For Asian cinema in the UK 2004 was a significant year. Tartan Films released more Asian films in British cinemas than ever before, offering another Asia Extreme seven-film roadshow, the high-profile stand-alone releases of Oldboy (2003) and the first two Infernal Affairs (2002, 2003) films under the Asia Extreme brand, not to mention several art-house-confined ‘non-extreme’ Japanese and Korean films. But if 2004 was an important year for Asian film in general, it was even more significant for the work of one South Korean director in particular: Kim Ki-duk.

Kim's Bad Guy (2002) was the first of his films released in the UK, having been part of Tartan's first Asia Extreme roadshow in 2003. In 2004, Tartan released two Kim Ki-duk films, but there were significant differences in the promotion of the films: while The Isle (2000) was Asia Extreme branded and sent out with that year's roadshow, Kim's Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring (2003) was released outside of the Asia Extreme label and sold to a very different audience, on very different terms. However, despite the marked difference in the way these two films were presented to British critics and audiences, an inclusive impression of Kim's body of work began to emerge in discourses. Indeed, Kim's profile among Western critics was arguably at its peak in 2004, thanks as well to two high-profile festival awards. Kim's Samaritan Girl (2004) won the Silver Bear award for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, and just a few months later, Kim's 3-Iron (2004) won Best Director at the Venice Film Festival.

However, despite Bad Guy being the first of Kim's films to receive a theatrical release in the UK, it was The Isle that first received critical attention. Tartan acquired the rights to the film back in 2001, around the time of their acquisition of Battle Royale, and began hyping the film immediately. The Isle had notoriously caused vomiting and walk-outs when it first screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, and the film was immediately caught up in negotiations between Tartan and the British Board of Film Classification when cuts were demanded by the latter. The film's eventual release in 2004 was, therefore, accompanied by a great deal of prejudice and anticipation.