The Auteurs

K-Drama and Korean Film

Course 1 · Chapter 8 · The Auteurs

An auteur is a director whose films are recognised as their own, with a style and set of themes that carry from film to film. After Chapter 5's boom, a handful of Korean directors became known by name at the festivals of Cannes, Venice and Berlin. This chapter introduces five of them: Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, Lee Chang-dong, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Ki-duk.

How this chapter was checked The facts come from the English Wikipedia articles on each director, as I read them. Each is long, and I read only its first 100,000 characters, so later sections are unread. I read no books, reviews or interviews. Where an article hedges or contradicts itself, I say so. The five directors are the ones in my planning sketch and are not a ranking; other directors could equally have been chosen. The "styles" below are what the articles say, not my own critical judgments except where I mark them as mine.

The Five at a Glance

Director	Born	Debut feature	Best-known film or award named by the article
Bong Joon-ho	14 September 1969, Daegu	Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)	Parasite (2019): Palme d'Or and four Academy Awards for the film
Park Chan-wook	23 August 1963, Seoul	The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992), though he prefers Joint Security Area (2000)	Oldboy (2003): Grand Prix, Cannes 2004; Best Director for Decision to Leave (2022)
Lee Chang-dong	4 July 1954, Daegu	Green Fish (1997)	Secret Sunshine (2007): Best Actress, Cannes; Poetry (2010): Best Screenplay, Cannes
Hong Sang-soo	25 October 1960, Seoul	The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996)	The Woman Who Ran (2020): Silver Bear for Best Director, Berlin
Kim Ki-duk	20 December 1960; died 11 December 2020	Crocodile (1996)	Pietà (2012): Golden Lion, Venice

Bong Joon-ho

The article spells his name "Bong Joon Ho"; I use the hyphenated form as in earlier chapters. It says he studied sociology at Yonsei University (entering in 1988, graduating in 1995) and then at the two-year Korean Academy of Film Arts.

Films. Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000, a dark comedy that gained a "cult following" but little commercial interest), Memories of Murder (2003, a crime thriller based on a stage play about a real serial killer), The Host (2006, a monster film), Mother (2009), Snowpiercer (2013, science fiction and his English-language debut), Okja (2017, a Netflix-produced co-production), Parasite (2019) and Mickey 17 (2025).
Style and themes. The article names social and class themes, genre-mixing, dark comedy and sudden tone shifts, sometimes within a scene, filming on real locations or built sets, and giving actors freedom, including improvisation.
Awards. The lead says three Academy Awards, while the body attributes Parasite's four Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film) to the film. It also names two BAFTAs and a place on the 2020 Time 100 list. The article describes Parasite as the first South Korean film to receive an Academy Award nomination in any category, a claim I did not check.

Park Chan-wook

He enrolled in Sogang University's philosophy department hoping to become an art critic, and joined the film and photography clubs because the university had no formal arts programme. Chapter 5 met his Joint Security Area (2000).

The first films. The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992), which the article says he has "largely disowned", and Trio (1997); neither did well.
The "vengeance trilogy". An unofficial grouping, which the article says was not originally planned as a set: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002, a financial failure that divided critics), Oldboy (2003, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes) and Lady Vengeance (2005). The article says the trilogy explores "the futility of revenge and the havoc it causes".
Later films. Thirst (2009, a vampire film with Song Kang-ho, which shared the Cannes Jury Prize with Fish Tank), The Handmaiden (2016, a BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language), Decision to Leave (2022, Best Director at Cannes) and No Other Choice (2025, a Golden Globe nomination and an Academy Award shortlist).
Style. The article credits "cinematography, framing, black humor, and often brutal subject matter", blending crime and mystery with other genres. The claim that Oldboy is "regarded as one of the greatest films ever made" appears in the article without a named source in what I read.

Lee Chang-dong

He began as a novelist, with a first novel, Chonri, in 1983, and had no formal filmmaking training. He worked on To the Starry Island (1993) and wrote A Single Spark (1995) before directing Green Fish (1997).

Films and prizes. Peppermint Candy, Oasis (a Silver Lion for Best Direction at Venice), Secret Sunshine (2007, Best Actress at Cannes for Jeon Do-yeon), Poetry (2010, Best Screenplay at Cannes) and Burning (2018).
A minister. He served as Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004. The article says he proposed a screen quota for independent film and cut it in half after opposition.
Style. His films are, in the article's words, "dark stories of innocence lost, suffering and alienation", with psychological trauma and memory as recurring themes, a naturalist style and an approach in which actors are encouraged to become their characters. The article's remark that "he seems to justify" his anti-heroes is its own interpretation.
Date conflicts. The article dates Peppermint Candy as 1999 in the filmography and 2000 in the text, and the Oasis Silver Lion as 2002 in one place and 2003 in two others.

Hong Sang-soo

He studied theatre at Chung-Ang University and then in the United States. His debut, The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996), premiered at the Berlin festival in 1997.

Style. The article says his films "often deal in love affairs and everyday dilemmas in contemporary South Korea", in a "domestic realism" of residential streets, cafes, hotels and stairwells. Scenes "typically consist of a single shot, often beginning and ending with a camera zoom", characters drink and main characters are often directors or actors, and budgets "average about $100,000". He writes the day's dialogue from 4 a.m. and often shoots while actors are intoxicated. The article's comparisons to Rohmer and Ozu are framed as arguments by "some" writers, and one is tagged as unsupported.
Prizes. Woman Is the Future of Man (2004) was his first film in the main competition at Cannes. Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. At Berlin he won Silver Bears for The Woman Who Ran (Best Director, 2020), Introduction (Best Screenplay, 2021), The Novelist's Film (Grand Jury Prize, 2022) and A Traveler's Needs (Grand Jury Prize, 2024).
Scale. The article gives no total of films. It does carry inconsistencies in the personal details (the number of children and the date of a separation), which I do not use.

Kim Ki-duk

Kim went to Paris in 1990 to study fine arts and spent two years there as a street portrait painter, after five years in the South Korean marine corps. The article does not say he was self-taught in film. It describes a screenwriting career, with a 1995 Korean Film Council screenplay prize.

Films and prizes. Crocodile (1996, his directing debut, on a low budget), The Isle (his international breakthrough, shown at Toronto), Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003, praised by critics and included in Roger Ebert's Great Movies), Samaritan Girl (2004, Silver Bear for Best Director at the 54th Berlin), 3-Iron (2004, Silver Lion for Best Director at the 61st Venice), Arirang (2011, a documentary about himself, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes) and Pietà (2012, the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice).
Style. The lead calls his work "idiosyncratic" and "art-house" and names no specific themes. The British film board delayed the UK release of The Isle over scenes of animal cruelty; the article quotes Kim as saying "I've done a lot of cruelty on animals in my films."
Death. He died on 11 December 2020 in Riga, Latvia, aged 59, which the article attributes to complications from COVID-19.

The allegations, as the article reports them The article reports accusations against Kim from several women in the industry, and I give only what it says, with its attributions. In August 2017 an actress filed a complaint alleging that he slapped her and forced an unscripted sex scene on the set of Moebius; in December 2017 prosecutors fined him 5 million won for physical assault and did not otherwise charge him, citing lack of physical evidence. In 2018 the broadcaster MBC aired accusations from that actress and others of harassment and rape, which the article says were directed at Kim and an actor; police reportedly could not indict because the statute of limitations had expired. Kim denied the accusations and sued; the article says prosecutors dropped his criminal complaints in January 2019, and that in a civil suit the court ruled for the defendants on 28 October 2020. The article reports these as accusations and does not state a finding that they were true. I make no judgment beyond that.

What Unites and Divides Them

The following paragraph is my own reading of the above, not a claim from the articles. All five are known abroad through festivals, and the articles name a Cannes prize or entry for each (for Kim, the Un Certain Regard prize for Arirang). They differ in method. Bong and Park work in genre and on larger budgets; Hong shoots quickly for around $100,000; Lee came to film from the novel and works in a naturalist manner; Kim made low-budget films that divided audiences. What they share is that each article describes a recognisable style.

Gaps in what I read Each article is much longer than the part I read (Bong's runs to about 305,000 characters), so later sections on his later films and reception are unread. I did not read articles on women directors, such as those from earlier decades, or on other directors who are well known abroad, so this list is not a full picture of Korean cinema. Several date conflicts are in the articles themselves and are shown above. Kim Ki-duk's article does not give an account of his film training, so I removed the idea that he was self-taught.

Exercises

Exercise 1

For Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, name their debut feature, two other films, one prize the article gives for each, and one point where the article is unclear or contradictory.

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Exercise 2

Describe Lee Chang-dong's route into film and Hong Sang-soo's working method, using the details the articles give, and name one prize for each.

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Exercise 3

Summarise Kim Ki-duk's career and prizes in four sentences, then explain in two sentences how this course treats the allegations against him and why.

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Quick Reference

Bong Joon-ho: Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Parasite (2019)
Park Chan-wook: Joint Security Area (2000), vengeance trilogy (2002 to 2005), Oldboy Grand Prix 2004, Decision to Leave Best Director 2022
Lee Chang-dong: novelist first; Green Fish (1997); Secret Sunshine (2007); Poetry (2010); minister 2003 to 2004
Hong Sang-soo: The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996); budgets about $100,000; Silver Bears 2020 to 2024
Kim Ki-duk: Crocodile (1996); 3-Iron (2004); Pietà (2012); died 11 December 2020
Check: the Oasis and Peppermint Candy dates, and the claim of the first Oscar nomination

Next chapter: Festivals, Streaming and the Global Audience, which looks at how Korean screen work travelled, from Cannes and the Oscars to Netflix.