Kim Ki-duk and Hong Sang soo
: The rise of powerful Directors (1)
: The rise of powerful Directors (1)
Movie directors who have accomplished the “miraculous” feat of earning both commercial success and recognition as “auteur” are no longer rare. Acclaim at a prestigious international film festival can serve as a springboard for the box office success of auteur directors in the domestic market. These powerful directors are now dominating the Korean film scene.
The director wields more power than anyone else on the film set in Korea. This can be a risky generalization, since it’s not true for every director. But still, many exert vast power despite the ever-increasing clout of media conglomerates that have vertically integrated film investment with distribution and screening. Noted directors with megahits which have attracted more than 10 million viewers are setting up their own production companies. Some place their wives in the CEO role while they write their own scripts and are actively involved in the casting, editing, and post production. In other words, these star directors have acquired full control of the entire filmmaking process.
In this sense, it can be said that “auteurism” describes almost all the currently active Korean directors. Here, we seek to chart the topography of Korean film today by pairing big-name directors.
But still, many exert vast power despite the ever-increasing clout of media conglomerates that have vertically integrated film investment with distribution and screening … In other words, these star directors have acquired full control of the entire filmmaking process.
Kim Ki-duk and Hong Sang-soo
Kim Ki-duk and Hong Sang-soo were both born in 1960 and debuted in 1996. Kim made his debut with “Crocodile” and Hong with “The Day a Pig Fell into the Well,” which both generated a lot of buzz. They continued to release movies almost every year, which were generally well received at international film festivals. Both directors are known for the distinct worldview that is infused in their movies, and although they haven’t enjoyed huge box office success at home, their favorable reception abroad means that their fame and reputation are not likely to wane anytime soon.
The premise of Kim’s movies is “sick capitalism.” They are known for blunt and explicit portrayals of marginalized men stuck at the very bottom of the social ladder, who lead a brutish life in a distressed capitalist society. In “Pieta” (2012), Kim brings together all the cinematic elements of his past works and goes a step further. The movie is set in the dark alleyways and rundown shops of Sewoon Shopping Center in Cheonggyecheon, downtown Seoul, once a symbol of industrialization but now facing demolition. There, loan sharks resort to all manner of inhumane acts to get the poor workers to pay up. The story centers around a man who threatens, beats up, and extorts money from people; the extent of his cruelty makes him look like an incarnation of evil, a monster spawned by a capitalistic society. But as the story develops, Kim has the character look back on his life and repent, and even superimposes the image of Christ’s sacrifice on him at the end of the movie.
In this sense, it can be said that “auteurism” describes almost all the currently active Korean directors. Here, we seek to chart the topography of Korean film today by pairing big-name directors.
But still, many exert vast power despite the ever-increasing clout of media conglomerates that have vertically integrated film investment with distribution and screening … In other words, these star directors have acquired full control of the entire filmmaking process.
Kim Ki-duk and Hong Sang-soo
Kim Ki-duk and Hong Sang-soo were both born in 1960 and debuted in 1996. Kim made his debut with “Crocodile” and Hong with “The Day a Pig Fell into the Well,” which both generated a lot of buzz. They continued to release movies almost every year, which were generally well received at international film festivals. Both directors are known for the distinct worldview that is infused in their movies, and although they haven’t enjoyed huge box office success at home, their favorable reception abroad means that their fame and reputation are not likely to wane anytime soon.
The premise of Kim’s movies is “sick capitalism.” They are known for blunt and explicit portrayals of marginalized men stuck at the very bottom of the social ladder, who lead a brutish life in a distressed capitalist society. In “Pieta” (2012), Kim brings together all the cinematic elements of his past works and goes a step further. The movie is set in the dark alleyways and rundown shops of Sewoon Shopping Center in Cheonggyecheon, downtown Seoul, once a symbol of industrialization but now facing demolition. There, loan sharks resort to all manner of inhumane acts to get the poor workers to pay up. The story centers around a man who threatens, beats up, and extorts money from people; the extent of his cruelty makes him look like an incarnation of evil, a monster spawned by a capitalistic society. But as the story develops, Kim has the character look back on his life and repent, and even superimposes the image of Christ’s sacrifice on him at the end of the movie.
Hong Sang-soo closely adheres to similar themes and characters in all of his films. This can be viewed either as a manifestation of auteurism, or his own mannerism. His movies expose male-female relationships that are stripped of any romance or fantasy. His characters indulge in sensual relationships, usually starting with a drinking party and ending up at a motel, where the display and gratification of desires leave no room for love to blossom. Hong reproduces the many faces of such desire through stylistic experimentation. His movie “Right Now, Wrong Then,” which won the Golden Leopard at the 2015 Locarno International Film Festival, features a movie director who meets a young woman in Suwon, with whom he spends the day and ends up getting drunk. The movie is split into parts one and two, each telling the same story but showing two different versions of how things pan out. The juxtapositional structure gives us pause to ponder about life and art.
The article above is courtesy of Korea Foundation(http://www.koreana.or.kr/user/0004/nd17850.do?View&boardNo=00000599&zineInfoNo=0004&pubYear=2016&pubMonth=WINTER&pubLang=English).
The article above is courtesy of Korea Foundation(http://www.koreana.or.kr/user/0004/nd17850.do?View&boardNo=00000599&zineInfoNo=0004&pubYear=2016&pubMonth=WINTER&pubLang=English).