Born in Taegu, 1951. While studying fine arts he worked as assistant director on student films. After graduating he went on take a doctorate and now teaches Fine Art in Taegu. The script for his debut film Why Has Bodhi-Dharma left for the East? was written in 1981, five years before he managed to start making the film, which won the Golden Leopard at the 1989 Locarno Film Festival. His second film Black Soil, White People(1997) has had only limited screenings at home and abroad.