"LEE Man-hee has been called a ""martyr of film,"" ""a director who advanced Korean realist film,"" ""a Korean film auteur armed with a fierce artistic spirit,"" and a ""cinematic genius and experimenter."" Based on his films and on the accounts of people who knew him, LEE's directing style can be characterized by two elements: an abundance of passion for film, and the tireless exploration of cinematic experimentation. The former led to both shadow―LEE's neglect of his family and sacrificing of a private life―and light, in that it produced the creative energy of a cinematic artist. The latter inspired the director to expand and deepen his cinematic language, as seen with his creative application of montage techniques, his aesthetic experimentation with sound and image, his eliciting of performances from deep within the actors, and his camera compositions using low-angle shots, bird's-eye shots and oblique angles. Korean Film Directors Created by the Korean Film Council, this series offers deep insight into key directors in Korean film, figures who are not only broadening the range of art and creativity found in Korean-produced commercial films but also gaining increasingly strong footholds in international markets. Each volume features: - critical commentary on films - extensive interview - biography - complete filmography "

MUN Gwan-gyu entered film criticism in 1998 when he won a competition sponsored by SportsSeoul. Since then, he has been active as a film critic and served as a member of the publishing board of the Korean Film Critics’ Association. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Art, Culture and Image at Pusan National University, and since 2001 he has been in charge of preliminary judging and programming for short features at the Jeonju International Film Festival’s “Korean Shorts: Critic’s Week.” His publications include Ten Korean Independent Film Directors (2004), Understanding Korean Short Film (2007) and There Are No Art Films (2007).

"Preface On the Director Interviews Biography Synopsis Filmography About the Author"