• Jun 02
• ARIRANG: review
• Posted by Deljhp - 02/06/12 at 11:33 AM

Director: Kim Ki-duk. Review: Adam Wing.

Kim Ki-duk is angry at the world, but more importantly than that, he’s angry with himself. With 15 films in 15 years to his credit, its little wonder Kim Ki-duk had an emotional and creative breakdown on the set of his last movie. It was during the filming of 2008’s Dream that Kim’s life took a drastic turn. While shooting a suicide scene, the lead actress nearly died. She fainted and later recovered, but it’s an incident that scarred Kim, and one that he could not forgive himself for. As an act of self-administered therapy, Kim closed his doors to the world for three years, with only a cat and a secluded log cabin for company.

Arirang is a Korean folk song, and according to some sources it’s Korea’s unofficial national anthem. It tells of parting and sorrow, providing a potent metaphor for Korea’s suffering at the end of the Korean War. Kim bellows it out at regular intervals, and on the evidence of his painful crooning, K-Pop wont be his next artistic endeavour. Which is just as well, because Kim Ki-duk has a large fan base around the world (he does mention it every now and then), after impressing audiences and critics alike with The Isle, Bad Guy and 3-Iron. He openly admits that the love of his movies is not universal – he’s a lot like marmite to me – but few would deny his filmmaking prowess...Continue reading review.

Arirang trailer