Kim Ki-Duk, award-winning South Korean director, dies at 59

Kim Ki-Duk was a South Korean filmmaker noted for his art-house cinematic works. The director passed away on December 11, in Latvia. According to a report by the Washington Post, Kim Ki-Duk's death was due to COVID-19 related complications. The South Korean director was 59-years-old. The Moebius director'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 December 11 local time. The Ministry declined to identify the director due to privacy concerns.

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Kim Ki-Duk's death 

The Washington Post reports also state that Kim came to Latvia on November 20 in order to buy a house in Jurmala, the country’s seaside resort near Riga, the capital, and apply for a residence permit. Kim is a very popular and notable director and has won several international accolades for his work. He is the only South Korean director who has received awards at three major European film festivals: Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. 

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Ki-Duk won the best director prize in Cannes for his film Arirang. He even won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival with his 2012 film Pieta, a brutal mother-and-son tale of revenge and redemption. According to a report by the Korean Herald, the successful filmmaker stopped making public appearances in Korea after he was accused of sexually assaulting female actors while filming in 2011, which he denied. Later, in 2017, his Korean filmmaking career was destroyed as three more actors accused him of sexual harassment. Since the accusations surfaced he has filmed a movie in Kazakhstan.

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Kim Ki-Duk's movies 

The filmmaker in his career spanning 25 years has directed more than 30 feature films. Kim also wrote all the films that he made and his most widely known feature was Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, which was included in film critic Roger Ebert's Great Movies. Two of his films served as official submissions for the Academy Award for the best foreign-language film as South Korean entries. He started his career with the 1996 film Crocodile, but his international breakthrough occurred with the movie, titled The Isle at the Toronto International Film Festival. His famous works include The Bow, Time, Breath, Dream, Beautiful, Pieta, Moebius among many others.

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