Ryoo Seung-wan (; 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
Park Chan-wook (; born 23 August 1963) is a Koreans, South Korean film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer, and former film critic. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Cinema of South Korea, South Korean cinema a ...
, took film lessons, and made his feature film debut with ''
Die Bad'' (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.
He has directed films such as ''
Crying Fist'' (2005), ''
The Unjust'' (2010), ''
The Berlin File
''The Berlin File'' (; lit. "Berlin") is a 2013 South Korean action spy film written and directed by Ryoo Seung-wan. Ha Jung-woo stars as a North Korean agent in Berlin who is betrayed and cut loose when a weapons deal is exposed. Together with ...
'' (2013), ''
Veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field.
A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces.
A topic o ...
'' (2015), ''
Escape from Mogadishu'' (2021), and ''
Smugglers
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...
'' (2023).
Early life
Ryoo Seung-wan was born in 1973 in
Onyang, a small town in
South Chungcheong Province
South Chungcheong Province (), informally called Chungnam, is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, province of South Korea in the Hoseo region in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula. South Chungcheong borders the provinces of Gyeonggi to ...
. 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
Shaw Brothers (HK) Limited () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, operating from 1925 to 2011.
In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...
canon. Watching
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...
'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
Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...
lessons and saved lunch money for three years during middle school to buy an
8mm camera, with which he shot short films.
Career
Early years
Ryoo became his family's sole breadwinner after he lost his parents while in middle school.
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
Park Chan-wook (; born 23 August 1963) is a Koreans, South Korean film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer, and former film critic. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Cinema of South Korea, South Korean cinema a ...
'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'').
With a few years of experience as assistant director on ''
Whispering Corridors
''Whispering Corridors'' () is a 1998 South Korean supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Park Ki-hyung. It was part of the explosion in South Korean cinema following the liberalization of censorship in the aftermath of the end of t ...
'' 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 film
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
s 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 , became Ryoo's first feature film: ''
Die Bad''.
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.
Critically acclaimed as powerfully visceral, gut-wrenching, and searingly angry, the film became an instant
cult hit, earning attention for the Ryoo brothers.
One review described Ryoo Seung-bum's acting debut as "a startling, naturalistic turn," 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
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...
''.
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
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
parody
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...
ing films he grew up with: Korean action films of the 60s and 70s,
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Hong Kong martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from ...
and
Shaw Brothers
Shaw Brothers (HK) Limited () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, operating from 1925 to 2011.
In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...
flicks, the
machismo
Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1940s and 1950s and its use more wi ...
kitsch
''Kitsch'' ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as Naivety, naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal Taste (sociology), taste.
The modern avant-garde traditionally opposed kitsch ...
Korean melodramas, and of course
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...
. 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.
Director Ryoo younger brother
Seung-bum played Washington, a young thug with a heart of gold and a huge
afro
The afro is a hair style created by combing out natural growth of afro-textured hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair.Garland, Phyl"Is The Afro On Its Way Out?" '' Ebo ...
. The short, streamed on the now-defunct Cine4M website, was enormously popular online.
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
Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter known primarily for British comedy gangster films and large-scale action-adventure films.
Ritchie left school at the age of 15, and worked in e ...
or
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...
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.
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
( , literally "martial arts and chivalry") is a genre of Chinese literature, Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fantasy literature, its popularity ha ...
and part local comedy. Despite its commercial success, critics still weren't pleased, continuing to lament the loss of
Chungmuro's enfant prodige.
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. 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.
In 2005, Ryoo established
Filmmaker R&K with his wife Kang Hye-jeong.
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 film
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
s 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.
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.
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
Lee Chang-dong (; born July 4, 1954) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, and novelist. He has directed six feature films: ''Green Fish'' (1997), ''Peppermint Candy (film), Peppermint Candy'' (1999), ''Oasis (2002 film), Oasis'' (2002) ...
's ''
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment[Park Chan-wook
Park Chan-wook (; born 23 August 1963) is a Koreans, South Korean film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer, and former film critic. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Cinema of South Korea, South Korean cinema a ...]
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
Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...
-style pure action film with characters from a
Chang Cheh
Chang Cheh (; 10 February 1923 – 22 June 2002) was a Chinese people, Chinese filmmaker, screenwriter, lyricist and producer active in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Chang Cheh directed more than 90 films in Greater China, the majority of them wi ...
film in a world similar to that of
Roman Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...
's ''
Chinatown
Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
''. 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.
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
Cheongdam-dong () is a ward of Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea. The area is best known in South Korea as an affluent neighborhood populated by a disproportionately high number of high-income individuals and for having some of the most expens ...
. 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.
Then to promote the release of
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...
's new model MOTO Klassic, Ryoo wrote and directed a 22-minute
short film
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
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
A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...
-style short eschews the use of
CGI in fight scenes and advances the return to old school action.
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. 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
''The Berlin File'' (; lit. "Berlin") is a 2013 South Korean action spy film written and directed by Ryoo Seung-wan. Ha Jung-woo stars as a North Korean agent in Berlin who is betrayed and cut loose when a weapons deal is exposed. Together with ...
'' 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. It was shot almost 100% on location in Europe, namely in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, and
Riga
Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...
,
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
. The film attracted 7.17 million admissions in early 2013 to become the all-time highest-grossing Korean action film. 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
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
era, and that "after making such an expensive film, (his) take-away was that (he) needed to make a cheaper one."
In 2015, Ryoo wrote and directed ''
Veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field.
A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces.
A topic o ...
'', 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."
Made with a modest budget of , ''Veteran'' became a huge blockbuster at the South Korean box office, attracting 13.3 million admissions and earning . It is the biggest hit of Ryoo's career and currently the
5th all-time highest-grossing film in Korean cinema history.
His next project was ''
The Battleship Island'', set on
Hashima Island, an outlying island abandoned by Japan off the coast of
Nagasaki
, officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
, where countless Koreans were drafted into
forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. 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.
In 2021, Ryoo directed ''
Escape from Mogadishu'', a film based on real events of the
Somali Civil War
The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...
in the 1990s. It depicted details of perilous escape attempt made by North and South Korean embassy personnel stranded during the conflict. The film made with production cost of 24 billion was entirely shot in Morocco. It was selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
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.
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.
Filmography
Director and writer
Feature film
Short film
Producing credits
Cameos
Music video
Recurring cast members
Ryoo frequently re-casts actors whom he has worked with on previous films.
Accolades
Awards and nominations
State honors
Listicles
Notes
See also
*
List of Korean film directors
*
Cinema of Korea
The cinema of Korea encompasses the film industries of North Korea and South Korea, as well as the historical film industries of Korea as the kingdom of Joseon and under Korea under Japanese rule, Japanese occupation. While both countries have re ...
References
External links
Ryoo Seung-wanat Korean Film Biz Zone
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryoo, Seung-wan
1973 births
South Korean male film actors
South Korean film producers
South Korean film directors
South Korean screenwriters
Living people
South Korean male taekwondo practitioners
21st-century South Korean male actors
Best Director Paeksang Arts Award (film) winners
Grand Prize Paeksang Arts Award (Film) winners