Born in Daegu, South Korea, in 1969. He studied at the Korean Academy of Film Arts, where he made his first short movies. In 2000, he directed his first feature film, "Barking Dogs Never Bite" (2000), but gained notoriety with "Memories of Murder" (2003), awarded in the San Sebastián Film Festival. After that, he made "The Host" (2006), a segment of "Tokyo!" (2008, 33rd Mostra), "Mother" (2009, 33rd Mostra), "Snowpiercer" (2013) and "Okja" (2017).