Kim Ki-duk is a South Korean film director best known for his controversial depictions of marginalized or criminal elements of South Korean society. His films typically have strong imagery but little dialogue, and audiences have often found them to be excessively violent or misogynistic. Critics, especially those outside of South Korea, generally have a higher opinion of him, and he achieved his first successes among European film festivals.
In 2004, he received Best Director awards at two different film festivals: at the Berlin International Film Festival for Samaritan Girl, and at the Venice Film Festival for 3-Iron. Recently however he has struggled to have his films even released in theaters in South Korea.
[edit] Biography
Kim Ki-duk was born on December 20, 1960 in Bonghwa. He studied fine arts in Paris from 1990 to 1992.
His family moved to Seoul when he was nine, and there he attended agricultural training school before dropping out at age 17 to take up work in factories. From age 20 to 25 he served in the marines, where he is said to have fit in well. Afterwards he spent two years at a church for the visually impaired with the thought of becoming a preacher. Then in 1990, scraping up all the money he had to buy a plane ticket, he traveled to Paris where he spent two years selling his paintings (a lifelong hobby) on the street. Kim says he went to the movie theater for the first time in his life at this time, and remembers being especially impressed with Silence of the Lambs and Léos Carax's Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf).
After returning to Korea he took up his newfound interest in cinema by writing scripts for local screenplay contests. In 1993 he won the top award from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting for A Painter and a Criminal Condemned to Death. This was followed in 1994 by a third place award in the KOFIC (Korean Film Council, then the Korea Motion Picture Promotion Corporation) Screenplay Competition for Double Exposure, and a first place award in the same competition in 1995 for Jaywalking.
In 1996 Kim made his debut with production company Joyoung Films by directing Crocodile.
The film tells the story of a man living at the edge of the Han River in Seoul, who saves a woman trying to commit suicide. He then proceeds to rape and abuse her until an odd relationship develops between them.
A keen promoter of his work from the very beginning, Kim says he contacted journalists directly to encourage them to come to the film's press screening, but few showed interest. He got a more receptive response from the Pusan International Film Festival, where he screened Crocodile and almost all of his subsequent features in the Korea Panorama section, helping to launch his international career. (In 2002, The Coast Guard would screen as the festival's opening film.)
From this point on Kim would shoot one to two low-budget films per year, developing a reputation for shooting quickly and efficiently on location. In 1998 his third major film, Birdcage Inn screened at Karlovy Vary. His breakthrough came when The Isle -- produced by local powerhouse Myung Films -- was selected to be screened at the 2000 Venice International Film Festival. The film lived up to its billing as a controversial shocker when an Italian journalist passed out at a press screening during a particularly gruesome scene involving fish hooks. Although the film was not awarded a prize by the main jury, it firmly established Kim's reputation in Europe.
Korean critics, however, were unimpressed, with feminist critics in particular calling him a "monster", a "psycho", and a "useless filmmaker." This ignited an ongoing feud between the director and his critics, culminating in Kim's announcement that he would no longer give interviews to the local press (a promise that was soon broken).
The next few years saw more high-profile festival invitations (Address Unknown was shown in Venice and Bad Guy in Berlin). Kim's first box-office hit was Bad Guy. The film's commercial success was chalked up to the sudden popularity of lead actor Jo Jae-hyun (who had just starred in a hit TV drama), but a high-profile, seductive marketing campaign by local distributor CJ Entertainment also contributed. Kim's next work, The Coast Guard, featured top star Jang Dong-gun (the only star casting of Kim's career), but it ultimately did not live up to expectations.
A major shift occurred in Kim's career with his ninth, Buddhist-themed film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. Although he continued to focus on marginalized elements of society, his work took on a more consciously spiritual aspect, downplaying violence and foregrounding themes of redemption and forgiveness. The film's softer style played well with foreign audiences and Spring, Summer... and 3-Iron did well in Europe and North America and with festival juries. In 2004, Kim won Best Director awards in Berlin for Samaritan Girl and in Venice for 3-Iron. Both movies were shot in roughly two weeks.
As a filmmaker his strengths are generally considered to be a knack for evocative imagery and an ability to make engaging stories with often little dialogue (both of which help make his works more accessible to foreign viewers). As a self-taught director his films -- particularly those of his early career -- display certain rough edges. Although in recent years many Korean reviewers have warmed to his films, critical opinion is far from unanimous as his portrayal of female characters remains a bone of contention. Though he might never win over his detractors, Kim has established himself as one of Korea's most famous and distinctive directors.
More than any other Korean director, the films and reputation of Kim Ki-duk have been characterized by a sense of disconnection. Kim himself disavows any commonalities with other Korean filmmakers of his generation such as Hong Sang-soo or Lee Chang-dong, due to his lower-class upbringing and lack of formal training in film. In terms of subject matter, Kim has focused on marginalized and disenfranchised characters who operate outside the main currents of middle and upper-class Korean society. Kim is also rare in that he has won accolades and found box-office success overseas but -- with a few exceptions -- has largely failed to connect with Korean critics or audiences. His influences, aesthetics, the stories he tells and his local and international reception show Kim Ki-duk inhabits a world all his own.
Kim Ki-duk has the same name as another filmmaker who directed over 50 features in the 1960s and 1970s, including such classics as Five Marines (1961), Barefooted Youth (1964), South and North (1965), and Grand Evil Master Yonggary (1967). They are not related.
[edit] Filmography
