[Opinion] Director Kim Ki-duk, A Lone Outsider

Director Kim Ki-duk’s films are not my favorites, but his winning of the Best Director Awards in both the Venice and Berlin International Film Festivals—the Cannes, Venice, and Berlin international film festivals are the top international film festivals—is surely an astonishing achievement. Unlike the overflowing number of directors with degrees from prestigious schools in today’s Korean film industry, the resumé of this elementary school graduate director Kim shows that he had once been a factory laborer. Not only that, in the Korean film industry, he is regarded as a lone outsider who makes a low-budgeted film—as low as 500 million won—within two weeks.

It is often the case that many of those with higher education or degrees from some famous foreign schools don’t last long. Mostly, this is because they easily tend to indulge in excessive compliments from critics and the press, who usually happens to be from the same school. Even director Im Kwon-taek, to whom director Kim expressed his gratitude, once said that it was hard for someone from a good family and with a good education to make a good film. Masterpieces in film history were made more by those who were not of the mainstream.

Early this year, when director Kim came back with the Best Director Award for “Samaria” at the Berlin International Film Festival for the first time in Korean film history, there were few attendants in the celebration banquet given by the Korea Film Director’s Society. Most attendants were retired directors or actors and there were no famous celebrities. It is true that even mainstream filmmakers don’t see director Kim as one of them. However, isn’t it his stubbornness and isolation for his own film that twice gave him the praise from the world?

“Even prophets get no respect at home,” said Jesus when he came back home in Galilee and showed his wisdom and power but nobody believed him, saying he was only the son of a carpenter. The same applies to Mazo (709~788), the famous Zen priest of China. When he returned to his old home in glory, an old lady who recalled him expressed her disappointment, saying, “Oh, he is the younger son of the Ma family. They used to sell farming tools.” That is when the priest realized that the hometown is not a place you first expected it to be. I hope director Kim will be no longer be a lone outsider at home.

O Myeong-cheol, Editorial writer. oscar@donga.com