Choi Dong-hoon
Born	(1971-02-24) February 24, 1971 (age 52) Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, South Korea
Education	Sogang University - B.A. in Korean Language and Literature Korean Academy of Film Arts - Filmmaking
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1998–present
Spouse	Ahn Soo-hyun (film producer)
Korean name
Hangul	최동훈
Revised Romanization	Choi Dong-hun
McCune–Reischauer	Ch‘oe Tong-hun

Choi Dong-hoon (Korean: 최동훈; born February 24, 1971) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He ranks as one of the most consistently successful directors working in contemporary Korean cinema, with all five of his films becoming commercial hits -- The Big Swindle attracted 2.12 million viewers, Tazza: The High Rollers at 6.84 million, Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard at 6.13 million, The Thieves at 12.9 million, and Assassination at 12.7 million.^[1]

Career

After graduating from the prestigious Korean Academy of Film Arts, Choi Dong-hoon first worked as an assistant director on Im Sang-soo's Tears (he subsequently appeared in acting cameos in several of Im's films).^[2]

After working on the screenplay for two years, Choi made his feature film directorial debut in 2004 with The Big Swindle and single-handedly re-imagined the heist and crime thriller genre into something uniquely Korean. His follow-up Tazza: The High Rollers, a gambling flick adapted from Huh Young-man and Kim Se-yeong's manhwa, was the second highest grossing Korean film of 2006, and producer/Sidus FNH CEO Cha Seung-jae praised Choi as "a genius storyteller for his spectacular ability to develop elaborate stories." 2009's Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard was lauded as the first Korean fantasy/superhero blockbuster movie, earning Choi a reputation as an artistically innovative and commercially successful writer-director.^[3]

He returned to the heist genre in 2012 with the star-studded crime caper The Thieves,^[4] which attracted almost 13 million viewers in 70 days to become the second all-time highest grossing movie in Korean film history.^[5][6][7][8] Tazza and Thieves leading lady Kim Hye-soo described him as "a genius who also works extremely hard. I think he knows who he is, the exact kind of films that he wants to make, and how to make them."^[2]

Choi made his first period film with 2015's Assassination, about freedom fighters during Japan's colonial rule, and it was once again a box office hit, crossing the 10 million admissions milestone on the 70th anniversary of South Korean independence.^[9][10]

In 2017, Choi began production on his next film Wiretap, a remake of the 2009 Hong Kong film Overheard.^[11] However, production was halted so Kim Woo Bin could undergo treatment for cancer.^[12] At the end of 2019, the director was then reported to be working on a two-part science fiction film.^[13] The first part titled Alienoid which depicts a story unfolding as the door of time open between late Goryeo and the present day, when aliens appear, was released in July 2022.^[14]

Filmography

As director

• A Short Trip (short film, director; 2000)
• The Big Swindle (director, screenwriter; 2004)
• Tazza: The High Rollers (director, screenwriter; 2006)
• Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard (director, screenwriter; 2009)
• The Thieves (director, screenwriter; 2012)
• Assassination (director, screenwriter, producer; 2015)
• Alienoid (director, screenwriter, producer; 2022)
• Alienoid: Return to the Future (director, screenwriter, producer; 2024)
• Wiretap (director, screenwriter; TBA)

Other

• Tears (assistant director, cameo; 2000)
• A Good Lawyer's Wife (cameo; 2003)
• Boy Goes to Heaven (screenwriter; 2005)
• The President's Last Bang (cameo; 2005)
• The Restless (screenwriter; 2006)

Awards