Io Island (1977)

March 8, 2025 2:11 PM

A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a boat trip to promote the project, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the developers goes to Ieodo’s neighboring island, populated almost solely by haenyeo, women freedivers who harvest seafood, to investigate. Directed by Kim Ki-young (The Housemaid), this genre-bending bad-trip fairy tale of environmental destruction is among South Korea's most acclaimed films. It features a complex structure of layered flashbacks and a famously audacious ending.

Also known as Iodo, Ieoh Island, 이어도, 異魚島, Ieodo, or Iŏdo.

Starring Lee Hwa-si, Kim Jeong-cheol, Park Jeong-ja, Park Ahm.

Directed by Kim Ki-young (The Housemaid). Screenplay by Ha Yoo-sang, based on a novel by Lee Cheong-jun. Produced by Lee Woo-seok. Cinematography by Jeong Il-seong,. Edited by Hyeon Dong-choon. Music by Han Sang-ki.

3/7/5 average rating on Letterboxd.

Not currently available through conventional streaming methods in the US. Recently re-released as part of Severin Films' All the Haunts Be Ours, Volume 2 collection of folk horror.

posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total)

I watched this film from start to finish in one sitting, then promptly watched it again with the audio commentary.

Not only does it have a complex structure (at one point, I noted I was watching a flashback within a flashback within a flashback maybe within another flashback), but the mythology and symbolism is so dense that trying to pick it all up at once is like trying to catch a dozen basketballs thrown to you at the same time.

Some extraordinary stuff in here, including that ending that takes things to their (not exactly horror, but shocking all the same) conclusion.

I might have to see this one several more times. It's the kind of film that rewards that level of attention. It's about mythology, it's about ecology, it's about gender reversals, it's about the modern vs. the traditional, it's about science versus nature... hell, I think it's also kind of about the Japanese occupation, at least a little.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:15 PM on March 8 [2 favorites]

That Letterboxd rating should show as 3.7/5. Sorry for the typo.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:18 PM on March 8 [1 favorite]

I was just saying last night I need to find my blu player so I can watch stuff like this again. Damn move.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:50 PM on March 8

Yeah this one is a gem in that set. I'd read about it here and there for years but it had never had a release that I was aware so I'd never seen it but always wanted to. I was not disappointed by it.

I agree that it is a very densely packed film with a lot ideas and at times a lot of complex ethnographic / historical detail. For me this is the key component of the very best of the films that fall into the folk horror genre. And due to the structure, your attention is a requirement (put that phone away). Worth your time.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:37 AM on March 10 [2 favorites]