Kim Ki-duk, who was once one of South Korea’s best directors, was highly known throughout the world for his films, despite the fact that the subjects of some of them were debatable. Kim, who was raised in central Korea on the country’s eastern coast and previously had aspirations of becoming a painter, studied abroad in Paris before returning home and enlisting in the Marine Corps for five years. His career in the entertainment industry began in 1995 when he received recognition for a screenplay; a year later, in 1996, he made his directing debut with the film Crocodile. Despite having a small budget, the film received positive reviews from South Korean critics, putting Kim on the national radar. Yet after the release of The Island, his fourth picture, in 2000, Kim started to get recognition outside. Despite the fact that Kim’s work was controversial, it helped open the door for broader representation with the emergence of Korean cinema.
The Island, which some viewers found to be overly violent and gory, created an impression at the Venice and Sundance film festivals. Notwithstanding the difficulties in his personal life, Kim’s films have recently gained more recognition and praise for their theme. In the late 2010s, Kim was accused of sexual assault and abuse on his movie sets. The case was eventually dismissed by the court. Also, he was charged with mistreating animals on his movie sets, which Kim freely acknowledged. Despite this, Kim, like many of his contemporaries, left a legacy in Korean cinema before passing away from COVID-19 in 2020.
3-Iron
3-Iron, one of Kim Ki-most duk’s popular films, received Kim the Silver Lion for Best Directing at the Venice Film Festival in 2003. On his motorcycle, Tae-suk lives in flats while the owners are abroad. He wanders through life. The housewife observes him as he decides to break into a large residence. He takes her away when he leaves after witnessing her being abused by her spouse. Together, they start to float through life, which eventually makes things more difficult for them.
Arirang
Kim Ki-documentary duk’s Arirang is named after the Korean folk song of the same name. As an incident occurs on one of Kim’s film sets, the documentary, which was released in 2011, chronicles his crisis. The principal actress, Lee Na-young, nearly hangs herself inadvertently while filming Dream. When several friends and coworkers decide to part ways, this causes a greater breach in Kim’s life. The documentary Arirang, which focused on Kim’s attempts to make sense of everything that had happened, won the Prix un certain respect prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Breath
Breath, the 14th movie in Kim Ki-career, duk’s came out in 2007. To treat her depression, a housewife has an affair with a guy who is about to die. This was brought on by learning that her husband had been having an affair, and she had learned about this criminal via the news. She chooses to act like a dedicated lover to him despite not knowing him personally, and because of that, he ends up falling in love with her.
Human, Space, Time and Human
one of Kim Ki-final duk’s films before his death, was released in 2018. People from different walks of life come together on a warship, forming an analogy for the state of society and the status of the globe. The people in this group, who are stuck aboard this ship, range from gangsters to politicians to regular people, and they are all made to live close to one another. They all start to become closer after drinking and partying, but as the fog around the ship grows heavier, things start to go peculiar in this movie.
Moebius
Moebius, a horror film, stands out because it uses no words to tell its tale. Upon its initial release, the movie was ultimately prohibited in South Korea; however, this decision was eventually overturned. The spouse, referred to as Father, first betrays the matriarch, Mother. She castrates him after learning about him, then their son. Father becomes fixated on aiding his son in reclaiming his sexuality after she left the house. As a result, the events depicted in the film are appropriate for an adult audience because they are graphic and potentially violent.
Pieta
Pieta premiered at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, one of the festival’s top prizes. The first Korean film to ever take home the top honour at a major international film festival was this one. The primary character in Pieta works as a debt collector for loan sharks. When Kang-do goes to work to reclaim the money, he must use ruthlessness because the tactics used to do so are quite unethical. Nevertheless, one day he sees a woman chasing after him who he believes to be his mother.
Rough Cut
The story of Rough Cut, which Jang Hoon, a former close associate, directed, is entirely Kim Ki- duk’s. The movie’s screenplay was written by him. The main character in Rough Cut is a gangster named Gang-pae, and like many criminals, he has a special dream: he wants to be an actor in a movie. An angry actor named Soo-ta puts a stuntman in the hospital when he portrays a gangster in a movie. When the actor and the gangster eventually cross paths, the actor takes Gang-pae into the filming location, but Gang-pae rejects to participate unless the fights are real, causing conflict between the two.
Samaritan Girl
If you aren’t familiar with Kim Ki-films, duk’s Samaritan Girl is a crazy trip that won him the Best Director prize at the Berlin Film Festival. In the 2004 film, two adolescent ladies sell their bodies to pay for a trip to Europe. Yeo-jin, one of the girls, plays the role of the pimp, while Jae-yeong, the other girl, agrees to be the prostitute. Jae-yeong, however, ends up dead after jumping out of a window during the police raid on the building. Yeo-jin resolves to sleep with each of their clients as an odd approach to recoup the money after being forced to deal with the circumstances surrounding the murder of her friend. Things get even more challenging when her dad learns.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
One of Kim’s most well-known films in the United States is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring, which is shown in some film classes. Each segment, which is based on the seasons, reflects the passage of time in a Buddhist monk’s life. He has aged by the time the film ends. The main themes of the film, however, centre on the passage of time, metaphors, and age symbolism. The film’s plot and production methods have received high appreciation.
The Bow
The Cannes Film Festival hosted the world premiere of The Bow from 2005. An old man and a girl meet on a fishing boat off the coast of South Korea during the course of the film. As the visitors board the boat, it is slowly teased through whispers that the elderly guy stole the sixteen-year-old girl when she was only six years old. The old man works with the girl, who is mute. He intends to marry her, and her parents are still seeking for her. It is anticipated that they will get married when she turns seventeen. He tries to protect her from the other males who show up and the nearby fisherman.
The Net
The Net, which had its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, is one of Kim’s later career’s most famous films. Poor North Korean fisherman Nam Chul-woo leads a simple life, only doing what is necessary to get by. But when his net accidentally floats into South Korean waters one day while he is working and gets entangled in the boat’s engine, people start calling him a spy or a defector. If they aren’t penalised for this, he must make it through the sometimes harsh interrogations before he can see his wife and daughter again.
Time
The 2000s saw the release of several of Kim’s best films, Time being one among them. It shows the life of a couple who have been dating for a while but are plagued by jealousy. The girlfriend becomes envious since the guy has a thing for other women. She makes the decision to get plastic surgery, move away from him, and believe that having a completely new look will make him fall in love with her. She begins to doubt herself when she succeeds and he expresses even more interest.
