Biography for
Chan-wook Park More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Nickname

Spouse

Trade Mark

Often uses computer generated effects to smoothen transitions between shots.

Frequently uses short, surreal fantasy sequences in which a deceased character will interact with a living one in the film's present (or vice versa).

Trivia

Turned down the chance to remake The Evil Dead.

His films "Sympathy for Mr Vengeance", "Oldboy" and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" are widely known as the "Vengeance Trilogy".

Was a student of philosophy at Sogang University in Seoul.

Has one daughter.

Met wife at a university film club in the 80s.

Member of the Jury at the Venice Film Festival in 2006.

Decided to become a filmmaker after seeing Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.

Personal Quotes

"I don't feel enjoyment watching films that evoke passivity. If you need that kind of comfort, I don't understand why you wouldn't go to a spa."

"Basically, I'm throwing out the question 'When is such violence justified?' To get that question to touch the audience physically and directly - that's what my goal is. In the experience of watching my film, I don't want the viewer to stop at the mental or the intellectual. I want them to feel my work physically. And because that is one of my goals, the title 'exploitative' will probably follow me around for a while."

"In our lives, we have good things and bad things, happiness and pain. Life is full of pain and happiness and that's what I wanted to show."

"Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn't act on it."

"I have principles and rules. I deal very carefully with acts of violence and make sure that audiences understand how much suffering these acts cause."

"I can see why my films remind people of computer games, but I've never played one. Actually, I was approached by a Japanese designer of a PlayStation game called Metal Gear Solid. When I met him, I found that there was nothing really to talk about. But I was told that I was idolized in the world of computer games."

"...there is one thing that can never be said in Korea. You could never say that the Japanese occupation of Korea had been beneficial. That would create even more hostility than a movie praising North Korea. It would be like telling Jews that the Holocaust didn't exist."

"In my films, I focus on pain and fear. The fear just before an act of violence and the pain after. This applies to the perpetrators as well as the victims."

Numerous times I lie in bed at night and imagine the cruellest torture. I imagine the most miserable ruining of that person's life. After that, I can fall asleep with a smile on my face. As long as it stays in the realm of imagination, the crueller the better - that's healthy. I'd like to recommend it to you all as well. I hope my films can help in any small way to help your imagination become at least a little bit crueller.

When a hero decides to take revenge, their hitherto tedious life is ended and they are born again as a completely different person. With the completion of revenge in sight, the hero has to face the fact that their pleasure up until that point must come to an end.

I've always tried not to fall for the lies that say things like 'you can do anything if you have the will' or that 'you're the only one who can carve out your own life.' According to the audience member's beliefs, you could call it the will of God or social systems, or fate; but in the end, what I'm trying to say is the same. And that is, 'Life doesn't go your own way."

When I was about to start Oldboy I was somewhat concerned about making two films on vengeance back to back. I even thought about refusing the project but my wife convinced me to by saying, 'If the story's interesting, isn't that all that matters?' Then reporters kept asking me about the two vengeance films and why I was doing them one after the other. It felt like they were criticizing me for choosing to tell horrible stories, instead of taking up one of the beautiful ones. And then, before I realized it, I'd announced that I wasn't just making two, but three films on vengeance. It was actually just a spontaneous statement in an interview, and I regretted it deeply, but I couldn't take something back I said in public. So you could say the trilogy owes its conception to Korean journalists.

"My films are the stories of people who place the blame for their actions on others because they refuse to take on the blame themselves."

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