Nabbeun namja 2001

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Its international reputation seems difficult to justify. Read more

Hank Sartin, Chicago Reader: The audience is subjected to a series of emotional contortions, encouraged to experience them like a voyeur, and then scolded for doing so. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Really, who needs a bad guy who's this guilty about being bad? Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: One can't get out of the theater fast enough. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: As a case study of one disturbed woman it might be interesting; presented as some sort of deathless love story, it's merely distasteful. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Kim Ki-duk does a bizarre riff on the twisted macho ethos of abusing women until they learn to love you. Read more

Ned Martel, New York Times: Mostly distressing and occasionally compelling, as Sun-hwa, the young student, becomes ensnared in a prostitution ring. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: The film is filled with lovely images (Kim studied painting in France), and ultimately becomes, against all expectations, quite moving. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: His fascination with allegory and symbols is evident here, too, but his narrative strays too far from the dreamlike towards the just plain dumbfounding. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Though it goes on exactly a reel too long, Bad Guy reps the most emotionally satisfying pic to date by Korean iconoclast Kim Ki-duk. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Bad Guy, one of the seven films in Kim's fascinating back catalog, is another kind of cocktail -- simple, bitter, served straight and in an unwashed glass. Read more