Kim Yong-hwa
| Kim Yong-hwa | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 25, 1971 Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, South Korea |
| Education | Chung-Ang University - Film Studies |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
| Years active | 2003-present |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 김용화 |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Yong-hwa |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Yong-hwa |
Kim Yong-hwa (born September 25, 1971) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Kim wrote and directed Oh! Brothers (2003), 200 Pounds Beauty (2006), Take Off (2009) and Mr. Go (2013).
Kim Yong-hwa majored in Film Studies at Chung-Ang University, but because of financial difficulties, it took him a decade to graduate. His graduation project in 1999 was the short film In the Jungle (titled "Salted Mackerel" in Korean), about two brothers (one of whom is a deaf-mute) taking care of a terminally ill mother, who are ordered to leave the hospital after they are late in paying the bills.In the Jungle won prizes at the 42nd Rochester International Film Festival and the 33rd Houston International Film Festival in 2000.
For his feature directorial debut, Kim wrote and directed Oh! Brothers, a comedy about an amoral, debt-ridden private detective who upon his father's death learns he has a younger half-brother with progeria, played by Lee Jung-jae and Lee Beom-soo. Oh! Brothers was the sixth best-selling Korean film of 2003, with 3.2 million tickets sold.
In 2006, Kim cast Kim Ah-joong in a star-making role as the protagonist of 200 Pounds Beauty (titled "It's Hard to Be a Beauty" in Korean), based on the Japanese manga Kanna's Big Success! by Yumiko Suzuki about an overweight ghost singer/phone sex operator who transforms her life after intensive plastic surgery and becomes a pop star. A romantic comedy as well as a satirical indictment of a hypocritical society that places too much value on appearance, the film's themes on beauty and self-esteem resonated with female Korean audiences, and 200 Pounds Beauty became a sleeper hit with 6.6 million admissions, making it the year's third best-selling domestic film. Kim won Best New Director at the 30th Golden Cinematography Awards in 2007, and received several nominations for directing and screenwriting.
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