critics, Kim's independently produced films were box-office successes during this era in which most films were harmed through heavy governmental interference. In 1972 Kim's Insect Woman was the only film to sell more than 100,000 tickets in Seoul and won Kim the Best Director prize at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 1973. "I'm a scientist specializing in medicine. That makes me close to a technician... In some ways, human beings are more accurate than machines. Of course, that depends on their expertise. As an independent producer, I have to be a type of skilled laborer. There were many times that I had to make a film quickly. At those times, I kept entertainment-value in mind. Not once have I made a film for the sake of making the film itself. My taste is in looking through the camera. Filming happens to correspond with that taste. Art films are what Yu Hyun-mok makes. That's because director Yu wants to make art films. I just make films by following my heart, so the analysis I leave to all of you."— Kim Ki-youngAlthough a critically acclaimed, financially successful independent filmmaker, Kim was not immune from governmental pressure. He filmed Ban Geum-ryeon in 1975, but it was banned at the time, and not released until 1981, with 40 minutes of footage censored. The government also coerced Kim into making an anti-Communist propaganda film. The resulting film, Love of Blood Relations (1976), transcended the bounds of propaganda by portraying the communist agent as one of Kim's typical femme fatale characters. Kim later commented, "North or south, capitalist or communist, ideology is far less interesting to me than the things that divide the sexes." Film professor and programmer for the Pusan International Film Festival, Lee Yong-kwan calls Iodo (1977) Kim's best film, and Variety's Seoul-correspondent Darcy Paquet calls it "one of Korean cinema's most compelling, unnerving depictions of the primal forces that motivate humankind." An examination of environmental, religious, social and sexual taboos, the film culminates in a scene of necrophilia that Paquet calls "one of the most shocking, brazen sequences ever shot by a Korean filmmaker". Rediscovery and later life Kim's associates characterize the director as an eccentric individual. Tokyo International Film Festival programming director Kenji Ishizaka recalls that Kim's way of writing a screenplay was to walk away from home for three months. He would shut himself up in a cheap hotel, listen to