange routine. He even drives her to the prison on her final visit.The prisoner's story is grimmer. We are told that he is on death roll for murdering his own wife and children. He hardly ever speaks, his lifeless eyes seem always indicate a trance and his attempted suicide has led to advancing of his execution date. One of the three prisoners in the same cell, a young man (who doesn't speak either), harbors homosexual desires for him and becomes obviously jealous as the situation progresses.The audience, depending on the POV they place themselves, can see many different things in this movie: a threatened marriage salvaged by some bazaar action, absolution and reconciliation, unpredictable ways a relationship between two individuals can develop, mental anguish of a prisoner on death roll, absurdities in a prison cell – these are among the more obvious. Talking about POV, it is interesting to note that the key scenes that take place in the visiting cell are seen through the eyes of the security officer who monitors the close-circuit TV in the prison. We only see this character as a refection on the monitor. As director Kim's name in on the IMDb cast credit, I wonder if he is the one who plays this security officer. If it is indeed the case, is he consciously doing the M. Night Shyamalan thing?

Chris_Docker In Dancer in The Dark, Lars von Trier told the story of a girl who could create such a vivid interior life that it could soar over any misfortune, even death. In Breath, Director Ki-duk Kim tells the story of a girl who tries to transfer a similarly strong vision to a condemned man on death row.What do you do to raise your spirits? Listen to a song? Walk through the countryside? Go on holiday somewhere nice? Take any of these things, and they are heightened if love and desire are added.When I was seventeen, I used to walk five miles every night. Just to hold my sweetheart's hand and kiss her goodnight. Even in winter, I felt as if I were walking on air. Sounds kinda stupid, looking back. Especially as it didn't last. But those miles disappeared in seconds.Breath opens unremarkably. Jang Jin is on death row and attempts suicide by sharpening a toothbrush and stabbing himself with it. (He's played by Chen Chang, the sexy outlaw suitor to Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.) The incident makes the evening TV news.Yeon's husband is having an affair. He tells her to get out and meet people instead of staying at home making sculptures. On an impulse, she goes to visit Jang Jin. On a subsequent visit, she decorates the visiting room with blown-up pictures of spring, fills the area with artificial flowers, and sings to him. She wears a summer dress even though it is mid-winter. Yeon's poetry of life has a profound effect on Jang Jin. They fall passionately in love. But trouble brews from Jang Jin's jealous cellmates and Yeon's violent husband.When Breath started, I admit I found it less than engaging. But suddenly these scenes that Yeon constructs for Jang Jin explode with a powerful emotional force. Have you ever been on one of those simulator machines where you step in and it starts moving about, replicating sensations that match the screen in front of you? It's that sudden. One second you are watching an ordinary prison drama, interspersed with inconsequential domestic stuff. Then Wham! You are suddenly catapulted, knocked sideways, jolted out of your seat. And that, of course, is a pale reflection of the effect we realise it must be having on Jang Jin. We start living for these intense (yet emotionally draining) moments in the film, just as Jang Jin does.Throughout precisely architectured cinematography, Ki-duk Kim weaves a poetry of life and death. "We are already crazy inmates on death row. Until we can breathe no more." Contrasts between the two protagonists' lives outside the meeting room and what goes on inside are mirrored in verbal contrasts where one person will speak and the other stays mute. Breathing in and breathing out. Locked in a passionate kiss. Or holding one's breath underwater.Breath also has a bitter edge. Is she preparing him for the moment when he takes his last breath? (South Korea is one of the very few fully developed democracies where the death penalty is still allowed.) Don't expect any nice redemptive ending. Like Dancer in The Dark, Breath mostly gets darker. "Even though I call with sorrow, Only the white snow falls." It may also be too laboured – even artificial – for some audiences.Breath is an icy, chilling love story. It looks at a bond that goes beyond the simplicities of life and death. And it's as finely chiselled as a piece of sculpture. Some scenes contain a rare combination of animal intensity and poetic tenderness. The whole unfolds as a dazzling testament to the artistry of Ki-duk Kim.