Lee Yoon-ki

Lee Yoon-ki (born 1965), is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.

Lee Yoon-ki earned his MA in business administration/economics at the University of Southern California.

After returning to Korea, he worked as a producer and director of several short films.

His first feature, This Charming Girl, attracted much attention from major film festivals, including Sundance and Berlin.

His second feature, Love Talk, was invited to compete at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, and his third and fourth features, Ad-lib Night and My Dear Enemy were both critically acclaimed.

Since his debut, Lee has emerged as one of Korea's leading sources of small-budgeted, intimate dramas about ordinary people.

He is particularly skilled at inhabiting the worlds of female characters, and he has worked with a range of impressive up and coming actresses including Kim Ji-soo, Han Hyo-joo and Im Soo-jung, and most importantly Korea's top actress Jeon Do-yeon.

Though Lee empathizes with women marginalized by a patriarchal society, he refuses to exploit easy cultural signifiers to arouse audience sympathy.

The characters also remain rather elusive amidst Lee's always-atmospheric images.

But if his films are refreshingly unsentimental, their imagery is also refreshingly evocative, more romantic than realist.

He considers Hou Hsiao-hsien as his film mentor.

Other influences are Robert Altman’s earlier works, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and other American independent films from the 70s and 80s, including the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple.

His favorite artist is Edward Hopper.

This Charming Girl

Love Talk