Kim Ki-young | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Film director, Screenwriter, Producer, Editor |
Years active | 1955–1990 |
Korean name | |
Hangul | 김기영 |
---|---|
Hanja | 金綺泳 |
Revised Romanization | Gim Gi-yeong |
McCune–Reischauer | Kim Ki-yǒng |
Kim Ki-young (10 October, 1919 - February 5, 1998) was a Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melodramatic horror films, often focusing on the psychology of negatively-stereotyped female characters.[2] His best known film is The Housemaid, made in 1960, which features a powerful femme fatale and is widely considered to be one of the best Korean films of all time.[3]
Life and career
Early life
Kim Ki-young was born in the Gyo-dong neighborhood of Seoul on October 10, 1919, the only son of an elementary school teacher with two daughters. Kim's family was well-educated and artistically-inclined. His two sisters studied art and dance, and encouraged the young Kim to develop his own creativity. The family moved to Pyongyang when Kim was still young. At Pyongyang National High School, Kim showed exceptional talent in music, painting and writing, and his studious nature earned him the nickname "Professor of Physics". While still a student, one of Kim's poems was published in a Japanese newspaper, and he was awarded first prize in a painting competition.[4][1][2]
Despite his strong artistic talents, Kim's main interest was medicine, and he applied for entrance into medical school in 1940. When he failed to gain admittance, Kim moved to Kyoto, Japan, where he worked as a cook, planning to study and save up money to re-apply for medical school. It was in Kyoto that the theater and cinema grew into lifetime interests. He attended many stage productions and saw Japanese and international films. Josef von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) and Fritz Lang's M (1931), made a particularly strong impression on him and their influence was to show in his mature film style.[4][1]
Kim returned to Korea in 1941, planning to work as a dentist, but instead immersed himself in the study of drama. At this time was particularly interested in classical Greek theater, Ibsen and Eugene O'Neill. In order to avoid conscription into the military, Kim returned to Japan briefly in 1945. Upon his return to Korea in 1946, he enrolled in Seoul Medical School, Seoul National University, and graduated with a major in dentistry in 1950. While attending university, his theatrical activities continued. He studied Stanislavsky's theories of acting and founded a theatrical group called "The Little Orchid" which became the National University Theater. With this organization Kim staged many works of the Western theater, including Ibsen's Ghosts, Čapek’s Robots, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and works by Chekhov and O'Neill.[4][1][5][6]
Early film career
Kim put his dramatic talents to work for the United States Information Service during the Korean War years. At this time he filmed about twenty documentaries with such titles as I Am a Truck and Diary of the Navy for "Liberty News". This job helped shape Kim's life in several ways. With the money he received from the U.S.I.S., he was able to marry fellow dental school student Kim Yu-bong in 1951. The two remained married for the rest of their lives. Kim Yu-bong supported Kim Ki-young's film-making career through her dental practice, giving him a unique degree of independence among Korean filmmakers of his era to pursue his own personal visions. At a career retrospective during the last year of his life, Kim commented, "My wife's support has been unflagging over the years, even if, at times, she has seen one of my films and cried 'What have you done with my money?' But at rare moments like this retrospective, she becomes very emotional, recognizing that finally it has all been worthwhile."[4][5][1]
The training and equipment Kim gained while working on these propaganda newsreels for the U.S.I.S. also enabled him to direct his first commercial film, Box of Death (1955). Kim used expired film stock and a manually-operated news camera from the U.S.I.S. to make this debut feature, an anti-communist melodrama about war orphans. The film, now lost, showed stylistic influences from the Italian neo-realists and was the first Korean film to employ synchronous sound.[1][7][5][8]
With the success of this first film, Kim was able to direct his second feature, the historical costume-drama Yangsan Province (also 1955), again using primitive equipment obtained from the U.S.I.S. Though Kim claimed to have based the film on a traditional song he learned from his mother, no exact source for the story has been found. It is suspected that the director made up the story himself, modeling it on traditional stories such as Chunhyangjeon, Lee Kyu-hwan's re-make of which had recently become a major success, stimulating a rebirth in Korean cinema. After Lee's Chunhyangjeon, Yangsan Province was the second most successful Korean of 1955. As his only surviving film of the 1950s, Yangsan Province sheds considerable light on Kim Ki-young's early career. Korean critics in the 1950s assumed that Kim was a proponent of the realist school popular in local cinema at the time. Consequently, the now-lost ending to Yangsan Province, in which two dead lovers ascend to heaven on a beam of light, was criticized for being an unrealistic break in style and realism. In light of Kim's later career, critics today recognize in this cut scene an interest in the fantastic, and a jarring blending of genres, traits which were to become trademarks of Kim's mature style. Other motifs which were to be explored in depth in Kim's later work can be found in Yangsan Province, such as animal imagery, particularly the use of hens as a representation of fertility and sexuality.[9][8][10][11][12]
In 1956 Kim started Kim Ki-young Productions, and began making melodramas, the most popular film genre in South Korea at the time. His first independent production was Touch-Me-Not (1956), and he followed this with A Woman's War, Twilight Train (both 1957), First Snow (1958), Defiance of a Teenager (1959) and Sad Pastorale (1960). In 1960, Kim attended the San Francisco International Film Festival where his Defiance of a Teenager was shown.[13][2]
The Housemaid
1960 was a critical year for South Korea, marking the end of Syngman Rhee's dictatorial rule through a civilian revolution. In 1962, another military authoritarian, General Park Chung-Hee, would ascend to power and rule South Korea for nearly two decades. The short period of relative freedom between these two administrations was known as the Second Republic.[14] During this time, filmmakers took advantage of the relative freedom to create several boldly experimental works. Director Yu Hyun-mok's film Aimless Bullet (1960) dates from this period, as does Kim Ki-young's major breakthrough, The Housemaid (also 1960). A lurid, expressionistic melodrama involving sexual obsessions, murder and rats, set in an eerie house, this is the first film in which Kim's mature style is in full evidence, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Korean films ever made.[1][15]
The film is a domestic thriller telling of a family's destruction by the introduction of a sexually predatory femme fatale into the household. A composer has just moved into a two-story house with his wife and two children. When his wife becomes exhausted from working at a sewing machine to support the family, the composer hires a housemaid to help with the work around the house. The new housemaid behaves strangely, catching rats with her hands, spying on the composer, seducing him and eventually becoming pregnant by him. The composer's wife convinces the housemaid to induce a miscarriage by falling down a flight of stairs. After this incident, the housemaid's behavior becomes increasingly more erratic. She kills the composer's son, and then persuades the composer to commit suicide with her by swallowing rat poison. The film ends with the composer reading the story from a newspaper with his wife. The narrative of the film has apparently been told by the composer. The composer then addresses the film audience, warning that this is just the sort of thing could happen to anyone.[15][16]
The plot, themes and even character names and set out in The Housemaid were to be revisited by Kim repeatedly in his later career. Besides the first film, the official "Housemaid Trilogy" consists of Woman of Fire (1971) and Woman of Fire '82 (1982).[17] Also, at least two other later films-- Insect Woman (1972) and Beasts of Prey (1985)-- are, in some ways, remakes of The Housemaid. By using the story as a template, Kim was able to emphasize different aspects of the situation, and to concentrate on different details with each new re-telling.[4]
Later 1960s
Kim's The Sea Knows (1961) transcended its roots in the typical anti-Japanese World War II film to become a distinctive examination of humanity, power and sexuality.[18] Goryeojang (1963), dealt with a similar subject matter as The Ballad of Narayama (1983), directed by Imamura, a director with whom Kim has often been compared.[4]
1970s
During the 1970s, South Korea's film industry was at a low point due to government censorship and underfunding. Because of the poor state of the local film industry, cinema attendance in South Korea had dropped drastically since its high-point in the 1960s. Kim Ki-young, however, working independently in B-movie genre films, was producing some of his most innovative and personal films at this time.[19] In 1972, Kim's Insect Woman was the only film to sell more than 100,000 tickets in Seoul.[20] He was awarded the Best Director prize at the 9th Hanguk Play and Film Art Awards ceremony in 1973.[21]
Many critics consider Iodo (1977) to be Kim's major film of the 1970s and a remarkable achievement within the depressed and oppressive world of Korean cinema at the time. Shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, it is a daring examination of environmental, religious, social and sexual taboos culminating in what Variety's Seoul-correspondent Darcy Paquet calls "one of the most shocking, brazen sequences ever shot by a Korean filmmaker."[22][23]
Kim founded Kim Ki-young production and Sihan Munye film.[2]
Rediscovery and death
Kim Ki-young's unconventional and nonconformist nature prevented him from participating in the mainstream film industry. The only title he held within the film community was member of The National Academy of Arts, which he joined in 1997.[2] After living in retirement for nearly a decade, Kim Ki-young's career was highlighted, and several of his films were shown at the second Pusan International Film Festival in 1997. Through this retrospective, his work found a new audience in the international film community and in the younger generation of Korean filmmakers. In this atmosphere of renewed interest, Kim began work on a come-back film to be titled Diabolical Woman. Before this film could be started, the director and his wife were killed in a house fire on February 5, 1998.[4]
Filmography
|
|
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Vick, Tom. "Kim Ki-young: Biography". All Movie Guide. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
- ^ a b c d e "김기영 (Kim Ki-young)" (in Korean). KMDb Korean Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ Paquet, Darcy. "The Housemaid (1960)". koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ a b c d e f g Stephens, Chuck (June 10, 1998). "Meet Mr. Monster: A peek inside the cine-crypt of Kim Ki-young". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Archived from the original on 2002-08-02. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ a b c "A Korean master: Kim Ki-Young retrospective at the French 'Cinematheque'". koreasociety.org. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ Lee, Young-il (1988). The History of Korean Cinema. Seoul: Motion Picture Promotion Corporation. pp. p.319. ISBN 8-9880-9512-X.
{{cite book}}
:|pages=
has extra text (help) - ^ "The Box of Death (Jugeom-ui sangja)(1955)". KMDb Korean Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ a b Lee, Yong-Kwan. "The Sunlit Path: Another Side of Kim Ki-young and Mapping the Korean Cinema of the 1950's". The House of Kim Ki-young. Archived from the original on 2004-05-05. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ Lee, Young-il. p.295.
- ^ Kim, Sung-Eun. "The Sunlit Path: Between a Legendary Pre-Modern World and Kim Ki-young's Signature Themes and Style". The House of Kim Ki-young. Archived from the original on 2004-05-05. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ Kim, Sung-Eun. "Animals in the House of Kim Ki-young: Hens, Rats and Cracks in the Modern Family". The House of Kim Ki-young. Archived from the original on 2004-05-05. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ Berry, Chris. "Genrebender: Kim Ki-young Mixes It Up". The House of Kim Ki-young. Archived from the original on 2003-12-09. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ "Kim, Ki-young Master of Madness (From the 41st San Francisco International Film Festival)". www.cinekorea.com. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ An, Jin-soo. "The Housemaid and Troubled Masculinity in the 1960s". The House of Kim Ki-young. Archived from the original on 2003-12-12. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ a b Paquet, Darcy. "The Housemaid (1960)". koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ "<The Housemaid (Hanyeo)> (1960)". koreafilm.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ "<Woman of Fire (Hwanyeo)> (1971)". http://www.koreafilm.org/ koreafilm.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ "The Sea Knows (Hyeonhaetaneun algo itda) (1961)". http://www.koreafilm.org/ koreafilm.org. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ Kalat, David (2007). "Ki-young Kim". In Victoria Wiggins (ed.). 501 Movie Directors. London: Barron's Educational Series, Inc. pp. p.240. ISBN 0-7641-6022-2.
{{cite book}}
:|pages=
has extra text (help) - ^ Lee, Young-il. p.300.
- ^ Lee, Young-il. p.320.
- ^ Paquet, Darcy. "Iodo (1977)". koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ "I-eoh Island (I-eodo) (1977)". koreafilm.org. Retrieved 2008-01-30.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
See also
External links
- "The House of Kim Ki-young". Archived from the original on 2004-03-27. Retrieved 2008-01-22. - an extensive page of critical writings
- Ki-young Kim at IMDb
- "Kim, Ki-young Master of Madness (From the 41st San Francisco International Film Festival)". www.cinekorea.com. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- "Kim Ki-Young (1919 - 1998)" (in German & English). freunde der deutschen kinemathek. June 10, 1998. Archived from the original on 1999-10-12. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); External link in
(help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)|publisher=
- "Kim Ki-young". KMDb Korean Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- "A Korean master: Kim Ki-Young retrospective at the French 'Cinematheque'". koreasociety.org. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- Stephens, Chuck (June 10, 1998). "Meet Mr. Monster: A peek inside the cine-crypt of Kim Ki-young". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Archived from the original on 2002-08-02. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - 허지웅 (Heo Ji-ung) (2006-02-17). "김기영의 마술적 리얼리즘을 회상하다 (Recollection on the magic realism of Kim Ki-young)" (in Korean). Dong-a nuri / Film.2.0. Retrieved 2008-01-28.