The films of Kim Ki-young reflect a different South Korea than the one I learned about in the movies of Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, and Hong Sang-soo. I suppose you'll hear echoes most clearly in Kim Ki-duk's filmography which is similarly focused on disturbed psychodynamics but even so, I was not prepared for the zaniness that is Kim Ki-young. Best known for The Housemaid which more or less set a template for many of the movies that would follow, he also made some fine films atypical of that landmark flick, and ones which I happen to prefer. It's hard to believe Yangsan Province has been so summarily dismissed because I find it magical.
10. Woman of Fire: Proof that a director's quintessential film may not be the best of the bunch. (Which isn't to say it's not good.)
9. Iodo: This strange murder-mystery is set on an island run by women who go to extremes when competing for men.
8. Insect Woman: Arguably, the best of Kim's reworking of The Housemaid.
7. Killer Butterfly: This may be the weirdest in Kim's filmography with talking skeletons and 2,000-year-old urine both memorably featured.
6. Promise of the Flesh: A woman on her way to prison has the train ride of her life.
5. The Housemaid: This classic Korean psychosexual melodrama features many plot elements that Kim would revisit again and again.
4. Woman of Water: The ill-treated, silent female lead is a trope of cinema. Kim's take gives her voice though and the final message is a powerful one.
3. The Sea Knows: Set in Japan, this military flick finds a Korean soldier struggling to survive with some help from his Japanese girlfriend.
2. Yangsan Province: A love triangle ends in disaster for government official's son, a poor widow's son, and the woman they both love.
1. Transgression: This one takes Kim's extremist tendencies into a monastery where three monks are battling it out for the top spot.
Also by Kim Ki-young: Beasts of Prey
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