Lee Chang-dong (born July 4, 1954) is a South Korean filmmaker, novelist, and former government minister whose films connect intimate crises with the country’s modern history. Born in Daegu, he studied Korean literature at Kyungpook National University and worked as a schoolteacher before establishing himself as a writer of fiction. He entered cinema by co-writing Park Kwang-su’s To the Starry Island (1993), then made his directing debut with Green Fish (1997). That drama follows Mak-dong, a recently discharged soldier who returns to a Seoul transformed by development and becomes entangled with gangsters, setting out concerns—displacement, lost community, and unequal power—that recur throughout Lee’s work.
His second feature, Peppermint Candy (1999), moves backward through twenty years of the life of Yong-ho, beginning with his suicide at a 1999 reunion and ending in his youthful innocence. Its reverse chronology traces how authoritarian violence, including the 1980 Gwangju uprising, has damaged him. Oasis (2002) centers on the difficult relationship between Hong Jong-du, a recently released ex-convict, and Han Gong-ju, a woman with severe cerebral palsy; Moon So-ri won the Venice Film Festival’s Marcello Mastroianni Award for her performance. The film also brought Lee Venice’s Silver Lion for Best Direction.
Lee served as South Korea’s Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004 during Roh Moo-hyun’s administration. He returned to directing with Secret Sunshine (2007), in which a widow, Shin-ae, moves with her son to her late husband’s hometown of Miryang. After another devastating loss, her search for religious consolation becomes increasingly fraught. Jeon Do-yeon won the Cannes Best Actress award for the role. Poetry (2010) follows Mija, an older woman confronting Alzheimer’s disease and a grave crime involving her grandson while trying to write a poem. Lee received Cannes’s Best Screenplay prize.
After an eight-year absence from features, Lee adapted Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning” into Burning (2018), substantially relocating and expanding it in Korea. The film follows aspiring writer Jong-su, who reconnects with Hae-mi and becomes suspicious of Ben, the wealthy young man she meets in Africa. Steven Yeun played Ben, and Yoo Ah-in played Jong-su. Burning premiered in competition at Cannes, where it won the FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize, and it became the first South Korean film shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also selected as South Korea’s submission for that award. Its ambiguity typifies Lee’s refusal of easy, simple moral resolutions.
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