Arthouse Writer/Director
Thought it would be interesting to see what other people thought of this director and his movies.Biography (Stolen from Wikipedia/IMDB):
Kim Ki-duk was born on December 20, 1960 in Bonghwa (Kyongsang province), South Korea. He studied fine arts in Paris 1990-1992.
In 2004, he received Best Director awards at two different film festivals, for two different films: at the Berlin International Film Festival for Samaritan Girl, and at the Venice Film Festival for 3-Iron.
He studied fine arts in Paris in 1990-1992. In 1993 he won the award for best screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death. After two more screenplay awards, he made his directorial debut with A Crocodile (1996). He then went on to direct Yasaeng dongmul bohoguyeog (1996), Paran daemun (1998) ("Birdcage Inn"), The Isle (1999) (selected in competition at Venice 2000) an the highly experimental Shilje sanghwang (2000) ("Real Fiction"), shot in just 200 minutes. In 1999 _Soochwieen bodmyung (2001)_ was selected by the Pusan Film Festival's Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) for development.
Filmography:
Crocodile (악어) 1996
Wild Animals (야생동물 보호구역) 1996
Birdcage Inn (파란대문) 1998
Real Fiction (실제상황) 2000
The Isle (섬) 2000
Address Unknown (수취인불명) 2001
Bad Guy (나쁜 남자) 2001
The Coast Guard (해안선) 2002
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (봄여름가을겨울그리고봄) 2003
Samaritan Girl (사마리아) 2004
3-Iron (빈집) 2004
The Bow (활) 2005
Time (시간) 2006
I've heard some people refer to his films as pretentious. But I can't really see how that is possible with so little dialogue. Richard Linklater films, however, I could definitely see why people would consider that pretentious. But I actually like his films, too. Anyways, this guy kind of makes really wacky movies. I first heard about him when I saw that Spring movie. I didn't really like it, though. Although it got a lot of praise. Something about having lots of symbolism and stuff. I don't like to think too hard when I watch a movie so I didn't want to bother figuring out any symbolisms. This was probably one of the reasons I didn't really enjoy it.
Other movies I've seen of his were The Bow, Bad Guy, and The Isle. In that order. I actually saw The Bow on tv. It was in Korean, which I don't speak. But with most of his movies, it has very little dialogue and you don't really need to know Korean to watch it. The Isle was far and above my favorite out of the four I've seen. I don't think I'll be rushing to see any more of his movies, though. After watching Isle, I began feeling like I've had enough. (Even though it was my favorite.) His movies all seem to be too similar to one another in mood/atmosphere and direction. Although I did hear Time was a lot different from what he usually does.