ARIRANG World Cinema

In ARIRANG , we find director Kim Ki·duk in the mountains of South Korea, secluded from the world of filmmaking and living a very simple life Kim retired from filmmaking in 2008 following a near-fatal accident on the set of his film DREAM. While shooting a scene depicting suicide , the film’s lead actress nearly hung herself to death , but Kim quickly stepped in and saved her life This accident affected him so deeply that he had an emotional breakdown and retreated from filmmaking ARIRANG acts a sort of self-administered therapy . Blurring the lines of what we’ve come to expect from a documentary, Kim acts as both documentarian and subject. Through self-interviews, Kim opens up to both himself and the camera, sharing his reasons for leaving filmmaking and his frustrations with himself as an artist. ARIRANG is a visionary self-portrait of a troubled artist examining his own self-doubt in front of the camera.