After graduating from the Seoul Institute of Arts, BYUN Sung-hyun made the medium-length film <Real> in 2005 and the short <Moviestar> in 2006. He made a name in the Korean film industry with his feature debut, the music drama <The Beat Goes On> (2010), credited with being Korea’s first hip-hop film. Though not a major film, it drew him notice as well as the opportunity to direct his first commercial work. BYUN continued to explore the youth lifestyle in ...More

After graduating from the Seoul Institute of Arts, BYUN Sung-hyun made the medium-length film <Real> in 2005 and the short <Moviestar> in 2006. He made a name in the Korean film industry with his feature debut, the music drama <The Beat Goes On> (2010), credited with being Korea’s first hip-hop film. Though not a major film, it drew him notice as well as the opportunity to direct his first commercial work. BYUN continued to explore the youth lifestyle in modern Korea with the romantic comedy <Watcha Wearin’> (2012), in which he tackled sexuality among young adults without any taboos. Starring JI Sung and KIM A-joong of <200 Pounds Beauty> (2006) fame, the film proved a surprising hit for an R-rated film with 1.8 million tickets sold. His next film, the crime-action <The Merciless> (2016), received rave reviews upon its premiere in the Midnight Screenings section of the Cannes Film Festival, and made it onto many critics’ best-of-2017 lists, including the one from the Korean Association of Film Critics. Less