Kim Ki-young

Kim Ki-young (October 10, 1919 – February 5, 1998) was a South Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melodramatic horror films, often focusing on the psychology of their female characters.

Kim was born in Seoul during the colonial period, raised in Pyongyang, where he became interested in theater and cinema.

In Korea after the end of World War II, he studied dentistry while becoming involved in the theater.

During the Korean War, he made propaganda films for the United States Information Service.

Kim Ki-young was born in the Gyo-dong neighborhood of Seoul—now part of Gyeongun-dong in Jongno-gu —on October 10, 1922.

His family had lived in Seoul for several generations, and his grandfather was a guard at Gwanghwamun.

Kim's family was well-educated and artistically inclined.

His father, Kim Seok-jin, was an English teacher, and his mother, Han Jin-cho, was also a teacher and a graduate of Gyeonggi Women's College.

Both painted as a hobby.

The family had two daughters, and Kim Ki-young was their only son.

One of his sisters graduated as an art major from Seoul National University, and the other majored in dance at Ewha Womans University.

His sisters encouraged the Young Kim to develop his own creativity.

The family moved to Pyongyang in 1930, where they stayed for the next 10 years.

At Pyongyang National High School, Kim showed exceptional talent in music, painting and writing, and his studious nature earned him the nickname "Professor of Physics".

While still a student, one of Kim's poems was published in a Japanese newspaper, and he was awarded first prize in a painting competition.

Josef von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) and Fritz Lang's M (1931) made a particularly strong impression on him, and their influence was to show in his mature film style.

Despite his artistic talents, Kim's main interest was medicine, and he applied for entrance into medical school upon graduation from high school in 1940.

When he failed to gain admittance, Kim moved to Japan, planning to study and save up money to reapply for medical school.

The theater and cinema grew into lifetime interests at this time.

Kim often went to Kyoto, where he attended many stage productions and saw many international films.

Kim returned to Korea in 1941, initially planning to work as a dentist, but instead immersing himself in the study of drama.

At this time he was particularly interested in classical Greek theater, Ibsen and Eugene O'Neill.

To avoid conscription by the Japanese into the military, Kim returned to Japan briefly before 1945.

He returned to Pyongyang where he studied Stanislavsky's theories of acting and founded a theatrical group called "The Little Orchid".

In 1946 Kim enrolled in Seoul Medical School, Seoul National University, and graduated with a major in dentistry in 1950.

While attending university, his theatrical activities continued.

In 1955, he used discarded movie equipments to produce his first two films.

With the success of these two films Kim formed his own production company and produced popular melodramas for the rest of the decade.

Kim Ki-young's first expression of his mature style was in The Housemaid (1960), which featured a powerful femme fatale character.

It is widely considered one of the best Korean films of all time.

After a "Golden Age" during the 1960s, the 1970s were a low-point in the history of Korean cinema because of government censorship and a decrease in audience attendance.

Nevertheless, working independently, Kim produced some of his most eccentric cinematic creations in this era.

Films such as Insect Woman (1972) and Iodo (1977) were successful at the time and highly influential on the younger generations of South Korean filmmakers both at their time of release, and with their rediscovery years later.

By the 1980s, Kim's popularity had declined, and his output decreased in the second half of the decade.

Neglected by the mainstream during much of the 1990s, Kim became a cult figure in South Korean film Internet forums in the early 1990s.

Widespread international interest in his work was stimulated by a career retrospective at the 1997 Pusan International Film Festival.

He was preparing a comeback film when he and his wife were killed in a house fire in 1998.

The Berlin International Film Festival gave Kim a posthumous retrospective in 1998, and the French Cinémathèque screened 18 of Kim's films, some newly rediscovered and restored, in 2006.

Through the efforts of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), previously lost films by Kim Ki-young continue to be rediscovered and restored.

Many current prominent South Korean filmmakers, including directors Im Sang-soo, Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, claim Kim Ki-young as an influence on their careers.