Guest post by BINDU MENON M

The fascination for films by Kim Ki Duk, the iconoclast South Korean film maker, and his hold over cinematic imagination in Kerala has generated many anecdotal and apocryphal stories in the film festival circuit in Kerala. Given his popularity, its not surprising at all that Kim Ki Duk films are available in the original and pirated forms in electronic markets in major towns i the State. A recent Malayalam short film titled ‘Dear Kim’ is a letter written to Kim Di Duk by his fans from a remote village in the High Ranges of the Western Ghats. Against all odds, a small group of young men who are laborers set out to watch a Kim Ki Duk opening film in the city , but couldn’t make the journey. The CD that they procure of his film ‘Wild Animals’ turns out to be a pornographic film of the same name! They finally manage to send an email to Kim Ki Duk requesting for his original DVDs. The Korean wave , has taken distinct turns influencing mainstream Malayalam film production as well, prompting a wry and satirical remark from a popular internet portal film critic that at this rate Cochin might soon be declared as the capital of South Korea! Parodying another joke that pronounces Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the most popular Malayalam novelist, it is often said that Kim Ki Duk is the most popular contemporary Malayalam film maker!Kim Ki Duk wouldn’t have been a household name without the International Film festival of Kerala,the large number of film festivals that mushroomed all over the state in the last decade and the pirate DVD market.

Continue reading Kerala’s Lost and Found Object of Cinema: Bindu Menon M →