Director Kim Ki-duk wins award in Cannes for `Arirang`

Film director Kim Ki-duk has received the Un Certain Regard Prize for best picture for his controversial film "Arirang" at the 64th Cannes Film Festival in France.

Sharing the prize with Kim Saturday was German director Andreas Dresen for "Stopped on Track" at the Debussy Theatre in Cannes. Un Certain Regard selects films with new trends and is part of the main competition Sélection Officielle.

Kim gained international fame in 2004 after winning prizes at the Berlin and Venice film festivals for "Samaritan Girl" and "3-Iron," respectively. He is the first Korean director to win awards at all three major film festivals.

He became known at Cannes Film Festival when he competed in Un Certain Regard with "The Bow" in 2005 and then vied for the Palme d’Or in the main competition section with "Breath" in 2007. In Arirang, which was screened May 14 at Cannes, Kim aggressively poured out his anger and criticism toward his former assistant director Jang Hoon, saying he betrayed Kim because he could not resist the temptation of capitalism. After Jang became known with his first film "Rough Cut" for which Kim wrote the script, he signed up with a major movie production house Showbox and became a star director with his next movie "Blood Brothers" that drew 5.46 million.

Kim also criticized the Korean move industry and the government. “The government gave me an award for winning a prize at a foreign film festival. There were even scenes where Korea was portrayed negatively. Did they even watch the movie?” he said. It is not clear if it will be released in Korea as no Korean distributor has picked up the movie yet.

bluedot@donga.com