1. Na Woon-gyu was a Korean actor, screenwriter and director.
10 Facts About Na Woon-gyu
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Na Woon-gyu is widely considered the most important filmmaker in early Korean cinema, and possibly Korea's first true movie star.
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Na Woon-gyu was the third son of Na Hyong-gwon, a military officer during the final days of the Joseon period who had returned to his hometown of Hoeryong, Hamgyongbuk-do to teach.
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Na Woon-gyu traveled as far as Siberia, joining with Korean Liberation fighters in anti-occupation work.
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Na Woon-gyu would fill notebooks with jottings while watching films in theaters, and would carry a hand mirror with him wherever he went to practice facial expressions.
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Na Woon-gyu started playing extras and then villains in films for this company.
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Na Woon-gyu thereby made cinema in Korea no longer mere entertainment, but a vehicle for an expression of national resistance to the Japanese occupation.
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Na Woon-gyu died at the age of 34 of tuberculosis in 1937.
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Two other films by Na Woon-gyu were on the top ten list: Sarangul Chajaso, and Punguna.
10.
The Korea Film Directors' Society paid tribute to Na Woon-gyu, by taking his pen name for their Chunsa Art Film Festival, begun in 1990.