Lee Chang-dong (born 1954) is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
1. Life
Lee Chang-dong was born in Daegu. He studied to be a Korean teacher at Kyungpook National University, but spent much of his time in the theater, writing and directing plays. After college Lee worked as an actor and a theater producer while teaching high school. He made his literary debut in 1983 when his novella Jeolli (전리 Spoils of War) won the Dong-a Ilbo New Writer's Contest. He rose to prominence in 1992 when Nokcheoneneun ttongi manta (녹천에는 똥이 많다 There's a Lot of Shit in Nokcheon) won the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, but abruptly switched paths to explore filmmaking.
After serving as editor and assistant director for Park Kwang-su's To the Starry Island, Lee wrote and directed Green Fish, which was met with critical acclaim. His following films, Peppermint Candy, which was chosen to open the Busan International Film Festival, and Oasis, which won Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, established him as one of the most important figures in Korean realist film. Lee has directed six feature films including Secret Sunshine, Poetry, and Burning, which became the first Korean film to be shortlisted for the 91st Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film. All of his films have been garlanded at film festivals around the world, including Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and Oslo. Lee served as South Korea's Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004. He has also taught at Korea National University of Arts.
2. Writing
Although Lee has embraced many different forms of artistic expression in his career, his art invariably tackles the question of the true value of life. A fundamental and irrefutable faith in human beings, which may seem naive and even sentimental, pervades all his works. Such faith, however, is not rendered with any degree of beauty or romanticism, but rather finds expression in the very tragedy and darkness of life. With powerless social activists or ordinary lower middle-class people as main characters, Lee's works present a ceiling picture of weak and helpless individuals caught in the giant cogwheel of an indifferent society.
Lee's first collection of short stories, Soji (소지 Sacrificial Paper), charts the social changes that marked the turbulent times of the 1970s and 1980s in Korea, and vividly portrays the resulting chaos and social contradictions. The title story features a woman whose husband disappeared during the Korean War after being accused of harboring leftist tendencies. When her two sons fight over ideological issues, she can no longer contain her sadness that has accumulated over the years. Resolving to tell her sons about their father, she pulls out her rotten tooth and throws it into the fire. "Soji" shows how the tragedy of war resonates through family conflicts generation after generation and also hints at the possibility of resolution between the postwar generation and the generation that experienced it firsthand.
Nokcheoneneun ttongi manta, Lee's second collection of short stories, delves into human despair and ideological failures. The title story is a tragic tale of jealousy and inferiority complex featuring a Cain-like protagonist who has labored hard to become a teacher and buy a small apartment in the outskirts of Seoul, where he leads the life of a petite bourgeoisie with his wife and son. With the appearance of his half-brother, however, a man wanted by the police for his involvement in the pro-democracy movement, the modicum of stability and social standing Jun-sik has enjoyed is put into question.
The central concern of Lee's works is the question of how we should live as human beings. Any inquiry into the true value of life necessarily entails a study of the actions we take in life. As such, Lee is deeply interested in the relationship between man and society and in this respect, his art can also be seen as various sketches exploring the dilemmas accompanying those actions that constitute a worthwhile life.
