Much attention is paid in Korean cinema to the so-called 386 generation of filmmakers, those born in the 1960s, entered university in the 1980s and were in their 30s when this term was coined as they started making films in the 1990s. Directors such as Bong Joon Ho were part of this generation. 

Indeed, film as a medium is centered around the director and actors but a sign of a healthy industry is a large pool of talent both in front and behind the camera. This is true of Hollywood and smaller film industries including the UK that attracts huge productions because, at least in part, of the talented professionals working in it. 

Korea’s film industry too is home to a wealth of talent; from production designers to composers, cinematographers, producers and editors. Also important is that this spans younger generations too as the industry looks ahead, rather than just relying on the generation that put Korean cinema on the map in the early-to-mid 2000s. 

This week, we therefore profile five professionals working in Korean cinema that were born in the 1980s and entered the film industry in the 2000s and 2010s. This consists of production designers, cinematographers, and a film editor. 

 SHIN Yu jin

Starting her career as an interior designer, Shin Yujin was lured into the film industry in the 2000s by an advertisement and worked in the art team on films including The World of Silence (2006), Lovers of Six Years (2008) and City of Fathers (2009). She is credited as an Art Director on Come, Closer (2010) and Silenced (2011) directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk (Squid Game). 

Like many professionals she has worked on a range of projects, both lower budget and more expensive features where she has been able to leave her mark. In 2013, she collaborated with Jang Joon-hwan (Save the Green Planet!) on his eagerly awaited sophomore feature Hwayi: A Monster Boy. It follows a teenage boy (Yeo Jin-goo) who was kidnapped and raised by a group of criminals to be an assassin. 

 Although seen as a disappointment by some critics, the film’s production values were praised. Much of the film’s strong visuals are indebted to the production design, the basement, for instance, where the young boy was imprisoned that captures his torment that lingers throughout, or the home of one of their targets that’s located in a derelict part of the city, which becomes an important part of the narrative.  

A much brighter film that also utilizes interior locations is Lee Won-suk’s musical romantic comedy Killing Romance, which attracted an enthusiastic following after its release in 2023. The film follows an actress (Lee Hanee) who gets married to an affluent man called Jonathan (Lee Sun-kyun) but becomes unhappy and feels imprisoned in her marriage and turns to a friendly next-door neighbor for help.  Shin’s work as a production designer on the film is impactful, the exuberance of Jonathan’s home, for example, which becomes an integral location in the film is characteristic of Lee Won-suk’s eccentric and idiosyncratic style. 

Shin worked on Jason’s Yu’s feature debut Sleep that premiered in Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2023 about a newlywed couple played by Jung Yu-mi and Lee Sun-kyun whose relationship comes under strain when the husband begins sleep walking that comes to threaten their baby. Most of the film is set in their apartment, a setting many local viewers can identify with. Through the film’s direction, cinematography, and also crucially Shin’s production design, it’s both recognizable as a location but also cinematic. 

JEONG Yi-jin  

The production designer Jeong yi-jin has similarly made a lasting impression on Korean cinema working on recent films by Kim Jee-woon including Cobweb. She entered the world of film art when she joined Hwaseong Workshop led by art director Cho Hwa-seong. Her first project she worked on through the company was Moby Dick (2011) as a concept designer along with Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (2012) in charge of the props and New World (2013) as part of the Art team – both of which attracted acclaim for their strong craftsmanship. 

She is credited as the Art Director on Cold Eyes (2013) that was also praised for the film’s visuals. Her projects since then have included box office hits Inside Men (2015), The Age of Shadows (2016) and A Taxi Driver (2016).

Like Shin yu jin, she’s also been involved in smaller projects illustrated through the independent film Not Out by Lee Jung-gon, which premiered in the Korean competition at the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2021. It centers on a high school student (Jeong Jae-gwang) who is not drafted by the professional baseball team but undeterred his passion and the decisions he makes comes to affect his relationships with those around him. In contrast to the glamour of professional baseball in Korea that is often on display, the film’s gloomy aesthetic also captured in the film’s production design by Jeong presents a world of desperation. 

Much like many professions in the industry like renowned production designer Ryu Seong-hee (Decision to Leave, Mask Girl), Shin has also boarded a streaming project as the industry pivots towards OTT – with the Wavve Original The Deal, which screened at the Busan Film Festival in 2023. It was also the second collaboration between Jeong and director Lee Jung-gon (Not Out) echoing some of the themes from Lee’s feature debut focusing on a high school student who was a promising football player but desperate he ends up getting wound up in a kidnapping case involving a friend. 

Jeong drew further acclaim from critics and the wider film industry for her work in Cobweb that takes place on a film set in Seoul in the 1970s when government censorship was at its most intense. Starring Song Kang-ho as Director Kim, he seeks to remake the ending of his film amidst a chaotic backdrop of scandals, disputes, and censorship. Almost entirely set on a sound stage, much is dependent on the film’s exquisite production design that earned her a Blue Dragon Award for Best Art Direction. She’s also been nominated for the Technical Award at the 60th Baeksang Arts Awards that take place in Seoul on May 7. 

HAN Mi-yeon 

Han Mi-yeon is one of the few female editors in the Korean film industry. She had originally intended on majoring in directing but realizing that it wasn’t the right path for her she studied Editing at the Korea National University of Arts. She started working as an editing assistant on films including You’re My Pet (2011), Lee Won-suk’s How to Use Guys with Secret Tips (2013)  and Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer (2013) before becoming one of the main editors on The Great Actor together with Yang Jinmo (PARASITE), one of the most sought after editors in the industry. 

It stars character actor Oh Dal-su as a little-known actor who dreams of becoming a great leading performer when a renowned director holds auditions for his next film. Featuring a director called Cannes Park, a nickname for Park Chan-wook played by Lee Geung-young, it’s a film that is full of references to Korean cinema itself. 

Editing becomes an important part of Kim Yong-hoon’s Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020), which consists of six chapters centered around a bag of cash. It was invited to the Rotterdam International Film Festival in the main Tiger Competition where it won the Special Jury Award, just weeks before Parasite won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, a film she also worked on – this time as onsite editor. 

The local industry took note of her work in Beasts Clawing at Straws and was subsequently awarded the Best Editing accolade at the 41st Blue Dragon Awards and 7th Korean Film Producers Association Awards. 

Her other numerous credits include being the main editor on Um Tae-hwa’s Concrete Utopia that was warmly received by critics for its different approach to the Korean blockbuster mirroring some of dystopian content found on streaming services. Her most recent project, Troll Factory (2024) about online trolling and the effects that can have on society underscores her approach to editing that she spoke about in an interview with Cine 21 in 2020, “good editing should be invisible, the audience must be immersed in the story.” 

KANG Kuk-hyun 

Korea’s film industry has produced several globally revered cinematographers including Hong Kyung-pyo (PARASITE), Chung Chung-hoon (Oldboy) and Kim Ji-yong (The Age of Shadows) but a new generation is coming through with figures such as Kang Kuk-hyun who has won praise for his work on The Shameless (2015) and House of Hummingbird (2018).

Kang began his career as a cinematographer on Lee Kyoung-mi’s short film Audition (2003) and worked as part of the camera crew on a range of features; from Flying Boys (2004) and You Are My Sunshine (2005) to the horror film Cadaver (2007). He was the leading cinematographer on films in the 2010s such as Stateless Things (2011) and Futureless Things (2013) with his work on The Shameless earning him a nomination for Best Cinematography at the 36^th Blue Dragon Awards.

There’s a unique aesthetic to his lensing that permeates throughout The Shameless, a romantic noir thriller starring Jeon Do-yeon about a woman who develops a relationship with a cop (Kim Nam-gil). It’s a bleak but alluring film through its cinematography and strong performances.

A similar style is evident in Kim Bora’s widely acclaimed coming-of-age drama House of Hummingbird, which is set in 1994, the year the Seongsu Bridge collapsed. Often films that take place in the 1990s play on nostalgia but this feature with its backdrop that follows a teenager searching for love is palpably solemn and reflective that’s also captured through Kang’s camera work.Kang has often worked on female-led projects. This has included House of Hummingbird but also Miss Baek (2018), The Day I Died: Unclosed Case (2020) and Soulmate (2023), which all exhibit an alluring visual despite some of the darker themes that they delve into.   

CHO Hyoung-rae 

Born in 1982, cinematographer Cho Hyoung-rae earned his first credit on Lee Seung-young’s Nowhere to Turn (2007) as part of the camera team and directed his first short film Usage of A Sickle in 2009. In the 2010s, he would work on a number of independent films including Intruders (2012), Koala (2013), Tinker Ticker (2013) and Alice in Earnestland (2014) as part of the crew responsible for cinematography. 

It was his role as director of photography on Jung Ji-woo’s Fourth Place about an 11-year-old gifted swimmer that attracted the attention of director Byun Sung-hyun who would then approach him to work on his projects. Cho’s elegant cinematography captures the film’s ordinary setting despite a low-budget.  

Cho’s first collaboration with Byun Sung-hyun would be The Merciless (2017) that centers on the relationship between an undercover cop (Im Si-wan) and a powerful inmate (Sol Kyung-gu), which screened in the Cannes Midnight Section. Although the film was not a box office hit, it has attracted a cult following in Korea, partly owing to its mise-en-scene and cinematography. The pair also worked together on Byun’s well-received political drama Kingmaker (2021) that focuses on an aspiring politician and his strategist set in the 1960s and 1970s. They also collaborated on the Netflix film, Kill Boksoon (2023) about a female assassin (Jeon Do-yeon) in which the film’s cinematography, story and characters seem influenced by some of the work of Quentin Tarantino. 

Cho’s most recent feature is the dystopian disaster fim Concrete Utopia (2023) directed by Um Tae-hwa, which surprised viewers in the summer of 2023 with its dour tone – unusual for a seasonal tentpole title. Taking place in an apartment complex after an earthquakes decimates Seoul, Cho’s cinematography aptly projects the film’s unsettling themes of survival and social order injected with moments of dark humor. It secured him a Blue Dragon Award nomination for Best Cinematography and Lighting in 2023 – together with the lighting director Lee Gil-gyu. 

Edited by Shim Eunha

Written by Jason Bechervaise