Screening

About Kim Seong-hun

Format:

Virtual

Genres:

Starting off as an assistant director, Kim Seong-hun took his first steps in the Korean film industry as an assistant director on the romantic comedies Oh! Happy Day (2003) and He Was Cool (2004). Two years later, he tackled his first feature with How the Lack of Love Affects Two Men. Starring Baek Yoon-shik and Bong Tae-gyu, the film followed a father and son who go head-to-head when they both fall for their new basement tenant. Following its mediocre returns, Kim had some trouble setting up his next project but after years of honing his sophomore script, he eventually released the blackly comic action-thriller A Hard Day in 2014.

The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight section, where it received unanimously positive reviews. Featuring Lee Sun-kyun as a dirty cop who commits a hit-and-run on the way to his mother’s funeral and ends up hiding the body in her coffin, A Hard Day was a deliriously inventive twist on the Korean thriller which puts a dirty cop against a mysterious and formidable foe who is following his every action. The film was a box-office hit, selling in excess of 3.4 million tickets, and receiving numerous industry accolades, including Best Director at the Daejong Film Awards.

Kim’s next film, Tunnel (2016), was also a box-office triumph and earned lead actor Ha Jung Woo the Best Actor prize at the 22nd Chunsa Film Awards. In 2019, Kim teamed up with Netflix to helm its first original Korean series, the big-budget zombie drama Kingdom, which became a global success and was named one of “The Best International Shows of 2020” by The New York Times.