A BITTERSWEET LIFE

South Korean director Kim Jee-woon was born in Seoul in 1964. He began his career as a stage actor and then a stage director, directing the plays Hot Sea (1994) and Movie Movie (1995). Going on to screenwriting, his screenplay Wonderful Seasons won the award for Best Screenplay at the Premiere Scenario contest in Korea in 1997. In the same year, Kim’s second screenplay, The Quiet Family, a dark comedy,w on him the prize for Best Screenplay at the 1st Cine21 Scenario Public Subscription Contest. He made his directorial debut in 1998 with this screenplay. The Quiet Family won the Best Film Award at Portugal’s s Fantasporto Film Festival,and was an ofifcial selection at the Berlin I. FKFim followed this by writing and directing The Foul King,which became the box office sensation in Korea for the year 2000. It was the #1 movie in Korea for six months,being watched by over 2 million people. The film received domestic and international acclaim, screened at numerous international film festivals and sealed Kim’s reputation as one of the leading directors in Korea. A Tale of Two Sisters, a horror film based on a traditional Korean folk tale, won the awards for Best Director and Best Film at Portugal’s Fantasporto Film Festival in 2004, while his latest film, A Bittersweet Life (was screened in the Out of Competition Section of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival), the story of an anti-hero up against the power of the underworld,w on the Best Supporting Actor Award (Whang Jung-min) at the 2005 Grand Bell Awards in Korea.