Lee Byung-hoon
| Lee Byung-hoon | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 14, 1944 Yeongi County, South Chungcheong Province (now Sejong City, South Korea |
| Education | Seoul National University - Forestry |
| Occupation | Television director, producer |
| Years active | 1970-present |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 이병훈 |
| Hanja | 李丙勳 |
| Revised Romanization | I Byeong-hun |
| McCune–Reischauer | I Pyŏng-hun |
Lee Byung-hoon (born October 14, 1944) is a South Korean television director and producer. Lee is best known for directing period dramas, notably 500 Years of Joseon (1983-1990), Hur Jun (1999) and Dae Jang Geum (2003).
Lee Byung-hoon began working for broadcasting network MBC in 1970, and made his solo directorial debut in 1974.
In 1983, he and writer Shin Bong-seung created the landmark eight-year-long series 500 Years of Joseon, which shifted the genre of historical/period dramas (called sageuk in Korean) from monotonous historical chronicles into the interpretation of bonafide records like the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. His follow-up, Kim Jung-soo-penned contemporary drama My Mother's Sea (1993) was also popular, with a peak viewership rating of 51.6%.
But in 1999 Lee revolutionized the sageuk genre with Hur Jun, the first Korean period drama to focus on a "commoner" historical figure instead of royalty and powerful nobles. Jun Kwang-ryul played Heo Jun, a court physician who wrote Dongui Bogam, one of the pillars of traditional Korean medicine. Hur Jun reached record-breaking viewership ratings of 64% (fourth highest rated Korean drama of all time).
This was followed by Sangdo in 2001, an adaptation of Choi In-ho's novel about the legendary merchant Im Sang-ok, and Lee again cast Jun in the leading role. Journalists coined the term "fusion sageuk" for Lee's attempts to revitalize the genre, transforming the previous lack of accessibility and narrative cliches of period dramas with its viewership of older, male armchair historians, into something more appealing to an increasingly younger demographic of viewers.
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