New voices are rising against celebrating the life of director Kim Ki Duk after his recent passing.
As previously reported, the director was accused of rape and assault by three women in 2018 and he passed away due to COVID-19 complications on December 11th in Latvia.
Though Kim Ki Duk was known for his contributions to the Korean film industry and his art-house style work, such as '3-Iron', 'Samaria,' 'Arirang,' 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring', 'Pieta,' and 'One on One,' rape and sexual assault accusations back in 2018 put a halt to his directing career. Charges against the director were dropped for lack of evidence, but he was fined 5 Million KRW(~$4,579 USD). He then sued one of his accusers for defamation but lost.
As he left a complicated legacy after his death, voices against celebrating his life have risen from some people in the film industry.
I stopped teaching Kim Ki-duk's films in my classes in 2018 when the program about his sexual assaults screened on Korean TV. If someone does such awful violence to people in real life, it's just wrong to celebrate him. I don't care if he's a genius (and I don't think he was).
— Darcy Paquet (@darcypaquet) December 11, 2020
When the sudden news of Kim Ki-duk's death hit the wire today I initially resisted the urge to speak ill of the dead, but I'm saddened to see so many gushing laments (largely from the west) about the passing of a great artist with little mention of his horrific behaviour on set.
— Pierce Conran (@pierceconran) December 11, 2020
Meanwhile, he will be cremated in Latvia and his ashes will return to his family in Korea. The family of the deceased requested the Korean embassy in Latvia to carry out the cremation.
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there are more reasons why his death shouldn't be memorialized. he abused animals for his movies and productions and women who worked with him on set said he made them film scenes that were mature and weren't comfortable with.
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