Kim Ki-young

Directing

Kim Ki-young

Born — Died

1919-10-10 — 1998-02-05

Place of birth

Seoul, South Korea

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

Kim Ki-young (October 10, 1919 – February 5, 1998) was a South Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melodramatic horror films, often focusing on the psychology of their female characters. Kim was born in Seoul during the colonial period, raised in Pyongyang, where he became interested in theater and cinema. In Korea after the end of World War II, he studied dentistry while becoming involved in the theater. During the Korean War, he made propaganda films for the United States Information Service. In 1955, he used discarded movie equipments to produce his first two films. With the success of these two films Kim formed his own production company and produced popular me…

Known for

The Housemaid poster
7.1

A piano composer's family moves into a new house; when his pregnant wife collapses from working to support the family, he hires a housemaid to help with housework.

The Housemaid

1960

Insect Woman poster
4.9

A schoolgirl goes from braids to bouffant when her mother makes her a bar hostess/prostitute. She cures impotence for Professor Lee and becomes his concubine. His entrepreneurial wife is initially shocked but soon accepts the arrangement and even gives the girl an allowance.

Insect Woman

1972

Woman of Fire '82 poster
4.8

Intrigue and murder on a small poultry farm outside of Seoul when a young maid starts working on the farm and is seduced by the local farm hand.

Woman of Fire '82

1982

Ieoh Island poster
6.5

A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the proposed location of the hotel, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors goes to Ieodo's neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the mystery.

Ieoh Island

1977

The Deaf Worker poster
8.0

A deaf woman boarding with an elderly laborer suffers many hardships upon the latter's death. The old man's son offers to care for her, but she feels she must leave in order to protect the young man's reputation.

The Deaf Worker

1980

Goryeojang poster
7.4

Prior to the adoption of Confucianism, it was the tradition to abandon one's parents on a mountainside if they were over 70 years of age. In the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, now modern Korea, a nobleman defies this tradition when he refuses to leave his mother to starve to death.

Goryeojang

1963

Behind the camera

The Housemaid poster
7.1

A piano composer's family moves into a new house; when his pregnant wife collapses from working to support the family, he hires a housemaid to help with housework.

The Housemaid

1960

The Housemaid poster
7.1

A piano composer's family moves into a new house; when his pregnant wife collapses from working to support the family, he hires a housemaid to help with housework.

The Housemaid

1960

The Housemaid poster
7.1

A piano composer's family moves into a new house; when his pregnant wife collapses from working to support the family, he hires a housemaid to help with housework.

The Housemaid

1960

Insect Woman poster
4.9

A schoolgirl goes from braids to bouffant when her mother makes her a bar hostess/prostitute. She cures impotence for Professor Lee and becomes his concubine. His entrepreneurial wife is initially shocked but soon accepts the arrangement and even gives the girl an allowance.

Insect Woman

1972

Insect Woman poster
4.9

A schoolgirl goes from braids to bouffant when her mother makes her a bar hostess/prostitute. She cures impotence for Professor Lee and becomes his concubine. His entrepreneurial wife is initially shocked but soon accepts the arrangement and even gives the girl an allowance.

Insect Woman

1972

Woman of Fire '82 poster
4.8

Intrigue and murder on a small poultry farm outside of Seoul when a young maid starts working on the farm and is seduced by the local farm hand.

Woman of Fire '82

1982

Woman of Fire '82 poster
4.8

Intrigue and murder on a small poultry farm outside of Seoul when a young maid starts working on the farm and is seduced by the local farm hand.

Woman of Fire '82

1982

Ieoh Island poster
6.5

A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the proposed location of the hotel, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors goes to Ieodo's neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the mystery.

Ieoh Island

1977

The Deaf Worker poster
8.0

A deaf woman boarding with an elderly laborer suffers many hardships upon the latter's death. The old man's son offers to care for her, but she feels she must leave in order to protect the young man's reputation.

The Deaf Worker

1980

The Deaf Worker poster
8.0

A deaf woman boarding with an elderly laborer suffers many hardships upon the latter's death. The old man's son offers to care for her, but she feels she must leave in order to protect the young man's reputation.

The Deaf Worker

1980

Goryeojang poster
7.4

Prior to the adoption of Confucianism, it was the tradition to abandon one's parents on a mountainside if they were over 70 years of age. In the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, now modern Korea, a nobleman defies this tradition when he refuses to leave his mother to starve to death.

Goryeojang

1963

Goryeojang poster
7.4

Prior to the adoption of Confucianism, it was the tradition to abandon one's parents on a mountainside if they were over 70 years of age. In the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, now modern Korea, a nobleman defies this tradition when he refuses to leave his mother to starve to death.

Goryeojang

1963

Goryeojang poster
7.4

Prior to the adoption of Confucianism, it was the tradition to abandon one's parents on a mountainside if they were over 70 years of age. In the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, now modern Korea, a nobleman defies this tradition when he refuses to leave his mother to starve to death.

Goryeojang

1963

Promises poster
4.5

Mild-mannered and modest Sook-young looks like your usual middle-aged woman, but happens to be a man-killing murderess. On a train trip to Mokpo, she remembers an earlier trip as a prisoner on furlough accompanied by a menacing but kind butch female guard. On the train they meet Hoon, a young man who falls for Sook-young. The guard lets them be alone at a bizarre marriage in a hill-top graveyard.

Promises

1975

Be a Wicked Woman poster
3.0

Two housewives, wounded by their husbands' betrayals, meet by chance. They decide to carry out "exchange murders" and work towards the perfect alibis. Under what they know to be perfect plans, they kill each other's husbands. Although the police are able to prove that they're guilty, these two women are found innocent by the court of law.

Be a Wicked Woman

2021

Be a Wicked Woman poster
3.0

Two housewives, wounded by their husbands' betrayals, meet by chance. They decide to carry out "exchange murders" and work towards the perfect alibis. Under what they know to be perfect plans, they kill each other's husbands. Although the police are able to prove that they're guilty, these two women are found innocent by the court of law.

Be a Wicked Woman

2021

Free Woman poster
9.0

A Korean woman raised in Spain with European values towards life and romance finds living in her ancestral land stifling and it eats away at her vitality.

Free Woman

1982

No artwork available
NR

By taking opportunity of being a model for a painter named Song Wu-Yeol at a park, the barmaid named Jang-Mi (Rose) loves him. To install equipment in her bar, she sends Yeong-Ah (Jang-Mi gives her tuition fee like elder sister) to the place where Song works. When she is informed that Song and Young-Ah become close, she returns Young-Ah to her house. She is also informed through Young-Ah that Song has his fiancee, so that she blames him and spends disappointed time. She brings up Song's daughter named Hyeon-Suk. She suffers from the disease caused by mixed feeling of love and disappointment, and intends to register Hyeon-Suk at Song's family register before she dies. At last she completes the registration and then dies. Song regrets her death and weeps with tears.

A Barmaid

1979

The Sea Knows poster
7.0

A Korean man, forced into service in the Japanese army during WWII, marries his Japanese girlfriend despite everyone's objections. Later, he becomes the sole survivor when the Americans attack.

The Sea Knows

1961

The Sea Knows poster
7.0

A Korean man, forced into service in the Japanese army during WWII, marries his Japanese girlfriend despite everyone's objections. Later, he becomes the sole survivor when the Americans attack.

The Sea Knows

1961

Beasts of Prey poster
4.5

A social drama about a man with an inferiority complex to his wife. When he seeks consolation in an extramarital affair, his mistress and wife conspire to set up a plan for sharing him

Beasts of Prey

1985

Beasts of Prey poster
4.5

A social drama about a man with an inferiority complex to his wife. When he seeks consolation in an extramarital affair, his mistress and wife conspire to set up a plan for sharing him

Beasts of Prey

1985

Woman of Fire poster
4.8

The lives of a composer and his wife, who live on a chicken farm, are thrown into turmoil when a femme fatale joins their household.

Woman of Fire

1971

Woman of Fire poster
4.8

The lives of a composer and his wife, who live on a chicken farm, are thrown into turmoil when a femme fatale joins their household.

Woman of Fire

1971

Hunting of Fools poster
6.3

Seok-ho is unable to overcome his fear that he will not graduate from college for only a limited number of the class will get their diplomas. Seok-ho tries to kill himself and ends up in a mental institution. Then he persuades his fellow patient, Hong-ik, to escape with him. After dealing with several incidents, they become miners. They meet a simple young woman. In order to construct an ideal land, they head for a deserted island in the South Sea. However, just before they're about to leave for the island, Seok-ho realizes that the island is a fantasy of an insane man so he runs off with the woman. Left behind, Hong-ik is disheartened but he gets together with the elderly innkeeper couple whose own son died of a mental illness. They head for the deserted island on a boat.

Hunting of Fools

1984

Hunting of Fools poster
6.3

Seok-ho is unable to overcome his fear that he will not graduate from college for only a limited number of the class will get their diplomas. Seok-ho tries to kill himself and ends up in a mental institution. Then he persuades his fellow patient, Hong-ik, to escape with him. After dealing with several incidents, they become miners. They meet a simple young woman. In order to construct an ideal land, they head for a deserted island in the South Sea. However, just before they're about to leave for the island, Seok-ho realizes that the island is a fantasy of an insane man so he runs off with the woman. Left behind, Hong-ik is disheartened but he gets together with the elderly innkeeper couple whose own son died of a mental illness. They head for the deserted island on a boat.

Hunting of Fools

1984

Transgression poster
6.3

Chim-Ae, an orphan, is saved by an old monk of Seo San Temple, Mu Bul Dang while he is wandering in war fires. Then he enters the priesthood and trains himself a mountaineering asceticism. When he becomes an eminent young priest, the last trial to receive the mantle of the preceding abbot applies on him. The old monk sends the fairest of the fair, Myo-Hyang of cottage Ni Am to Chim-Ae to form a connection with her. But Chim-Ae quickly removes his earthly desires towards woman and goes through this hardship by fasting meditation. However the old monk recognizes that love sprouted between two youngsters and shows Chim-Ae the face of transgression which he mentally violated without hesitation to make Chim-Ae and Myo-Hyang go back to mundane existence.

Transgression

1974

Transgression poster
6.3

Chim-Ae, an orphan, is saved by an old monk of Seo San Temple, Mu Bul Dang while he is wandering in war fires. Then he enters the priesthood and trains himself a mountaineering asceticism. When he becomes an eminent young priest, the last trial to receive the mantle of the preceding abbot applies on him. The old monk sends the fairest of the fair, Myo-Hyang of cottage Ni Am to Chim-Ae to form a connection with her. But Chim-Ae quickly removes his earthly desires towards woman and goes through this hardship by fasting meditation. However the old monk recognizes that love sprouted between two youngsters and shows Chim-Ae the face of transgression which he mentally violated without hesitation to make Chim-Ae and Myo-Hyang go back to mundane existence.

Transgression

1974

A Defiance of Teenager poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Defiance of Teenager

1959

A Woman After a Killer Butterfly poster
5.6

A melodrama about a man who survives an attempted double suicide with a stranger while picnicking with friends. He goes on a cave expedition for a famous archaeologist where he discovers a skeleton several thousand years old. He meets the spirit of the skeleton in a dream, and then becomes romantically involved with the archeologist's daughter.

A Woman After a Killer Butterfly

1978

A Sad Pastorale poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Sad Pastorale

1960

Ban Geum-ryun poster
NR

Seo Mun-kyung, a merchant in ancient China where polygamy is legal, monopolizes the salt sales business. The magistrate of the province collapse families of Hwa Ja-heo and Hwang Mu-dae through Mun-kyung. When Ja-heo's wife Byung-ah fakes her death and disappears with Ja-heo, Seo is angered. But when he sees Mu-dae's wife Ban Geum-ryun, he is satisfied and this causes Mu-dae to end his own life. Geum-ryun makes Seo's concubines Chun-ae and Kyo-ah lose their sight and she takes Byung-ah to Seo. When Byung-ah has Seo's baby, antagonism and jealousy grows between the two women. Geum-ryun's jealousy kills Byung-ah's whole family and also kills Seo. Geum-ryun chooses to join her husband in death.

Ban Geum-ryun

1981

Yangsan Province poster
5.0

The film is a historical melodrama about a high government official who wants to marry a woman who is engaged to marry another man.

Yangsan Province

1955

Yangsan Province poster
5.0

The film is a historical melodrama about a high government official who wants to marry a woman who is engaged to marry another man.

Yangsan Province

1955

Asphalt poster
7.0

In the process of arresting a smuggler, the criminal's wife is killed. Twenty years later, the smuggler is released from prison and vows to murder the wife of the policeman who killed his spouse.

Asphalt

1964

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Magnificent Experience

1980

The Twilight Train poster
9.0

The rivalry between two families prevents budding love from being realized in the younger generation.

The Twilight Train

1957

Love Of Blood Relations poster
9.0

North Korean agents are sent to Seoul to disrupt the visit of important international dignitaries.

Love Of Blood Relations

1976

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Soldier Speaks after Death

1966

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Soldier Speaks after Death

1966