Oasis (2002)

Lars von Trier has said art or film should be like a rock in your shoe. Well, Chang-dong Lee's film Oasis is that rock. Beautiful, well written, well acted, subtle use of camera-work to create a tighter, more claustrophobic experience with characters that you do not want to be forced to stare at. Oasis will make you cringe, cry, laugh, think...think about many things, one of which being the genius that is Chang-dong Lee. The man made his debut with Green Fish around 1997 and it was a mediocre low-level gangster genre film; it had its nice flourishes, good writing, etc. But since then, starting with Peppermint Candy in 1999, Lee has only made masterpieces.

This film is played with such precise acting of natural behaviour that the outcome of the story just deepens your heart and mind in believing why we humans do such cruel activities and leave those who cannot enact decisions for themselves to suffer from our greed and desired darkness that makes us the monster that we are ..... This film is a prime example on why we should look deep in the well of our hearts and souls and try to forgive and understand the simplest of cruel intentions we blind out which then snowballs to this extent of cruel injustice to the innocent that are fallen angels amongst us... This truly is a magnificent movie for those who want to understand the eternal darkness of a corrupted mind...

It would be nearly impossible for me to deny the true greatness of this film. There are very few films I can think of which contain so much ambition, integrity, conviction, and audacity. It is a love story of rare power, matched only by a precious few others. The concept of the film alone deserves admiration, and the execution is nearly flawless. It manages to avoid practically all the problems which could potentially occur trying to tell a story like this. In the wrong hands, this film could have either been a cloying, condescending mess, or a cruel sickening freak show. But, as is, the film does a great job of keeping a balance, never reducing itself to either, equally false, extreme. Instead the film relentlessly pursues those elusive moments of cinematic truth, and never falters. The extent to which the filmmakers (writer/director and actors alike) remain true to the characters they are portraying is amazing, never reducing them to either grotesque caricature nor helpless objects worthy only of our pity and easy, manipulative tears. Instead, the film takes a truly unflinching, yet nuanced look at mental and physical disability. When you consider that the subject of disability in cinema usually results in sterile, vapid films like "Forrest Gump" and "The Other Sister", "Oasis" is practically a miracle. At times I admit it is hard to watch, but it is honest and never at all mean-spirited. Ultimately the effect is messy, transcendent truthfulness rather than shock or unpleasantness. The only real criticism I have about the film is that I felt the occasional dream sequences were ultimately unnecessary, although for what they were they weren't bad at all, fairly well-done actually.

This movie is not romantic...I'm sure this review will end up at the bottom of the pile, being voted down by all of the other people who seemed to have loved this film. The critics loved it. All of the people who have posted here have loved it. I will say that the direction, story, and acting were all good. But what other people don't seem to mention is that this movie is profoundly disturbing. It's filled with graphic images, sexual assault, and a gritty reality that (while infused with dream-like images) I cannot romanticize. As a special education teacher, I watched this film, applied it to people I know, and that made me cringe. My boyfriend and I rented this movie on Valentine's Day--it was my choice, and midway through the film he looked at me and said, "I can't believe you rented this for Valentine's Day!" I won't say this movie doesn't have good qualities, but what I will say is that I feel it has been misrepresented here on IMDb and on it's box cover, and that's why I'm posting this. It's perhaps more than you bargain for.And if you go into this film expecting that, maybe you will even like it.But personally, I don't see how people can find it romantic.