Peter Rist of "Offscreen" also identified the birth scene as "One of the film’s best", and stated, "There are some gaps in the narrative and too much reliance is placed on dialogue, but the acting is outstanding, especially by the two principal women". Allen Johnson of "indieWire" found the film to be "worthy of cult status... properly weird and dripping with atmosphere", and despite being "sometimes sluggish", it was nevertheless "typical of the inventiveness in genre filmmaking that has characterized recent Korean filmmaking." Darcy Paquet of "Koreanfilm.org" praised both the director and two lead actresses, describing "Nabi" as a "beautiful and strange film [which] offers its viewers a memorable experience". Lisa Roosen-Runge was less glowing in her report of the 20th Vancouver International Film Festival for "Senses of Cinema", saying, "I admit that the revelation about Anna's expired passport did not make any sense to me, and I was confused by the extra non-Yuki character played by the same actress. I also did not find the epilogue completely necessary. Still, ["Nabi"] is recommended as an unusual film despite the minor caveats." Comments made in the "San Francisco Bay Guardian" were somewhat critical of Moon Seung-wook's direction, saying, "some of his favored technical tactics (in particular, camera work that lurches during moments of emotional upheaval) become heavy-handed", though Kim Ho-jung's performance was singled out as the film's "chief strength".