Born in 1979, Yoon Jongbin was first noticed when his 2004 short <Identification of a Man> won Best Comedy at the Mise-en-Scene Short Film Festival. His debut feature and graduation project at Chung-Ang University, <The Unforgiven> (2005) brought him four awards at the Busan International Film Festival, including the FIPRESCI and NETPAC awards, and grabbed the industry’s attention for its selection in the non-competition Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Ca...More

Born in 1979, Yoon Jongbin was first noticed when his 2004 short <Identification of a Man> won Best Comedy at the Mise-en-Scene Short Film Festival. His debut feature and graduation project at Chung-Ang University, <The Unforgiven> (2005) brought him four awards at the Busan International Film Festival, including the FIPRESCI and NETPAC awards, and grabbed the industry’s attention for its selection in the non-competition Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. With a clever script that allowed him to say a lot on a sensitive topic despite a very limited budget movie, Yoon was praised for his skilful direction and the depth of the characters. Moreover, the film also heralded the earnest beginning of the acting career of Ha Jungwoo, who would go on to become one of the most bankable actors of his generation. In his second feature, <Beastie Boys> (2008), Yoon confronted another world rarely shown on Korean screens, that of host clubs catering for women. After he officially set up his own production company MOONLIGHT Film, Yoon scored his first mainstream hit with his next work, <Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time>. A period gangster film starring Choi Minsik and Ha Jungwoo, the film wound up with over 4.7 million admissions in 2012 and earned him Best Original Screenplay from the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics. Teaming up again with his friend Ha, not to mention star Gang Dongwon, Yoon took on another challenge with the summer blockbuster <Kundo: Age of the Rampant>. A Joseon Era period action film that played like a western-infused Robin Hood tale, the film took in just shy of 4.8 million admissions in 2014. He then helped his friend Ha by contributing to the script for the actor’s sophomore directing effort, <Chronicle of a Blood Merchant> (2014). After striking gold with the crime comedy <A Violent Prosecutor> (2015), the first title on which he was only credited as an executive producer, he was cast by indie director Zhang Lu as one of the leads in <A Quiet Dream>, playing against fellow directors Yang Ikjune and Park Jungnum. He was the talk of the town in 2018 for the stunning historical espionage drama <The Spy Gone North>, which was first presented Out of Competition in Cannes before picking up Best Picture at the Baeksang Arts Award. In 2022, he moved to series in great fashion, directing for Netflix the limited series <Narco-Saints>.Less