Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook (박찬욱) sits in the small class of filmmakers who changed both Korean cinema and the way global audiences talk about it. Joint Security Area turned him into a domestic force in 2000, Oldboy made him an international one, and the run that followed never settled into nostalgia. He kept expanding the scale of his work without losing the precision, tension, or dark wit that made the early films hit so hard.

The key titles still read like a pressure test for modern auteur cinema: Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave, and the HBO adaptation of The Sympathizer. Then came No Other Choice, his 2025 Donald E. Westlake adaptation led by Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin, a reminder that Park remains as interested in systems, humiliation, and desire as he was at the start.

In 2026, Cannes named him president of the jury for its 79th edition, the first Korean filmmaker to receive that appointment. The title mattered, but it also felt overdue. Park Chan-wook has spent more than two decades making films that travel across markets, festivals, and generations without flattening themselves for export. Few directors from anywhere can say the same.