Yook Sang Hyo

YOOK Sang-hyo, born in 1963, graduated from Seoul National University in Korean language and literature. He debuted his career as a journalist for the entertainment pages of The Daily Sports, but suddenly took an interest in films when he was in his thirties and started writing scenarios and directing short movies. He later went to the U.S. and did a Master’s degree in scenario at the University of Southern California (USC). In 1994, one of his short movies, , won the Audience Award at the first edition of the Seoul Short Film Festival. The same year, his first contribution as a screenwriter to a feature film, (1994), led him to win Best Screenplay at three major local award events, the Blue Dragon Awards, the Grand Bell Awards and the Baeksang Arts Awards, on top of an accolade from the Korean Association of Film Critics. He later worked with IM Kwon-taek on his critically-acclaimed family drama (1996). In 2002, YOOK made his directorial feature debut with the comedy set in Los Angeles about Korean immigrants. He came back in 2004 with , the follow-up to PARK Chul-kwan’s comedy, before starting a more personal project in the form of social comedy (2010), in which he addressed the discrimination and poor working conditions South-East Asian immigrants face in Korea. The film opened to a moderate success and went on to win Best Screenplay at the Baeksang Arts Awards and the Buil Film Award. He reunited in 2014 with IM Kwon-taek as he took part in the scenario of the widely acclaimed mid-life crisis drama (2014).