The Uncertain Destinies Of Female Characters In Kim Ki-Duk’s Films

As a heavyweight of the history of contemporary Korean cinema, Kim took part in the69th Venice Film Festival with his new book "Holy War" and won the Golden Lion Award forthe highest honour. So far, Kim Ki-duk ’s winning record broke the plight that Korean filmshad never won any of the world’s top award and thus once again became the focus ofdiscussion. The tragic image of women is always the main focus in Kim’s films. By the theoryof Lacan’s mirror, the image of women in Kim’s films can be analysed more deeply. Thenon-necessity of the fatalism of the images of female can be studied accordingly.Currently, there are very few of academic analysis of Kim in mainland China, foreigncountries, even in Korea. What is more, relevant Korean websites are not available in China.On the other hand, applying Lacan’s mirror theory to film studies is still on the initial stage.Therefore, the way of combination of psychoanalysis and film studies is one of the questionsthat the author has been exploring.The dissertation is aimed to analyse female characters in Kim’s films from the outside tothe inside by psychoanalyst Lacan ’s Mirror Stage theory, examining the misreading of theworld in the film and the real world, thus, analysing the non-necessity of fatalism of theimages of female in Kim’s films.