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Park chan-wook insights

Explore a captivating collection of Park chan-wook’s most profound quotes, reflecting his deep wisdom and unique perspective on life, science, and the universe. Each quote offers timeless inspiration and insight.

I did have a feminist side to me, just not in such a pronounced way.

I'd like to do a really masculine film.

I don't really believe in the auteur theory.

Actually, I can't stand watching violent scenes in films; I avoid watching horror films. I don't tend to watch action films mainly because I find them boring, but I watch the films of David Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese, usually in a state close to having a heart attack. I'm a complete coward. I make violent films as a result of my sensitivity to violence - in other words, my fear of violence.

When I was growing up, we were taught in school that North Koreans, and especially the North Korean leadership, were all devils.

Sometimes you need these warm, human moments - something that feels close - to help things along.

As I grow older I spend more time with my wife, and gradually my interest in the woman's world is growing.

Whenever I visit a city, I like to see what classical music concerts are on offer.

I've always had an interest in vampire films - not just 'Nosferatu,' but there are many others that I have enjoyed: Abel Ferrara,Coppola, Neil Jordan.

Actors are professionals who deal with people's emotions and their thoughts. So, working with this very intelligent, smart cast meant that sometimes I would only have to start speaking a word and these wonderful actors would immediately catch onto what I wanted them to portray, and how I wanted them to act.

I am not going to do a film based on a bad scenario just to make a big Hollywood film or work with Hollywood stars.

A priest encounters temptation every day, and some of that desire is very natural.

If your work requires you to travel, you will understand that there's no vacation destination like home.

Ever since I arrived in America to promote Stoker, I haven't had time to go and see it in a theater. The fact that I had to shoot twice as fast as I'm used to in Korea was the most challenging thing about my Hollywood experience.

I feel myself becoming more mature and more fascinated and drawn to feminine values.

I've grown up watching a lot of Western genre films on TV, and America is not just a country, but it's one of the most important countries in the world, and examining the process of how this nation came to be, it's an important thing, even for outsiders.

I grew up in a very Catholic family. Up until puberty, I would go to a Catholic church every week.

In my creative films, if there was something, some humorous moment that is lost to a non-Korean speaking audience, I'll be very sad.

Some audiences might find homosexuality an uncomfortable subject matter, and a character who is a Japanese collaborator is always uncomfortable.

Certain subjects may no longer be taboo in cinema. But there are ways to treat them that still create shock.

The reason why I always wanted to make an American film was because of the Western genre. It is something that I would very much like to make in the future, because it's very uniquely American, and I can't make a Western film in Korean.

You could say that evil is contagious in that we have this mesmerizing mentor in Uncle Charlie who comes into your life. Every person has a seed of evil inside them, and when you come across such a mesmerizing mentor, he is able to successfully turn it into a flower of evil.

I actually pay careful attention to that sort of thing - infusing humor into my films - because that's how important I think humor is.

In Korea is what I do is I watch the playback of each take with all of the actors and spend a lot of time discussing each take. Also, I use the process we call auto-assembly because I storyboard my entire film right at the beginning, even before pre-production ever begins, so my vision is already laid out on the storyboard for everybody to share. It enables the on-set assembly person, as we call them, to cut together each take into a sequence. This enables a director to review the take within the context of the sequence of the scene.

Certainly, it includes that. I want the story to be interpreted in as many ways as possible, and of course, the bad blood aspect of it included. For instance, perhaps this is a story not about the hereditary nature of evil, but rather you could interpret it from a different perspective, too.

If you would ask me what my ideal process is, I would say, long pre-production, long production and long post-production.

The audience seems hazy to me, shrouded in a veil through which I can't see.

I do like musical films more than big Hollywood films, especially those by Jacques Demi and Vincent Minelli.

I'd love to do a sci-fi movie, a western, or an espionage thriller. But I'm not going to limit myself. If a good script comes along, I'm not going to discount it because it doesn't fit into one of these genres.

If you are watching my films and wondering, am I missing humorous speak because I'm not Korean? Am I missing out? You don't have to worry, because you're only missing probably about a few cents worth out of your ticket price.

Becoming a vampire means completely changing your identity.

I tend not to use the humor which would only apply to Koreans, or which would only affect the Koreans, as much as I can.

I've read all of Sarah Waters's novels which have been translated into Korean.

I have always meticulously storyboarded my films from beginning to end.

I became a film director, but I wasn't successful with my first couple of films, so I had to turn to becoming a film critic to make a living.

I believe there are more films that involve love and forgiveness than violence, but they often seem fake and are almost embarrassing to watch.

The point of revenge is not in the completion but in the process.

I am sure I am one of 2000 film directors in the world that Tarantino admires.

Actors are professionals who deal with people's emotions and their thoughts.

I hate jeans for no reason.

When I'm writing something, if it gets too serious, I just can't bear it, so I take a step back and take the overall scene in and vent the air a little bit.

Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn't act in it.

Not only do I look at the playback with the actors, but I look at the on-set assembly footage with the sequences with my actors as well. These are the reasons why I take twice as much time to shoot a film in Korea. Thinking back, I remember on my first ever Korean film, I never used any playback or on-set assembly, so all I had to do was to tell myself it's just like making my first ever Korean-language film. After that, I felt right at home.

I don't usually watch a lot of TV, but Mad Men changed my perspective. I admire Matthew Weiner who came up with the idea and wrote such a great TV series, and the broadcasting company for being bold enough to air such a series.

I believe 'love' is very nice to hear, but it's used so much that it's come to a point where it's almost meaningless.

I'm not the kind of director who aims to send a message out.

If I want to relax and not do anything, I don't want to leave home.

There's a humble beauty about listening to period instruments that I like.

I guess I probably make violent films partly because I can't express my anger in my real life very well.

I love Philip Glass' work, not only as a film composer but also as a musician. The film score work that he does always amazes and shocks me.

In our lives, we have good things and bad things, happiness and pain.

In my opinion, all relationships between people have some sort of violence, and it is central.

A film set is a workplace for me; it's my office, and nobody really wants to be in a stressful work environment.