Born in 1969, Kim graduated from the prestigious Yeonsei in business administration in 1995. It was after working for a film company that he decided to enter the theatre and film department of Dongguk University. After a first short in 1999 (<Sunflower Blues>), he made his feature directorial debut in 2007 with the mystery-thriller <Paradise Murdered>. With its well-organized plot about a murder taking place on a secluded island, the film drew in over 2 million sp...More

Born in 1969, Kim graduated from the prestigious Yeonsei in business administration in 1995. It was after working for a film company that he decided to enter the theatre and film department of Dongguk University. After a first short in 1999 (<Sunflower Blues>), he made his feature directorial debut in 2007 with the mystery-thriller <Paradise Murdered>. With its well-organized plot about a murder taking place on a secluded island, the film drew in over 2 million spectators nationwide. Since his second feature, <Handphone> (2008), fell short of both the commercial and critical successes of his first film, not many predicted that in the summer of 2011 his Joseon Dynasty-set period drama called <War of the Arrows> would become the biggest Korean box-office draw of the year with its 7.5 million admissions. This achievement, however, would pale in comparison to the historical record his follow-up would set. Another period drama, <Roaring Currents> depicts the legendary naval battle that saw the remaining 13 vessels of the Korean navy, under the command of General YI Sun-sin, beat hundreds of invading Japanese ships. Starring Choi Minsik in the role of one of the most admired historical figures in Korea, it became Korea’s most watched film of all time with 17.6 million tickets sold and has remained undefeated ever since then. This also marked the first release of his own studio BigStonePictures, with which he would act as an executive producer and co-screenwriter on <The Hunt>, <The Battle: Roar to Victory> and <Oh! My Gran>. In 2022, he came back in the director’s chair with <Hansan: Rising Dragon> (2021), a prequel to <Roaring Currents> with a different cast and the second installment in a planned trilogy about the rise and fall of Admiral Yi Sun-shin. Less