Kim Ki-Duk 김기덕 [September 2006]
Von Gom • March 30th, 2008 • Kategorie: Interviews
“상처가 저는 아름답다고 생각합니다…순수라는 것은 많은 아픔을 통과하고 비로소 온다고 생각합니다”
-Kim Ki-Duk, 09/2006-
Kim Ki-Duk gehört zu den wichtigsten, aber auch zu den umstrittensten Regisseuren des modernen koreanischen Kinos. In seinen Filmen, kraftvollen Gedichten voller ungebändigter Schönheit, thematisiert er Leid, Einsamkeit und Liebe. Trotz seines hektischen Terminplans hat er sich Zeit genommen, um mit uns über sein Schaffen und Leben zu reden.
GP: Compared to other directors your career is quite unique. After working in a factory and your military service, you went to France and studied arts. Was that your teenage dream or, a long planed decision, or did you follow a spontaneous impulse?
Kim Ki-Duk: The time when I didn’t know about movies was the most precious and important time for me to make films. I have never planned and I won’t plan anything. I want to make films about what I feel in every moment.
GP: In what way did your stay in France shape your artistic development and your way of directing? Do you see your roots more in Korean or European cinema?
Kim Ki-Duk: In French or European people, or in the art and landscape of Europe…
GP: Nearly all of your films deal with the addictive and destructive side of love. Do you believe there is also a innocent pure kind of love between humans, or do you think it always has a poisonous side?
Kim Ki-Duk: I think that anguish is beautiful…purity comes through a lot of pain and sorrow. Something which is undefiled is simple. I think purity is totally different from simplicity.
GP: Another topic that constantly appears in your movies is the insurmountable isolation. For example the inner isolation of the woman in “The Isle”, or the physical isolation of the young monk in “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring”
Kim Ki-Duk: We have no choice but to be isolated from others as long as we live with others, because we keep trying to be understood and make them understand. I think this is life.
GP: “Samaria” seems to be some kind of turning point in your filmmaking. The movies that followed afterwards appear more approachable and gentle.
Kim Ki-Duk: I am in the middle of change. However, the films which I’ve made so far and the films which I will make in the future are all I.
GP: You often set your films in places far from big cities, places that the mass of people usually doesn’t deal with, like the boarder coast in “The Coast Guard”, or the ship in “The Bow”. Do you deliberately try to keep a minimum of images of modern urban life in your films?
Kim Ki-Duk: It’s my image. I always think I am in great distance with other people, and I am always alone in a strange place. I’ve been lonely and I will be lonely hereafter. It’s very painful but I think I have to willingly submit myself to it.
GP: In most of your films the main characters don’t have nearly none or even no dialogue at all. Do you mistrust speaking as form of communication, or do you think it’s just not necessary?
Kim Ki-Duk: I cannot talk with others while I am abroad, because I cannot speak any foreign language well. However, I am able to perceive people’s thoughts, and they understand my thoughts through my facial expression. I am satisfied with it. If people ask me about my films in a certain language, I will feel uneasy. So communication (by a certain language) is not important in films, too.
GP: How important is religion in your life and does it influence your filmmaking? To my opinion (as European) your films seem to be heavily influenced by Buddhism, especially by the understanding of existence as a circle.
Kim Ki-Duk: I think that philosophy, science, math, economics, religion, art…they are all the same. I believe that creation and extinction are the same rather than transmigrations of Buddhism. The words beginning and end are the same. I think that white and black are the same color.
GP: Up to now you have written all the screenplays for your films yourself. What inspires you and do you intend to stay a “film d’auteur”, or would you also realize scripts written by others, if story appeals to you?
Kim Ki-Duk: I want to make films with the feeling which I perceive from the process of my life. I write that feelings as a script. I still don’t understand “film d’auteur” exactly. I try not to work on other’s scripts. It is already a creation as soon as he/she writes the script. I don’t feel the need to repeat it myself. So it is meaningless for me to make films with other’s original work.
GP: Is there a big difference between the audience’s reception of your films in Korea and Europe?
Kim Ki-Duk: There are no big differences. But my films are more deeply received by European, East European, Russian and South American audience. That doesn’t apply for everyone, but I think it needs more time for most Koreans to understand my films.
GP: Which of your films is the one you are most satisfied with?
Kim Ki-Duk: It will be the last film I make…
GP: It is very unusual that films from a director with your reputation and importance are not available, yet your first two films “Crocodile” and “Wild Animals” have not been released on DVD so far. Is there any special reason for that?
Kim Ki-Duk: It is not easy to get original copies. Or maybe it’s because of poor video quality. I am trying to restore them.
GP: Your newest movie “Time” has just been released in Korea and critics have been quite good. Can you tell us a little about your future plans?
Kim Ki-Duk: I haven’t decided what I will make… but I’m thinking about three different subjects.
GP: Thank you very much for your time!
Besonderer Dank geht an: Kim Joo-Yeon (Kontakt) und Ryu Joung-Ah (Übersetzung).
Update: Mittlerweile ist Crocodile im deutschsprachigen Raum auf DVD erschienen. Anschaun!
Filmographie (Stand 4/2008):
* Diese Filme sind als deutsche DVDs erhältlich.
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김기덕 감독의 스타일은 한국보다는 유럽에서 먹히는 스타일인거 같아.
한국에서는 너무 지나치다고 평가하는 경우가 많거든.
그래서인지 몰라도, 유럽의 영화관에서 그의 작품을 많이 본 것 같아.
제 생각으로는 한국에서는 김기덕 감독님을 평가할때 너무 차가운 눈빛으로 평가하는 경우가 많은데, 유럽에서는 감독님 영화를 다른 시각에서 봐라 본다는 생각이 많이 드는군요.
저