Real Fiction

Colour, 35mm
Korea, 2000, 85 min
Section: Kim Ki-duk

Synopsis

An experimental film shot with ten cameras in 200 minutes. With the assistance of eleven other filmmakers, Kim Ki-duk created twelve sequences involving humiliation, violence and the power of retaliation. A street painter who is constantly under the surveillance of a videocamera-wielding girl gradually unburdens himself of his hidden emotions. This once passive victim no longer shrinks from becoming an assailant bent on taking revenge for every humiliation he has suffered. The sequence of scenes, both beginning and ending in a park where the protagonist draws portraits of passers-by, presents diverse situations and models of behaviour. The search for internal impulses and feelings gradually erases the border between reality and imagination, both of which are governed by invincible forces. The city remains a constant throughout the film but the main character’s awareness is ever undergoing change. “Films do not change reality but rather the conscious state of an individual,” the director claims.