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RIGA: Acclaimed South Korean film director Kim Ki-duk, who gained worldwide recognition for his violent works and faced accusations of abusing his actresses, died of coronavirus in Latvia on Friday (December 11), the top film official said. from the country.
“Unfortunately, the sad news about the death of Kim Ki-duk from coronavirus in Latvia is true,” Dita Rietuma, director of the Latvian National Film Center, told AFP.
“It is known from his contact persons that he died in a hospital in Riga around 1:30 am today,” he added.
The Korean director, whose works were widely recognized at European film festivals, where he won several awards, died just nine days before his 60th birthday.
According to Rietuma, he was on a private visit to Latvia and did not plan to film.
Local media reported that the director planned to buy property and apply for residence in the Baltic state of the eurozone.
Artur Veeber, an Estonian-based producer, said the two worked together on a new project and that Kim was expected to return to Estonia in mid-December for a retrospective showing commemorating his birthday.
“I knew yesterday that the situation was critical,” Veeber told AFP, referring to Kim’s condition.
Contacted by AFP, Kim’s translator Darya Krutova said she would not comment in accordance with the wishes of the director’s daughter.
Kim gained world fame with his daring portrayal of extreme violence and human brutality in films rich in allegories, but was accused of misconduct against actresses.
The director had not responded to these accusations.
But in recent years he focused his gaze on Russia and other post-Soviet countries where he worked on new projects.
Last year he chaired the main jury at the Moscow International Film Festival and shot his latest film, “Dissolve”, in Kazakhstan.
Noted Russian film critic Andrei Plakhov said that the “enfant terrible” of Asian auteur cinema was appreciated in Russia for his “passion and carefree attitude”.
“NO TABOOS”
His films, many featuring gruesome violence against men and women, and rape of women, divided audiences, with some accusing him of misogyny and others praising his cinematography and unwavering portrayal of a lower social class rarely seen in other films.
Combined with this characteristic violence, his film “Pieta” won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2012.
He directed more than 20 films, including “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring,” an unusually serene film that explores the cycle of life through the existence of a Buddhist monk.
“Kim’s films are modern myths,” Plakhov wrote for the Kommersant newspaper. “There is always temptation and redemption. And God is also watching the human tragicomedy.”
Another prominent Russian critic, Anton Dolin, writing for the Meduza news portal, said that for Europe and the United States, Kim had become the embodiment of the “Asian extreme.”
Russian state television praised Kim, saying “there were no taboos for him in his study of human nature.”
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