Park Chan-wook

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This is a Korean name; the family name is Park.
Park Chan-wook
Born August 23, 1963 (1963-08-23) (age 44)
Jecheon, South Korea
Occupation film director, screenwriter, 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 director and screenwriter. One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country, Park is internationally renowned for 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 brutal subject manner.

In a May 2004 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, when asked who influences him, Park's response was: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Balzac, Kurt Vonnegut and others.[1] In an 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

[edit] 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, but the response to these two films was quite cold. Before Joint Security Area, Park was more famous as a film critic than as a filmmaker.

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. 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.[2]

The Vengeance Trilogy DVD boxset
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.

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) gathering more than 3 million spectators. 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). [3]

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 and has publicly disclosed on the show Jimmy Kimmel Live! that 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).[citation needed] Oldboy garnered the Grand Jury Prize, the second-highest honor in the competition.

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

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[4]

Like another Korean director Bong Joon-ho, Park is a partisan of Democratic Labor Party, a minor, leftist party in South Korea, for whom in 2002 he joined the presidential TV campaign.[citation needed]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Director

[edit] Writer

[edit] Producer

[edit] Awards

[edit] 2001

[edit] 2002
  • Blue Ribbon Awards, Japan
    • Won: Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language Film, for Joint Security Area

[edit] 2003

[edit] 2004

[edit] 2005

[edit] 2006
  • Fantasporto, Portugal
    • Won: Orient Express Section Grand Prize for Best Film, for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

[edit] 2007

[edit] 2008
  • Fantasporto, Portugal
    • Won: International Fantasy Film Award - Special Mention, for I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK

[edit] 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:

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Dialogue: Park Chan-wook (May 14, 2004). Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
  2. ^ McConkey, Rachael. Contemporary South Korean Auteurs (English). www.traumafilm.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ China's Tuya's Marriage wins Berlin film festival (English). rawstory.com (February 17, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-05-07.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Park Chan-wook