Pieta

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Pieta

2013

1h 43m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

73%

Tomatometer

55 Reviews

72%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

In Seoul, a loan shark's brutal enforcer (Lee Jung-jin) turns away from his violent lifestyle after he meets a woman (Jo Min-soo) who says she's the long-lost mother who abandoned him when he was just an infant.

Critics Consensus

It lacks subtlety and depth of character, but Pieta gets by with committed performances and a darkly ambitious, deceptively simple message.

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Max Kyburz

Film Comment Magazine

11/04/2013

Succeeds in repulsing and enlightening viewers simultaneously, even if its views on self-sacrifice and redemption are cynical.

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Guy Lodge

HitFix

09/11/2013

C

Nasty is as nasty does, and this lurid if aspirational potboiler does its thing, but the camera could have been let in on the joke.

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Mark Kermode

Observer (UK)

09/09/2013

3/5

Oedipal metaphysics give way to something altogether more mundane, but Jo and Lee are committed leads, the former carrying the burden of the movie with motherly care and attention.

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David Bax

Battleship Pretension

03/18/2021

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the imprecise but effective way Kang-do destroys human bodies is the frank simplicity with which Kim presents it.

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Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

11/13/2020

Young-jik manages to tap into the dreary desolation of Ki-duk's screenplay, and we're left in a perpetual nightmare until the final frames.

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Brent McKnight

The Last Thing I See

07/09/2020

B

Bad people doing bad things that will occasionally make your stomach churn.

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11/24/2021

Even when it has some points in its favor, specially about the things it wants to say, "Pieta" is nothing more than a tasteless porn-misery incestuos drama that never gets to achieve anything good in any technical level. It is hard to swallow, but only because is a raw, meaning uncooked, empty provocation.

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nefasto r

@Nefasto 10/03/2019

The story is good, shame that the film is awful, to me really unwatchable, so I'll never know how it ends.

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07/10/2019

เป็นหนังการล้างแค้นที่มีแต่ความเจ็บปวด ชอบพล็อตเรื่องที่ไม่ค่อยเหมือนใคร สนุก

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01/30/2018

Balas dendam. Balas dendam. Balas dendam.

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03/04/2017

Living on the edge of evilness and beyond. A ruthless villain, gets into some emotional trouble over some sudden heartcare towards himself. Love turn you blind and so on, great and twisted adaption of love-hate-fool-me-twice.

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11/17/2016

Sad but interesting and at times brutal korean art house. Not amazing or groundbreaking but definitely a well made picture. Exploring Korean cinema...a good watch.

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Kim Ki-duk

Director

Lee Jung-jin

Kang-do

Jo Min-soo

Min-sun

Woo Gi-hong

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Hoon-Chul's Wife

Jo Jae-ryong

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Synopsis

In Seoul, a loan shark's brutal enforcer (Lee Jung-jin) turns away from his violent lifestyle after he meets a woman (Jo Min-soo) who says she's the long-lost mother who abandoned him when he was just an infant.

Director: Kim Ki-duk
Producer: Kim Soon-mo
Screenwriter: Kim Ki-duk
Distributor: Drafthouse Films
Production Co: Kim Ki-Duk Film, Good Films, Finecut
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Korean
Release Date (Theaters): May 17, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 15, 2017
Runtime: 1h 43m