Jang Jin (born February 24, 1971) is a South Korean
film director,
theatre director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
,
playwright,
screenwriter,
film producer,
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
and TV personality.
Considered one of the most distinctive voices to emerge from the 1990s Korean cinema renaissance, Jang's unique filmmaking style mixes unconventional storylines, quirky characters, dry and subversive humor, comic twists, sharp puns, stagy presentation, a keen observation of society, and humanism. Jang’s films do not sell millions of tickets but he has nurtured a faithful fan base that appreciates his "Jang Jin-ish" style.
Career
Jang Jin dreamed of becoming a musician in middle school, but his ambition changed when he saw his first theater play in his freshman year of high school. As a high school student, he acted in more than 40 plays, receiving good reviews and a few awards for his performances. After majoring in theater studies at
Seoul Institute of the Arts
Seoul Institute of the Arts is a prominent educational institution specializing in the Arts located in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The school has nurtured many graduates who are actively working in art related fields within Korea as ...
, he joined the writing team for the
SBS variety show ''Good Friends'' in the mid 1990s. He created his own portion ''Hollywood Message'', which he wrote and edited by himself, where he would take famous scenes from some of the most popular Hollywood films showing in theaters, and make parodies, add silly popups, mix scenes from different films together to form a bizarre, unique collage of images. Because of his contribution, ratings for the show surged to unexpected heights.
In January 1995, Jang entered newspaper daily
The Chosun Ilbo
''The Chosun Ilbo'' (, ) is a daily newspaper in South Korea and the oldest daily newspaper in the country. With a daily circulation of more than 1,800,000, the ''Chosun Ilbo'' has been audited annually since the Audit Bureau of Circulations w ...
's annual literary contest with ''
Cheonho-dong
Cheonho-dong is a '' dong'', neighbourhood of Gangdong-gu in Seoul, South Korea.
History
Cheonho means "Thousand of Houses", because its geographical location was believed to be an ideal place to live based on the Feng shui theory. In addition ...
Crossroad'', his first full-fledged script. Using three characters which would feature in most of his theater plays and early films (Hwa-yi, Dal-soo and Deok-bae), his new and creative brand of storytelling won over the judges, who awarded him the top prize. He wrote his first stage play ''Heotang'' ("labor in vain") at the age of 21 while serving his military duty, and his followup ''Clumsy People'', not only granted him much praise, but was also a big success, and allowed actress Song Chae-hwan to win the Best Actress Award at the Seoul Theater Festival. At the same time, he was helping adapt Song Jae-hee's original into what became ''A Hot Roof'', a feminist comedy where a group of women from all walks of life protest their position in society from the roof of a building, while their husbands and the rest of the city try to cope with all that in the midst of one of the hottest summers Korea had ever seen.
It would take another few years before Jang could start working full-time in
Chungmuro
Chungmuro is an avenue 1.75 km in length and 10–20 m in width and the area nearby, located in Jung-gu, central Seoul, South Korea. Since the 1960s, Chungmuro has been known as the street of culture, artists, and the film industry. Dansun ...
, but during that time, he built a reputation as one of the most brilliant theater directors in the country, with unique scripts and characters who came across as real even in the most surreal of situations. His 1997 play ''Taxi Driver'' was a huge success, displaying his wit and talent for snappy dialogue. The original starred
Choi Min-sik
Choi Min-sik (born April 27, 1962) is a South Korean actor. He received critical acclaim for his roles in '' Oldboy'' (2003), ''I Saw the Devil'' (2010) and '' The Admiral: Roaring Currents'' (2014).
For his role in ''Oldboy'', he won the Best ...
as Deok-bae, a taxi driver from the countryside who decides to come to the city, buys a private taxi after his mother sold some land, and hopes to finally make a change in his miserable life.
The success of his theater plays raised his profile in the industry. Veteran TV drama director
Kim Jong-hak
Kim Jong-hak (November 5, 1951 – July 23, 2013) was a South Korean television director and producer, best known for the seminal and highly rated Korean dramas ''Eyes of Dawn'' (1991) and '' Sandglass'' (1995). After financial losses incurred ...
commissioned Jang for a script, but the project was delayed. Jang decided to shop around his script, which led to his debut feature 1998 comedy ''The Happenings'' (though only half of what he shot ended up in the final cut).
In 1999 Jang founded the theater troupe Suda, and among his regulars were Jung Gyu-soo,
Shin Ha-kyun,
Jung Jae-young
Jeong Jae-yeong (born Jeong Ji-hyeon; November 21, 1970) is a South Korean actor. He's best known for his roles in the critically acclaimed films '' Silmido'' (2003), ''Right Now, Wrong Then'' (2015), and '' On the Beach at Night Alone'' (2017). ...
and
Jang Young-nam
Jang Young-nam (born November 25, 1973) is a South Korean actress. She began her career as an acclaimed actress in theater, then transitioned to supporting roles on television and film, notably in works by director Jang Jin. A member of Jang Ji ...
. After working on the play ''Magic Time'', he then shot his second film ''The Spy'', a comedy starring
Yoo Oh-sung as a North Korean spy trying to steal the magic formula of the South's "super pig" to combat the famine.
The rest of Jang's career brought him to the top of Korea's A-list directors, with the same brand of "Jang Jin style" crowd pleasers, such as ''
Guns & Talks
''Guns & Talks'' is a 2001 South Korean film written and directed by Jang Jin. Starring Shin Hyun-joon, Won Bin, Shin Ha-kyun, Jung Jae-young and Jung Jin-young, the black comedy is about a group of four assassins-for-hire, with a dogged prose ...
'', a black comedy about four talkative assassins. In 2000 Jang established his own film production outfi
Film It Suda hiring his "family" of fellow writers, producers and directors. Their first production was the three-part
omnibus ''No Comment'' in 2002.
With his theater and film successes, Jang was finally able to move on to producing and his real passion, writing. But the huge flop of the 2003 melodrama ''A Man Who Went to Mars'' (also known as ''A Letter from Mars'', which Jang wrote) brought the company's future to a serious crossroad: either focus on hot items or risk losing everything. Though the aftermath of the film's failure was felt even in 2004, romantic comedy ''
Someone Special'' had a decent box office performance despite the film's low budget, as well as glowing reviews for its stars
Lee Na-young
Lee Na-young (born February 22, 1979) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her leading roles in TV Series ''Ruler of Your Own World'' (2002), ''Ireland'' (2004) and ''Romance Is a Bonus Book'' (2019) and film '' Someone Special'' (20 ...
and
Jung Jae-young
Jeong Jae-yeong (born Jeong Ji-hyeon; November 21, 1970) is a South Korean actor. He's best known for his roles in the critically acclaimed films '' Silmido'' (2003), ''Right Now, Wrong Then'' (2015), and '' On the Beach at Night Alone'' (2017). ...
. Jang then focused on adapting his successful 2000 theater play ''Leave When They're Applauding'' into the big screen. The result was 2005's ''Murder, Take One'', about a homicide case being broadcast live for 48 hours, a whodunit with a campy take on the ratings-obsessed media and the viewers' craze for
reality TV.
But it would be another of the company's films that became one of the biggest critical and commercial successes of 2005. Adapted by Jang from his same-titled 2002 play, ''
Welcome to Dongmakgol'' is the story of a remote mountain village where North and South Korean soldiers as well as an American soldier are stranded during the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. The fantasy dramedy was the debut feature of
Park Kwang-hyun, one of several of Jang's colleagues from his theater days who joined Film It Suda.
In August 2005 Jang served as theatre director for the first time on a play he didn't write himself. He directed his fellow
Seoul Institute of the Arts
Seoul Institute of the Arts is a prominent educational institution specializing in the Arts located in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The school has nurtured many graduates who are actively working in art related fields within Korea as ...
alumni in a staging of
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
's ''
Death of a Salesman
''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montage ...
''. The play commemorated the 43rd anniversary for Dongnang Arts Center affiliated to the institute and the 100th birthday of the late Yu Chi-jin, founder of the institute and the nation's first amphitheater.
After his doing his takes on the gangster genre (2006's ''
Righteous Ties
''Righteous Ties'' () is a 2006 South Korean film.
Plot
Chi-sung, a gangster, is sent to prison for seven years after stabbing a man on orders from his boss. But his boss betrays him and tries to have him killed, though the attempt is unsuccess ...
'') and the melodrama genre (2007's father-centered ''
My Son
My or MY may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station
* Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe
* ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak
* ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon
Business
* Mar ...
''), Jang wrote the witty script for Ra Hee-chan's ''
Going by the Book
''Going by the Book'' () is a 2007 South Korean film. This is a remake of the 1991 Japanese film ''Asobi no jikan wa owaranai'' (遊びの時間は終らない).
Plot
Jung Do-man is a low-ranking traffic cop whose tendency to do things "by the ...
'', about a mock bank robbery drill that turns embarrassingly real.
He also injected an enhanced comic effect into the screenplay of ''
Public Enemy Returns'', the third installment in
Kang Woo-suk's series on tough detective Kang Cheol-jung (played by
Sol Kyung-gu
Sol Kyung-gu (born May 14, 1967) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in ''Public Enemy'' film series, ''Peppermint Candy'', ''Oasis'', '' Silmido'', ''Hope'' and '' The Merciless''.
Career
Sol was born in Seocheon on May 1, 1 ...
).
His feel-good political satire ''
Good Morning President
''Good Morning President'' () is a 2009 South Korean film written and directed by Jang Jin that takes viewers to the private quarters of the Blue House during the terms of three fictional presidents (played by Lee Soon-jae, Jang Dong-gun and Go Do ...
'' was the opening film of the 2009
Busan International Film Festival
The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, previously Pusan International Film Festival, PIFF), held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan (''also'' Pusan), South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festiv ...
. At the
MBC Drama Awards
The MBC Drama Awards () is an awards ceremony presented by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) for outstanding achievements in Korean dramas aired on its network. It is held annually in December.
Unlike its counterparts in KBS and SBS, MB ...
that year, Jang won a Special Award for his 2008 radio show segment ''Radio Book Club'' on
MBC Standard FM.
His next films, 2010 ensemble comedy ''
The Quiz Show Scandal
''The Quiz Show Scandal'' (; lit. "Quiz King") is a 2010 South Korean film. The ensemble comedy satire is written and directed by Jang Jin.
At a police station, people involved in a car accident are accidentally informed of the answer to the last ...
'' and 2011 melodrama ''
Romantic Heaven
''Romantic Heaven'' () is a 2011 South Korean melodrama about fate, love, loss, and redemption.
Though the premise is sentimental, dealing with a variety of characters and their relationships in both life and the afterlife, it is very much in lin ...
'', though well-reviewed, were less successful at the box office.
Besides being the
CEO of Film It Suda, he is also co-founder of the film production company KnJ Entertainment Inc. alongside friend
Kang Woo-suk.
Jang was a judge on the first and second seasons of ''
Korea's Got Talent''. He wrote and directed the first three seasons of
sketch comedy show ''
Saturday Night Live Korea
''Saturday Night Live Korea'' (; abbreviated as ''SNL Korea'' () or simply as ''SNLK'') is a South Korean late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show. It is adapted from the long-running American TV show ''Saturday Night Live'' by ...
'' and anchored SNL Korea's version of ''
Weekend Update
''Weekend Update'' is a ''Saturday Night Live'' sketch and satirical news program that comments on and parodies current events. It is the show's longest-running recurring sketch, having been on since the show's first broadcast, and is typic ...
''. Jang says he believes satirical comedies can change society for the better.
Personal life
In May 2007, he married then-grad student Cha Young-eun. They have two sons, Jang Cha-in and Jang Cha-yoon.
Filmography
Short film
Film
Television
Theater
Awards
References
External links
*
Jang Jinat Cine21
*
*
*
Jang Jin at Daum Encyclopedia
Jang Jin at Daum Movie
Jang Jin at Naver
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jang, Jin
South Korean film directors
South Korean male film actors
South Korean screenwriters
Seoul Institute of the Arts alumni
Male actors from Seoul
Living people
1971 births