Park Chan-wook Quotations

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.

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.

When you consider the concept of vampirism, it is inherently part of a Western culture.

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

Living without hate for people is almost impossible.

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

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.

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

Becoming a vampire means completely changing your identity.

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.

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.

The reason I want to show shocking things is that they always pose an ethical question.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I grew up in a very Catholic family. Up until puberty, I would go to a Catholic church every week.

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

It is not possible for a person to be completely free of sin and be squeaky clean.

I have always meticulously storyboarded my films from beginning to end.

I'd like to do a really masculine film.

If I want to relax and not do anything, I don't want to leave home.

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.

Whether it's trivial or important, every choice has a moral aspect to it to a certain degree.

When I was making my first films, I was very interested in Hollywood B movies.

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

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

I am sure I am one of 2,000 film directors in the world that Tarantino admires.

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.

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

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.

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.

Visual elements are, of course, the director's job.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

The point of revenge is not in the completion but in the process.

Actors are professionals who deal with people's emotions and their thoughts. So, working with this very intelligent, smart cast meant that sometimes I would only have to start speaking a word and these wonderful actors would immediately catch onto what I wanted them to portray, and how I wanted them to act.

I'm not the kind of director who aims to send a message out.

Not only do I look at the playback with the actors, but I look at the on-set assembly footage with the sequences with my actors as well. These are the reasons why I take twice as much time to shoot a film in Korea. Thinking back, I remember on my first ever Korean film, I never used any playback or on-set assembly, so all I had to do was to tell myself it's just like making my first ever Korean-language film. After that, I felt right at home.

I've read all of Sarah Waters's novels which have been translated into Korean.

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.

Whenever I visit a city, I like to see what classical music concerts are on offer.

There's a humble beauty about listening to period instruments that I like.

The reason why I always wanted to make an American film was because of the Western genre. It is something that I would very much like to make in the future, because it's very uniquely American, and I can't make a Western film in Korean.

The audience seems hazy to me, shrouded in a veil through which I can't see.

If you are watching my films and wondering, am I missing humorous speak because I'm not Korean? Am I missing out? You don't have to worry, because you're only missing probably about a few cents worth out of your ticket price.

I am sure I am one of 2,000 film directors in the world that Tarantino admires.

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.

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

A priest encounters temptation every day, and some of that desire is very natural.

I do like musical films more than big Hollywood films, especially those by Jacques Demi and Vincent Minelli.

I tend not to use the humor which would only apply to Koreans, or which would only affect the Koreans, as much as I can.

I hate jeans for no reason.

In my creative films, if there was something, some humorous moment that is lost to a non-Korean speaking audience, I'll be very sad.

Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn't act in it.

In our lives, we have good things and bad things, happiness and pain.

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.

I've grown up watching a lot of Western genre films on TV, and America is not just a country, but it's one of the most important countries in the world, and examining the process of how this nation came to be, it's an important thing, even for outsiders.

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.

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

I actually pay careful attention to that sort of thing - infusing humor into my films - because that's how important I think humor is.

I don't really believe in the auteur theory.

In my opinion, all relationships between people have some sort of violence, and it is central.

Actors are professionals who deal with people's emotions and their thoughts.

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.