It was a day in December like this, 15 years ago.
The Kairali Theatre in Thiruvananthapuram was brimming with film lovers. This was (or is) not unusual during the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). But what made that day unforgettable was the screening of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring.
The Korean film was stunningly beautiful. And Kerala fell in love with its director, Kim Ki-duk.
It was with great sorrow that movie goers of the State heard the news of the 59-year-old filmmaker’s death in Latvia, after contracting COVID-19. No other director has enjoyed in this part of the world the kind of fan following that Kim did.
Bina Paul, the woman who introduced him to the Malayali film fan, was surprised by the frenzy created by his films in 2005 and the festivals of the subsequent years. The artistic director of IFFK had watched Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring at an Asian film festival and was greatly impressed. It was then she felt that a selection of his films could be screened at the IFFK.
“Though his films were different and had great quality, I never imagined he would go on to achieve a cult status in Kerala,” Bina told The Hindu over phone from Newcastle, England. “It was several years later that I met him—at the elevator of a hotel in Busan, to be precise—and invited him to attend the IFFK in 2013.”
So Kim came to the State he had already conquered through his films. And here, he was literally mobbed by his adoring fans.
“Kim was bowled over by the reaction,” Bina said. “He told me that the reception in Thiruvananthapuram was the greatest he ever had.”
Pradeep Nair, a national award-winning director who was among those who watched Kim’s films at the IFFK in 2005, recalled the director being left alone at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Goa in contrast to the reception he got in Thiruvananthapuram. “Kim’s biggest fans are in Kerala, I think,” he said. “No other foreign filmmaker has had this kind of an impact on the audiences in Kerala; he has also influenced our young directors.”
It may be no exaggeration to say that Kim had been the biggest draw of all time at the IFFK. He is to the Malayali film fan what Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is to the Malayali reader.
Kim will be missed in Kerala as much as he will be in his native South Korea.