When Hollywood tackles a subject like romance between mentally or physically challenged people, the result is almost certain to be sappy sitcom fantasy. What a welcome revelation is Lee Chang-dong's Oasis, a gritty, almost brutally unsentimental treatment of the unlikely coupling of a semi-retarded man with a criminal past and the palsied young woman whose father he killed in an auto accident (for which he went to jail). Both a beautifully detailed depiction of a misunderstood, doomed friendship and a powerful indictment of the treatment of disabled people in contemporary Korea, Oasis is told in a naturalistic style only occasionally broken by fantasy sequences that hold out a slender reed of hope (the most notable, based on a painting in the woman's otherwise drab room, provides the picture with its title) before inevitably returning to bitter reality. Exhibiting an astonishing purity of tone and theme despite the grime of its settings, the frequent discomfort of its situations, and the poverty of its characters, the film is also marked by superb performances from Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri; the latter is so convincing, in fact, that when she abandons the pose of crippling infirmity in the dream sequences, it's breathtaking. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)
Oasis
Facets, 132 min., in Korean w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.95, Nov. 23 Volume 20, Issue 1
Oasis
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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