Born in 1971, Kim Yonghwa garnered notice early on thanks to his graduation project at Chung-Ang University, a short film called <Salted Mackerel> (1999). His feature debut, <Oh! Brothers> (2003), starring Lee Jungjae and Lee Beomsoo, was also a box office success, and he came to be known as a director who knows how to make “clever commercial films” that bring together good laughs and inspiring messages. <200 Pounds Beauty> (2006), which was based on a p...More

Born in 1971, Kim Yonghwa garnered notice early on thanks to his graduation project at Chung-Ang University, a short film called <Salted Mackerel> (1999). His feature debut, <Oh! Brothers> (2003), starring Lee Jungjae and Lee Beomsoo, was also a box office success, and he came to be known as a director who knows how to make “clever commercial films” that bring together good laughs and inspiring messages. <200 Pounds Beauty> (2006), which was based on a popular Japanese manga of the same title, drew more than six million viewers in Korea but also saw box office successes in other parts of Asia such as Hong Kong and Singapore. <Take Off> (2009), which went head-to-head against the hit <Haeundae> (2009), pulled off the feat of selling eight million tickets despite the competition. Moreover, the movie won Best Picture at the Baeksang Art Awards and earned him Best Director at the Grand Bell Awards and the Blue Dragon Awards. Subsequently, Kim took on his most ambitious project to date, the USD 25 million budgeted sports feature <Mr. Go> (2013), featuring an animated, baseball bat-wielding Gorilla, which also marked the first Korean film to be shot in 3D. In order to achieve this, he set up the visual effects house Dexter Studios, introducing innovating techniques to the Korean industry along the way. Though the film was not a big success, it was instrumental in making a name for his new company. It went on to be recognized as one of the leading post-production studios in Korea, having notably entered the Chinese market, with notable VFX work on <The Monkey King> (2014) and its two follow-ups, as well as Tsui Hark’s <Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon> (2013) and <The Taking of Tiger Mountain> (2014). Kim came back into the director’s chair in 2017 with the fantasy adventure <Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds> (2017) and its follow-up <Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days>, adaptations of the <Along with the Gods> webtoon of the same name that were regarded as a new benchmark for visual effects in Korea. The first film became at the time the second most viewed film of all time in Korea, beating the likes of <Avatar> (2009) and <Ode to My Father> (2014). KIM has also been running the sound design and audio post-production studio Livetone since its acquisition by Dexter Studios in 2017. After he contributed to the comedy <CHEER UP, MR. LEE> (2019) as executive producer, he released with Dexter Studio the action blockbusters <ASHFALL> (2019) and <Escape from Mogadishu> (2021).Less