JUNG Doo-hong is the most highly recognized action director and martial arts choreographer in Korea. Born in 1966, his life took an unexpected turn when a taekwondo institute opened close to his high school, which led him to discover a passion for martial arts. While majoring in physical education, he gave Taekwondo lessons in Japan and North America as part of an association for the promotion of Korean culture, and after his military service, he even served as a bodyguard fo...More

JUNG Doo-hong is the most highly recognized action director and martial arts choreographer in Korea. Born in 1966, his life took an unexpected turn when a taekwondo institute opened close to his high school, which led him to discover a passion for martial arts. While majoring in physical education, he gave Taekwondo lessons in Japan and North America as part of an association for the promotion of Korean culture, and after his military service, he even served as a bodyguard for a politician. He started his film career in 1990 as a stuntman for IM Kwon-taek’s <The General’s Son> (1990), and became martial arts director and stunt coordinator only two years later, at the age of 25, for <Sirasoni> (1992). Through continuous efforts and strict management, he has remained in the center of Korean movie action, directing action for 4 to 6 movies per year and recurrently introducing choreographies and stunts never attempted before in Korea. He was notably responsible for designing the street shooting in <Swiri> (1999), the wrestling in <The Foul King> (2000), the “Manchurian western” spectacle in <The Good, the Bad, and the Weird> (2008), and the gore fights in <I Saw the Devil> (2010). A fervent advocate for better working conditions for stunt performers, JUNG joined hands with four apprentices to establish Seoul Action School in 1998, with the aim to train and nurture the next generations of stuntpersons and action choreographers. Over the year, his school has produced the bulk of the performers currently active in the Korean film industry. Film director RYOO Seung-wan, a longtime collaborator who never contained his praise for JUNG, gave him more substantial roles in some of his films, first as the main villain in fantasy urban action <Arahan> (2004) and later as one of the protagonists in pure action film <The City of Violence> (2006). JUNG also had work stints abroad, most notably as the stunt double of LEE Byung-hun in the Hollywood films <G.I. Joe: Retaliation> (2013) and <Red 2> (2013). He also served as the stunt coordinator for the Korea-set scenes of Netflix series <Sense8> (2015-2017).Less