PIETA

Hired by moneylenders, a man lives as a loan shark brutally threatening people for paybacks.

KIM KI-DUK – PIETA
South Korea, 104′
Cho Min-soo, Lee Jung-jin

This man, without any family therefore with nothing to lose, continues his merciless way of life regardless of all the pain he has caused to a countless number of people. One day, a woman appears in front of him claiming to be his mother. He coldly rejects her at first, but gradually accepts her into his life. He decides to quit his cruel job and live a decent life. Then suddenly the mother is kidnapped. Assuming that it would be by someone he had hurt in the past, he starts to track down all the people he had harassed. The man finally finds the one, only to discover the most horrific dark secrets better left unrevealed.

Director’s Statement

Money inevitably puts people to the test in a capitalist society, and people today are obsessed with the fantasy that money can solve anything. Money is the problem for most of the incidents that occur today. In this film, two people who give and receive pain over money, unlikely to meet, come across each other, and become family. And through such a family, we realize that we are accomplices to everything that occurs in our period. Money will ask sad questions until the people of this era die. Ultimately, we will end up becoming money to each other and grind ourselves on asphalt. I again cry out towards heaven with a meager faith today. God, have mercy on us.