Biography
Park Chan-wook (born in 1963) is the best known and most admired Korean director worldwide, thanks to the cult success of his Old Boy (2003), Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and the most successful episode of his Revenge Trilogy, also including Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Lady Vengeance (2005). After the unfortunate "I'm a Cyborg but That's OK" (2006), Park returned to public success with "Thirst" which also earned him the Jury Prize at Cannes 2009
He was born on August 23, 1963 in Seoul. After high school, he tried to enter the faculty of Aesthetics where he was not admitted. He then enrolled in the faculty of Philosophy. He founded a film club: the Film Gang. He writes articles, essays and reviews with attention to contemporary cinema. He worked as a film critic for several magazines and newspapers, but his desire was to become a director; the passion was born after watching "The Woman Who Lived Twice" by Alfred Hitchcock. He worked on film sets as an assistant and assistant director to his friend-director Kwank Jae-young. As he enjoys a good reputation among insiders, he makes his debut with the feature film "Moon Is... Sun's Dream" (1992). The box office outcome is not the best and Park faces a difficult moment during which he works as a salesman. He continues to write several articles and scripts that he presents to many producers; he made his second work "Trio" (1997). Park continued and made a short film: "Judgement" (1999) participating in the Clermont-Ferrand festival. Thanks to this work he was noticed by the Myung Films company which entrusted him with the direction of the novel DMZ by Park Sang-yun, with a decent budget available. Thus was born "Joint Security Area" (2000). The film was an extraordinary success: one of the most viewed ever in his homeland and thus transformed Park Chan-wook into an appreciated director. The film was invited to the Berlin Film Festival and the Far East Film Festival in Udine. Thanks to this success, Park was able to devote himself to an old script of his own; thus was born "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" (2002), enthusiastically received by foreign audiences. In 2003 he directed first the episode "NEPAL" of the collective film "If you were me" and then the feature film "Old Boy", presented at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival obtaining the Special Grand Prix of the Jury, awarded by a jury chaired by an enthusiastic Quentin Tarantino. The success spread to the general public and the film was distributed in Europe. In 2004 he made, together with directors Miike Takashi and Fruit Chan, the film "Three... Extremes" by signing the episode "Cut" presented, in the Midnight section, at the 61st Venice International Film Festival. The revenge trilogy sees its conclusion with "Lady Vendetta" (2005) presented at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival. Park Chan-wook is now a recognized author in all respects: his participation as a juror at the 2006 Venice Film Festival and the offer, even if refused, to direct the remake of Sam Raimi's "The House". After Cannes and Venice in 2007 he presented, at the Berlin Film Festival, "I'm a Cyborg, But That's Ok". In 2009 in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, he presented "Bakjwi" winning the Jury Prize. In 2013 he made his first English-language film: "Stoker", produced and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The latest work is "The Handmaiden" presented in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
