Director Kim Ki-duk looks to add to his international acclaim


Filmmaker Kim Ki-duk and his most recent film Pieta has been invited to the International Festival of Independent Films “2morrow/Zavtra” that will begin on Tuesday in Moscow.

This festival presents a number of selected feature films, documentaries and video, art and experimental works by prominent directors. This year marks the sixth year of the independent film festival and ten films from all over the world including as Russia, France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hungary and Turkey have been selected to compete for the festival’s main prize. A sponsor of the film festival stated in a news report that, “It is a great honor to have the world renowned artist Director Kim participating in the festival in Moscow.”

Three days ahead of the festival, the director conducted a master class with around 200 small-time filmmakers titled, “No Budget, No Problem.” Kim said, “Despite having a small budget, the most important thing is to make films that express one’s thoughts.” 

The film festival’s creative director Olga Dykhovichnaya, who believes that Kim’s films touch at people’s state of mind through conventional language, said that he is the perfect candidate for this film festival because, “He creates his films through talent, not through large budgets and big studios.”

Pieta was the Golden Lion recipient at the 2012 Venice International Film Festival and is the first Korean film to have ever won the top prize at one of the three major film festivals - Cannes, Berlin and Venice.

The Pieta is originally a renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo that depicts the body of Jesus, after the crucifixion, lying on the lap of his mother Mary. Kim’s film is a dramatically violent and grim film about the disturbing mother-son relationship of loan shark Kang-do, played by Lee Jung-jin, and Mi-sun, played by Jo Min-soo, a woman claiming to be his mother who abandoned him at birth. 

Kang-do makes a living as the muscle that cripples those clients who cannot pay off their loans. Then one day, he is confronted by a woman who claims to be his long lost mother. At first, Kang-do brushes her off, but the two eventually come to live together and ensue in controversial acts of intense violence and sexuality, and in their attempts to form a relationship with one another, Kang-do is forced to reconsider the life that he has chosen.

“An intense and, for the first hour, sickeningly violent film that unexpectedly segues into a moving psychological study,” said Deborah Young of the Hollywood Reporter. “Viewers will keep their eyes closed for most of this violent but ultimately moving Korean film.”

This director’s films are no stranger to controversy and criticism and are known for their often times gruesome acts of violence and sexual explicitly. According to news compilations, many local critics were unimpressed with his films and feminist critics in particular called him a “monster,” “psycho” and even a “useless filmmaker.” These remarks caused a lot of tension between Kim and his critics to the point where he vowed that he would no longer participate in interviews with the local press members.

Nevertheless, he has continued to make internationally acclaimed films. In 2004, he received the best director awards, one at the Berlin International Film Festival for the “Samaritan Girl” and one for “3-Iron” at the Venice Film Festival. “Throughout his career, Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk has been a director known to explore the extreme poles of human experience,” said Todd Brown of Twitch Film. “He is a master provocateur playing out his own neuroses and obsessions on the big screen.”

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)