A Tribute To Kim Ki-Duk
Co-presented by Drafthouse Films, Fine Cut, Korean Film Council and Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles
BUY TICKETS ($12/free for members. Showtimes subject to change):
Saturday, November 3rd, 6:30pm: An Evening With Kim Ki-Duk + Time
Sunday, November 4th, 7:45pm: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring + 3-Iron
Monday, November 5th, 7:30pm: Bad Guy
Winner of the highest prizes at such prestigious institutions as the Berlin, Venice and Cannes Film Festivals, yet treated at arm’s length in his home country, the fiercely independent Kim Ki-Duk is South Korea’s preeminent cinematic enfant terrible, and continues to shock and surprise the entire world with works that tread the line between the profane and the impossibly beautiful. This highly prolific picturemaker, having had no previous background in artistic pursuits, first dropped out of the South Korean marine corps to become a bohemian painter in France — and it is this unusual lineage that informs his entire cinematic body, as he continues to spin narratives that immediately grab you by the throat and don’t let go, while also treating you to a host of images that can be as wispy as dandelion fuzz in the breeze of a summer morning. Coinciding with an extremely rare live stateside appearance, The Cinefamily is thrilled to present four of Kim Ki-Duk’s most impactful and memorable films from the past dozen years: Time, 3-Iron, Bad Guy and Spring Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring.
Bad Guy
“When trouble occurs between men and women, it generates the energy that makes the world go round.” — Kim Ki-Duk
“Bad Guy, one of the [earlier] films in Kim’s fascinating back catalog, is a kind of cocktail — simple, bitter, served straight and in an unwashed glass. The scenario’s oddball reveal is almost whimsical: a glaring thug spots a young coed in a street crowd, sits beside her and soon enough grabs her for a kiss that soldiers have to break up. She spits on him, putting the unseen gears of vengeance and obsession in motion. The impulsive, silent goon turns out to be a [pimp], and before long the girl is implicated in a pickpocketing that lands her in the whorehouse. But Bad Guy isn’t actually about revenge, Park Chan-Wook-style — the plot toys with the amour fou between captive and captor, and Kim never settles for a theme. The beguilingly Magritte-ish climax could be read either as an “Owl Creek” death fantasy or — something else, and there are moments of voyeur poetry that leave a gentle thumbprint. If anything, Bad Guy is more enigmatic than his other hyperbolic parables.” — Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
Dir. Kim Ki-Duk, 2002, 35mm, 100 min.
Watch the trailer for “Bad Guy”!
Spring, Summer Fall, Winter...and Spring w/ 3-Iron
Spring, Summer Fall, Winter…and Spring – 7:45pm
“It all comes back to a temple, floating in the middle of a lake at the end of a remote mountain path. Even if Kim Ki-Duk’s bracingly pure Buddhist parable Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… And Spring didn’t contain vivid characters and devastating life lessons, the writer-director could still serve up shot after shot of that temple, whose isolation and austere beauty provides a picture-postcard representation of what the movie means to say. The story follows the goings-on at the temple over the course of 30 to 40 years, as a boy grows to manhood under the guidance of a wise old monk in five season-specific vignettes. Spring, Summer… emphasizes the natural world through a contemplative but not showily abstracted visual rhythm, relying on striking images: a man repeatedly carving calligraphy into planks of wood, or the recurring motif of animals and people struggling to move while tied to rocks. Since its agonizing logic establishes that “want” of any kind is tantamount to lust, which lies on the same continuum as murder, Kim’s beautifully staged morality play affirms that life itself is exquisitely impossible.” — Noel Murray, AV Club
Dir. Kim Ki-Duk, 2003, 35mm, 103 min.
3-Iron – 10:00pm
A centerpiece from one of the most highly interesting cinematic about-faces of the last few decades (perhaps only rivaled by David Gordon Green’s recent left turn from stylistic art-house fare to mainstream Hollywood comedies), Kim Ki-Duk’s enigmatic 3-Iron takes the viewer away from the beautiful transgressivity of early shockers like The Isle, Real Fiction and Bad Guy to an entirely different (but no less electrifyingly unique) calm trajectory. Spelunking deep into the private lives of total strangers, a mysterious drifter devises a system to identify if a house’s owner is on vacation; instead of breaking in to steal their stuff, he repays his hosts’ “hospitality” by fixing broken items and cleaning up. But when he sneaks into a sprawling mansion and discovers a “kept” wife trapped in a boring marriage, thus begins an erotic cat-and-mouse game that ends in startlingly hilarious tragedy. This nearly dialogue-free excursion into a gentle private madness shows the filmmaker operating at the high-frequency peak of his powers.
Dir. Kim Ki-Duk, 2004, 35mm, 88 min.
Watch the trailer for “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…And Spring”!
Watch the trailer for “3-Iron”!
An Evening With Kim Ki-Duk (feat. Time)
TIME – 6:30PM
Around half of South Korean women in their twenties have had plastic surgery. In this chilling melodrama, Kim Ki-duk uses this most disturbing national obsession — the ideal of ul-jjang (literally, “a perfect face”) — as the launching point for a wildly original exploration of love, identity, and, of course, time. Ji-Yeon Park stars as the petulant woman whose extreme jealousy prompts an extreme makeover. After leaving her boyfriend, she disappears for six months and emerges with a completely altered face, keeping her identity hidden from him in order to test his love. With the “post-op” version of the lead character played by a completely different actress, Time recalls a more paranormal Douglas Sirk in its provocative and histrionic approach to physical mutation and modern romance.
Dir. Kim Ki-Duk, 2006, 35mm, 97 min.
AN EVENING WITH KIM KI-DUK IN PERSON – approx. 8:15PM
Winner of the highest prizes at such prestigious institutions as the Berlin, Venice and Cannes Film Festivals, yet treated at arm’s length in his home country, the fiercely independent Kim Ki-Duk is South Korea’s preeminent cinematic enfant terrible, and continues to shock and surprise the entire world with works that tread the line between the profane and the impossibly beautiful. This highly prolific picturemaker, having had no previous background in artistic pursuits, first dropped out of the South Korean marine corps to become a bohemian painter in France — and it is this unusual lineage that informs his entire cinematic body, as he continues to spin narratives that immediately grab you by the throat and don’t let go, while also treating you to a host of images that can be as wispy as dandelion fuzz in the breeze of a summer morning. Tonight, Kim Ki-Duk appears on the Cinefamily stage, for an extremely rare live stateside interview session in which he discusses his work past and present!
Watch the trailer for “Time”!
