Ryoo Seung-wan

In this Korean name, the family name is Ryoo.

Ryoo Seung-wan (Korean: 류승완; born December 15, 1973) is a South Korean filmmaker. He made his debut in 1996 with the short film 'Dangerous Head', then worked as a director under director Park Chan-wook, took film lessons, and made his feature film debut in 2000 with Die Bad. In 2000, he received the Blue Dragon Film Awards for Best New Director, drawing attention from the film industry. Ryoo Seung-wan is called Korea's 'action kid' for his unique action and rough life style, and he directed films such as Crying Fist and The Battleship Island.

Ryoo Seung-wan
Ryoo in 2008
Born	(1973-12-15) December 15, 1973 (age 51) Onyang, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea
Occupations	Film director screenwriter film producer actor
Years active	1996–present
Employer	Filmmaker R&K
Spouse	Kang Hye-jung ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	3
Family	Ryoo Seung-bum (brother)
Korean name
Hangul	류승완
Hanja	柳昇完
Revised Romanization	Ryu Seungwan
McCune–Reischauer	Ryu Sŭngwan

Early life

Ryoo Seung-wan was born in 1973 in Onyang, a small town in South Chungcheong Province. With the choice of domestic films mostly limited to propaganda and hostess films due to extreme government censorship, young Ryoo often opted for the more kinetic and free-spirited action films from the Shaw Brothers canon. Watching Jackie Chan's Drunken Master turned him into a lifelong fan, and Ryoo spent his youth building his knowledge of and love for Hong Kong-style action films. Dreaming of becoming a film director someday, he took taekwondo lessons and saved lunch money for three years during middle school to buy an 8mm camera, with which he shot short films.^[1][2]

Career

Early years

Ryoo became his family's sole breadwinner after he lost his parents while in middle school.^[3] He later dropped out of high school in 1992 and worked for six months to raise enough money to cover a year's worth of basic living expenses for his family. After that he joined a private film workshop, and paid his tuition through several part-time jobs: as a construction worker, hotel janitor, vegetable cart driver, and even an instructor at an illegal driving school. Ryoo, a fan of a young unknown director named Park Chan-wook's 1992 debut The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream and his work as a critic, went to meet Park and the two quickly became friends. Those formative years also saw Ryoo's debut as a 'real' director, with the 1996 short Transmutated Head. The 19-minute short's DP was Jang Joon-hwan (then a young film academy student), and it featured many familiar faces in the Korean indie scene, including character actor Heo Jong-soo and Lee Mu-young (future director of The Humanist).^[1]

With a few years of experience as assistant director on Whispering Corridors and Park's 1997 film Trio, Ryoo was ready to jumpstart his own career. Ryoo's debut was initially planned as a full-fledged feature film, but various issues forced him to instead shoot separate short films sharing common characters and themes. In 1998 his short film Rumble won him the Best Film at the 1998 Busan Short Film Festival, and a year later he signed a contract to develop a feature film out of Rumble and three following sequels, one of which was his short Modern Man, which was not only the audience's favorite, but also won Best Film at a Short Film Festival in 1999.

From 1996 to 1999, Ryoo shot four low-budget short films starring himself, his younger brother Seung-bum, and several friends. In strikingly diverse styles but with a common narrative, these shorts were re-edited, combined and released in 2000 as Ryoo Seung-wan's feature directorial debut Die Bad. The four shorts, shot on an ultra-low budget of around ₩65 million, became Ryoo's first feature film: Die Bad.^[1] In an era when blockbusters like Shiri and Joint Security Area were the rage in Korean cinema, the action dramedy became an instant sensation. Starring in the film himself along with some industry friends and even his little brother Ryoo Seung-bum, Ryoo became an instant cult hit, praised left and right for his masterful debut.^[2] Critically acclaimed as powerfully visceral, gut-wrenching, and searingly angry, the film became an instant cult hit, earning attention for the Ryoo brothers.^[4] One review described Ryoo Seung-bum's acting debut as "a startling, naturalistic turn,"^[5] and he won Best New Actor at the Grand Bell Awards. With his directorial debut, Ryoo became known as the "Action Kid."

With the country experiencing tremendous growth in high-speed Internet penetration, a few companies tried to bank on this momentum by producing online short films. In 2000 the now defunct Cine4M website released a short film by Ryoo alongside Jang Jin's A Terrible Day and Kim Jee-woon's Coming Out.^[1] Ryoo Seung-wan's follow-up Dachimawa Lee, titled after industry slang ("tachimawari" is a part of Kabuki theater plays that involve spectacular action scenes), the short Dachimawa Lee was a wild and hilarious a 35-minute short film parodying films he grew up with: Korean action films of the 60s and 70s, Bruce Lee and Shaw Brothers flicks, the machismo kitsch Korean melodramas, and of course Jackie Chan. Coupling over-the-top voice dubbing with deliberately mistimed action, Dachimawa Lee was an enormous success online, making lead actor Im Won-hee a minor star and the Ryoo Brothers even bigger names.^[2] Director Ryoo younger brother Seung-bum played Washington, a young thug with a heart of gold and a huge afro. The short, streamed on the now-defunct Cine4M website, was enormously popular online.^[6]

Big expectations often lead to equally big disappointments, which is what industry insiders and critics felt about Ryoo's first real feature film, the gritty action noir No Blood No Tears. The film mixed big stars like Jeon Do-yeon with talented actors from the theater world like Jung Jae-young. Joining Director Ryoo once again was his younger brother Seung-bum, who was starting to make a name for himself in the industry independent of his brother. Misunderstood as a Guy Ritchie or Quentin Tarantino clone, Ryoo's film was an exhilarating mix of all the elements that made Die Bad one of the best debuts films in Chungmuro's recent history, but it also added a nasty streak of ultra-realism. The latter was contributed by Jung Doo-hong, occasionally an actor, but better known as the best action choreographer in the country, whose extreme realism balanced Ryoo's more fantasy-oriented cinematic sensibilities. With No Blood No Tears a flop at the box office, it was a difficult period for Ryoo, who clearly felt betrayed by the same people who had put impossible expectations on his shoulders.^[2]

After that disappointment, Ryoo collaborated again with Jung Doo-hong and brother Seung-bum, along with newcomer Yoon So-yi. The four embarked on Arahan, part modern-day wuxia and part local comedy. Despite its commercial success, critics still weren't pleased, continuing to lament the loss of Chungmuro's enfant prodige.^[2]

It took another two years for Ryoo to come back, but 2005's Crying Fist was in many ways proof he had matured beyond easy labels and traditional genre boundaries. Ryoo was more than just an action kid. Starring acclaimed veteran actor Choi Min-sik, the film saw the official birth of a new star, Ryoo Seung-bum.^[7] Steadily impressing critics and audiences since his debut in 2000, Ryoo displayed amazing energy and range in the film, such that he often overshadowed his older, more prestigious colleague. But the real star of Crying Fist was none other than Ryoo Seung-wan. Finally stripping himself from genre tropes, he was able to draw an incredible emotional portrayal of two people winning the most important boxing game of their life: the match against their own inner demons. More a story of survival than a simple sports drama, Crying Fist opened on April 1, 2005, against Ryoo's old friend Kim Jee-woon's A Bittersweet Life, offering one of the best double-headers of 2005. The two films garnered excellent reviews, but ended up canceling each other at the box office, selling a little over a million tickets a piece.^{[2] [8][9][10][11][unreliable source?]}

In 2005, Ryoo established Filmmaker R&K with his wife Kang Hye-jeong.^{[12][unreliable source?]}

After the success of 2003's If You Were Me, South Korea's National Commission on Human Rights commissioned a second omnibus film in 2006, If You Were Me 2. Five directors — Park Kyung-hee, Jang Jin, Jung Ji-woo, Kim Dong-won and Ryoo — contributed short films on a human rights issue of their choosing. Ryoo's short Hey Man! is almost one complete take of a man (Kim Su-yeon) with multiple prejudices that lead him to cast off every one of his "friends" and fellow patrons who are sharing the communal space of a late night restaurant.^[13][14]

In 2006 Seoul Art Cinema organized a special program "Anatomy of Violence: Ryoo Seung-wan's Action School" wherein Ryoo selected 10 films to screen and discuss with participants, including five of his own works. The program aimed to better understand the art of action filmmaking.^[3]

Waiting to secure funding for his first zombie film Yacha, Ryoo decided to take his friend Jung Doo-hong for another challenge, making one last salute to the pure action flicks he grew up with and gave him his nickname. The two had some acting experience, Jung mostly in Ryoo's films and Ryoo with Die Bad, a supporting role in Lee Chang-dong's Oasis, and a couple of cameos in Park Chan-wook films. But this was another story: for the first time, Jung and Ryoo would be the stars. Produced under CJ Entertainment, The City of Violence is a low-budget HD action film meant to show the potential of the new technology. As Ryoo described it, The City of Violence is like a Jackie Chan-style pure action film with characters from a Chang Cheh film in a world similar to that of Roman Polanski's Chinatown. The film brings to a final duel the two conflicting philosophies of the longtime partners (the Korean title of the film, Jjakpae, means partner). Fantasy and realism, outlandish technique and brutally raw streetfight-style action, combine to form pure cinematic flow.^{[2][15][unreliable source?]}

In 2009 Ryoo directed four mini-movies for the Korea Tourism Organization targeted at the Chinese market. Each movie tells a story that represents the beauty of Korea's travel locations through four themes: Hallyu (Korean movies and dramas), food, shopping and trendy places to visit like Hongdae or Cheongdam-dong. The tourism commercials starred Gao Yuanyuan and Li Guangjie as a Chinese couple, with cameos by Song Seung-heon, Park Hae-jin and Park Eun-hye.^[16][17][18]

Then to promote the release of Motorola's new model MOTO Klassic, Ryoo wrote and directed a 22-minute short film starring American-born Japanese martial arts star Kane Kosugi and action choreographer Jung Doo-hong. Titled Timeless and set at Jung's stunt school, the mockumentary-style short eschews the use of CGI in fight scenes and advances the return to old school action.^{[19][20][unreliable source?]}

2010–present

His 2010 film The Unjust, a tale about corruption among policemen and prosecutors, received rave reviews for its seamless storytelling interspersed with action sequences, social commentary and powerhouse performances from Hwang Jung-min and brother Seung-bum.^[21][22] It was successful at the box office with more than 2.7 million tickets sold, landing it on that year's top ten box office list.

Ryoo's next movie The Berlin File was an espionage thriller about a North Korean spy who is betrayed and cut loose when a weapons deal is exposed. While preparing for the film, Ryoo met with several North Korean defectors and shot the documentary Spies for Korean broadcaster MBC as part of a special series that aired in 2011, intending "to make a realistic, fast-paced, Korean-style espionage action film about South Korean agents discovering North Korea's secret accounts and how political dynamics between the two Koreas get involved." Ryoo said he wanted the film to be reminiscent of The Bourne Identity, and on an emotional level, to focus on the solitude and sorrow of those who live as secret agents.^[23] It was shot almost 100% on location in Europe, namely in Berlin, Germany, and Riga, Latvia. The film attracted 7.17 million admissions in early 2013 to become the all-time highest-grossing Korean action film.^[24] But because of its big budget, it barely broke even commercially. Ryoo later said that the picture failed to fully connect with younger audiences which know little of the Cold War era, and that "after making such an expensive film, (his) take-away was that (he) needed to make a cheaper one."^[25]

In 2015, Ryoo wrote and directed Veteran, an action film about an amoral and powerful third-generation business tycoon doggedly pursued by a detective investigating the mysterious injuries of a truck driver.

Ryoo said, "Because (the movie) is about the world I know and the story about people I know, it was comfortable for me. [...] But my feeling comfortable doesn't mean that the work is easy. It just means that I'm comfortable (working out the troubles). [...] I didn't want the movie to be based on personal revenge, and I want it to show how a person gets justice through the legal system."^[26]

Made with a modest budget of ₩6 billion, Veteran became a huge blockbuster at the South Korean box office, attracting 13.3 million admissions and earning US$89.7 million. It is the biggest hit of Ryoo's career and currently the 5th all-time highest-grossing film in Korean cinema history.^[27]

His next project was The Battleship Island, set on Hashima Island, an outlying island abandoned by Japan off the coast of Nagasaki, where countless Koreans were drafted into forced labor during World War II. The film follows a group of American OSS agents and Korean independence fighters on a mission to evacuate a key Korean figure from the island.^[28]

In 2021, Ryoo directed Escape from Mogadishu, a film based on real events of the Somali Civil War in the 1990s. It depicted details of perilous escape attempt made by North and South Korean embassy personnel stranded during the conflict.^[29] The film made with production cost of ₩24 billion was entirely shot in Morocco.^[30] It was selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.^[31]

Filmmaking

Ryoo Seung-wan is called Korea's 'action kid' for his unique action and rough life style.

Ryoo frequently collaborated with film editor Nam Na-yeong. She has edited films Arahan, The City of Violence, and Crying Fist.

Ryoo is known for frequently casting the same actors, with his little brother Ryoo Seung-bum Hwang Jeongmin, The excutioner of 베테랑Veteran 14.4 million box office in 2014 being one of his most frequent collaborators.

Personal life

Ryoo met Kang Hye-jung in the Independent Film Council workshop. After graduating from college in February 1993, Kang Hye-jung learned filmmaking at the Independent Film Council workshop for three months starting in May of that year. Ryoo Seung-wan was working as a workshop assistant, and they started dating after collaborating on a movie project.^[32] In 1997, Ryoo Seung-wan married Kang Hye-jung after 4 years of dating. They have three children together. As of 2017, their eldest daughter is in the third grade of high school, while their two sons are in the second grade of middle school and the sixth grade of elementary school.^[33]

Filmography

Feature film

Year	Title		Credited as				Ref.
	English	Korean	Director	Writer	Producer	Cameo
1997	Trio	3인조	Assistant director	No	No	musical instrument store clerk
1998	Whispering Corridors	여고괴담	Assistant director	No	No
1999	Dr. K	닥터 K	Assistant director	No	No
2000	Die Bad	죽거나 혹은 나쁘거나	Yes	Yes	No	Seok-hwan	[34]
2002	Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	복수는 나의 것	No	No	No	Chinese restaurant delivery man
	Oasis	오아시스	No	No	No	Hong Jong-se
	No Blood No Tears	피도 눈물도 없이	Yes	Yes	No		[35]
2004	Arahan	아라한 장풍대작전	Yes	Yes	No		[36]
2005	Sympathy for Lady Vengeance	친절한 금자씨	No	No	No	passerby
	Crying Fist	주먹이 운다	Yes	Yes	No		[37]
2006	The City of Violence	짝패	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yoo Seok-hwan	[38]
2008	Dachimawa Lee	다찌마와 리: 악인이여 지옥행 급행열차를 타라!	Yes	Yes	No	voice only	[39]
2010	Troubleshooter [ko]	해결사	No	Yes	Yes		[40]
	Battlefield Heroes	평양성	No	No	No	Commando Captain 1
	The Unjust	부당거래	Yes	No	Yes		[41]
2011	Mama	마마	No	No	No	musical director
2013	The Berlin File	베를린	Yes	Yes	No		[42]
	Top Star	톱스타	No	No	No	Jeonju Film Festival VIP Role
2014	One Summer Night	인생은 새옹지마	No	No	Yes		[43]
	Mad Sad Bad[a]	신촌좀비만화	Yes	No	No		[44]
	Gyeongju	경주	No	No	No	Teacher Kang
2015	Veteran	베테랑	Yes	Yes	No		[45]
2017	The Battleship Island	군함도	Yes	Yes	No		[46]
2019	Svaha: The Sixth Finger	사바하	No	No	Yes		[47]
	Exit	엑시트	No	No	Yes		[48]
	Start-Up	시동	No	No	Yes		[49]
2021	Escape from Mogadishu	모가디슈	Yes	Yes	No		[50]
2023	Smugglers	밀수	Yes	Yes	No		[51]
2024	I, the Executioner	베테랑 2	Yes	Yes	No		[52]

Short film

Year	Title		Credited as				Ref.
	English	Korean	Director	Writer	Producer	Cameo
1996	Transmutated Head	변질헤드	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	[53]
1999	Rumble	패싸움	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	[54]
1999	Our Contemporaries	현대인	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	[55]
2000	Dachimawa Lee	다찌마와 LEE	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	[56]
2006	Hey Man short film from If You Were Me 2	남자니까 아시잖아요?	Yes	No	No	No	[57]
2009	Come to Korea KTO mini-movie tourism commercials	한국 놀러오세요	Yes	No	No	No	[58]
	Timeless MotoKlassic short film		Yes	Yes	No	Yes	[59]
2011	Spies MBC documentary		Yes	No	No	No
2013	Behind the Camera		No	No	No	Yes
	TASTEmakers Film Project		No	No	Yes	No
2014	Ghost short film from Mad Sad Bad		Yes	No	No	No

Music video

Year	Title	Artist	Credited as Director	Ref.
2002	"Dust"	Dragonfly	Yes
2007	"Ballerino"	Leessang	Yes
2009	"The Girl Who Can't Break Up, The Boy Who Can't Leave"		Yes

Recurring cast members

Ryoo frequently re-casts actors whom he has worked with on previous films.

Recurring cast members in Ryoo's directed works

Actor Work	Hwang Jung-min	Im Won-hee	Jo In-sung	Kim Byeong-ok	Ma Dong-seok	Ryu Seung-beom	Yoo Hae-jin
Die Bad						Y
No Blood No Tears						Y
Arahan						Y
Crying Fist		Y		Y		Y
The City of Violence				Y
Dachimawa Lee		Y		Y		Y
The Unjust	Y				Y	Y	Y
The Berlin File						Y
Veteran	Y				Y		Y
The Battleship Island	Y
Escape from Mogadishu			Y
Smugglers			Y
I, the Executioner	Y

Accolades

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
2000	Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best New Director	Die Bad	Won
2010	13th Director's Cut Awards	Best Director	The Unjust	Won	[60][61]
2011	2nd Seoul Art and Culture Awards	Best Film Director		Won	[62][63][64]
	47th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director		Nominated
	20th Buil Film Awards	Best Film		Nominated	[65][66][unreliable source?]
		Best Director		Nominated
	44th Sitges Film Festival	Best Film (Casa Asia section)		Won	[67][68]
	48th Grand Bell Awards	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director		Nominated
	32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best Film		Won	[69][70][71][72]
		Best Director		Won
2013	49th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best Film	The Berlin File	Nominated	[73][74]
		Best Director		Nominated
	22nd Buil Film Awards	Best Director		Won
		Best Screenplay		Nominated
	34th Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director		Nominated
2015	48th Sitges Film Festival	Casa Asia Award (Asia Focus - Best Film)	Veteran	Won	[67][75]
	35th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards	Best Film		Nominated	[76][77]
		Best Director		Won
		Best Screenplay		Nominated
		Top 10 Films of the Year		Won
	15th Korea World Youth Film Festival	Most Favorite Film Director		Won
	52nd Grand Bell Awards	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Screenplay		Nominated
	36th Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best Film		Nominated	[78]
		Best Director		Won
		Best Screenplay		Nominated
	Cine 21 Movie Awards	Best Director		Won
	2nd Korean Film Producers Association Awards	Best Director		Won
2016	7th KOFRA Film Awards	Best Director		Won
	11th Max Movie Awards	Best Film		Won
		Best Director		Won
		Best Poster		Nominated
	10th Asian Film Awards	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Screenplay		Nominated
	52nd Baeksang Arts Awards	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director (Film)		Won
		Best Screenplay (Film)		Nominated
	25th Buil Film Awards	Best Film		Won
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Screenplay		Nominated
	n1st The Seoul Awards	Best Film	The Battleship Island	Nominated	[79][80]
	Sitges Film Festival	Best Feature-length Film		Won	[81]
	37th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards	Top 10 Films		Won	[82]
	23rd Chunsa Film Art Awards	Best Director		Nominated	[83]
2021	30th Buil Film Awards	Best Film	Escape from Mogadishu	Won	[84][85]
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Screenplay		Won[b]
	42nd Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best Film		Won	[86][87][88][89]
		Best Director		Won
		Best Screenplay		Nominated[b]
	Korean Association of Film Critics Awards	Best Director		Won	[90]
	8th Korean Film Writers Association Awards	Best Film		Won	[91]
2022	58th Baeksang Arts Awards	Grand Prize – Film		Won	[92][93][94]
		Best Film		Won
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Screenplay		Nominated[b]
	Fantasporto	Best Orient Express Film		Won	[95][96]
	Chunsa Film Art Awards 2022	Best Director		Nominated	[97][98][99]
		Best Screenplay		Nominated[b]
2023	32nd Buil Film Awards	Best Director	Smugglers	Nominated	[100][full citation needed]
		Best Film		Nominated
	44th Blue Dragon Film Awards	Best Film		Won	[101]
		Best Director		Nominated
	59th Grand Bell Awards	Best Film		Nominated	[102][full citation needed]
		Best Director		Won
2024	60th Baeksang Arts Awards	Best Director		Nominated	[103]

State honors

Name of country, year given, and name of honor

Country	Ceremony	Year	Honor Or Award	Ref.
South Korea	Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards[c]	2013	Presidential Commendation	[107]

Listicles

Name of publisher, year listed, name of listicle, and placement

Publisher	Year	Listicle	Placement	Ref.
Cine 21	2015	Film Director of the Year	1st	[108]

Notes

1. Omnibus film
2. Ryoo Seung-wan and Lee Ki-cheol
3. Honors are given at the Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards, arranged by the Korea Creative Content Agency and hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.^[104][105] They are awarded to those who have contributed to the arts and South Korea's pop culture.^[106]

See also

• List of Korean film directors
• Cinema of Korea