Park Chan Wook

박찬욱
By Hamza Faraz Karamat
About the auteur
● Park Chan Wook is a South Korean filmmaker born in
Seoul.
● Studied Philosophy at Sogang University where he
started a film club.
● Subsequently became a film critic before debuting as a
director in 1992.
● His initial films were unsuccessful and he made his
living as a film critic.
● Found success with Joint Security Area (2000).
● As a result, began working on his famed Vengeance
Trilogy
Park’s Dark Malark
Park is famed for his use of dark humour. However, in addition to giving his films a
unique tone and identity, it also serves to:

● Throw off the viewer.

● Intensify the effect of the imminent,
upcoming horror.
● To create an uncomfortable
atmosphere.
● To prove an out-of-film point.
● To emphasize absurdity.
“Revenge is good for your health,
but pain will find you again.”

-Oh-Dae Su, Oldboy (2003)

恨
HAN
Park on violence
Park’s vengeance trilogy is a bible for violent thrillers, covering different
aspects of ideas like revenge, recompense and the sexual nature of
violence.

● Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

● Oldboy (2003)
● Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)

Park covers ideas of:

● Frustration and grudges

● The failure of revenge
● The physical nature of recumpence
● The religious element of vengeance
Park and
Sexuality
Park’s approach to sexuality is one that is uniquely partial to women. In films such as The
Handmaiden (2016), he has covered dark subject matters such as the ideas of:

● Grooming
● Sexual abuse
● Misogynistic sexuality
● Shaming culture
● Masochism

However, in lighter moments, his sex scenes have a

unique sense of visual and/or narrative humour to them
and frequently mock the idea of male-dominated sex.
Park and Feminism
Park has remarked that he’s become more feminist as he’s gotten older and the progressive
nature of his female leads shows this.

His characters display a unique sense of:

● Political inclination
● Agency
● Control
● Wrath

All this whilst not sacrificing their femininity,

womanhood and motherly instincts.
Park and Society
Park’s films, while being personal stories, are nonetheless political. Whether covertly or
overtly, his films have covered themes such as:

● Class struggle
● Women’s Liberation
● Religiosity
● Mental Health
● Sexuality
● The Korean Divide etc.
Park and Visuals
Park uses many recurring visuals in his films, many of which carry important narrative
meaning. Park frequently enjoys telling his stories more visually rather than through an
over abundance of expository dialogue.

● Recurring use of colour

● Symbology involving hands
● Revealing camera movements
● Picturesque Colour
● Overhead and Frontal shots etc.
Park and Globalization
Park Chan Wook along with Bong Joon Ho is
a harbinger of the New Korean Cinema
movement which has been hugely impacted
by the world wide web and globalization (Segyehwa)
in general. This movement is characterized by:

● Growing global influence

● Exchange of talent
● Cross-cultural exchange of concepts
● Scaling back of Screen Quotas
● The dawn of Korea’s Blockbuster
Movement in 1999
Park moving forward?
Bibliography 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/t-
magazine/park-chan-wook.html
2. https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/kw
kzny/the-new-film-by-the-director-of-old
boy-is-a-brutal-lesbian-love-story
3. http://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/arti
cle.kci?arti_id=ART001700913#none
4. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featur
es/2019-11-06/k-pop-s-dark-side-assaul
t-prostitution-suicide-and-spycams