1. Hong Sang-soo is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.
17 Facts About Hong Sang-soo
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An acclaimed and prolific filmmaker, Hong is known for his slow-paced films about love affairs and everyday dilemmas in contemporary South Korea.
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Hong Sang-soo took the entrance exam and entered the theater department at Chung-Ang University.
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Hong Sang-soo then studied in the United States, where he received his bachelor's degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts and his master's at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Hong Sang-soo made his directorial debut in 1996 with The Day a Pig Fell into the Well.
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Hong Sang-soo's films have screened in the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and the Locarno Film Festival.
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Hong Sang-soo received the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival for Hahaha.
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In June 2018, Hong Sang-soo was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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Hong Sang-soo is often spontaneous when shooting, delivering the day's scene on the morning of the shoot and changing the story on set.
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Hong Sang-soo instead begins with a basic guideline and writes his scenes on the morning of the filming day, making changes throughout the day.
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Hong Sang-soo starts the filming day at 4 am when he begins to write the dialogue for that day's shoot.
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Hong Sang-soo develops close relationships with the actors over alcohol and cigarettes and sometimes shoots scenes while the actors are intoxicated.
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Hong Sang-soo's style has been compared to Eric Rohmer's, with some arguing that some of his films deliberately allude to Rohmer's.
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In 1985, Hong Sang-soo married his non-celebrity wife and had one daughter together.
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In 2016, Hong Sang-soo was reported to be having an extramarital affair with actress Kim Min-hee, who appeared in his 2015 film Right Now, Wrong Then.
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Hong Sang-soo admitted to the affair in March 2017, at the Seoul premiere of On the Beach at Night Alone.
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Hong Sang-soo filed for divorce from his wife in December 2016, but the court rejected his request in June 2019, insisting that only the injured party, Hong's wife, could initiate a legal separation.