32 Facts About Lee Chang-dong

Lee Chang-dong is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, and novelist.

Lee Chang-dong has directed six feature films: Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis, Secret Sunshine, Poetry, and Burning.

Lee Chang-dong won the award for Achievement in Directing at the 4th Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2017, Jury Grand Prize at the 2018 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best Director and Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th Asian Film Awards in 2019, and he has been nominated for the Golden Lion and the Palme d'Or.

Lee Chang-dong served as South Korea's Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004.

Lee Chang-dong graduated in 1981 with a degree in Korean Literature from Kyungpook National University in Daegu, where he spent much of his time in the theater, writing and directing plays.

Lee Chang-dong went on to teach high school Korean and established himself as a novelist with his first novel Chonri in 1983.

Lee Chang-dong was approached by Park Kwang-su to write the screenplay for To the Starry Island.

Lee Chang-dong negotiated an assistant director position as part of the deal and was promoted to first AD on the first day of the shoot when the original first AD failed to show up.

Lee Chang-dong later wrote A Single Spark in 1995, which won Best Film at the 1995 Blue Dragon Film Awards.

In 2002, Lee Chang-dong released Oasis about a mentally ill man and a woman with cerebral palsy, winning the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 2003 Venice Film Festival.

In 2009, Lee Chang-dong was appointed to the jury of the international competition at the 61st Cannes Film Festival along with Isabelle Huppert, Shu Qi and Robin Wright.

In 2018, Lee Chang-dong returned after an eight-year hiatus with the psychological drama mystery film Burning, based on one of Haruki Murakami's 17 short stories in The Elephant Vanishes, "Barn Burning".

In March 2019, Lee Chang-dong won the Best Director for Burning and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th Asian Film Awards.

Lee Chang-dong worked with Jason Yu's first film "Sleep" along with Bong Joon-ho.

Lee Chang-dong was born in Daegu, the most conservative and rightist city in Korea, to lower middle-class parents, who were left-leaning, particularly his father.

Lee Chang-dong's family came from noble class of the old Korea.

Lee Chang-dong supported Roh Moo-hyun's candidacy since 2002, and after he won the elections, Lee Chang-dong served in the office as Minister of Culture from 2003 to 2004.

Lee Chang-dong has been boycotting and refusing to attend the Blue Dragon Film Awards ceremony since 2002 due to political conflicts with Chosun Ilbo, a conservative South Korean newspaper which hosts the awards.

For nearly a decade until 2017, during the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye presidential administrations, Lee Chang-dong was blacklisted by the government.

Artists such as Lee Chang-dong that were put on the blacklist were subject to investigations and denial of subsidies.

Lee Chang-dong describes his creative process as one of utter despair.

Lee Chang-dong's films are the reflection of the repressive social and political climate of the South Korea, and depictions of marginalized blue-collar Koreans.

Lee Chang-dong's characters are characteristically anti-heroic, but he seems to justify them due to their background.

Lee Chang-dong doesn't give too specific direction when he works with actors.

Lee Chang-dong believes that an actor's reaction is more important than the action.

Lee Chang-dong doesn't tell the actors to act or be in a certain way.

Lee Chang-dong is the third son out of four brothers.

Lee Chang-dong said that they were very close, and called themselves fraternity brothers.

Lee Chang-dong's youngest brother, Lee Joon-dong, is a film producer for Lee's films.

Lee Chang-dong hoped to become a painter growing up, but he could not afford art supplies.

Lee Chang-dong personally asked Choi to appear in Burning playing as Jong-su's father.

Lee Chang-dong is a close friend of his frequent collaborator, actor Moon Sung-keun.