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After hiding himself away since 2008 and his last film <Dream>, Kim premiered his comeback film <Arirang> at the Cannes film festival earlier this year. A one-man documentary, not only did he do the production, writing, directing, editing, shooting, and sound all by himself, he also featured in it alone. He said, “I’ve made 15 films in the past 13 years and I made this film because I wanted to look back on that. In the end, this film is a question to myself about what cinema is.” Cannes gave him the Un Certain Regard award for it.

 

While visiting Europe to attend the Cannes film festival, Kim made another film. A road movie about a girl encountering a guy on a mysterious trip, the film is called <Amen>. It premiered at the San Sebastian film festival in September. Kim described the film as “A film [made for] free and simultaneously irresponsible.” Again, no other staff or crew participated in the film except for Kim himself, and aside from train tickets and other expenses, the film had no other production costs. The lead KIM Ye-na and he were the only actors in the film. Critics who saw the film were divided between praise and harsh criticism.

 

One thing for sure is the fact that Kim was able tell his stories regardless of what audiences, financiers and critics might think, relying only on his own abilities. The giant has woken from his slumber. Kim Ki-duk is back.