Product Information
This study investigates the controversial motion pictures written and directed by the independent filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, one of the most acclaimed Korean auteurs in the English-speaking world. Propelled by underdog protagonists who can only communicate through shared corporeal pain and extreme violence, Kim's graphic films have been classified by Western audiences as belonging to sensationalist East Asian extreme cinema, and Kim has been labeled a psychopath and misogynist in South Korea. Drawing upon both Korean-language and English-language sources, Hye Seung Chung challenges these misunderstandings, recuperating Kim's oeuvre as a therapeutic, yet brutal cinema of Nietzschean ressentiment (political anger and resentment deriving from subordination and oppression). Chung argues that the power of Kim's cinema lies precisely in its ability to capture, channel, and convey the raw emotions of protagonists who live on the bottom rungs of Korean society. She provides historical and postcolonial readings of victimization and violence in Kim's cinema, which tackles such socially relevant topics as national division in Wild Animals and The Coast Guard and U.S. military occupation in Address Unknown. She also explores the religious and spiritual themes in Kim's most recent works, which suggest possibilities of reconciliation and transcendence.Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press
ISBN-139780252078415
eBay Product ID (ePID)111943439
Product Key Features
Book TitleKim Ki-Duk
AuthorHye Seung Chung
FormatPaperback
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2012
GenreBiographies & True Stories
Dimensions
Item Height210mm
Item Width140mm
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorHye Seung Chung
Series TitleContemporary Film Directors
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States