The focus of this year’s Korean Cinema Retrospective at the 21st edition of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) will be filmmaker LEE Doo-yong. Forging a body of work that saw him hop across several different film genres, LEE is responsible for classic works such as The Oldest Son (1984).

Director LEE got his start in 1970 and was one of leading figures responsible for the taekwondo martial arts films that became popular during the decade. The following decade saw him become one of the first Korean filmmakers known on the international festival circuit when his interest moved on to more diverse fare, which included several social works. The Venice Film Festival awarded him the Integrated Social Development Assistance Program (ISDAP) Award for The Hut in 1980 while Spinning the Tales Of Cruelty Towards Women went to the Un Certain Regard program of the Cannes Film Festival in 1984.

BIFF will screen eight of LEE’s films in October, ranging from the taekwondo action title Manchurian Tiger (1974) and his shamanist work The Early Years (1977) to social works Police Story (1978) and The Oldest Son (1984), period drama Eunuch (1986) and the aforementioned titles The Hut and Spinning the Tales Of Cruelty Towards Women.

This year’s Busan International Film Festival will take place from October 6th to 15th. The full program of BIFF’s 21st edition will be unveiled in the second week on September.