SCFZ poll: Kim Ki-duk

[flip]

Polling the films of director Kim Ki-duk.

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Ki-duk films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: greg x, umbugbene, roscoe, bure, greennui, wba, brian d, mesnalty, ofrene, st gloede, john ryan

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

we'll use the 'new rules' for this poll:

New Rules

Because Kim Ki-duk has fewer views than most directors we've polled, I'm changing some of the rules for this poll:

- if you have seen an odd number of his films, you can round up, when dividing by two, instead of down, to determine the length of your ballot. So if you have seen 7 his films, you can vote for 4 films (instead of 3). But please only vote for the additional film if you think it's deserving of a vote.

- if you have seen 11 or more of his films, your ballot can extend beyond 5 films -- if you have seen 13, say, you can vote for up to 7 films. I'll award 0.5, 0.3 and 0.1 points to 6th, 7th and 8th ranked films (and nothing to 9th or later ranked films). Those additional votes will help to get a complete top ten.

[flip]

3-Iron
Breath

seen three, might only vote for one in the end though, will think about it

[brian d]

seen 4 (hated the other three)

spring, summer, fall, winter... and spring

[nrh]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/m ... pe-assault

[Curtis, baby]

seen 2

Spring Summer Fall Winter... and Spring

[Holymanm]

The Coast Guard (Ki-duk Kim, 2002)
Pieta (Ki-duk Kim, 2012)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... (Ki-duk Kim, 2003)

Seen 5

[ofrene]

Seen 6 but vote none of them(didn't like his movie and detest him)..

[john ryan]

I was not aware of the charges against him

[mesnalty]

Seen 4:

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

[john ryan]

Since I suggested him, I'll go ahead and put in my vote before I read through the article nrh posted (and then probably read more). I think the quality of his films is all over the place. I absolutely love three, while I hold another three to be some of the worst films I've seen in the past decade.

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
2. 3-Iron
3. Time
4. The Bow
5. The Net

[rischka]

it's ok john ryan, one can't keep abreast of everything in the news these days. i'm with ofrene and will abstain

[Umbugbene]

Seen 9, but only one I can vote for:

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

I probably should have included a warning, when I said I had 9 Kims, that I could only vote for one. It'll be kind of hard to poll a director if everyone votes below their quota.

I found Pieta one of the hardest movies ever to watch, but Moebius was THE hardest, bar none. But I give those movies a point or two for being so memorably upsetting. The Isle is even worse because of its animal abuse (which Kim later regretted).

[St. Gloede]

Seen 17, everything he did until Pieta (with the exception of Amen) and then my interest just ended. (I was excited by Moebius temporarily, but was put-off seeing it).

His work did, however, place him on my shortlist of best directors of the 00s:

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
2. The Bow
3. The isle
4. Bin-jip / 3 Iron
5. Samaria
6. The Coastal Guard
7. Birdcage Inn
8. Arirang

(The loss of interest was not entirely overnight, with the exception of the extremely personal Arirang, I would have to say that he really lost his touch after The Bow, his style became flatter and the passion seemed gone. It is worth noting he had a full mental breakdown around this time and disappeared from filmmaking - until Arirang - and his work never felt the same. As my interest seized almost a decade ago they had nothing to do with the allegations, though given the type of films he often made this was not exactly a good addition to the mental image of his art).

[...]

Only seen three, Spring etc. was okay, the others meh, so I won't bother voting. If we had full knowledge of repugnant behavior from directors I think the list would be quite long and have many of those we've polled on it (not to single out directors as the only shitty people in the industry, there are plenty of actors, producers, and others who are awful people as well.) That's inextricably tied in to the history of the industry from its very beginning to the present day from all parts of the globe unfortunately.

[wba]

I've only seen 2 of his films, and while one was very good, I really detested and HATED the other (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... , which was also the last Kim I've seen, at the cinema at the beginning of 2004).

Always wanted to watch a lot of his other stuff, though I somehow haven't managed this in the past 16 years . He may be an asshole, but I don't do my film watching by first trying to find out which director was a "nice guy", and which wasn't. Same as I don't do research which painter might have been a detestable person, before I visit a museum, in order to avert my eyes, while passing his work.

01. Seom "The Isle" (2000)

Kim seen: 2

[rischka]

well strangely enough i've never liked him but i wasn't very surprised at the 'news'

[nrh]

yeah, to be clear i didn't include link to allegations against him as a "well we shouldn't have done this dude," more a heads up to anyone who missed it during the global wave of all this shit coming to light.

still think he had a strange career - the isle, 3-iron, bad guy, samaritan girl, spring summer were all video store staples in the early 2000s when there was explosion of interest in korean film for awhile, and then interest seems to slowly wither away around the bow (and i think the dvd boom kind of ended as well). can't say i care for any of them but they very do feel tied to that specific time for me.

[wba]

well strangely enough i've never liked him but i wasn't very surprised at the 'news'

Yeah, seemed almost a bit "logical", if one thinks of his extremely sadistic films. Terrible news, though.

[oscarwerner]

Seen 6.
My votes:
1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)
2. The Isle (2000)
3. Samaritan Girl (2004)

[flip]

Seen 5

you can pick our next director if you want, holymanm, so you can pick someone who isn't fictional for the next poll

[Holymanm]

Have people seen enough by the underappreciated pre-code director Brick Brompson? Or if not her, by the Chinese New Wave wunderkind Montgomery Latvinius?

[Holymanm]

Err... that is, Gregg Araki! I think a few people have seen a few of his movies other than just Mysterious Skin?

[flip]

brompson and latvinius weren't prolific enough for a poll

we can check if araki has enough views for a good poll - i've only seen 4

[DT.]

Seen 8 Kim (and 7 Araki).

1. Breath
2. Moebius

Moebius’ wordless conceit made it pretty effective for me. And I found Breath to be his most idiosyncratic without being needlessly provocative (at least from memory).

[wba]

Seen 2 by Araki

[St. Gloede]

Only 3 by Araki I'm afraid.

[oscarwerner]

Seen 3 by Araki.

[john ryan]

I have 6 Araki and could commit to watching at least 2 more.

[Holymanm]

My bad... I completely forgot about the exact 8+ / 10+ criteria, helpfully provided at the top of the thread. So seems like 1 person (me) with 10+ Araki, and two more who are close to 8. If he won't work, then:

Kim Jee-woon
Francesco Rosi
Isao Takahata

Seen 10+ by all - not sure if any of them will work (Takahata is definitely famous enough, but only has 5 real, well-known movies, and then a bunch of pre-Ghibli stuff only jal90 has seen). If not, I will skip for now; apologies for the hassle!