Who is Kim Ki-duk profile

Fisrt name: Ki-duk
Last name: Kim
Hangul: 김기덕
Hanja: 金基德
Revised Romanization: Gim Gi-deok
McCune-Reischauer: Kim Ki-dŏk
Date of birth: December 20, 1960
Place of birth: Bonghwa, Kyongsang province, South Korea
Nationality: Korean
Occupation: Director, Screenwriter, Art Editor, Actor, ProducerTable of Contents

• Biography
• Filmography 1996-2002
• Filmography 2003-now
• Interviews with Kim Ki-duk

• Kim Ki-duk page at HanCinema
• Kim Ki-duk Page at koreanfilm.org

Kim Ki-Duk was born in Bonghwa, north of Kyungsang Province, and grew up in a mountainous village. When he turned nine, he moved to Seoul with his parents. He entered an agriculture training school, but he was forced to give up junior high after his older brother was dismissed from school. Going through factories during his adolescent years, he joined the marines when he turned 20.

Kim adapted well to military life, spending five years as a noncommissioned officer. This experience may have served as material for the rich details of brotherhood shared among the men of his films.

After leaving the marines, Kim spent two years at a church for the visually impaired with the intention of becoming a preacher while continuing the painting he started as a child. In 1990, with only a plane ticket in his possession, he left for Paris. When Kim arrived in Paris he considered «production by manual labor the only worthwhile thing in life, while regarding culture as a mere luxury», but his experiences in the city inspired him with new views. He managed to earn a living by organizing ateliers and selling his paintings.

He describes Ji-hum of Address Unknown and Crocodile of Crocodile as himself. Even without such explanation, we can easily detect the filmmaker's persona in these characters as they are all painters. They all carry a symbol of hope: vulnerable life forms such as a bird, a goldfish and a turtle.

Upon his return from France, Kim focused on developing a film script for the next six months. He received the good news that two of his scripts had been selected in a contest. Unfamiliar with composition, not to mention spelling, he diligently worked on his scripts while urging himself to focus on matters of immediate concern and not on a distant future that seemed beyond his reach.

Accordingly, Kim's film life began in a manner quite different from the channels other filmmakers took. Free of any institutional education in film, he never served as an assistant director or developed film mania. But this is precisely the reason for the freedom he was able to embrace as a filmmaker. His films can be considered as autobiographical writing with a film camera. This is why Kim describes each and every one of his films as a 'sequence' within his entire body of work.

After studying art in Paris, Kim Ki-duk returned to Korea and began his career as a screenwriter and made his directorial debut with a low-budget movie called "Crocodile" in 1996. From the time he released his first film, he stirred up a sensational response from critics. After every film of his was released, Kim Ki-duk was evaluated and hailed by both critics and the audience for his hard-to-express characters, shocking visuals, and unprecedented messages. The characters that appeared in Kim Ki-duk's films were from the lowest trenches of society and were not welcomed anywhere. In such extreme circumstances, Kim Ki-duk drew out the innocence deep within the characters' hearts through a grotesque and malicious struggle. After his works had been selected by international film festivals, his name has grown in value and the general audience started to show some interest. With "Bad Guy", Kim Ki-duk has drawn over 700,000 moviegoers into local theaters expanding his limited popularity one step further to the mainstream. He continued on making internationally acclaimed films such as "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring" which was submitted to the Foreign Language Film section of the Academy Awards to represent Korea cinema along with "Samaritan Girl" which won the Silver Bear Award (Best Director Award) at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival.

To Kim, his life, his films and cruelty are intertwined with each other. The cruel reality he expresses may be feared by the audience and abhorred by the critics, yet if the energy that inundates his films should be acknowledged as dark and wrongful, it cannot just be a matter of his films. Rather it must be seen as his attempt to address the cruelty of our lives and of the world we live in.

Sources:

• http://www.cinekorea.com/filmmakers/kimkiduk.html
• http://www.badguythemovie.net/director/badguy_kkd.html
• http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr

1996

Crocodile / Ag-OViolent thug Crocodile lives under a bridge by the Han River in Seoul together with a peddling boy and a homeless old man. Crocodile saves a beautiful young woman Hyun-Jung from suicide by drowning, but only to use her for sex. Yet, for some reason the woman, betrayed by her lover, stays with Crocodile, and a peculiar family-like friendship forms between... read more

Wild Animals / Yasaeng Dongmul Bohoguyeog
Kim Ki-Duk's second film is the story of two illegal immigrants in Paris, a North-Korean former soldier and a South-Korean street painter, as they both struggle for survival in the French metropolis. Eventually, they develop a strong friendship whilst their association with the local underworld will have dramatic effects on their lives. read more

1998

Birdcage Inn / Paran daemun
With a red-light district in Seoul being demolished, the residents there find they have to relocate. Jin-a opts to leave Seoul and heads to the eastern city of Pohang. There she takes up residence in a boarding house run by a small family. Besides the parents, there is a daughter attending university and a son in high school... read more

2000

Real Fiction / Shilje sanghwang
In this bold and daring film experiment from Korea shot in real time, a mentally unstable street artist finally gets tired of the harassment he has been receiving from the local thugs for years. He decide to inflict ruthless revenge on the bullies while allowing a mysterious girl with a camcorder to document his acts of vengeance... read more

The Isle / Seom
Mute Hee-Jin is working as a clerk in a fishing resort in the korean wilderness; selling baits, food and occiasionally her body to the fishing tourists. One day she falls in love to Hyun-Shik, who is on the run for the police and rescues him with a fish hook, when he tries to commit suicide.read more

2001

Address Unknown / Suchwiin bulmyeong
Romances end in blood and the frail hopes of individuals are torn apart in a vile karmic continuity of colonialism, civil war and occupation. After surviving Japanese colonization, Korea became the first war zone of the Cold War. The legacy of war remains today in this divided country. Three forlorn teenagers, Chank-guk, Jihum and Eunok are figures in the landscape of this story... read more

Bad Guy / Nabbeun namja
A harrowing portrait of love and desire, Bad Guy is situated deep in Seoul's seedy nightlife. Differing strains of the story follow various people inexorably caught up in an underground existence that exercises a vice-like grip over their every action; a pimp forces a prostitute to live in her booth, then falls in love with her by watching her activities behind a two-way mirror... read more

2002

The Coast Guard / Haeanseon
At South Korea's border with the North, troops guard the coast. Each bullies those ranking beneath him; tensions are high. PFC Kang and his friend Private Kim are on patrol when drinking youths jeer them. Two nights later, Kang follows orders, opening fire at a person who has infiltrated the border zone. It proves to be a young man, one from the earlier encounter, on a drunken tryst with his girlfriend, Mi-yeong. Kang is commended, yet horrified... read more

2003

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring / Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom
A young boy lives in a small floating temple on a beautiful lake, together with an elderly master who teaches him the ways of the Buddha. Years later the boy, now a young man, experiences his sexual awakening with a girl who has come to the temple to be healed by the master... read more

2004

Samaritan Girl / Samaria
To fulfill their dreams of traveling to Europe, two teenage girls Yeo-jin and Jae-young start a prostitution business. Yeo-jin handles the business side, while Jae-young "entertains" the customers. When Jae-young is accidentally killed during a police raid... read more

3-Iron / Empty House / Bin-jip
A young drifter enters strangers' houses - and lives - while owners are away. He spends a night or a day squatting in, repaying their unwitting hospitality by doing laundry or small repairs. His life changes when he runs into a beautiful woman in an affluent mansion who is ready to escape her unhappy, abusive marriage. read more

2005

The Bow / Hwal
On a fishing boat at sea, a 60-year old man has been raising a girl since she was a baby. It is agreed that they will get married on her 17th birthday, and she is 16 now. They live a quiet and secluded life, renting the boat to day fishermen and practicing strange divination rites. Their life changes when a teenage student comes aboard... read more

2006

Time / Shi gan
Seh-hee and Ji-woo have dated for two years; jealousy consumes her. She worries he will tire of her face. Then, she disappears. Telling no one, she goes to a plastic surgeon for a new face. Ji-woo has no idea where she is, although when he does respond to other women, someone unseen intervenes. Then, he meets See-hee, and although he tells her he misses Seh-hee, this new relationship blossoms into love... read more

2007

Breath / Soom
Death row convict Jang Jin attempts to hasten his death sentence by stabbing himself in the neck with a sharpened toothbrush, only to fail miserably, leaving him temporarily mute. The unfortunate incident reaches the national news, catching the attention of housewife Yeon. On the surface, Yeon's life resembles the ideal picture - a good husband, a stable livelihood. read more

2009

Sad Dream / Bimong (post-production)
"Bimong" is a story about a man whose dream that becomes a reality in one lady's life. The two meet coincidentally and fall in love.

• Interview with Kim Ki-Duk
  http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/19/kim_ki-duk.html
  by Volker Hummel, February 2002
• Interview with Kim Ki-duk on Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring
  http://www.themoviechicks.com/mid2004/mctspringsummer.html
  by The Movie Chicks, March 2004
• Interview with Kim Ki-Duk and Suh Jung on The Isle
  http://www.monstersandcritics.com/dvd/news/article_7779.php
  by Andy McKeague, May 2005