Starting with his debut film, <The Bad Utterances> (2004), JO has shown himself to be steadfast in telling stories of low-life street thugs in their 20s. JO rose to short film stardom, as <Rainy Season> (1996), his graduation project at Dankook University, was invited to numerous international film festivals, including the Hanover International Short Film Festival, and won awards at local film festivals in Korea. <The Bad Utterances>, which received positive...More

Starting with his debut film, <The Bad Utterances> (2004), JO has shown himself to be steadfast in telling stories of low-life street thugs in their 20s. JO rose to short film stardom, as <Rainy Season> (1996), his graduation project at Dankook University, was invited to numerous international film festivals, including the Hanover International Short Film Festival, and won awards at local film festivals in Korea. <The Bad Utterances>, which received positive reviews for being “refreshingly shocking” for the director’s outstanding character description and raw approach to the depiction of thugs, was the starting point for <Three Fellas> (2004), a commercial film JO directed subsequently. JO has a knack for portraying the lives of young people who live breathlessly in the city, which he once again fully showcased in his first blockbuster film <Quick>. The film depicted the adventures of an ex-troubled urban bike messenger and an Idol singer who must follow directions from a terrorist with bombs to deliver an item within an assigned time period. The film was a moderate success at the box-office. Staying in action mode but throwing in a dash of noirish cool, JO’s next work was the action-thriller <The Divine Move>. Released in 2014 and met with strong box office returns, the film featured star JUNG Woo-sung as a professional Go player who vows revenge when is framed for the murder of his brother.Less