Description

One overcast morning in 1986, two cops are left on dock of an obscure island off the southern coast of Korea. They’ve come to Paradise Island, a prizewinner for its wistful beauty. But something’s not right. They’ve been told that 17 people are missing… the entire population of the island. And they’ve been told to be very, very discreet about what they discover.

Flash back just a few days. It’s grandpa’s 80th birthday, and 17 happy people are gathered for the festivities. They’re an odd but entirely likable bunch. All is well… until the first two mangled corpses turn up. A nightmare has begun. Tensions rise, distrust spreads, cryptic messages and murky motives push the people to the edge of hysteria. But what’s behind it? An evil conspiracy? A savage serial killer? Or is there truth to the legend of the Chaste Woman, wrongly imprisoned and starved, who’s laid a curse on the island’s inhabitants?

Park Hae-il made his mark as a rising young actor with memorable performances in the off-kilter international horror hit THE HOST, and before that in 2003’s unforgettable MEMORIES OF MURDER. Here, in a film that faintly echoes both of those gems, Park leads an exciting ensemble cast in the debut feature by director Kim Han-min. The quirky, intriguing personalities rebound off one another like pinballs as the body count rises, and with it the hysteria. They never fall into outright exaggeration or buffoonery as the clever, layered wit of PARADISE MURDERED matches sly laughs with eeriness and even shocking dread.

—Rupert Bottenberg