Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and Best Picture at Korea’s Blue Dragon Awards, Pieta represents Kim Ki-duk’s return to mainstream film-making. By turns viscerally violent and strangely moving, it tells the story of a vicious, almost feral loan shark who collects from his victims by crippling them and reaping the insurance benefits. A woman (Jo Min-soo, in a phenomenal performance) appears claiming to be his mother. After she shows him the only tenderness he’s ever known, he begins to mend his ways. But does she have an ulterior motive? Kim’s ever-controversial films often trade in emotional and physical cruelty—and Pieta is no exception—but its aim is less to shock than to consider the consequences of leading a violent life. As documented in his soul-searching diary film Arirang, Kim’s self-imposed four-year exile from feature film-making was, in part, a time for him to contemplate the consequences of his own art. Perhaps as a result, Pieta is his strongest film in years. Intended for mature audiences. (Dir.: Kim Ki-duk, Korea, 2012, 104 min., Korean with English subtitles, D-Cinema)…