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Park Chan-wook

 
Writer: Park Chan-wook
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Aug 23, 1963 in Korea
  • Occupation: Writer, Director, Actor
  • Active: 2000s
  • Major Genres: Thriller, Drama
  • Career Highlights: Lady Vengeance, Oldboy, J.S.A. - Joint Security Area
  • First Major Screen Credit: J.S.A. - Joint Security Area (2000)

Biography

A versatile stylist with an aesthetic that straddles the line between the idiosyncratic and the mainstream, Park Chan-wook is best known for his 2000 film Joint Security Area, a powerful story about a murder along the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea that became the biggest box-office hit in the history of Korean cinema. (It was later supplanted by the action film Shiri, which also dealt with North-South relations.) Park's interest in film began in college at Sogang University, where he started the "film gang" club and published a number of critical studies on contemporary cinema. After graduating from the Department of Philosophy, he began working in the film industry as an assistant director to Gwak Jae-young on A Sketch of a Rainy Day (1988). In 1992, he directed his first feature, The Moon Is...the Sun's Dream, a gangster drama, and shifted gears into comedy with 1997's Trio, a romp about three pals on the run from the law. Neither of these films gained much recognition, but his next film, Joint Security Area, struck a nerve with Korean audiences, partly because it was released at a time when relations between the North and South Korean governments were beginning to thaw, but also because it's a well-made, extremely moving film. Rather than following his success with something similar, Park once again changed direction with his next movie, the kidnapping drama Sympathy for Mister Vengeance (2002). With its heavy doses of excruciating violence and a set of characters bent on destroying one another, it's a much more disturbing film than his previous efforts. While it is very different from Joint Security Area, it does make a similar point about how easily "normal" people can be driven to perform horrific acts. Even though he is now one of Korea's most commercially successful directors, he still finds time to collaborate with other filmmakers, co-writing and co-editing Park Chan-ok's 2002 debut feature, Jealousy Is My Middle Name. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Park Chan-wook
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This is a Korean name; the family name is Park.
Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born August 23, 1963 (1963-08-23) (age 46)
Jecheon, South Korea
Occupation film director, screenwriter, film producer, former film critic
Years active 1992—present
Korean name
Hangul 박찬욱
Hanja 朴贊郁
Revised Romanization Bak Chan-uk
McCune–Reischauer Pak Ch'anuk

Park Chan-wook (born August 23, 1963 in the Tanyan area of Jecheon) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country, Park is most known for his films Joint Security Area, Thirst and what has become known as The Vengeance Trilogy, consisting of 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy in 2003 and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance in 2005. His films are noted for their immaculate framing and often brutal subject matter.

In a May 2004 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Park listed Sophocles, Shakespeare, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Balzac, Kurt Vonnegut and others as being influences on his career.[1] In a later interview for Lady Vengeance, Park listed Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Aldrich, Ingmar Bergman, Sam Fuller, Roman Polanski and the Korean director, Kim Ki-young, as cinematic influences.[citation needed]

Contents

Biography

Park grew up in Seoul and studied philosophy at Sogang University, where he started a cinema-club called the 'Sogang Film Community' and published a number of articles on contemporary cinema. Originally intending to be an art critic, upon seeing Vertigo he resolved to try to become a filmmaker.[1] After graduation, he wrote articles on film for journals, and soon became an assistant director of films like Kkamdong, directed by Yu Yeong-Jin, and Watercolor painting in a Rainy Day, directed by Kwak Jae-yong (My Sassy Girl).

His debut feature film was The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992), and after five years, he made his second film Trio. Park's early films were not successful, and he pursued a career as a film critic to make a living. [2]

In 2000, Park directed Joint Security Area, which was a great success both commercially and critically, even surpassing Kang Je-gyu's Shiri as the most-watched film ever made in South Korea.[3] This success made it possible for him to make his next film more independently - Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is the result of this creative freedom.

After winning the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for the film Oldboy, a journalist asked, "in your film, why is the vengeance repeating?". According to Park, he decided to make three consecutive films with revenge as the central theme. Park said his films are about the utter futility of vengeance and how it wreaks havoc on the lives of everyone involved.[4]

The Vengeance Trilogy DVD boxset

His so-called Vengeance Trilogy consists of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. It was not originally intended to be a trilogy. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, shortened to Lady Vengeance, was distributed by Tartan Films for American theatrical release in April 2006.[5]

After the DVD release of Lady Vengeance in the UK, the three films were re-released, packaged together into a 6 disc boxset with a 2 disc special edition of each film. These included previously unavailable additional features including a 3.5 hour documentary on the making of Oldboy and the "Fade to Black and White" version of Lady Vengeance. A "deluxe" version of the boxset was also released, packaged in a box with the same design as the boxes used in Oldboy, and in addition to the films, contained an Oldboy hammer/bottle-opener and Lady Vengeance gun poster.

Despite extreme violence in his films, Park is regarded as one of the most popular film directors in Korea, with three of his last five feature films (Joint Security Area, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) all drawing audiences of over 3 million. This makes Park the director of three films in the thirty all-time highest grossing films in South Korea. (9th, 29th, 26th respectively as of January 2007). [6]

In addition to being a film director and screenwriter, Park is also a film critic with several published editions to his name. None have been translated into English as yet.

Famed American director Quentin Tarantino is an avowed fan of Park. As the head judge in the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, he personally pushed for Park's Oldboy to be awarded the Palme d'Or (the honor eventually went to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11).[7] Oldboy garnered the Grand Jury Prize, the second-highest honor in the competition. Tarantino also regards Park's Joint Security Area to be one of "the top twenty films made since 1992."

He was offered the chance to remake The Evil Dead but he turned it down.[8]

In 2006, he was the member of official section jury at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival.

In February 2007, Park won the Alfred Bauer prize at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival. The award, named after the festival's founder and in praise of movies opening up new perspectives, went to Park for his film, I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK.[9]

Filmography

Chan-wook at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Director

Writer

Producer

Awards

2001
2002
  • Blue Ribbon Awards, Japan
    • Won: Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language Film, for Joint Security Area
2003
2004
2005
2006
  • Fantasporto, Portugal
    • Won: Orient Express Section Grand Prize for Best Film, for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
2007
2008
  • Fantasporto, Portugal
    • Won: International Fantasy Film Award - Special Mention, for I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
2009

Recurring cast in Park Chan-Wook's films

Park Chan-Wook often casts the same actors in different roles in his films. Examples include:

The films of Park Chan-Wook and his close friend director Kim Ji-Woon often share actors. Examples include:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Dialogue: Park Chan-wook". May 14, 2004. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000511737. Retrieved 2007-07-14. 
  2. ^ "A.V. Club interview with Park Chan-wook". http://www.avclub.com/articles/park-chanwook,31394. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
  3. ^ "Yellow Sea Rising: The Resurrection of South Korean Cinema". http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/block-cinema/day-for-night-magazine/spring08/yellowsea.html. Retrieved 2009-08-30. 
  4. ^ McConkey, Rachael. "Contemporary South Korean Auteurs". www.traumafilm.com. http://www.traumafilm.com/korean.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-07. 
  5. ^ Palisades Tartan unleashes the 8-Disc VENGEANCE TRILOGY Box
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ "The New Cult Canon: Oldboy". October 1, 2008. http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-new-cult-canon-oldboy,2484. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
  8. ^ "Sam Raimi Talks Evil Dead Remake AND Sequel". March 2, 2005. http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=16599. 
  9. ^ "China's Tuya's Marriage wins Berlin film festival". rawstory.com. February 17, 2007. http://rawstory.com/news/dpa/China_s_Tuya_s_Marriage_wins_Berlin_02172007.html. Retrieved 2008-05-07. 

External links

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Films directed by Park Chan-wook
1990s
The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992) · Saminjo (1997)
2000s
Shorts
Judgement (Simpan) (1999) · Never Ending Peace and Love (2003) · Cut (2004)
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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002 Thriller Film)

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