There is a lot of extreme emotion in Korean film. It's because there are a lot of extremes in Korean society.
I have a complex feeling about genre. I love it, but I hate it at the same time. I have the urge to make audiences thrill with the excitement of a genre, but I also try to betray and destroy the expectations placed on that genre.
My favourite genre lies inside myself, and as I follow my favourite stories, characters and images, it sums up to a certain genre. So at times even I have to try to guess which genre a film will be after I've made it.
I think each film should be regarded as its own specific text.
I really hate the creature film convention that says you have to wait until the end to see the monster. One hour and all you've seen is just the tip of the creature's tail.
No matter where I am working, I cannot make a film without 100% creative control and final cut. If there is such a guarantee, I can work anywhere.
I think when one becomes very close to another person, it can mean loving and intimacy, but on the other hand, there's also the danger of one destructing another under the name of love. I think that is the scariest thing for me in various relationships.
I'm sure mothers are important across every culture, but particularly in Korean society, the role of the mother is of great importance.
In the grand scheme of nature, I believe that it is very natural that animals eat animals, and that humans eat animals. It is only in the last couple of decades that meat-processing factories have come to rise, and I believe we should take time to reflect on that reality.
The multilevel, the conscious and the unconscious, is natural when I write scripts, when I come up with ideas and stories.
People have said, 'Why don't you make your own company like Chan-wook Park has his own company,' but my head is full of writing and directing and I don't feel like I want to run a company. That's not really within my personality as well.
I don't intentionally make my films with the express goal of surprising the viewer.
I like to draw my storyboards myself.
When you first think of making a monster movie you have to realize that a lot of people may be down on you because there is a big prejudice against such films.
In Korean films there is only really a strong tradition of melodramas.
I always write the script by myself.
As a director, or just a film fan who wants to enjoy the festival, Cannes is the worst place to be. But it must be a paradise for distributors and importers.
There's hardly any governmental censorship in Korea.
I love the Japanese director Shohei Imamura. His masterpiece in 1979 called, the English title was 'Vengeance is Mine'.
I regard remaking a film as creating something again.
I am a fan of the monster and horror genre but that's not my style as a director.
The mother's love for her child is very strong in Korean society - almost on the borderline of being an obsession.
I have a group of cafes and coffee shops that I go to regularly. They usually have an area where I can plug in my computer and have a corner seat where I can do a couple hours of writing or whatever, even the noise of the surrounding people walking by. Those things are the things that stimulate me into writing.
When I was a kid, I was always watching genre movies on TV.
In the mid 1990s the Korean film industry was really open-minded.
