Acclaimed Korean filmmaker Kim-Ki Duk is back with a new film.

Its title is "Pieta", after the famous sculpture by Michelangelo depicting the Virgin Mary holding Jesus in her lap.

Kim says it's for a reason.

SOUNDBITE: South Korea's Film Director Kim Ki-Duk saying (Korean)

"It's meaning of "God have mercy on us, " I think is relatable to all of us living in modern society, as beings awaiting mercy from our gods."

The film follows a violent man working as a loan shark, who meets a mysterious woman, claiming to be his birth mother.

But slowly the gruesome truth behind their reunion is discovered.

It's the first time in four years that Kim has appeared before local media.

He has won honors at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals but he has stirred controversy in his native country - at one point denouncing all his work as "trash".

But Kim says that's all in the past.

SOUNDBITE: South Korea's Film Director Kim Ki-Duk saying (Korean)

"I will no longer try to please 100% of all the critics. I want to live more flexible and that is the reason why I am here today."

Pieta will open in South Korean theaters in late August.

Elly Park, Reuters.