Arirang (2011 film)

Arirang Korean is a 2011 South Korean documentary film by Kim Kiduk. The film addresses a personal crisis Kim went through, sparked by an incident during the filming of his previous film, Dream, where the lead actress nearly died by hanging, and by the departure of a couple of close colleagues, including the director Jang Hoon. The title comes from a Korean folk song with the same title. In a heavily linebroken text released about the film, Kim writes that Through Arirang I understand human beings, thank the nature, and accept my life as it is now. Kim produced the film entirely on his own. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and won the top award for best film.

After attending the festival screening in Cannes, Varietys Leslie Felperin wrote Further evidence, as if it were needed, that digital is both the liberation of lowbudget filmmaking and the enabler of selfindulgence. Felperin went on to call Arirang An experience that can be likened only to being stuck next to a drunk in a bar who keeps reminding you he used to be famous, all his friends are bastards and he now understands the meaning of life. In Screen Daily, Dan Fainaru called it the ultimate film dauteur, and wrote Doing it justice in a short review is almost impossible, not because Kim Kiduk is providing revolutionary insights into his line of work, but because he raises numerous issues that are too often ignored as irrelevant or pedantic by professionals who should know better. Peter Bradshaw wrote It is the most extravagantly selfindulgent piece of pure loopiness imaginable but gripping as well. A piece of experimentalism at odds with convention.The film won the Prize of Un Certain Regard, the top award for best film in the section. The win was shared with the German film Stopped on Track, directed by Andreas Dresen. ........

Source: Wikipedia