Director Lee Myung-Se: A Master of Visual Cinematic Arts

At the 1991 Asia-Pacific Film Festival, Lee Myung-Se was awarded Best New Director for the film Naui Sarang Naui Shinbu (My Love, My Bride), and in 1993 won the Special Jury Award for Cheot Sarang (The First Love). Naui Sarang Naui Shinbu solidified his career as a director, winning numerous domestic awards and launching the 'sex-war comedy' genre that has since dominated Korean cinema. Cheot Sarang proved more controversial - it was not a box-office success in Korea, but a growing number of critics consider it one of the greatest Korean films ever made. In 1999, Nowhere to Hide walked the fine line between art and entertainment. With the film, Lee created a kind of stylistic clash between Reservoir Dogs, Run Lola Run, Sergio Leone westerns, and The French Connection. Lee is best known for his cinematic approach to filmmaking, consciously using film as a medium to create beautiful, complex scenes. The movement of his films relies more on imagery than dialogue. One critic stated of Lee, “he fluidly splices together time and spaces and degrees of reality like a comic book.”