Hwang Dong-hyuk (born 1971) is a South Korean film director and
screenwriter.Hwang Dong-hyuk was born and raised in Seoul, South
Korea. After he graduated from Seoul National University with a B.A.
in Communications, he wrote and directed numerous short films
including Our Sad Life and A Puff of Smoke. Moving to Los Angeles to
study for a M.F.A. in Film Production at the University of Southern
California, he continued to make films, completing two shorts Heaven &
Hell and Desperation (2000). His graduation thesis film was Miracle
Mile (2004), a short starring Karl Yune as a Korean-American gypsy cab
driver who helps his fare, a young Korean woman (played by Hana Kim)
search for her brother who was adopted by Americans 20 years ago.
Miracle Mile screened at over 40 international film festivals and won
several awards, including the DGA Student Film Award and Student Emmy
Award.For his feature film debut, Hwang returned to the topic of
adoption in My Father (2007). Based on the true story of
Korean-American adoptee Aaron Bates, the film is about a U.S. Army
soldier stationed in Korea who appears on national television to
search for his birth parents, then finds his father on death row for
murder. Kim Yeong-cheol played the father opposite lead actor Daniel
Henney, whom Hwang decided to cast despite the latter being typecast
as a heartthrob. Henney and Kim were praised for their acting, as was
Hwang for his non-melodramatic handling of forgiveness and acceptance,
intertwined with issues of cultural identity and the death
penalty.Hwang's second film became one of the biggest stories in
Korean cinema in 2011. Based on a novel by Gong Ji-young and starring
Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, The Crucible (also known as Silenced) depicts
real-life events at the Gwangju Inhwa School for the deaf where young
students were cruelly treated and sexually abused by their teachers
and administrators. Hwang said he deliberated for about a month
whether or not he should make the film, but decided to do it because
"It had to be told." Hwang said, "I thought about two things when
making this film. First, I wanted to let the world know about this
horrific incident. Secondly, I wanted to expose the structural
problems of society as revealed during the process of how the case was
buried. The issues portrayed in the movie -- sexual violence against
children, corrupt ties between police and influential families,
negligence of duty by civil servants -- is not fictitious, but can be
seen regularly on the daily news."
screenwriter.Hwang Dong-hyuk was born and raised in Seoul, South
Korea. After he graduated from Seoul National University with a B.A.
in Communications, he wrote and directed numerous short films
including Our Sad Life and A Puff of Smoke. Moving to Los Angeles to
study for a M.F.A. in Film Production at the University of Southern
California, he continued to make films, completing two shorts Heaven &
Hell and Desperation (2000). His graduation thesis film was Miracle
Mile (2004), a short starring Karl Yune as a Korean-American gypsy cab
driver who helps his fare, a young Korean woman (played by Hana Kim)
search for her brother who was adopted by Americans 20 years ago.
Miracle Mile screened at over 40 international film festivals and won
several awards, including the DGA Student Film Award and Student Emmy
Award.For his feature film debut, Hwang returned to the topic of
adoption in My Father (2007). Based on the true story of
Korean-American adoptee Aaron Bates, the film is about a U.S. Army
soldier stationed in Korea who appears on national television to
search for his birth parents, then finds his father on death row for
murder. Kim Yeong-cheol played the father opposite lead actor Daniel
Henney, whom Hwang decided to cast despite the latter being typecast
as a heartthrob. Henney and Kim were praised for their acting, as was
Hwang for his non-melodramatic handling of forgiveness and acceptance,
intertwined with issues of cultural identity and the death
penalty.Hwang's second film became one of the biggest stories in
Korean cinema in 2011. Based on a novel by Gong Ji-young and starring
Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, The Crucible (also known as Silenced) depicts
real-life events at the Gwangju Inhwa School for the deaf where young
students were cruelly treated and sexually abused by their teachers
and administrators. Hwang said he deliberated for about a month
whether or not he should make the film, but decided to do it because
"It had to be told." Hwang said, "I thought about two things when
making this film. First, I wanted to let the world know about this
horrific incident. Secondly, I wanted to expose the structural
problems of society as revealed during the process of how the case was
buried. The issues portrayed in the movie -- sexual violence against
children, corrupt ties between police and influential families,
negligence of duty by civil servants -- is not fictitious, but can be
seen regularly on the daily news."
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