Yeon Sang-ho (born 25 December 1978) is a South Korean
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
. He gained international popularity for working his
adult animated
An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majori ...
films ''
The King of Pigs'' (2011) and ''
The Fake'' (2013), and the
live-action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
film ''
Train to Busan
''Train to Busan'' () is a 2016 South Korean action horror film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung. The film mostly takes place on a high-speed train ...
'' (2016), its animated prequel ''
Seoul Station
Seoul Station is a major railway station in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The station is served by the Korail Intercity Lines and the commuter trains of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway.
Services
KTX
Seoul Station is the terminus of most ...
'' (2016) and live-action sequel ''
Peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...
'' (2020), and first South Korean superhero film ''
Psychokinesis
Psychokinesis (from grc, ψυχή, , soul and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), or telekinesis (from grc, τηλε, , far off and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person ...
'' (2018).
Career
Born in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
on December 25, 1978, Yeon Sang-ho graduated from
Sangmyung University
Sangmyung University is a private university in South Korea. It consists of the first campus in Jongno District, Seoul and the second campus in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do
South Chungcheong Province ( ko, 충청남도, ''Chungcheongnam-do'' ...
with a degree in Western Painting. He directed his first animated
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
, ''Megalomania of D'' in 1997, followed by ''D-Day'' in 2000 and ''The Hell'' in 2002, then set up his own production house Studio Dadashow in 2004. His next two animated shorts ''The Hell: Two Kinds of Life'' (2006) and ''Love Is Protein'' (2008) were invited to various international film festivals. ''The Hell: Two Kinds of Life'' won the Asian Ghost Award at the Short Shorts Film Festival Asia and the Public Award for Best Film School (Short Film Battle Royal) at the 2007 Lyon Asian Film Festival, and ''Love Is Protein'' screened in competition at the 2009 Curtocircuit International Short Film Festival of Santiago de Compostela in 2009. ''Love Is Protein'' was later included in the three-short
omnibus ''Indie Anibox: Selma's Protein Coffee''. Yeon also directed the animated opening trailer for the
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 festi ...
in 2010.
Yeon's first feature-length animation was ''
The King of Pigs'' (2011), about a man who kills his wife after his business goes bankrupt, and seeks out his long-lost friend, a
ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...
, 15 years after both had been severely
bullied
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an im ...
as adolescents in middle school. Inspired by the works of
Satoshi Kon
was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist from Sapporo, Hokkaido and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA). He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art Universi ...
and
Minoru Furuya
is a Japanese manga artist from Saitama Prefecture.
His debut work is '' The Ping Pong Club'', published in ''Young Magazine''. It was adopted into a 26-episode anime series in 1995. In 1996, he won the Kodansha Manga Award for ''The Ping P ...
, Yeon said the incidents in the film were drawn from his own life, and he cried while writing the screenplay. The low-budget () film drew widespread critical acclaim for its raw portrayal of
bullying
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...
, violence and systemic poverty (and the lifelong effects of such oppression), as well as the psychology of public attitudes toward a hero figure. It became the first Korean animated film to be invited to the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
, where it screened in the
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
Directors' Fortnight
The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...
sidebar. It won numerous awards at domestic and international film festivals, including the Director's Guild of Korea Award for Best Director, CGV Movie Collage Award, and
NETPAC Award The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the inst ...
at the
2011 Busan International Film Festival, the Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation and Special Mention (New Flesh Award for Best First Feature) at the 2012
Fantasia International Film Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
, and the Jury Prize at the 2013
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
The Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF; ) is an annual film festival held in Dublin, Ireland, since 2003.
History
Dublin International Film Festival was established in 2003. It was revived by Michael Dwyer, international film critic and ' ...
.
His follow-up ''The Window'' was a 30-minute animated short depicting violence in the military, and was the first film of the Independent Short Film Release Project organized by Indiespace, an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
-only theater and Indieplug, a digital distributor of independent films. Yeon said the script (illustrated by cartoonist Choi Gyu-seok) was 100% based on his own personal experience while doing his
mandatory military service
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
. ''The Window'' won a Special Mention from the Jury at the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Yeon continued to make animation targeted at adults with dark, controversial themes that brutally and incisively explore human nature and social realism. His second feature ''
The Fake'' (2013) critiqued organized religion, as a cult leader swindles rural, uneducated villagers out of their compensation money, while no one believes the local wastrel who discovers the truth (the characters were
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
by
Oh Jung-se
Oh Jung-se (born February 26, 1977) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Missing 9'' (2017), '' When the Camellia Blooms'' (2019), ''Hot Stove League'' (2019), and ''It's Okay to Not Be Okay'' (2020) ...
and
Yang Ik-june
Yang Ik-june (born October 19, 1975) is a South Korean actor and film director. He is best known for the 2009 film '' Breathless'', which he wrote, directed, edited, and starred in.
Career
Born in Seoul in 1975, Yang graduated from the Departme ...
, who previously starred in ''Love Is Protein'' and ''The King of Pigs''). Yeon said he wrote the script in 2009 because of his political dissatisfaction regarding issues about the
FTA and
Four Major Rivers Project
The Four Major Rivers Restoration Project is the multi-purpose green growth project on the Han River (Korea), Han River, Nakdong River, Geum River and Yeongsan River in South Korea. The project was spearheaded by former South Korean president Lee ...
. ''The Fake'' made its world premiere at the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival
The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. '' The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and '' Life of Crime'' was the closing film. 75 films were ...
, and won Best Film of AnimaFICX at the 2013
Gijón International Film Festival
The Gijón International Film Festival ( ast, Festival Internacional de Cine de Xixón or ''FICXixón'') is an annual film festival held in Gijón, a city in northwest Spain.
History
The festival's origins date back to 1963. In the beginning i ...
, Best Animated Feature Film at the 2013
Sitges Film Festival
The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...
, and the
FIPRESCI Award
The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...
at the 2014
Korean Association of Film Critics Awards
The Korean Association of Film Critics Awards (), also known as the Critics Choice Awards (), is an annual awards ceremony for excellence in film in South Korea. It was established in 1980 by the Korean Association of Film Critics (KAFC). The c ...
.
He then cast
Ryu Seung-ryong
Ryu Seung-ryong (born November 29, 1970) is a South Korean actor. Ryu began his acting career in theater, subsequently becoming one of the most versatile supporting actors in Korean film and television. In 2013, he headlined '' Miracle in Cell N ...
and
Shim Eun-kyung
Shim Eun-kyung (born May 31, 1994) is a South Korean actress. She has starred in the box office hits '' Sunny'' (2011), ''Miss Granny'' (2014) and ''Fabricated City'' (2017), as well as television series ''Naeil's Cantabile'' (2014). In 2020, s ...
as voice actors in his third animated feature, ''
Seoul Station
Seoul Station is a major railway station in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The station is served by the Korail Intercity Lines and the commuter trains of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway.
Services
KTX
Seoul Station is the terminus of most ...
'' (2015). Yeon said he wanted to depict society's collective rage in a "simple, powerful way" by making a
zombie
A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...
film in which zombies are among people protesting for the democratization of Korea.
In 2016, Yeon released his first
live-action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
film ''
Train to Busan
''Train to Busan'' () is a 2016 South Korean action horror film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung. The film mostly takes place on a high-speed train ...
'', which takes place on a train to
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
as a zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks out in the country and threatens the safety of the passengers. The film was released to rave reviews, with praise given to its characters and use of social commentary. A standalone sequel ''
Peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...
'' was released in 2020, also directed by Yeon.
Filmography
Feature films
Short films
Television
Awards
*2011
16th
16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and .
In English speech, ...
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 festi ...
: DGK Award for Best Director (''
The King of Pigs'')
*2014
1st Wildflower Film Awards
The Wildflower Film Awards () is an awards ceremony recognizing the achievements of Korean independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist ...
: Best Director (''
The Fake'')
*2016
25th Buil Film Awards
The Buil Film Awards () is a South Korean film awards ceremony hosted by the ''Busan Ilbo'' newspaper. It began in 1958 as one of the earliest film awards in the country. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was the biggest film awards event in the B ...
: Yu Hyun-mok Film Arts Award (''
Train to Busan
''Train to Busan'' () is a 2016 South Korean action horror film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung. The film mostly takes place on a high-speed train ...
'')
*2016 Korea Film Actor's Association Top Star Awards: Best New Director (''
Train to Busan
''Train to Busan'' () is a 2016 South Korean action horror film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung. The film mostly takes place on a high-speed train ...
'')
*2017 8th KOFRA Film Awards: Best Discovery of the Year (''
Train to Busan
''Train to Busan'' () is a 2016 South Korean action horror film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung. The film mostly takes place on a high-speed train ...
'')
*2017
53rd Baeksang Arts Awards
The Baeksang Arts Awards (), also known as the Paeksang Arts Awards, are awards for excellence in film, television and theatre in South Korea. The awards were first introduced in 1965 by Chang Key-young, the founder of the Hankook Ilbo newspap ...
: Best New Director (''
Train to Busan
''Train to Busan'' () is a 2016 South Korean action horror film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, and Kim Eui-sung. The film mostly takes place on a high-speed train ...
'')
State honors
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeon, Sang-ho
1978 births
Living people
South Korean film directors
South Korean screenwriters
Action film directors
South Korean animated film directors
People from Seoul