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| Kim Ki-duk kisses his golden lion award from the 69th Venice International Film Festival in 2012 he won with "Pieta" at a press conference at Mega Box Dongdaemun in Seoul's Jung District in September 2012. Korea Times file |
By Ko Dong-hwan
South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, who had been invited to a number of international film festivals, has died of medical complication from COVID-19, according to his acquaintance and foreign news outlets on Friday.
Busan International Film Festival's executive director Jeon Yang-jun told South Korean TV news outlet YTN that he heard from a Kyrgyzstan critic of the news about the director who had moved from Kazakhstan to Latvia.
Kim died at a Latvian hospital after he was hospitalized two days earlier, said Jeon.
"It is an irreplaceable loss and sorrow to the South Korean film industry," Jeon said online on Friday, where he wrote "RIP Kim Ki Duk (1960-2020)."
Russian and Latvian news outlets also reported on Kim's death.
The director who won various awards from major global film festivals in Venice, Cannes and Berlin with "One on One" (2014), "Pieta" (2012) and "Arirang" (2011) is known to have moved to Latvia to acquire real estate and a permanent residency there.
After being embroiled in the global anti-misogynic #MeToo movement, Kim moved to Russia followed by Kazakhstan. In 2019, he was one of the judges for the Moscow International Film Festival. In Kazakhstan he also directed the Russian-language film "Dissolve" earlier this year.
