Kim Jee-woon (; born July 6, 1964) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a theater actor and playwright before debuting with his self-written and directed film, The Quiet Family in 1998. Kim has worked with increasing levels of success in cinema, showing accomplished acting and a detailed stylization in his films. He is currently one of the most recognized screenwriters/directors in the Korean film industry.
His films A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) and A Bittersweet Life (2005) were both critical and commercial successes. He is also known for the films The Foul King (2000), The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), I Saw the Devil (2010), and The Age of Shadows (2016).
Early life Kim Jee-woon was born on July 6, 1964, in Seoul, South Korea and is the youngest of six siblings. He grew up in Samgak-dong, a neighborhood between present day Jongno and Euljiro. His grandfather was a tailor. When he was young, Kim's father frequently took him to the cinema, where he was exposed to many classic European films. This exposure inspired him to dream of becoming filmmaker.
In 1983, Kim entered the Department of theater at Seoul Institute of the Arts. After dropping out of school, Kim stayed in Paris for three months in 1991 and watched about 100 films during Cahiers du Cinéma'''s 40th anniversary film festival. Kim built up his career in the field by writing and directing several plays, including Hot Sea (1994) and Movie Movie (1995). He also acted onstage in the musical Guys and Dolls (1983) and Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull.
Career
Debut as screenwriter and director (1994–2002) Kim began his film career as assistant director for Lee Sung-soo's 1994 film The Young Lover. In 1996, Kim started his career as a screenwriter by chance, because he was in a car accident and had to pay for the repairs, which amounted to KRW 6 million ($5,300). Kim won a competition in the movie magazine Premiere with his script entitled Wonderful Seasons.
In 1997, Kim went to a ramen shop, and the lady owner used Cine21 magazine instead of a tray. The magazine had an advertisement about the 1st Cine21 Screenplay Contest stating it was a week before the deadline. Kim wrote a film script entitled The Quiet Family, and won first prize. The screenplay went into several film production companies, but couldn't find the right director. Eventually, Kim got the opportunity to direct his first feature film, The Quiet Family (1998), a horror/drama/comedy about a family who owns a mountain inn and whose guests continue to commit suicide. The film was his first collaboration with actors Choi Min-sik and Song Kang-ho. The film won Best Live Action film at the 1999 Fantasporto film festival, and Best Director and Best Film at the Malaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema. It was also nominated for Best Film at the 1998 Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival.
In 2000, Kim directed and wrote his second feature film, The Foul King (2000), which reunited him with Song Kang-ho. The film follows an unproductive and incompetent bank clerk (played by Song Kang-ho) who escapes his demanding, alpha-male boss by entering the pro-wrestling ring and fighting under a pseudonym, "The Foul King." The two worlds eventually end up colliding. Song Kang-ho mentioned that the film The Foul King (2000) is his personal favorite. The film won Best Director at the 2001 Milan International Film Festival and an Audience Award at the Udine Far East Film Festival.
In 2001, Kim directed and wrote a short film entitled Coming Out (2001). The film is about vampires, among other things, and Kim wrote and directed Coming Out as part of a project to distribute three digital short films online. It was also commissioned by venture group Media 4M, and the project also included shorts by Jang Jin and Ryu Seung-wan.Paquet, Darcy. "Three comic filmmakers collaborate on digital film project". Korean Film Newsletter #7, August 7, 2000. Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved on November 2, 2008. Coming Out was shot with a Canon XL-1 camcorder during a time when digital filmmaking in South Korea was still in its infancy, and it went on to inspire many other digital productions.Lee Sang-yong. "Digital Generation, Digital Films". Korean Cinema: From Origins to Renaissance, pp. 397. Korean Film Council. Retrieved on November 2, 2008. It was shown at the Fantasia Festival and the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2001, and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2005."Kim Jee-woon Tribute". Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2005. Retrieved on November 2, 2008.Moriarty. "FANTASIA 2001: MORIARTY Revels In The Wonder of METROPOLIS, LYLIA, TELL ME SOMETHING, and More Shorts!!". Ain't It Cool News, August 4, 2001. Retrieved on November 2, 2008."Made in Korea, Internet Meets the Big Screen". Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. Retrieved on November 2, 2008. Coming Out was also included as a special feature on the UK DVD release of The Quiet Family, and a review at DVDActive praised it as "delicate, cerebral and contemporary cinema at its most profound."
Kim next wrote and directed the "Memories" segment in the omnibus film, Three (also known as Three Extremes II), also featuring segments directed by Peter Chan and Nonzee Nimibutr. The segment starred Kim Hye-soo.
Career breakthrough (2003–2010)
Kim wrote and directed A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), an adaptation of a Joseon Dynasty era folktale called Janghwa Hongryeon jeon. The original Korean folktale featured two sisters named Janghwa and Hongryeon (Rose Flower and Red Lotus). However, in the film, the sisters were named Su-mi (played by Im Soo-jung) and Su-yeon (played by Moon Geun-young), which still carried the same meaning of Rose and Lotus. A Tale of Two Sisters, released in-between the aforementioned hits of 2003, was the third highest-grossing film after Memories of Murder, and only about 150,000 tickets short of Oldboy's initial run of 3,260,000 admissions. It held of record the highest-grossing South Korean horror film for several years.
The film received numerous awards at various film festivals, including the Fant-Asia Film Festival (most popular film), Best Actress (Im Soo-jung), Best Director and Best Film at the Fantasporto, Best Picture at Screamfest Horror Film Festival, Grand Prize and the Youth Jury Grand Prize at the Gerardmer Film Festival, and acting awards for Im Soo-jung and Yum Jung-ah at the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. The movie was later remade into the 2009 U.S. film The Uninvited, starring Emily Browning, with Kim receiving an original story/writer credit.
In 2005, Kim wrote and directed A Bittersweet Life (2005), his first collaboration with actor Lee Byung-hun (whom he would later work with in The Good, the Bad, the Weird and I Saw the Devil). The film was an ultra-stylish and ultra-violent gangster and mobster picture that was both a critical and commercial success in South Korea. The film was released theatrically in South Korea on April 1, 2005. It opened on 265 screens throughout the country, and registered a total of 1,112,950 admissions by the end of its run. Lee Byung-hun won Best Actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards and Hwang Jung-min won a Best Supporting Actor award at Korea's Grand Bell Awards. Kim also won the "Action Asia Award" at the 2006 Deauville Asian Film Festival.
In 2008, Kim wrote and directed The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), his tribute to Sergio Leone's western action film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). He re-teamed again with Song Kang-ho (who played "The Weird") as well as Lee Byung-hun (who played "The Bad") in the film. The film takes place in 1930s Manchuria and chronicles the struggles of the three main characters in trying to find a piece of treasure. The film won an Achievement in Cinematography Award from the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, won Best Supporting Actor for Jung Woo-sung (the "Good") at the 2009 Asian Film Awards, and won Best Director and Best Special Effects at the 2008 Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival.
In 2010, Kim directed, based on a screenplay from Park Hoon-jung, the thriller I Saw the Devil, the first time Kim directed a film from a script by someone else. Choi Min-sik, who played the serial killer, came to him with the script. Kim's first impression of the script was it felt very new and powerful, with a brutal and tough side to it, which got him interested. Kim thought one of the most important things was to find the right antagonist for Choi's character. He met Lee Byung-hun whom he worked with previously on The Good, the Bad, the Weird in a festival and he agreed to headline the film.
The Korea Media Rating Board forced Kim to re-cut the film for its theatrical release, objecting to its violent content. The film received a "Restricted" rating twice, preventing any sort of release in theatres or on home video and promotions as well. Seven cuts were made with the total runtime of removed material between eighty and ninety seconds. The film was finally released in South Korean Cinemas on August 12, 2010. On November 3, 2010, Kim attended the London Korean Film Festival to introduce the restored version of I Saw The Devil. It also received screenings at several other international film festivals, including the Fantasporto Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, and San Sebastian Film Festival.
The film won a number of awards, including Best Director and Best Film at Fantasporto, Special Jury Prize, Audience Award, Critics Award at the Gerardmer Film Festival, Best Lighting at the Grand Bell Awards, Best Foreign Language film from the Austin Film Critics Association and Best Editing from the 2011 Asian Film Awards.
In 2006, Kim directed and wrote the segment known as "The Heavenly Creature" about a robot who achieves enlightenment in a Buddhist temple, in 2012 omnibus film Doomsday Book (Yim Pil-sung directed the other two segments). The film won Best International Film at the Fantasia Festival and a Special Award at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
US debut and recent works (2010–2018) In 2010, Kim was hired as director for US film The Last Stand, which was produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Lionsgate Films. The company had acquired Andrew Knauer's spec script for The Last Stand in June 2009, prior to Kim's involvement. According to di Bonaventura, Kim was brought on board because of his ability to elevate simple concepts and make them feel more rich in his previous works. Kim himself expressed interest in the film's storyline of protecting something valuable, no matter how small, and the idea of using old-fashioned methods to take down advanced technology."This Is My Town: The Making of The Last Stand", The Last Stand DVD In addition, screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff was hired to revise the script. According to di Bonaventura, the film had a Western movie vibe, featuring a small town besieged by a villainous figure similar to a corrupt cattle baron, with a seasoned veteran attempting to thwart his plans.