Kim Ki-Duk is considered by some critics to be South Korea’s finest independent filmmaker. During his two decades of filmmaking the director and screenwriter earned multiple domestic and international awards for his quirky and sometimes controversial films. He received two Best Director awards in 2004—one at the Berlin International Film Festival for his film about teen prostitutes, Samaritan Girl, and the other at the Venice Film Festival for his psychological horror film 3-Iron. His 2011 documentary film Arirang won best film in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival, while his 2012 film Pietà received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. Two of his films were official submissions for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.
Kim, who died in 2020, made films that have alternately been described as quirky, sensitive, brutal, erotic and even mystical. He’s not well known or often screened in the US, but that may soon change. His works and that of other critically acclaimed Korean filmmakers attracted renewed interest, following the critical and box office success of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite.
A newly restored version of Kim Ki-duk’s film Address Unknown, will be screened in New York City on Aug. 23. The screening will take place at New York City’s Maxwell House followed by a multi-platform North American VOD release later in 2023.
Address Unknown is reportedly based on stories from the director’s life and offers an uncompromising view of the dehumanizing effects of war. The plot concerns people who live around a U.S. military base in South Korea. The cast of characters includes an unstable American soldier, a girl with one defective eye and Chang-guk, who lives in an abandoned U.S. Air Force bus with his mother. She teaches Chang-guk English to prepare him for his new life in the US, a life that is not likely to happen. The letters she sends to his father in the US are returned “address unknown.”
The film screening is hosted by Echelon Studios which recently acquired the rights to Address Unknown and another Kim Ki-duk film Bad Guy. Kim wrote and directed both films, which were both released in 2001.
In his other film, Bad Guy, Kim uses an unconventional tale of obsession to explore the line between right and wrong. When it hit theaters in South Korea, Bad Guy generated some controversy because of the way it portrayed prostitution and the sexual enslavement of women. The film tells the story of a man who traps a woman into prostitution and then becomes protective of her. Despite the controversy the film did well at the box office.
“Kim Ki-duk is an unparalleled cinematic provocateur and among the most celebrated auteurs,” said Sandro Gohoho, president of licensing and logistics for Echelon Studios. “We are very excited to have acquired two of his finest art-house works, continuing our commitment to bring inspiring and innovative cinema to those seeking it.”
Echelon Studios is a distributor of independent programming. Newly restored versions of Address Unknown and Bad Guy join Echelon’s library of more than 20,000 titles, which includes international films, documentaries, and shorts. The screening is being staged in conjunction with Kinoscope, an online curated platform dedicated to presenting films, and visual projects by filmmakers and artists.
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