{ "id": "eppf7xthhg", "slug": "samaritan-girl", "title": "Samaritan Girl (사마리아)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Samaritan Girl (사마리아, Samaria) is Kim Ki-duk's 2004 South Korean drama about two schoolgirls in prostitution and a detective father, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 54th Berlinale.", "snippet": "Samaritan Girl (사마리아, Samaria) is Kim Ki-duk's 2004 South Korean drama about two schoolgirls in prostitution and a detective father, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 54th Berlinale.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.biographical-and-historical-drama-films.yr-2000-2005", "markdown": "# Samaritan Girl (사마리아)\n\n**Samaritan Girl** (사마리아; original title *Samaria*) is a 2004 South Korean drama film written, directed, and edited by [Kim Ki-duk](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-ki-duk) about two teenage girls who enter prostitution to fund a trip to Europe, and the girl's police-detective father who discovers what she has been doing.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) It won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 54th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival), the first time a Korean director received that award.[2](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film193652.html) • [3](https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2004/nwdesk/article/1962756_30775.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / year | *Samaria* (사마리아), South Korea, 2004[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) |\n| Director | Kim Ki-duk (also writer and editor); his tenth feature[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) • [4](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/11586/samaritan-girl) |\n| Runtime / format | 95 minutes, 35 mm, Korean language[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) |\n| Main cast | Kwak Ji-min (Yeo-jin), Seo Min-jung (Jae-young), Lee Eol (the father, Yeong-ki)[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397619/) |\n| Major award | Silver Bear for Best Director, 54th Berlinale (2004)[2](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film193652.html) |\n| South Korean release | March 5, 2004; 172,000 admissions[6](https://buyers.koreanfilm.org/films2004.html) |\n| Structure | Three parts titled Vasumitra, Samaria, and Sonata[7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=21838) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe two central characters are high school friends Yeo-jin and Jae-young, who are saving money for a trip to Europe. Jae-young works after school as a prostitute, favoring older clients, while Yeo-jin acts as her manager: she arranges appointments through chatrooms, instant messaging, and mobile phones, handles the money, and stands guard.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) • [8](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/samaritan-girl-film-review-by-keith-hennessey-brown)\n\nDuring a police raid on a motel, Jae-young jumps from a window to escape and is fatally injured, dying in front of Yeo-jin.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) • [9](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movie/20040505) Consumed by guilt, Yeo-jin takes over her friend's role: she seeks out each of Jae-young's former clients, sleeps with them, and returns the money they had paid.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) When her father, a police detective, accidentally discovers her activities, the tone hardens: he begins a personal campaign against his daughter's customers, and in Time Out's account eventually kills one of the men in rage.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) • [10](https://www.timeout.com/movies/samaritan-girl)\n\n## Structure and religious references\n\nKim described the film as three parts. In \"Vasumitra,\" Jae-young, who does not treat the work as a business, is the focus; in \"Samaria,\" Yeo-jin enters prostitution after Jae-young's death; and in \"Sonata,\" the story centers on the father who witnesses his daughter's encounters.[7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=21838)\n\nThe film draws on two religious sources. Jae-young identifies with [Vasumitra](https://www.edgepedia.org/vasumitra), a legendary Indian prostitute whose clients converted to Buddhism after being with her, and the title invokes the Christian parable of the good Samaritan.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) • [10](https://www.timeout.com/movies/samaritan-girl) The Karlovy Vary festival program called the film \"a mixture of Buddhist teaching and Catholic guilt and redemption,\" while noting that it is anything but religious or moralistic, leaving the viewer to judge.[11](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/4/771-samaritan-girl) • [1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) Kim himself said in a 2004 interview that the apparent Catholicism was only appearance, that the film is not about religion, and that he wanted to portray the feelings of a father whose daughter engages in compensated dating.[12](https://www.sancho-asia.com/articles/kim-ki-duk.html) • [13](https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N0311540747)\n\n## Production and release\n\nThe film was produced by Kim Ki-duk Film with Cineclick Asia as world sales agent, shot on 35 mm by cinematographer Sun Sang-jae, with music by Park Ji-woong.[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) • [2](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film193652.html) Accounts of the shoot differ: the Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Kim finished the entire shoot in 15 days, while SBS reported 11 days of filming on a production budget of about 500 million won, small beside the contemporaneous big-budget Korean productions.[14](https://www.khan.co.kr/article/200403041549491/amp) • [13](https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N0311540747)\n\nIt was invited to the official competition of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival, whose organizers reportedly extended the submission deadline for the film by more than a month.[15](https://host.cine21.com/news/view/?idx=0&mag_id=22687) There Kim won the Silver Bear for Best Director; the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear) that year went to [Fatih Akin](https://www.edgepedia.org/fatih-akin)'s *Head-On*.[3](https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2004/nwdesk/article/1962756_30775.html) • [16](https://www.donga.com/news/amp/all/20040215/8030017/9) With Im Kwon-taek's award at Cannes and [Lee Chang-dong](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-chang-dong)'s at Venice, both in 2002, the win meant Korean directors had taken the directing prize at all three major European festivals within two years.[17](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20040216000100082)\n\nReleased in South Korea on March 5, 2004, rated 18+, the film sold 172,000 admissions, a modest commercial result compared with the blockbusters of that season.[6](https://buyers.koreanfilm.org/films2004.html) It later screened at festivals including [Karlovy Vary](https://www.edgepedia.org/karlovy-vary), Rotterdam, and Melbourne, and MoMA's 2008 retrospective of Kim's work.[11](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/4/771-samaritan-girl) • [1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl) • [4](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/11586/samaritan-girl) • [18](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/press-archives/film_archive/KimKiDuk_%20RELandSCH.pdf)\n\n## Reception\n\nCritical response was divided. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 50% Tomatometer from 8 critics and a 75% audience score.[19](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/samaritan-girl) Variety's Derek Elley wrote that Kim maintained \"a more mature, assured outlook\" with his tenth feature, treating his forceful material in a calmer, more transcendent way than in *Bad Guy* (2001).[20](https://cine21.com/news/view?mag_id=25570) Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader gave it 0 of 4 stars, calling its early parts puritanical and pornographic illustrations of an obnoxious male fantasy, and Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine called it an under-thought formula linking sex, youth, and violence.[19](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/samaritan-girl) Time Out was similarly hostile, calling it a ludicrous melodrama that sanitizes, glamorizes, and deplores teenage prostitution at once.[10](https://www.timeout.com/movies/samaritan-girl)\n\nKorean critics also debated the film. A Cine21 relay review by film critic Jeong Seong-il argued that Kim wisely avoided filming the sex trade itself, and read the title against the parable of the good Samaritan and the woman taken in adultery in John 8:7.[21](https://cine21.com/news/view?mag_id=23378) A feminist debate in the same magazine followed; columnist Hwang Jin-mi argued the film is not simply a story of a father who avenges and forgives, but one that overturns common assumptions about teenage prostitution while leaving the father's unilateral moral judgment grotesquely exposed.[22](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=23838) Some critics criticized Kim's portrayal of women as either saint or whore, while others read the film as an indictment of a society that abandons its young.[23](https://namu.moe/w/%EC%82%AC%EB%A7%88%EB%A6%AC%EC%95%84%28%EC%98%81%ED%99%94%29)\n\nThe film is generally seen as a transition in Kim's career, combining the darker themes of his earlier work such as *Bad Guy* with the calmer sensibility of *[Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring](https://www.edgepedia.org/spring-summer-fall-winter-and-spring)* (2003), and it is counted among his more accessible films.[4](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/11586/samaritan-girl) • [19](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/samaritan-girl)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Samaritan Girl (Samaria), International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2005/films/samaritan-girl)\n2. [Samaria (Samaritan Girl), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film193652.html)\n3. [MBC Newsdesk: Kim Ki-duk wins first Berlinale directing award for Samaritan Girl (2004)](https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2004/nwdesk/article/1962756_30775.html)\n4. [Samaritan Girl, Melbourne International Film Festival archive](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/11586/samaritan-girl)\n5. [Samaritan Girl (2004), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397619/)\n6. [Korean Film Council buyers' list, commercial releases of 2004](https://buyers.koreanfilm.org/films2004.html)\n7. [Cine21 set visit: Samaritan Girl in three parts (2003)](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=21838)\n8. [Samaritan Girl review, Eye for Film](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/samaritan-girl-film-review-by-keith-hennessey-brown)\n9. [사마리아 film database, Filmmakers Community](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movie/20040505)\n10. [Samaritan Girl review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/samaritan-girl)\n11. [Samaritan Girl, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/4/771-samaritan-girl)\n12. [Kim Ki-duk interview, Sancho does Asia (2004)](https://www.sancho-asia.com/articles/kim-ki-duk.html)\n13. [SBS News: Kim Ki-duk wins the Silver Bear (2004)](https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N0311540747)\n14. [Kyunghyang Shinmun on the making of Samaritan Girl (2004)](https://www.khan.co.kr/article/200403041549491/amp)\n15. [Cine21: Samaritan Girl invited to Berlinale competition (2004)](https://host.cine21.com/news/view/?idx=0&mag_id=22687)\n16. [Donga Ilbo: Kim Ki-duk wins Berlin directing award (2004)](https://www.donga.com/news/amp/all/20040215/8030017/9)\n17. [Yonhap News: Berlinale win and Korean cinema (2004)](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20040216000100082)\n18. [MoMA press release: Kim Ki-duk retrospective (2008)](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/press-archives/film_archive/KimKiDuk_%20RELandSCH.pdf)\n19. [Samaritan Girl, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/samaritan-girl)\n20. [Variety review of Samaria, reproduced at Cine21 (2004)](https://cine21.com/news/view?mag_id=25570)\n21. [Jeong Seong-il review relay, Cine21 (2004)](https://cine21.com/news/view?mag_id=23378)\n22. [Hwang Jin-mi, The violence of Samaritan Girl's ethics, Cine21 (2004)](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=23838)\n23. [사마리아(영화), Namu wiki](https://namu.moe/w/%EC%82%AC%EB%A7%88%EB%A6%AC%EC%95%84%28%EC%98%81%ED%99%94%29)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2000 to 2005*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Samaritan Girl (사마리아)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Samaritan Girl (사마리아)](https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl](https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Samaritan Girl (사마리아)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Samaritan Girl is Kim Ki-duk's 2004 South Korean drama about two schoolgirls in prostitution and a detective father, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 54th Berlinale." }