I. Introduction
Jang Hoon is a South Korean film director.
II. Career
Jang Hoon (along with Jang Cheol-soo and Juhn Jai-hong) honed his directorial skills as an assistant director under Kim Ki-duk. His debut film Rough Cut (2008), about a gangster who wants to become an actor and an actor who thinks he is as tough as a gangster, was written and produced by Kim. Rough Cut was much more commercially oriented than Kim's own movies, and the star power of its two leading actors So Ji-sub and Kang Ji-hwan propelled the indie to more than one million admissions, resulting in a profit 10 times its low budget.
Jang's second feature, Secret Reunion (2010), benefited even more from the director's populist sensibility. A story about two intelligence agents, one from South Korea and the other from the North (played by Song Kang-ho and Kang Dong-won, respectively), who approach each other in acts of espionage only to develop an unlikely friendship, the film sold 5.5 million tickets, making it the second highest grossing Korean film of that year.
His third film, The Front Line, was a large-scale war movie that came out during the 2011 summer blockbuster season. Starring Go Soo and Shin Ha-kyun, the film was the most well-received among the ample number of Korean War-themed films and TV dramas commemorating the 60th anniversary of the war. Through the guise of a mystery narrative, the film revolved around the story of South and North Korean soldiers carrying out meaningless sacrifices trying to capture a nameless hill.
His latest release is Taxi Driver in 2017.
III. Filmography
Year | Poster | Title |
2008 | Rough Cut | |
2010 | Secret Reunion | |
2011 | The Front Line | |
2017 | A Taxi Driver |