Biography

He studied fine arts in Paris in 1990-1992. In 1993 he won the award for Best Screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with "A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death". After two more screenplay awards, he made his directorial debut with Crocodile (1996). Then he went on to direct Wild Animals (1997), Birdcage Inn (1998) ("Birdcage Inn"), The Isle (2000) and the highly experimental Real Fiction (2000), shot in just 200 minutes. In 1999, Address Unknown (2001) was selected by the Pusan Film Festival's Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) for development.
- IMDb mini biography by: alberto.farina@iol.itInternational Herald Tribune

Characters who talk very little or not at all

Unflinchingly exploring the consequences of our choices and behaviors.

Buddhist themes.

In 2017/18 he was at the center of a #MeToo scandal after an actress he had been working with filed a sexual assault case against him. The case was partially dismissed for lack of physical evidence and he got away with a modest fine. But more evidence of his violence towards women surfaced later the same year when three actresses made new accusations on investigative news show "PD's Notebook," which was broadcast on Korean public broadcaster MBC. His career in South Korea effectively ended at that point. The Latvian news portal Delfi said Kim arrived in Latvia in November 2020 with the intention of buying a house and applying for alien residency status. Edith Sepp, CEO of the Estonian Film Institute, told that Kim approached the organization in September, keen to submit a new film entitled "Rain, Snow, Cloud and Fog," a co-production between Korea and Estonia that would have shot in the latter. Though he was late with the application, the director intended to apply again in January 2021. Kim Ki-duk died of coronavirus in a hospital in the Latvian capital of Riga on December 11, 2020. [Variety].

At one point wanted to remake his film Bad Guy (2001) with an American cast, eyeing Brad Pitt for the role of the titular bad guy.

Not to be confused with Kim Ki-duk, another South Korean director who was famous for being the first to crack the U.S. market with his "Yongary, Monster from the Deep" (1967).

[on his film Moebius (2013)] We are not free from physical desire for our entire life. And because of it, we either self-torture, maltreat or become maltreated. And in the middle of all this lies our genitals. The question 'what is a genital? is the initiating point of this film. The film is personal to me in a way. For instance, in the film the character experiences orgasm by rubbing a rough stone against his skin. During my military service I had severe athlete's foot, and had rubbed the skin with a stone until it bled. It was painful, but at the same time I felt a strange pleasure from it and, just like in the film, I felt an awful pain after it. I realized that our entire body is a sexual organ...I consider 'Moebius' as a penis journey.

It's a massive loss for the Korean society that even students who are talented in non-academic fields go to university. Students should focus on developing their own talents instead of wasting their time at university.[2012]

Good films are not produced by money, but by passion.[2012]

[if he was ever tempted to work within the mainstream system like Park Chan-wook or Bong Joon Ho] Strictly speaking, no. I think I'm a different element than those directors. If they are more like wood or metal, I'm more like soil. They could be transformed into something else, but I can't. I don't have the ability to find a middle ground with my audiences, and I know this too well. I've shot 18 films, and none of them had a middle ground. I think this is mainly because I didn't study filmmaking, and I don't know as much about the process as they do. I don't know any way other than how I shoot. So audiences have the choice of following me or not following me, and I don't blame them if they choose not to watch.[2012]

To create great films, what is more important is to understand people and their life, not to study film history or practical techniques at university.[2012]