# Pieta (피에타)
**Pieta** (피에타) is a 2012 South Korean drama film written, edited, and directed by [Kim Ki-duk](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-ki-duk), his eighteenth feature, about a brutal debt collector in Seoul whose life is upended when a woman appears claiming to be the mother who abandoned him at birth.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931) It won the [Golden Lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-lion), the top prize, at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, making Kim the first Korean director to receive that award.[2](https://www.korea.net/koreanet/fileDownload?fileUrl=pdfdata%2F2015%2F04%2FFactsAboutKorea_ko_0430.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 6 September 2012, South Korea; 104 minutes; drama; adults-only rating (청소년 관람불가)[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931) |
| Director and writer | Kim Ki-duk, his 18th feature; he also edited and operated the B camera[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931) • [3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm) |
| Lead cast | Cho Min-soo as Mi-son, the woman claiming to be his mother; Lee Jung-jin as Kang-do, the debt collector; Woo Ki-hong as Hun-cheol[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931) |
| Top prize | Golden Lion, 69th Venice International Film Festival (2012), a first for a Korean director[2](https://www.korea.net/koreanet/fileDownload?fileUrl=pdfdata%2F2015%2F04%2FFactsAboutKorea_ko_0430.pdf) |
| Korean admissions | 592,848 by the end of its run on 3 October 2012; Cine21 lists 602,967[4](https://ent.sbs.co.kr/news/article.do?article_id=E10001288072) • [1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931) |
| Production | Kim Ki-duk Film, produced by Kim Soon-mo, budget 850 million won; distributed by NEW; international sales by Finecut[4](https://ent.sbs.co.kr/news/article.do?article_id=E10001288072) • [3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm) • [5](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20124934) |
| Setting | The Cheonggyecheon area of Seoul, a district of small machine shops disappearing under redevelopment[6](https://www.dbpia.co.kr/journal/articleDetail?nodeId=NODE07405208) • [3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Kang-do (Lee Jung-jin) works as an enforcer for a loan shark in a poor industrial neighborhood of Seoul, threatening and crippling debtors who cannot pay so that insurance claims can be collected on them.[7](https://fest.afi.com/2012/world-cinema-2012/pieta/) One day a woman, Mi-son (Cho Min-soo), appears at his door claiming to be the mother who abandoned him as a baby.[7](https://fest.afi.com/2012/world-cinema-2012/pieta/) He first rejects her and subjects her to cruel tests, but she endures them, and he gradually accepts her into his solitary life, eventually quitting his job.[7](https://fest.afi.com/2012/world-cinema-2012/pieta/) • [8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/pieta-movie-review/2013/06/06/5ddfc350-b664-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html)
When the woman disappears in what appears to be a kidnapping, Kang-do tracks down the people he harmed in the past to find the culprit, and learns that she is hiding a dark secret of her own.[7](https://fest.afi.com/2012/world-cinema-2012/pieta/) The film's promotional synopsis frames the pair as "two people who can never be forgiven," closing with the prayer that gives the film its title: "God, have mercy on them."[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931)
## Title and themes
*Pieta* is Italian for "mercy" or "pity," and refers to the Christian image of the Virgin Mary cradling the dead Christ on her lap, a subject treated by hundreds of artists including [Michelangelo](https://www.edgepedia.org/michelangelo).[9](https://jk2269.tistory.com/15956113) • [10](https://news.catholic.or.kr/WZ_NP/section/view.asp?cseq=3&seq=103055&tbcode=SEC08) The film draws on this iconography and on Christian ideas of sin, atonement, and salvation; one scholarly reading describes it as a revenge story about a victim of merciless capitalism that activates Christian thought and iconography.[6](https://www.dbpia.co.kr/journal/articleDetail?nodeId=NODE07405208) Critics also identified the corrupting power of money and the meaning of motherhood as central themes.[11](https://www.screendaily.com/pieta/5046057.article) • [8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/pieta-movie-review/2013/06/06/5ddfc350-b664-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html)
The setting carries the same weight. Kang-do works among small machine shops in a shabby district slated for redevelopment, and the Washington Post's review noted that Kim presents poverty as disfiguring and economics as a mechanism that can mutilate as surely as an industrial drill.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/pieta-movie-review/2013/06/06/5ddfc350-b664-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html) Kim himself connected the film to his youth, recalling at a press conference that when the Golden Lion was announced he thought of his 15-year-old self hauling a heavy box around [Cheonggyecheon](https://www.edgepedia.org/cheonggyecheon).[12](https://www.inkocentre.org/img/bg-img/Focus/2012/Focus_Oct_2012.pdf)
## Production
Kim Ki-duk completed the screenplay in November 2011 and needed actors who could carry the rough psychological shifts between a man who commits cruel acts while remaining inwardly infantile and a woman of vague identity seeking forgiveness.[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm) Cho Min-soo handled live animals and walked barefoot on ice for her role; Kim said she arrived on set with A, B, and C versions of every scene and needed no separate direction.[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm) Cinematographer Jo Young-jik shot the A camera while Kim operated the B camera himself, splitting the shooting roughly 7:3.[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm) The film was produced by Kim Ki-duk Film with producer Kim Soon-mo, scored by Park In-young, and distributed in Korea by NEW, with Finecut handling international sales.[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm) • [5](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20124934)
## Release and box office
The film opened in South Korea on 6 September 2012, two days before it won the Golden Lion in Venice, and held third place at the Korean box office against larger commercial releases such as *[Masquerade](https://www.edgepedia.org/masquerade-2012-film)* and Hollywood titles.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931) • [13](https://www.osen.co.kr/article/G1109468818) Made for 850 million won, it ran for nearly a month and outlasted major studio films with budgets of several billion won.[4](https://ent.sbs.co.kr/news/article.do?article_id=E10001288072) Its cumulative total of 592,848 admissions fell short of Kim's previous box-office best, *Bad Guy* (740,000 admissions nationwide).[4](https://ent.sbs.co.kr/news/article.do?article_id=E10001288072)
**Voluntary withdrawal.** On 3 October 2012, 28 days after release, Kim declared that the film would be pulled from every theater in the country, saying he wanted to give screening slots back to other small films; that day it still drew 4,539 admissions nationwide.[4](https://ent.sbs.co.kr/news/article.do?article_id=E10001288072) SBS's report framed the gesture as a protest against the dominance of major distributors that own theater chains.[4](https://ent.sbs.co.kr/news/article.do?article_id=E10001288072)
## Awards
The Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival (September 2012) was the film's defining honor and, per Korea.net, the first for a Korean director; Kim also took the Nazareno Taddei, Golden Mouse, and Young Critics prizes at Venice.[2](https://www.korea.net/koreanet/fileDownload?fileUrl=pdfdata%2F2015%2F04%2FFactsAboutKorea_ko_0430.pdf) • [14](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20124934) In Korea it won Best Film at the 2012 Blue Dragon Film Awards, and at the Grand Bell Awards Cho Min-soo won Best Actress while Kim received a Special Jury Prize.[14](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20124934) The Korean Association of Film Critics gave it Best Film, Best Director, and a best-actress prize, and the film was named Best Film of 2012 in the Association of Korean Film Journalists' annual awards.[14](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20124934) • [15](https://www.edaily.co.kr/News/Read?mediaCodeNo=258&newsId=01774486602682968)
## Critical reception
The film holds a Metascore of 72, classified as generally favorable, with 11 of 17 critic reviews positive.[16](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/pieta/critic-reviews/) The New York Times called it "a deeply unnerving revenge movie in which redemption is dangled like a cat toy before a cougar," and [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter) described an intensely violent first hour that segues into a moving psychological study.[16](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/pieta/critic-reviews/) Reception was not uniform: [Mark Kermode](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-kermode) in The Guardian praised the leads but found Kim's self-conscious excesses undermined the film, and Slant Magazine's review was sharply negative, calling the film pretentious.[17](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/08/pieta-kim-ki-duk-review) • [18](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/pieta/) Several reviewers noted that most of the violence occurs off screen, suggested through sound and movement rather than shown.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/pieta-movie-review/2013/06/06/5ddfc350-b664-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html)
## References
1. [피에타 (Pieta) 상세정보, 씨네21](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=34931)
2. [Facts About Korea (2015), Korea.net, section on director Kim Ki-duk](https://www.korea.net/koreanet/fileDownload?fileUrl=pdfdata%2F2015%2F04%2FFactsAboutKorea_ko_0430.pdf)
3. [용서받을 수 없는 두 남녀의 이야기가 시작된다! [피에타], Korea Film](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/movie/pieta/pieta_2-1.htm)
4. ['피에타' 상영 종료…"1,000만보다 빛난 59만명", SBS 연예뉴스 (2012-10-04)](https://ent.sbs.co.kr/news/article.do?article_id=E10001288072)
5. [Pieta (2012), Korean Film Council (KOFIC)](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20124934)
6. [김기덕의 「피에타」속 기독교적 수난과 파토스 이미지 읽기, DBpia](https://www.dbpia.co.kr/journal/articleDetail?nodeId=NODE07405208)
7. [PIETA, AFI FEST 2012](https://fest.afi.com/2012/world-cinema-2012/pieta/)
8. ['Pieta' movie review, The Washington Post (2013-06-06)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/pieta-movie-review/2013/06/06/5ddfc350-b664-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html)
9. [피에타/한국/104분/개봉 2012.9.6, 보현화 블로그](https://jk2269.tistory.com/15956113)
10. [영화 '피에타'의 '피에타'를 아시나요?, 가톨릭평화신문 (2012-10-07)](https://news.catholic.or.kr/WZ_NP/section/view.asp?cseq=3&seq=103055&tbcode=SEC08)
11. [Pieta, Screen Daily (2012-09-04)](https://www.screendaily.com/pieta/5046057.article)
12. [Kim Ki-duk's Pieta takes top honour, INKO Centre Focus, October 2012](https://www.inkocentre.org/img/bg-img/Focus/2012/Focus_Oct_2012.pdf)
13. ['피에타', 개봉 14일만에 40만 돌파, OSEN (2012)](https://www.osen.co.kr/article/G1109468818)
14. [피에타 영화정보, 필름메이커스 커뮤니티](https://www.filmmakers.co.kr/movies/dispKobisView?movieCd=20124934)
15. ['피에타', 영화기자들이 뽑은 '2012 최고 영화', 이데일리](https://www.edaily.co.kr/News/Read?mediaCodeNo=258&newsId=01774486602682968)
16. [Pieta critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/pieta/critic-reviews/)
17. [Pieta – review, The Guardian (2013-09-08)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/08/pieta-kim-ki-duk-review)
18. [Review: Pieta, Slant Magazine (2013-05-14)](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/pieta/)
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