Selected films directed by Kim Ki-young, whom Bong Joon-ho, director of Parasite, looks up to as his teacher

Kim Ki-young - The "monster" of Korean Cinema

This program at this time will screen no less than 10 films (plus one study and one film with the sound missing) directed by Kim Ki-young, who has both been called a "monster" and revered as a heretical genius in the world of Korean (i.e., ROK) cinema.

Our programme previously showed several films of Kim's: the three works I-eo Island, Promise of the Flesh, and Transgression in 1998, and the two works The Housemaid and An Experience to Die For in 2003. Bowled over by their lurid expressionism, we subsequently explored opportunities for further introduction of the work of this director. As a result, we succeeded in organizing a showing of selected films of his to commemorate the centennial of his birth in 2019. This program was the biggest selection of his works ever shown in Japan, and its screening began in Tokyo in late 2019, followed in turn by Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, and Kochi.

Specifically, this program will screen 10 of Kim's sensational movies, including some from his Woman series (The Housemaid, which is considered his towering masterpiece, and the shocking I-eo Island, The Insect Woman, Woman of Water, The Woman of Fire '82, and others), as well as Hyeon-hae-tan Knows, which tells the story of a youth conscripted into the Japanese army during World War II, and Goryeojang, which could be termed a Korean adaptation of The Ballad of Narayama. There will also be special showings of Box of Death, which marked Kim's debut as a director, and the study I'm a Truck.

Bong Joon-ho, the director of Parasite, which became the first Korean movie to take the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 and the first non-English movie ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture in the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020, has stated that the cinema of Kim Ki-young had a significant influence on him. Don't miss this opportunity to experience Kim's unique world for yourself!

*Please note that some of the films are missing their sound and image in certain sections due to the passage of many years since their production, and contain scenes of violence, discriminatory expressions, and other types of depiction that are considered unacceptable today.

Program

*Doors open 15 minutes before the start of each program.
*Tickets are valid for one program only.
*Screening Schedules below are listed as renewed (postponed) from original.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: *All screening are rescheduled to the dates and time below.(2020.5.27)

●Special Program (26 July, Sunday 10:00 - 14:00)
*Admission requires only presentation of a ticket stub for one of the movies in the program.

"The Box of Death"『屍の箱』
(1955, 79 minutes, black & white, BD)
Direction: Kim Ki-Young / Script: Jeon Chang-Geun / Cinematography: Kim Hyeong-Geun / Featuring: Choi Moo-Ryong, Kang Hyo-Shil

Screening: 26 July, Sunday 10:00-11:19

This was Kim's first feature-length film. It is an anti-communist movie depicting the thrilling battle between partisans maneuvering behind the scenes as they strive to convert villagers to the communist cause and police trying to thwart them. After being lost for a while, it was discovered at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in 2010. It attracted attention as the first Korean film shot with a Mitchell Camera, an American-made camera with synchronous sound recording. Unfortunately, the sound has been lost, and the film will be shown without it. (The staff will hand out a basic synopsis of the plot to the guests.)

"I'm a Truck"『私はトラックだ』
(1953, 18 minutes, black & white, BD, English surtitles)
Direction: Kim Ki-Young

Screening: 26 July, Sunday 11:20-11:38

Kim once worked for the United States Information Service, and this is one of the three short films he made with film that was left over after he had shot news films for the Service. It is an experimental work in which a personified truck describes its daily work in a plant where trucks are reconverted into new vehicles. This film brought Kim attention and led to the production of Box of Death, his first feature-length film.

●Guest Lecture by Mr. Kenji Ishizaka (only in Japanese)

Date and Time: 26 July, Sunday 13:00-14:00

Kenji Ishizaka was the first person to introduce Japan to the works of Kim Ki-young in 1996, when he was employed in the Japan Foundation Asia Center (an organization different from the current Asia Center), and leads Japanese research on the director. He is currently Programming Director of the Asia Future section of the Tokyo International Film Festival and heads the School of Film Studies in the Japan Institute of the Moving Image.

●ＡProgram (26 July, Sunday 14:10 - 18:07)

"The Housemaid"『下女』
(1960, 111 minutes, black & white, BD)
Direction and Script: Kim Ki-Young / Cinematography: Kim Deok-Jin / Music: Han Sang-Gi / Featuring: Kim Jin-Kyu, Ju Jeng-Ryuu, Lee Eun-Sim, Ahn Sung-Ki, Um Aing-Ran

Screening: 26 July, Sunday 14:10-16:01

A maid employed by an affluent bourgeois family plunges the whole home into the depths of misery! The film is a tale of love and hate that begins when a straight-laced husband, who teaches piano at a factory with women workers, decides to hire a maid for his family in their newly built house. As rain batters the windowpanes amid sporadic flashes of lightning, the suspense is gradually heightened through effective use of piano music, shots of rat poison, and a wide balcony affording views of the staircase and even other rooms. The Housemaid has even been called the Citizen Kane of Korean cinema and the best Korean movie ever made. This masterpiece comes vividly back to life in the restored version made with the assistance of director Martin Scorsese and others.

"Hyeon-hae-tan Knows" 『玄界灘は知っている』
(1961, 117 minutes, black & white, DVD)
Direction, Script and Produce: Kim Ki-Young / Original: Han Woon-Sa / Cinematography: Choe Ho-Jin / Music: Han Sang-Ki Featuring: Kim Wun-Ha, Gong Midori, Lee Ye-Chun, Lee Sang-Sa

Screening: 26 July, Sunday 16:10-18:07

The protagonist is a Korean soldier who was drafted into the Japanese army during World War II. While subjected to outrageous mistreatment and discrimination from veteran soldiers, he falls in love with a kind-hearted Japanese woman and decides to desert. The film has a social commentary slant that is unusual for Kim, and viewers find themselves marveling that he can make this sort of movie too, until Kim starts to show his inimitable stuff. As the tide turns against the Japanese military, the city of Nagoya, where the soldiers are stationed, is visited by a massive air raid that burns it to the ground and leaves piles of burnt corpses around. The film is based on a autobiographical novel by Han Un-sa, a popular Korean author. In Kim's hands, however, the story is transformed into a horrifying work. Hyeon-hae-tan Knows ranks alongside The Housemaid and I-eo Island as one of Kim's masterpieces. (The sound is missing in two sections for a total of 11 minutes, and image is missing in one section for seven minutes, for a total of about 18 minutes of omissions. For these sections, explanations will be provided by means of subtitles.)

●B Program (1 August, Saturday 10:00 - 13:43)

"Goryeojang"『高麗葬』
(1963, 110 minutes, black & white, DVD)
Direction and Script: Kim Ki-Young / Cinematography: Kim Deok-Jin / Music: Han Sang-Gi / Featuring: Kim Jin-Kyu, Ju Jeng-Ryuu, Lee Ye-Chun, Seonwoo Yong-Nyeo, Kim Bo-Ae

Screening: 1 August, Saturday 10:00-11:50

This is a Korean story of an elderly mother being left in the mountains to die, along the lines of the Japanese film The Ballad of Narayama (directed by Keisuke Kinoshita). Legends about this practice survive in various parts of Japan and Korea. This Korean version, nevertheless, is set apart by the extraordinarily heinous acts of the people surrounding Goryeo, the protagonist, in the shape of his 10 evil step-brothers and a villainous shaman. Goryeo is left crippled in his childhood due to the cruelty of his step-brothers. As a drought continues, so does the savagery of the step-brothers, who take control of the only well, among other misdeeds. Goryeo's wife, too, eventually dies in a struggle with them. With no end of the drought in sight, the shaman tells Goryeo that rain will fall if he abandons his mother in the mountains. The film is an outlandish movie filled with shocking scenes. (The image is missing in one section for about 24 minutes. In this section, the film has sound and subtitles.)

"Len's Sonata"『レンのソナタ』
(1969, 103 minutes, color, BD)
Direction, Script and Adapted: Kim Ki-Young / Original: Moh Yoon-Sook / Cinematography: Kim Jae-Yeong / Music: Han Sang-Ki / Featuring: Kim Jin-Kyu, Kim Ji-Mee, Sa Mi-Ja, Kim Myeong-Jin

Screening: 1 August, Saturday 12:00-13:43

This orthodox melodrama portrays the pure love of the young woman Len against the background of the upheaval during the Korean War. The painter Simon, who became unable to hold a brush after being tortured by the Japanese military, gets very drunk one night and decides to spend it with a prostitute for the price of a gold watch. His passion for painting is revived when he again meets Len, one of his former students, and has her model for him. His wife supports him in this. With the outbreak of the Korean War, Simon is captured by the communist forces, but manages to escape with Len. As the North Korean offensive gathers momentum, Len flees southward, taking along some orphaned children, and Simon goes in pursuit of her, leaving behind his wife and children. One snowy day, he catches up with her, but…

●C Program (1 August, Saturday 15:00 - 18:50)

"The Insect Woman"『虫女』
(1972, 116 minutes, color, DVD)
Direction: Kim Ki-Young / Original: Kim Seungok / Script: Han Jin-Seop / Cinematography: Jung Il-Sung / Music: Han Sang-Ki / Featuring: Namkoong Won, Youn Yuh-Jung, Jeon Gye-Hyeon

Screening: 16 May, Saturday 15:00-16:56

This suspense drama was conceived from the biological fact that the female mantis kills and eats the male after copulation. A young woman who becomes the lover of the head of a wealthy household makes an agreement with his entrepreneurial wife, to the effect that the two share him daily for 12 hours each. In a fit of vengeance, however, the wife puts the husband to sleep and forcibly sterilizes him. After the lover moves to a new house, she is beset by a stream of bizarre occurrences, including the discovery of a baby in the refrigerator and proliferating rats. Another outstanding opus in Kim's Woman series, this film is replete with intense depictions of the struggle between the lover and the wife plus family in the setting of the streets of Seoul, which was then being transformed by a wave of modernization. The story was based on an actual incident.

"Promise of the Flesh"『肉体の約束』
(1975, 105 minutes, color, DVD)
Direction and Adapted: Kim Ki-Young / Script: Kim Ji-Heon / Cinematography: Jung Il-Sung / Music: Han Sang-Ki / Featuring: Kim Ji-Mee, Lee Jung-Gil, Park Jung-Ja, Park Am

Screening: 1 August, Saturday 17:05-18:50

The female protagonist, who was continually deceived and abused by men in her youth, committed a murder and was imprisoned for it. She is permitted to make a visit to the cemetery together with a guard. Having lost her desire to live, she makes the acquaintance of a young man on the way and finds a moment of joy, but he becomes embroiled in trouble and is chased by the police. After her release from prison, the woman goes to the appointed place in order to be reunited with the man. The narrative unwinds through flashbacks of her recollections, and is accented by sultry music in the episodes depicting her extended deception and strains of a lyrical nature throughout. The film is a literary melodrama that truly plumbs the depths of swirling emotions. Like The Rendezvous directed by Koichi Saito, this is a remake of the film Late Autumn directed by Lee Man-hui.

●D Program (2 August, Sunday 10:00 - 13:37)

"I-eo Island"『異魚島』
(1977, 111 minutes, color, BD)
Direction: Kim Ki-Young / Original: Yi Chong-Jun / Script: Ha Yoo-Sang / Cinematography: Jung Il-Sung / Music: Han Sang-Ki/ Featuring: Lee Hwa-Si, Park Jung-Ja, Kim Chung-Chul, Choe Yun-Cheol

Screening: 2 August, Sunday 10:00-11:51

The film portrays the fearful things experienced by a man who, enticed by the legend of an island inhabited solely by women, returns to the island where he was born, and by the newspaper reporter who looks for him after his disappearance. Under the dictates of a long-standing custom, females born on the island become divers and males must leave it. Opening with the remark by a doctor that, even if the body is dead, semen are alive, the film is a mystery about an outlying island that calls to mind the literature of Seishi Yokomizo. The unbelievable procreative acts conducted by a shaman who reigns supreme, the mysterious old woman wrapped in a white veil, the belle holding a red umbrella and dressed in a red jeogori. What is the women's secret? Who fathered their children? I-eo Island bears comparison with the 1973 British film The Wicker Man as a masterpiece of grotesque cinematic fantasy. The stunning climax is a must-see!

"Woman of Water"『水女』
(1979, 97 minutes, color, BD)
Direction and Script: Kim Ki-Young/ Cinematography: Kim Deok-Jin / Music: Han Sang-Ki/ Featuring: Kim Chung-Chul, Lee Ja-Ok, Lee Ill-Woong

Screening: 2 August, Sunday 12:00-13:37

Woman of Water was specially selected as part of a program to commemorate the International Year of the Child in 1979. A disabled soldier returning from the Vietnam War marries a woman who stutters. Their son also has a stutter, and attends a school in Seoul in order to correct it. The couple succeed in building a business in bamboo ware, and their "bamboo wife," a large bamboo doll for use as a partner in bed, proves highly popular outside Korea. However, the man gets involved with a nightclub hostess who is also the wife of their chauffeur as a result of a plot hatched by the two, and is egged on to kill his wife. While the story definitely does not seem to warrant it, the film's selection for the International Year of the Child was based on its association with the Saemaul (New Community) Movement of the 1970s, and the disappearance of the mother's stutter when the son, whose stuttering was corrected, chants the Children's Charter.

●E Program (2 August, Sunday 15:00 - 18:50)

"The Woman of Fire'82"『火女’82』
(1982, 122 minutes, color, BD)
Direction and Script: Kim Ki-Young / Cinematography: Jung Il-Sung / Music: Han Sang-Ki / Featuring : Kim Ji-Mee, Na Young-Hee, Jeon Moo-Song

Screening: 2 August, Sunday 15:00-17:02

This is Kim's second self-remake of The Housemaid. As in the original, the tragic tale begins when the simple young woman hired as a maid gets involved with the head of the house. The camerawork that seems to lick the stained glass windows, the clacking of countless clocks hung for some reason on walls throughout the house, the noisy cackle of the chickens in the chicken farm run by the wife, the fearsome grinder used to make feed, the entanglement in the nature of a silver body powder show - Kim makes deft use of everything. The cast of characters includes the employees working on the chicken farm and women who seduce the husband in the music class he holds in the house, and make the misconduct in this jolting mystery even more jumbled and hair-raising than in The Housemaid.

"An Experience to Die For"『死んでもいい経験』
(1990, 95 minutes, color, film 35 mm)
Direction and Script: Kim Ki-Young / Cinematography: Ham Nam-Sub / Music: Han Sang-Ki / Featuring: Youn Yuh-Jung, Hyun Gil-Soo, Kim Byonghak

Screening: 2 August, Sunday 17:15-18:50

This outrageous film was released after Kim's death. A woman who lost her only son in an accident begins to hate her husband and buys the services of young men night after night. She makes the acquaintance of a woman whose husband was forced to divorce her by his parents because she could not have a child, and the two make plans to do away with each other's husband. They are joined by a third woman they met at a driving school, and the three let their passions run wild in this over-the-top narrative guaranteed to keep the eyes of viewers riveted to the screen. Guests will undoubtedly also find themselves laughing at some of the more absurd twists served up by this freakish film.

KIM Ki-young - Rediscovered Korean Film Director

For the most part of the 1960s, KIM Ki-young was a commercially successful director while adhering to an independent method of production. He made films according to his own production system at his own film company, for a longer period of time than any of his contemporaries. During the 1980s, however, his films did not garner commercial success, and were marginalized as sort of B-rated films in the Korean film world. He went into a slump, and his films became almost forgotten with the artistic degeneration and industrial stagnation of Korean films.
It was cinephiles of Korea of the late 1980s and early 1990s that “discovered” him and his later works. Emerging with the widespread distribution of video, these cinephiles went wild with excitement over unfamiliar, strange, and subversive “cult” films; and they placed KIM’s films on their list of cult films. His works left a deep impression on a new generation of cinephiles and some of these devotees to Kim have become major figures representing Korean films today.
KIM Ki-young’s films were “rediscovered” by foreign filmmakers and critics at the 2nd Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) in 1997. Encouraged by all this, KIM exerted passionate efforts in producing a new work, but then lost his life due to a fire that broke out in his house. The hopes of seeing the new work by KIM Ki-young, the “resurrected old master,” thus vanished away into the void.