Bedevilled

Jang Cheol-soo spends an hour on the mundane cruelty of a tiny fishing community: a woman worked like an animal by her husband, her in-laws and the older women, with a child she cannot protect, and a friend from the mainland who watches it and says nothing.

The revenge, when it comes, is agricultural and it is aimed at everybody, including the bystander.

Seo Young-hee gives one of the great performances in Korean cinema and the film's argument is entirely about complicity rather than about the assault.

The island photography is beautiful, which makes it worse.

It is very hard to watch for the first hour and considerably harder afterwards, and it earns both.