COPENHAGEN – South Korean director Kim Ki-duk, who won the top award at the Venice Film Festival in 2012 but later faced allegations at home of hitting an actress and trying to force her into shooting off-script sexual scenes while making another movie, has died in Latvia. He was 59.
The Baltic News Service cited Latvia-based Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, president of an international documentary film festival in Riga, as saying Kim died after falling ill with COVID-19. Mansky was not immediately reachable for comment.
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Kim's death was indirectly confirmed by the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, which said that a “South Korean male in his 50s died while being treated for COVID-19 at a hospital in Latvia during the early hours of Dec. 11 local time.” It declined to identify the director due to privacy concerns.
Kim came to Latvia on Nov. 20 in order to buy a house in Jurmala, the country’s seaside resort near Riga, the capital, and apply for a residence permit, the Lithuanian public broadcaster said.
Kim won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival with his 2012 film “Pieta,” a brutal mother-and-son tale of revenge and redemption. He also won prizes for best director at festivals in Venice and Berlin, and secured another award at the 2011 Cannes festival for his movie “Arirang.”
While his movies often garnered critical acclaim, many moviegoers, especially women, considered them to be disturbing because of excessive violence and depictions of rape and castration.
A year after the Venice success, Kim faced the allegations at home, which he vaguely denied, saying there had been a misunderstanding, although he acknowledged he might have hit the actress while instructing her in acting.
The actress dropped out and the movie, “Moebius,” a dark and violent story about an estranged family, was finished with a replacement.
Kim was fined 5 million won ($4,570) over assault charges in 2018. But prosecutors eventually decided not to pursue charges of sexual abuse against him, citing insufficient evidence.
Kim’s career in South Korea effectively ended in 2017-18 after three actresses made new accusations on investigative news show “PD’s Notebook,” which was broadcast on Korean public broadcaster MBC. Kim later launched criminal and civil suits against MBC and the original Moebius actress, accusing them of defamation, but his claims were dismissed in courts.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Riga was contacting the man’s family and offering help in arranging a funeral. The ministry said it cannot release specific details about the man to anyone who isn't family.
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Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report