Advertisement

Special committee in South Korea urges eradication of violent practices on film-sets

Call comes after well-known filmmaker allegedly slapped an actress in the face and forced her to shoot an unscripted sex scene

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Movie director Kim Ki-duk poses during the premiere of "One on One". Photo: Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

Advertisement

A joint special committee, established to deal with Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk’s assault on an anonymous actress, has urged the industry to end all kinds of violence against actresses, which has been excused as a routine practice in filmmaking.

The committee, consisting of 136 film and women’s rights organisations at the Seoul Bar Association argued that committing violence to evoke an actor’s empathy while shooting scenes cannot be justified as effective or ethical directing.

“Filmmaker Kim Ki-duk’s case is about Kim abusing his power as a director, having supreme status and unconditional control on the set,” said a committee member. “He took advantage of the long-standing custom in the film industry, which must be eradicated as it infringes directly on human rights and dignity.”

The committee also urged the prosecution to investigate the case fairly and thoroughly amid flourishing speculative articles trying to identify the actress and the reason why she has revealed the case four years after it happened. It said such reports are obscuring the essence of the case and hampering the debate to solve the problems with the infringement of an actor’s human rights in the scene.

Advertisement

The committee has decided to receive reports about sexual assault and human rights infringement cases for a month up to September 7 by phone through the Korea Women’s Human Rights Centre.

The filmmaker has been accused of hitting an actress and forcing her to shoot sex scenes for his drama film “Moebius” (2013).

loading
Advertisement