NA Hyun, born in 1970, had long dreamed of making movies but resolved to study politic science and international relations instead as he felt like he didn’t have the courage to pursue this challenging career. He however expressed his passion through the film club of the school, and later entered a scenario contest held by the Korean Motion Picture Promotion Corporation (now KOFIC). Even though he didn’t win, this allowed him to make new contacts within the film industry a...More

NA Hyun, born in 1970, had long dreamed of making movies but resolved to study politic science and international relations instead as he felt like he didn’t have the courage to pursue this challenging career. He however expressed his passion through the film club of the school, and later entered a scenario contest held by the Korean Motion Picture Promotion Corporation (now KOFIC). Even though he didn’t win, this allowed him to make new contacts within the film industry and get the chance of debuting as a screenwriter, with comedy drama <Mokpo, Gangster’s Paradise> (2003). Out of curiosity for life on the set, he decided for the second film he wrote, high school gangster comedy <Spin Kick> (2004), to also serve as a script supervisor and enjoyed witnessing all the little additions brought to his screenplay. After completing the script for <Forever The Moment> (2007), he resolved to try his luck at directing. His two first projects failed to find enough financing, but he contributed in the meantime to several high-profile movies such as the hit animation <Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild> (2011), the blockbuster war epic <My Way> (2011) and the social comedy <South Bound> (2012). It is eventually with the uncompromising drama <The Prison> (2016) that he made his directorial debut, far from the family dramas he used to write.Less