Gotta be honest here, we didn’t care much for Kim Ki-Duk‘s “Pieta” out of Venice. The picture semi-controversially beat out “The Master” at the Venice Film Festival last year for the Golden Lion (there was some confusion about how many awards one movie could win or something), and while the director’s movies — which arrive at a prolific rate, with four movies coming in the last two years — aren’t for everyone’s tastes, Drafthouse Films has rolled the dice on this one, hoping it can reach a nice audience.
The movie follows a loan shark living an isolated and lonely existence, how uses brutality to threaten and collect paybacks from desperate borrowers for his moneylender boss, without regard to the pain he causes his countless victims. One day, a mysterious woman appears in front of him claiming to be his long-lost mother. After coldly rejecting her at first, he gradually accepts her in his life and decides to quit his cruel job and seek a decent, redemptive life. But of course, a dark secret could unravel everything.
After a crackerjack opening forty minutes, our reviewer in Venice felt, “the film contains some memorable moments, and a pair of fine performances, but it’s hard not to feel that it would have proved more successful if it had stayed on the path it was heading down” at the start.
But you’ll be able to judge for yourself when it arrives in theaters and On Demand this Friday, April 12th. Check out the trailer, clip and poster for the movie below.
