AllMovie

Police arrive on a tiny and remote island, investigating the discovery of a severed head in the local waters. On Geukrakdo, they make an even more grisly discovery. All seventeen known residents of the island--men, women, and children--are dead, apparently murdered. Writer-director Kim Min-han, makes his directorial debut with this morbidly comic thriller, which was a hit in South Korea. After the befuddled police arrive on the island, Kim uses flashbacks to tell the story. A gambling dispute turns surprisingly violent, and a succession of suspects soon turns up dead. As the island is without its own law enforcement, a visiting doctor, Woo Seong (Park Hae-il of The Host) takes charge of the investigation, desperately trying to allay the growing paranoia of the terrified and bewildered locals. Past conflicts and secret alliances soon rise to the surface as the situation grows uglier, and the island's more eccentric residents seem to get crazier. Soon anyone seems capable of murder, and the doctor's own mysterious relationship with the lovely new schoolteacher, Gwi-nam (Park Sol-mi) adds to the intrigue as the body count grows. Paradise Murdered was shown at the 2007 New York Korean Film Festival.