Like a true rebel, filmmaker Kim Ki Duk embraces the label. His background perfectly fits the mold of a bad-boy artist — impoverished childhood, high school dropout, factory worker and military man, and no formal education in film. As a director, Kim shoots with a chip on his shoulder, making low-budget films in weeks without big-name stars. He is as intolerant of dismissive critics and angry feminist groups as they are of his work. He is an unabashed curmudgeon who refuses interviews and is disdainful of his country’s filmgoers, who regularly ignore his movies. He even looks the part: When the 45-year-old director tried to obtain a model gun permit at a Seoul police station last July, he was mistaken for a homeless man. But above all, Kim is a true auteur, with a distinct (and often brutal) visual and narrative style that will inspire or infuriate you — or both.
Kim’s biggest international success thus far was the meditative Buddhist fable “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring” (2004), but he’s mostly known for unsentimental, provocative films about the underbelly of Korean society. Here, then, is a closer look at two of Kim’s recent films that are now available on DVD in the United States. NOTE: There are some plot spoilers to follow.
BAD GUY (2002)
After a string of commercially unsuccessful films, Kim had a mild domestic hit with his seventh film, “Bad Guy.” The movie opens as a rough-and-tumble pimp spots an attractive female college student sitting on a park bench. He tries to get close to her, but she spurns his advances. Angered, the pimp violently kisses her, prompting a vicious beat-down as a group of soldiers rush to the girl’s defense. Soon after, due to a sequence of bizarre circumstances, the girl is forced into a life of prostitution in the pimp’s brothel. From there, a classic case of Stockholm syndrome develops as the prostitute and pimp develop a strange, co-dependent relationship in Seoul’s red-light district.
“Bad Guy” features many of the recurring themes found in Kim’s oeuvre. There is a mute lead character, powerful imagery of Korea’s underworld, a plot that sometimes defies logic (with an extremely weird conclusion), and blood-spattering violence. Like Kim’s past films, “Bad Guy” has drawn the ire of feminist groups because of its harsh portrayals of female characters who are abused and denigrated by men. But the film also highlights the discord between classes in modern Korea. With its loopy story and unsavory characters, the film is certainly not for everyone, but it is a good representation of Kim’s work.
SAMARITAN GIRL (2004)
Kim won the best director award at the Berlin Film Festival for “Samaritan Girl,” perhaps his most accessible film. Once again, Kim sets his film in the sex trade. To fund a trip to Europe, two teenage girls run a prostitution business in tandem — Jae Young is the hooker and Yeo Jin is her pimp. When Jae Young leaps to her death to avoid being arrested by the police, Yeo Jin is racked with guilt for her role in her friend’s death. As her own way of repenting, Yeo Jin seeks out Jae Young’s former clients to have sex with them and return their money. When Yeo Jin’s father, a widowed police detective, discovers his daughter’s mission, he sets out to take revenge on the men who’ve slept with her.
