A rare case in Korea, AN Byung-ki has made only horror films throughout his career. If the <Whispering Corridors> series first showed the possibility that a Korean horror film can deal with a social issue, AN Byung-ki’s horror films proved that K-horror can be loved by the audience for being faithful to the genre itself. His debut film was <Nightmare> (2000), a story of college friends who later in life get murdered one by one. He established a production compa...More

A rare case in Korea, AN Byung-ki has made only horror films throughout his career. If the <Whispering Corridors> series first showed the possibility that a Korean horror film can deal with a social issue, AN Byung-ki’s horror films proved that K-horror can be loved by the audience for being faithful to the genre itself. His debut film was <Nightmare> (2000), a story of college friends who later in life get murdered one by one. He established a production company, Toilet Pictures, purporting to make only horror and thriller movies, and released a series of horror flicks such as <The Phone> (2002), <Bunshinsaba> (2004), and <A.P.T.> (2006). Feeling the limitations of Korea’s cinema market, which does not provide sustained popularity for genre movies, AN has forayed into overseas markets. He also proved to be a successful producer with box office hits <Scandal Makers> (2008) and <Sunny> (2011), which passed 8 million and 7 million admissions respectively. AN has also been on the lookout for overseas market. American production house Imprint Entertainment announced a remake of his 2002 hit <The Phone>. Though the remake project was postponed, he made a foray into the Chinese market and left a significant mark with his own brand of K-horror genre. In 2002, he was recorded as the first Korean filmmaker who directed a film in mainland China with the horror <Bunshinsaba>, which borrowed the English title from his 2004 original work. The Chinese horror film made by the Korean filmmaker was the biggest success of the genre in Chinese film history, grossing almost USD 9.8 million. Thanks to this success, AH earned an opportunity to direct a sequel to the film in China. His new film <Bunshinsaba> 2 will be released theatrically in China in August 2013. Currently he is also a co-producer of director KIM Sung-soo’s new action drama <Flu>. Less