[3][4] He made his feature directorial debut in 2004 with the film Mokpo, Gangster's Paradise, starring Cha In-pyo and Cho Jae-hyun.
[5] He went on to direct Sector 7, a 2011 action/horror film about a sea monster which attacked oil platforms, with an ensemble cast led by Ha Ji-won and Ahn Sung-ki.
Distributor CJ E&M Pictures stated that Sector 7 was the highest-grossing South Korean film in China, but it was not well received by South Korean audiences, nor by critics, who panned its "flat" main characters and low-quality computer-generated imagery.
In response to the criticisms of Sector 7, Kim spent nearly two years working with the post-production team on CGI; the film was finally released in December 2012.
Kim stated that he got the idea for The Tower from a variety of boyhood experiences, including his first visit to Seoul where he saw the 63 Building and wondered what it would be like to get trapped inside, and a later incident where he got stuck in an elevator, which he described as "the moment when I first felt dread".