Korean morality tale wins top prize at Venice film festival
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VENICE (AFP) - South Korean director Kim Ki Duk's Pieta won the top prize at the Venice film festival, while Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology-inspired The Master walked off with two major awards.
The eccentric Kim delighted the audience at the awards ceremony by breaking into song on stage to celebrate winning the Golden Lion award for his bleak morality tale.
The director, whose personality seems far from the darkness of his protagonists, belted out the Korean folk song Arirang on stage to thank the jury.
His film tells the story of a diabolical loan shark who prowls the alleys and clapped-out workshops of a Seoul district being redeveloped. A mysterious woman claiming to be his mother walks into his life and the twisted hero struggles for redemption in an emotional crescendo.
