Born in Daegu in 1954, Lee Chang-dong was a novelist and teacher before turning to film in his forties. He served as South Korea's minister of culture and tourism from 2003 to 2004. His films are slow, humane portraits of damaged people and of Korea's social and moral wounds, beginning with Green Fish (1997) and Peppermint Candy (1999), which tells a man's life backwards. Oasis (2002) won him the best director award at Venice. Secret Sunshine (2007) won Jeon Do-yeon the best actress prize at Cannes, and Burning (2018), after a Murakami story, was widely acclaimed.
Filmography
- Green Fish (1997)
- Peppermint Candy (1999)
- Oasis (2002)
- Secret Sunshine (2007)
- Poetry (2010)
- Burning (2018)