This is a further publication of Korean Film Council

RYOO Seung-wan is a figure announcing the arrival of a new generation in Korean film from the 2000s. [...] People had the impression that they were going to love the power of RYOO Seung-wan, where bloody, raw feelings were captured vividly and faithfully, pulled from real life. [...] In modern Korean film, the films of RYOO Seung-wan weave the most dazzling carpet, where the tendencies of the A-list movie and the B-movie, the action film and the documentary of life on the streets, the melodrama capturing characters

This book introduces five new directors who have made works realizing the meaning of an independent film environment that has become diversified amid the struggles of the Korean film industry as it has attempted to progress toward a high degree of industrialization since the 2000s. NOH Dong-seok, KIM Dong-hyun, MIN Boung-hun, KIM Tai-sik, and CHO Chang-ho are noteworthy newcomers whose works, each made in different environments, show plenty of potential. These directors have very different backgrounds and personal histories, and bring about meaningful meetings with the audience armed with their own unique visions. [...] The value of independent films does not lie solely in the aspects of system and market. The foremost reason independent film must stay robust is because the root for discovering new directors and cultivating the leaders of future cinema lies there. -From the Preface

This book introduces five new directors who have made works realizing the meaning of an independent film environment that has become diversified amid the struggles of the Korean film industry as it has attempted to progress toward a high degree of industrialization since the 2000s. NOH Dong-seok, KIM Dong-hyun, MIN Boung-hun, KIM Tai-sik, and CHO Chang-ho are noteworthy newcomers whose works, each made in different environments, show plenty of potential. These directors have very different backgrounds and personal histories, and bring about meaningful meetings with the audience armed with their own unique visions. [...] The value of independent films does not lie solely in the aspects of system and market. The foremost reason independent film must stay robust is because the root for discovering new directors and cultivating the leaders of future cinema lies there. -From the Preface

LIM is a director who signaled the emergence of a new kind of sensibility in Korean film. Through her debut film Three Friends, she brought the issue of

Kang Woo-suk has consistently performed the background role of a man of power in Korean film for the last ten years. He has made only 16 films since his debut as a director in 1988, but for the more than ten years since 1997 he has been in charge of investment, planning or production for no fewer than 120 films. In spite of this, Kang’s name remains an unfamiliar one to the overseas film world. But his films have succeeded in capturing the rapidly changing Korean social and political situation of the last 20 years in a distinctive style; to be specific, a style of popular speech through satire and humor. Looking at Kang’s films in sequence, one can grasp the twists and turns of the history of Korean capitalism. This book is a record of Kang’s cinematic career over the past 20 years, and at the same time a document that demonstrates how Korean cinema possesses a fountain of diverse films and how considerable the potential commercial film is.

LEE Myung-se marks himself as a rare director in the history of Korean films. In the Korean film industry, where the tradition of realism is deeply rooted and influence from Western-especially Hollywood-movies prevails, it is rare to find a director so absorbed in pursuing the fundamental question. 'What is the film?' Apart from a few directors digging into the subject these days, we can seldom find anyone who maintains this kind of attitude toward film. [...] Aspiring to be a craftsman rather than auteur. LEE can be called a sophiscated alchemist who can engrave images.

KIM Jee-woon is both a talented genre filmmaker and one of the few cineastes in today

This is an introductory guide to JANG Sun-woo, one of the most controversial and talented Korean film director. Written by Tony Rayns, a critic and also a film director himself, this book contemplates JANG Sun-woo films with a scholarly passion and delves deep into JANG

The stories that IM Sang-soo tries to tell deal with the lives of modern Koreans. He feels that the responsibility placed upon him as a storyteller is the history of "here and now" untold by older Korean directors of the same period. IM is practically the only director now making films that take a long look at the lives of contemporary Koreans without losing their historical sense. The major interest of this book is in examining the way in which his films observe the lives of modern Koreans. He does not view experimentation in style and form as important, but he realized early on that the stories he sought to tell often demanded unconventional form, and he has worked on polishing the formal beauty within his films to a dazzling degree.