Arirang

What exactly is this? A movie? A documentary? A video diary? If you are looking for entertainment, then this is definitely not it. As with most of his work, Kim Ki-Duk is not into mass market Hollywood style.

Watching this piece is like an inspection of a self-portrait of Rembrandt or van Gogh. The artist goes into seclusion. He takes a long hard look in the mirror, preens himself, then strips away his id bit by bit. He examines the parts in minutiae, bewildered. He wails as he could not make any sense of it. He creates an alter ego, a shadow. He cross examines himself; playing both the cool detachment as well as the devil's advocate. In between, he consoles himself by singing the Korean folk song Arirang as a wolf would bray at the full moon. During his lucid moments, he is the calm director / editor in post-production. He checks each take critically, wondering how he can put it back together into a singular entity again. Bit by bit, splice by splice, over three years, he came out with this "movie".

Like any self-portrait, this "movie" does not show Kim Ki-duk, the entire person. It is just a fleeting capture of the artist at that moment; as a Picasso in his Blue Period is not a summation of Picasso the person.

A portrait has no meaning, relevance, if you have not seen any of the artist's endeavours. But once you have been touched by their struggle, curiosity will be pipped. Why did he do the things he does? Where did he gets it? How did he do it?

After many soul searching encounters with the numerous self- portraits of Rembrandt and van Gogh, I now look forward to another Arirang moment with Kim Ki-duk. It may not be pleasant but I am sure it will be an experience.

There are many things i want to see which match with myself. Kim ki duk is the only director who actually understand my mind. I should follow him and want to be a director like him.

Generally, most of his film pertains silent periods. Maybe, he believe that the protagonist should talk less, work hard and put effect on the audiences. He makes his film in a simple way, but go through a complex thoughtful tunnel and in the end we see the light or the soul of his film. Basically, there is a part in this movie about 'death' which really i was searching for. He described it in a easy way. A cinema he made as a director, actor,cinematographer, sound recorder like playing every role is just insurmountable. There are many who try to show himself as drama but in real he is not. But kim ki duk tried to make this drama and real came. When he cried in while watching his own cinema (spring,summer.....) It made me share some tears with him. I love this film a lot. Fabulous...!!!

Have you ever seen Kutashta? - the circle with the star inside? Isn't Ariran the same Mysterious pass? Dear Kim Ki Duk, from all of yours movies I could NEVER clearly realize if you are aware of the existence of Kutashta or you just described it intuitively. Kutashta (Ariran) is more real than our so called "material" world. Through this mysterious pass which is very subtle and seems to be in other dimension life and death come and go. Spirit (male) and soul (female) reunite. Breath and Qi reunite. I believe that is the original symbolism in the Ariran song - the boy and the girl are separated as the mind and the spirit in the human being. They need to be reunited - that is the main goal of all valid sacred doctrines - DAO, Buddhism,Christianity, etc. When somebody is able to pass through this tiny canal he/she attain immortality (enlightenment, Buddhahood, apotheosis), which is the final goal of the human existence.