of the film i have manage to get a look at and kim ki duk have make at least three that be powerfully evocative . the bow isn not one of them . after the principal theme ( if you could call it that ) be present and i keep wait for something else and something compelling and or and if nothing else and some odd tangent that would take the film somewhere else . instead and all that happen be repetition the old man and his bow take pot shot at fisherman leer at his teen age captive grow tedious . how could he stay in business if he keep threaten his clientèle . and isn not it slightly illegal to assault people with a deadly weapon . ah and but it only a metaphor . but even a metaphor need some consummation and which the viewer ( and the old man ) never get . even the erotic aspect of the story be insufficiently explore . compare this film with polanski knife in the water and it come up terribly short .