Kim Han-min

After graduating from Dongguk University's Graduate School of Film Arts, Kim Han-min gained accolades for two of his short films - Sunflower Blues which screened at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival as well as the New York Independent Film Festival; and Three Hungry Brothers which received awards at the Mise-en-scene Genre Film Festival, the Asiana International Short Film Festival, and the Seoul Digital Film Festival.^[1]

In 2007 he made his feature directorial debut with the mystery-thriller Paradise Murdered starring Park Hae-il, Park Sol-mi and Sung Ji-ru. A fictionalized account of a murder that took place on a secluded island in the 1980s involving rational and irrational horrors, the film sold over 2 million tickets nationwide.^[2] In his second feature, Kim shifted his setting to the big city, with blackmail thriller Handphone (2009) revolving around every urbanite's essential hardware, the cell phone. Starring Uhm Tae-woong and Park Yong-woo, it fell short of both the commercial and critical successes of his first film.^[3]

Set during the second Manchu invasion of 1636, Kim's third film War of the Arrows (2011) combined well-choreographed combat sequences and special effects, fast pacing, a tense plot and the thrill of the chase to tell the story of a master archer and his quest to rescue his sister from Qing Dynasty soldiers.^[4][5] The period action film unexpectedly drew an audience of 7.46 million, making it the highest grossing Korean film of 2011.^[6] It also won recognition at the Grand Bell Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards, notably for its lead actors Park Hae-il, Ryu Seung-ryong and Moon Chae-won.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Kim's follow-up in 2014 was another period epic, Battle of Myeongryang, Whirlwind Sea (released internationally as The Admiral: Roaring Currents), which depicted the legendary sea battle between 12 vessels of the Korean navy led by the most admired military figure in Korea, General Yi Sun-sin (played by Choi Min-sik), and 330 invading Japanese ships, which are eventually defeated. Given the disparity in numbers, the battle is regarded as one of Yi's most remarkable victories.^[12][13] It became the all-time most successful film in South Korean box office history, the first ever to reach 15 million admissions and the first local film to gross more than US$100 million.^[14]

To commemorate Yi's 407th birth anniversary in 2015, Kim and Jung Se-kyu co-directed Roaring Currents: The Road of the Admiral, a documentary prequel to The Admiral: Roaring Currents in which cast members of the 2014 film retraced the 450-kilometer path that the admiral walked in preparation for the Battle of Myeongnyang, based on the war diary that Yi wrote.^[15]

Beginning with 2014 film, The Admiral: Roaring Currents, Kim created Yi Sun-sin trilogy, based on three major naval battles led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin. The second film Hansan: Rising Dragon, based on Battle of Hansan Island which took place 5 years before Battle of Myeongnyang depicted in The Admiral, was released in 2022. Park Hae-il portrayed Admiral Yi in the film.^[16]

Kim's follow-up to Noryang: Deadly Sea (2023) was first announced in October 2024 during the "Plus M X SLL Night" event held at the 29th Busan International Film Festival.^[17][18][19] Park Bo-gum who had a role in Kim's The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014), is set to lead the film titled The Sword: Rebirth of the Red Wolf which is set in Goguryeo.^[20] Filming began in January 2026 with a planned 2027 release.^[21]

• Seven Years' War [ko] (TBA) – director^{[citation needed]}