3-Iron (2004)

A young drifter enters strangers' houses - and lives - while owners are away. He spends a night or a day squatting in, repaying their unwitting hospitality by doing laundry or small repairs. His life changes when he runs into a beautiful woman in an affluent mansion who is ready to escape her unhappy, abusive marriage. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Ki-duk Kim
Written By: Ki-duk Kim
Starring: Hyun-kyoon Lee, Seung-yeon Lee, Se-jin Park, Hoon Jang, Sung-hyuk Moon, Dong-jin Park
AKAs: 빈집, Empty House
Country: Japan, South Korea
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3-Iron belongs to 52 collections
1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 232 stars)
2. Favorite Film of Every Criticker Member (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 95 stars)
3. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)
4. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 46 stars)
5. IMDb Top 250 Complete (collaborative: moderated by Jorg - 23 stars)
6. Best of criticker: Drama (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 18 stars)
7. Non-verbal (collaborative: moderated by djross - 16 stars)
8. Best film of top directors (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 15 stars)
9. The Gentlemen's Guide To Midnight Cinema Podcast (collaborative: moderated by Coheed - 9 stars)
10. Best of criticker: Romance (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 6 stars)
11. Positive Psychology Films (collaborative - 6 stars)
12. Ekşi Sinema "Alternatif" Top 250 (collaborative - 6 stars)
13. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
14. Cinemag's 100 Greatest Movies of the '00s (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 5 stars)
15. Capsules, guest reviews, list candidates... (366weirdmovies) (collaborative: moderated by sesito71 - 4 stars)
16. edkrak films to see (public: edkrak - 4 stars)
17. 501 Movie Directors (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 3 stars)
18. Korean Movies (collaborative: moderated by manbeer - 3 stars)
19. Unconventional Cinema (public: holsgr - 3 stars)
20. Mute (collaborative: moderated by mpowell - 2 stars)
21. Solo Genital Stimulation (Male) (collaborative - 2 stars)
22. MovieMeter.nl Top 250 (collaborative: moderated by Jorg - 2 stars)
23. onderhond.com top 200 movies (collaborative: moderated by Bullt - 2 stars)
24. Foreign Language Films subtitled on Youtube (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx - 2 stars)
25. Foreign - Korean (public: NhanLa - 2 stars)
26. film puanlamalarım (collaborative - 1 star)
27. 100 Greatest Korean Films Ever by Korean Screen (collaborative: moderated by Equanimity - 1 star)
28. gork movies to get (public: gork - 1 star)
29. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)
30. The Greatest Movies of All Time - Filmweb's Alternative Top 500 (public: Hadleyreis - 1 star)
31. Metacritic - Generally Favorable Reviews (collaborative: moderated by sengir)
32. FIPRESCI Grand Prix for the Best Film of the Year (collaborative: moderated by Thegoodboy)
33. Best of criticker: 2004 (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr)
34. Mind blowing collection (collaborative: moderated by hakkanarejo)
35. The Greatest Korean films (by the Korean Film Archive) (collaborative: moderated by kritikos)
36. Personal liberation (collaborative: moderated by HoneyB)
37. SFIFF 2005 (public: citrusboy)
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Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
6 | ![]() |
Barthalen | 81 84th |
Boring, unappealing and way too pretentious. ...But enough about me! Bin-jip surprised me quite a bit. Keeps shifting between 'subtly endearing' and 'unexpectedly dark'. The surreal nature of the final act was simply perfect.
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4 | theficionado | 88 87th |
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Is it hyperbole to call this the most affecting love story ever put to celluloid? 'Cause I'm going to do it anyway.
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4 | ![]() |
AtGiza | 86 83rd |
Everything in this movie feels extremely delicate and beautiful. Like if I touch anything, it will all break.
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2 | ![]() |
avinash | 83 61st |
Talk about minimalist. Almost no dialogue, all visual cues. However, I liked that the story takes on a dreamy aspect in the last part, leaving it open to interpretation for the audience as to what exactly had happened. It gave it a bit of an edge that it lacked up to that point.
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2 | ![]() |
goremeat | 80 76th |
Explores the silent grace of unspoken communication. Dark and heavy, but with enough kindness seeping through to round out an artistic balance. It is a little over the top, but forgive it of that and it is a rewarding dance.
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2 | ![]() |
HeyDingo | 29 33rd |
First twenty minutes would make a fantastic short. That and the few great moments following are the only reason I even give this movie a relatively decent score. Can't say i'd ever recommend it to anyone as it simply falls apart as it goes on.
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1 | ![]() |
Pickpocket | 8 82nd |
Lovely. Even if the gimmick is a bit dumb at times. Pretty original though.
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1 | ![]() |
Merc | 85 92nd |
'Gimmick' is an *Americanism* most often used to describe deceitful wares and business transactions.
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1 | ![]() |
evrana | 71 49th |
Just because it made me think about the infinite ways of living this life, I enjoyed it. It is a great movie idea but the overall story was weak so it was a bit over the top here and there. But the drift of the characters around the Korean-life landscape made up for the potholes of the plot.
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1 | Skenkere | 77 78th |
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A love story in which neither of the leads ever utters a single word (well the girl says one thing at the very end, but that hardly counts). And it works brilliantly. Everything here is really original, and the solution to the main conflict, though it could be construed as stupid and ridiculous, is awesome and kind of beautiful in my opinion.
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1 | ![]() |
Boobjuice | 100 98th |
A quiet, beautiful, and uniquely affecting film. Ignore movies like "The Lake House", "3-Iron" is a real love story.
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sebby | 50 27th |
After the gentle genius of Spring, Summer...this is quite a disappointment. I cared nothing for these characters and was annoyed by the gimmick from the beginning. A few moments of brilliance do not make a good film.
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1 | ![]() |
Natzilla | 91 94th |
If you like romance but are sick of the usual fare, give "3-Iron" a go. Beautiful, captivating, and refreshingly original.
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1 | chengming | 85 93rd |
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Few movies settle so comfortably right on the line between reality and dreamworld.
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1 | ![]() |
QVT | 70 74th |
None of the people involved really have the chops to pull this off. The main character did well enough but the girl was mediocre. More about the missed potential that a film like this could have been. There is nothing worse than "leaving it up to the audience."
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1 | ![]() |
begoniabol | 82 82nd |
Beautiful movie. I love the relationship between the two main characters. It's sweet. The ending is brilliant. I also like the fact that there's so little dialogue, and it works
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1 | AzurEclipse | 85 97th |
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At times far from realistic, but that step from reality is what gave this movie its charm and appeal. Thank goodness there's at least one director out there who understands that silence is golden and that simple gestures can express more than words could ever convey.
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1 | ![]() |
AndreasThau | 85 85th |
Very beautiful film. Don't know what to say, really, other than I thought it had a filmic rhythm, that made it extra intense. Needless to point out how well-written it is, since both main characters hardly say a word and yet we understand them so well. I especially loved the scenes in the prison, where the movie becomes somewhat spiritual - thereby hinting the point of the whole film. Sublime.
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randori | 70 54th |
baskalarinin ozel alanlarina diledigince girebilen adam bu deneyimlerinden birinde kocasindan siddet gordugu icin uzaklasan bir kadinla yakinlasir. aralarinda farkli frekansta bir iliski baslar. kim ki-duk hikayesinde bosluklar birakip izleyenden doldurmasini istiyor. acik uclu bir anlatimla farkli okunabilecek bir oyku. adamin kadin icin kendisini gelistirip bir golge adam-ninja moduna gecmesi mi yoksa ruhani bir boyuta gecerek iliskilerini devam ettirmeleri mi ya da her sey kadinin sanrisi mi
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1 | ![]() |
afx237vi | 90 95th |
A sweet, romantic, peaceful film. The no-talking thing never felt gimmicky to me. The acting and the direction were done with such subtlety that you never needed to be told what was going on with unnecessary dialogue - you just instinctively understood the connection between the two characters. The scene where the woman re-visits the temple, sleeps for a while, then leaves, was absolutely beautiful. I liked the ending too, which emphasized how dreamlike (almost mystical) the whole thing is.
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1 | ![]() |
maakal | 70 37th |
I really, really enjoyed this for the first hour, and then slowly lost interest. Still, it's a nicely told story which I could recommend.
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1 | ![]() |
nobodyrobots | 88 76th |
A great film with hardly a word of dialoge spoken.
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1 | ![]() |
MuteAshes | 70 37th |
shallow but delicate and personal. Ki-duk Kim's style, obviously.
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1 | ![]() |
Armilio | 70 63rd |
A sweet romance, first; and a film about the temptation to live alienated from society, or reality. Because the reality of the spoken words is often more distorted than the unreality of dreams. So, there is a open ending, in my opinion: i'm not totally sure if the final chapter is 'real world' or 'fantasy world'. Technically speaking is not impressive, but it works; especially in the beginning, remind me to an european classic cinema style, as if it was a 'nouvelle vogue' film.
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1 | toddsalter | 93 87th |
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This movie left me smiling and refreshed as if I had been meditating the whole movie. Such an original idea and approach to a movie.
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Average Percentile 71.73% from 2686 Ratings | ![]() |