Kim Ki-young x 2

Kim Ki-young was one of the trailblazers of South Korean cinema’s postwar golden age, and has been cited as an influence by Park Chan-wook, Kim Ki-duk, and Bong Joon-ho, who called the elder Kim his favorite director. Struggling against the strictures of state censorship, Kim turned out a series of feverish films mixing elements of melodrama, horror, and film noir. His daring dissections of the domestic, social, and sexual pathologies of his native land began with his first popular hit, 1960’s The Housemaid, and ended with his final provocation, 1995’s An Experience to Die For, seen by audiences only after its director’s premature death in 1998. Metrograph screens both of these “bookend” works, the latter the last of Kim’s three collaborations with grande dame Youn Yuh-jung, winner of an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in 2020’s Minari.