Park Chan-wook Quotes & Sayings

Lots of people think the violence in the films I make is overwhelming, but they think they're seeing something that they aren't seeing. — Park Chan-wook

If your work requires you to travel, you will understand that there's no vacation destination like home. — Park Chan-wook

When I was making my first films, I was very interested in Hollywood B movies. — Park Chan-wook

I'd like to do a really masculine film. — Park Chan-wook

In our lives, we have good things and bad things, happiness and pain. — Park Chan-wook

In my opinion, all relationships between people have some sort of violence, and it is central. — Park Chan-wook

Actors are professionals who deal with people's emotions and their thoughts. — Park Chan-wook

A film set is a workplace for me; it's my office, and nobody really wants to be in a stressful work environment. — Park Chan-wook

I don't really believe in the auteur theory. — Park Chan-wook

It is not possible for a person to be completely free of sin and be squeaky clean. — Park Chan-wook

When I grow older and less popular, there will come a time when I have to shoot films on low budgets. — Park Chan-wook

As I grow older I spend more time with my wife, and gradually my interest in the woman's world is growing. — Park Chan-wook

I have always meticulously storyboarded my films from beginning to end. — Park Chan-wook

The point of revenge is not in the completion but in the process. — Park Chan-wook

I don't usually watch a lot of TV, but 'Mad Men' changed my perspective. I admire Matthew Weiner who came up with the idea and wrote such a great TV series, and the broadcasting company for being bold enough to air such a series. — Park Chan-wook

People who really try to be conscious of what they have done, who take responsibility, to me these kinds of people are heroes. — Park Chan-wook

I've read all of Sarah Waters's novels which have been translated into Korean. — Park Chan-wook

Certain subjects may no longer be taboo in cinema. But there are ways to treat them that still create shock. — Park Chan-wook

I'd love to do a sci-fi movie, a western, or an espionage thriller. But I'm not going to limit myself. If a good script comes along, I'm not going to discount it because it doesn't fit into one of these genres. — Park Chan-wook

Whenever I visit a city, I like to see what classical music concerts are on offer. — Park Chan-wook

I am sure I am one of 2,000 film directors in the world that Tarantino admires. — Park Chan-wook

Actors, I think, are all the same. Both Korean actors and American actors are all very sensitive people, and they are all curious to know what the director thinks of them and how they are evaluated, and they try to satisfy the director. And they like it if you listen carefully to their opinions and accept them. — Park Chan-wook

The audience seems hazy to me, shrouded in a veil through which I can't see. — Park Chan-wook

I grew up in a very Catholic family. Up until puberty, I would go to a Catholic church every week. — Park Chan-wook

I believe 'love' is very nice to hear, but it's used so much that it's come to a point where it's almost meaningless. — Park Chan-wook

Living without hate for people is almost impossible. — Park Chan-wook

When I was growing up, we were taught in school that North Koreans, and especially the North Korean leadership, were all devils. — Park Chan-wook

I am not going to do a film based on a bad scenario just to make a big Hollywood film or work with Hollywood stars. — Park Chan-wook

Actually, I can't stand watching violent scenes in films; I avoid watching horror films. I don't tend to watch action films mainly because I find them boring, but I watch the films of David Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese, usually in a state close to having a heart attack. I'm a complete coward. I make violent films as a result of my sensitivity to violence - in other words, my fear of violence. — Park Chan-wook

Visual elements are, of course, the director's job. — Park Chan-wook

I believe there are more films that involve love and forgiveness than violence, but they often seem fake and are almost embarrassing to watch. — Park Chan-wook

I'm not the kind of director who aims to send a message out. — Park Chan-wook

I've always had an interest in vampire films - not just 'Nosferatu,' but there are many others that I have enjoyed: Abel Ferrara, Coppola, Neil Jordan. — Park Chan-wook

Ever since I arrived in America to promote "Stoker," I haven't had time to go and see it in a theater. The fact that I had to shoot twice as fast as I'm used to in Korea was the most challenging thing about my Hollywood experience. — Park Chan-wook

I guess I probably make violent films partly because I can't express my anger in my real life very well. — Park Chan-wook

If you would ask me what my ideal process is, I would say, long pre-production, long production and long post-production. — Park Chan-wook

When it comes to remaking my own films in the English language, I can only imagine that it is a very boring process, I wouldn't ever dream of it. — Park Chan-wook

Whether it's trivial or important, every choice has a moral aspect to it to a certain degree. — Park Chan-wook

Certainly, it includes that. I want the story to be interpreted in as many ways as possible, and of course, the bad blood aspect of it included. For instance, perhaps this is a story not about the hereditary nature of evil, but rather you could interpret it from a different perspective, too. — Park Chan-wook

If I want to relax and not do anything, I don't want to leave home. — Park Chan-wook

The atmosphere of Catholicism in Korea is quite different to the way it is practised and perceived in Europe or the U.S. — Park Chan-wook

You could say that evil is contagious in that we have this mesmerizing mentor in Uncle Charlie who comes into your life. Every person has a seed of evil inside them, and when you come across such a mesmerizing mentor, he is able to successfully turn it into a flower of evil. — Park Chan-wook

I live in a rural residential area. It's a great place for a walk. I'm at my happiest when I'm listening to my iPod while walking around where my feet take me. — Park Chan-wook

When we are confronted with extreme situations, we forget about moral issues; we simply act and must then accept the consequences. — Park Chan-wook

I cannot believe that violence depicted onscreen actually causes people to act out violently. That's oversimplifying the issue. If somebody commits a violent act after seeing violence in a movie, I think the question that needs to be asked is: would that person still have committed the act if he had not seen a violent film? — Park Chan-wook

When I was going through puberty, I had all these feelings of being unstable through those years, and being uncontrollably drawn to things of beauty and things that are bad. — Park Chan-wook

I don't think I've ever tried to make something happen that I've absolutely had to force. You know how they say: if you can't avoid it, enjoy it. For me, it's the other way around: if I can't enjoy it, I avoid it. — Park Chan-wook

When you first hear Mozart's music, your first impression is that it's very alive, but if you peel away the layers, you can hear sorrow and sadness behind it, and that's what I try to be: multi-layered. — Park Chan-wook

There's a humble beauty about listening to period instruments that I like. — Park Chan-wook

When you consider the concept of vampirism, it is inherently part of a Western culture. — Park Chan-wook

Becoming a vampire means completely changing your identity. — Park Chan-wook

I became a film director, but I wasn't successful with my first couple of films, so I had to turn to becoming a film critic to make a living. — Park Chan-wook

The reason I want to show shocking things is that they always pose an ethical question. — Park Chan-wook

I do like musical films more than big Hollywood films, especially those by Jacques Demi and Vincent Minelli. — Park Chan-wook

In Korea is what I do is I watch the playback of each take with all of the actors and spend a lot of time discussing each take. Also, I use the process we call auto-assembly because I storyboard my entire film right at the beginning, even before pre-production ever begins, so my vision is already laid out on the storyboard for everybody to share. It enables the on-set assembly person, as we call them, to cut together each take into a sequence. This enables a director to review the take within the context of the sequence of the scene. — Park Chan-wook

I love Philip Glass' work, not only as a film composer but also as a musician. The film score work that he does always amazes and shocks me. — Park Chan-wook

I hate jeans for no reason. — Park Chan-wook

When I say that I am going to do an American film, I didn't want to suddenly go off into a completely different world that which bears no relation to the style of filmmaking that I'm used to. — Park Chan-wook

All of the characters in my films, they share one commonality. It doesn't matter whether they are good or bad, it doesn't matter whether they are smart or stupid, these characters all take responsibility for their own behavior. I'm much the same. — Park Chan-wook

A priest encounters temptation every day, and some of that desire is very natural. — Park Chan-wook