# Arirang (아리랑) (2011 film)
**Arirang** (아리랑) is a 2011 South Korean autobiographical documentary directed, written, shot, edited, produced, and performed by [Kim Ki-duk](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-ki-duk) (김기덕), in which the director examines his own film career and his tense relationship with the Korean film industry after a three-year absence from filmmaking.[1](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20110239) The film runs 100 minutes, was produced by Kim Ki-duk Film with Finecut handling international sales, and won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 64th Cannes Film Festival in 2011.[1](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20110239) • [2](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=66111)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and subject | Kim Ki-duk, who serves as director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, producer, and sole on-screen performer[1](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20110239) |
| Length and format | 100 minutes; documentary-drama shot on film and digital[1](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20110239) |
| Cannes 2011 | Un Certain Regard Prize, shared ex aequo with Andreas Dresen's *Stopped on Track*[2](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=66111) |
| Other awards | Tokyo Filmex audience award (2011); documentary award at the Brisbane International Film Festival[1](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20110239) • [3](https://sports.khan.co.kr/article/201111231648333) |
| Trigger event | A 2008 accident during the hanging scene of *Dream* (비몽), in which lead actress Lee Na-young came close to dying[2](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=66111) |
| Significance for the director | Made Kim the first Korean director to have won prizes at all three major festivals, Berlin, Venice, and Cannes[4](https://www.hankyung.com/article/2011052248601) |
| Title | Taken from a sad Korean folk song that the director sings repeatedly in the film[5](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2011/05/14/moretti-kim-ki-duk-vague-a-l-ame-et-depression_5990283_3476.html) |
## Spoilers
### Content and controversy
The film criticizes the Korean film industry by name. It names and criticizes director Jang Hun, who had left Kim after *Film Is Film* and, in Kim's words quoted by the Dong-A Ilbo, "succumbed to the temptations of capitalism"; it also criticizes actors who prefer villain roles and a government that awards medals for prizes won at foreign festivals.[2](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=66111) • [11](https://www.donga.com/news/amp/all/20110518/37322749/5) These remarks generated controversy in Korea even before any domestic release, and reports noted that the named individuals could be edited out for a Korean release, though the original had already been shown at Cannes.[11](https://www.donga.com/news/amp/all/20110518/37322749/5)
## Background: the hiatus
Between 2000 and 2008 Kim Ki-duk directed twelve films, including *Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring*, and then stopped working entirely until *Arirang*.[5](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2011/05/14/moretti-kim-ki-duk-vague-a-l-ame-et-depression_5990283_3476.html) The film explains the reasons for this gap in question-and-answer form: an accident in 2008 during the shooting of *[Dream](https://www.edgepedia.org/dream-2008-film)*, when actress [Lee Na-young](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-na-young) was performing a hanging scene and came close to losing her life, and a falling-out with a junior director.[2](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=66111) • [6](https://www.dispatch.co.kr/1768) The Maeil Business newspaper's review connected the film to two wounds from his years as a producer on *Film Is Film* (영화는 영화다): a distributor's bankruptcy that cost him the financial returns of a commercially successful film, and a dispute with the junior director who had directed it.[7](https://www.mk.co.kr/news/culture/4985257) • [8](https://www.korea.kr/news/cultureColumnView.do?newsId=148712486)
## Structure and method
The film is built as a conversation among three versions of one person. Kim serves as screenwriter, director, and performer of what the [Karlovy Vary](https://www.edgepedia.org/karlovy-vary) festival catalog calls a Kim Ki-duk triumvirate: a recluse, a filmmaker, and a critic.[9](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/23/6401-arirang) The recluse asks questions about the meaning of creation, the filmmaker answers on a monitor, and a third Kim comments ironically on the exchange.[9](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/23/6401-arirang) A Korean academic study of the film describes it as overturning the traditional documentary's single subject and notion of factuality, with Kim appearing not as an authoritative observing subject but as a wounded, powerless figure seeking healing from psychological trauma, while still structuring his inner conflicts through staged dialogue.[10](https://kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001714042)
The production was essentially a one-man undertaking. Kim handled the screenplay, direction, production, performance, editing, and sound himself, and the film was made on a very low budget consistent with his general practice, which the Maeil Business review describes as productions that rarely exceeded 1 billion won or a month of shooting.[4](https://www.hankyung.com/article/2011052248601) • [7](https://www.mk.co.kr/news/culture/4985257)
## Cannes and reception
Kim appeared at the film's gala screening in the Debussy theater on May 13, 2011, his first public appearance in three years, wearing a gray quilted hanbok and suede shoes without socks; the audience gave him a standing ovation, and he opened his introduction with the words "Cannes woke me up."[6](https://www.dispatch.co.kr/1768) The film competed in Un Certain Regard alongside two other Korean films, [Hong Sang-soo](https://www.edgepedia.org/hong-sang-soo)'s *The Day He Arrives* and Na Hong-jin's *Yellow Sea*, among 21 titles in the section.[2](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=66111) On May 21 it shared the section's top prize with *Stopped on Track*, making Korean films back-to-back winners of the prize after Hong Sang-soo's *HaHaHa* the previous year.[4](https://www.hankyung.com/article/2011052248601) At the ceremony Kim thanked the jury and sang the film's title song, "Arirang."[4](https://www.hankyung.com/article/2011052248601)
Critical reactions diverged. Screen Daily called Kim's one-man performance a thought-provoking tour de force likely to put off general audiences but suited to film schools and festivals.[12](https://www.screendaily.com/arirang/5027493.article) Peter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* gave it 4 out of 5, calling it an extravagantly self-indulgent piece of pure loopiness that is also gripping.[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arirang_2011) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film held a Tomatometer score of 36% from 11 reviews and an audience score of 53%.[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arirang_2011)
## Release and afterlife
A Korean theatrical release was uncertain after Cannes; Kim's side said a domestic distributor had not been chosen and that a release was not ruled out.[11](https://www.donga.com/news/amp/all/20110518/37322749/5) The film went on to win the best art film award at Poland's New Horizons Film Festival and the documentary award at the Brisbane festival, was invited to the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival), and opened the Tokyo Filmex festival, where it received the audience award.[3](https://sports.khan.co.kr/article/201111231648333) • [14](https://sports.donga.com/article/all/20111122/42056276/1) From December 8 to 21, 2011, distributor Tcast screened *Arirang* together with Kim's next film *Amen* at Cine Cube in [Gwanghwamun](https://www.edgepedia.org/gwanghwamun), Seoul, under the title "Kim Ki-duk New Film Series."[3](https://sports.khan.co.kr/article/201111231648333)
Kim Ki-duk died in December 2020 in a Latvian hospital after COVID-19 worsened, at age 60; Korean media obituaries cited *Arirang*'s Cannes prize, alongside his 2004 Berlin Silver Bear for *[Samaritan Girl](https://www.edgepedia.org/samaritan-girl)* and Silver Lion for *[3-Iron](https://www.edgepedia.org/3-iron)*, as the awards that had made him the only Korean director to win at the three major festivals.[15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KUfDhgj9Fw)
## References
1. [아리랑 (Arirang) film database entry, Filmmakers Community (KOBIS data)](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20110239)
2. [김기덕 감독 <아리랑>, 칸 영화제 주목할만한 시선 부문 대상 수상, Cine21 (2011-05-22)](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=66111)
3. [<아멘><아리랑>…'김기덕 신작 열전' 씨네큐브서 열려, Sports Kyunghyang (2011-11-23)](https://sports.khan.co.kr/article/201111231648333)
4. [김기덕 다큐 '아리랑' 칸영화제 수상…일·대만에 판매, Hankyung (2011-05-22)](https://www.hankyung.com/article/2011052248601)
5. [Moretti, Kim Ki-duk, vague à l'âme et dépression, Le Monde (2011-05-14)](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2011/05/14/moretti-kim-ki-duk-vague-a-l-ame-et-depression_5990283_3476.html)
6. ["기다려주셔서 감사합니다"…레드카펫에 선 김기덕, Dispatch (2011-05-14)](https://www.dispatch.co.kr/1768)
7. [[영화리뷰] 아리랑, 반성과 치유 담은 칸 수상작, Maeil Business (2011-08-31)](https://www.mk.co.kr/news/culture/4985257)
8. [김기덕 감독의 '아리랑' 극장 무대에서 듣게 되길, Korea.kr policy briefing column (2011-05-30)](https://www.korea.kr/news/cultureColumnView.do?newsId=148712486)
9. [Arirang, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival program](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/23/6401-arirang)
10. [최정민, 김기덕의 <아리랑>에 드러난 자전적 다큐멘터리의 주체와 재연 기법 특성 분석, 영상예술연구 (2012)](https://kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001714042)
11. [김기덕 "'아리랑' 한국 개봉 검토", Dong-A Ilbo (2011-05-18)](https://www.donga.com/news/amp/all/20110518/37322749/5)
12. [Arirang review by Dan Fainaru, Screen Daily (2011-05-14)](https://www.screendaily.com/arirang/5027493.article)
13. [Arirang (2011), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arirang_2011)
14. [김기덕감독 신작 '아멘', 극장에서만 볼 수 있다, Sports Donga (2011-11-22)](https://sports.donga.com/article/all/20111122/42056276/1)
15. [김기덕 영화 감독, 라트비아서 코로나19로 사망, YTN (YouTube, 2020)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KUfDhgj9Fw)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Individual documentary feature films › Film, television, and comedy figures*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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