Park Chan-wook's dark, controversial but also hugely influential movies like the ‘Vengeance' trilogy, and ‘Oldboy', break box office records in his home country South Korea and across Asia Pacific.

Park meets Anjali Rao on this weekend's TALK ASIA at an industry event in Seoul celebrating leading figures in Korean cinema.  He tells Rao about winning the Grand Jury prize at the Cannes film festival, his surprise at learning Quentin Tarantino was a huge fan, his views on Hollywood remaking one of his films and his thoughts on media accusations that his film was what motivated the Virginia Tech shooter.

Park's ‘Oldboy' surprised everyone at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival when the jury presented the relatively unknown Park with the ‘Grand Jury Prize', the second highest honor in the competition.  What surprised Park most was that the well-known president of the jury had fought hard for him to win: "...Tarantino at the after party, we talked about how he had memorized the lines, scene shots and editing details." 

Park also discusses allegations ‘Oldboy' inspired the Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui:  "I know that Cho studied theatre, read Shakespeare and also enjoyed writing plays.  When Cho read the violent lines in Shakespeare, that also might have influenced his actions. Should the media also blame Shakespeare?"

Despite being noted for his disturbing and extremely violent style, best illustrated by the ‘Vengeance' trilogy, the South Korean director describes himself as timid by nature: "I'm a person who scares easily and whenever I am confronted with a conflict, I don't go out and fight it but rather avoid it and shake in fright."  Park even believes that his normality is what makes him a brilliant film noir director, "The fact that I grew up in a very average environment made me grow tired of it all, and I made movies to escape the monotony."

Park also talks about the highest grossing film in South Korea and his first big hit "Joint Security Area", a thriller about guards in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.  Explaining why the film captured so much attention, Park says: "I wanted to show that North Koreans were people just like us. A lot of courage was needed to show an obvious fact that North Koreans are not demons or monsters and when it was shown to the public, I believe that many of them felt the same way I did and sympathized with the movie."

On his latest production "I'm a Cyborg But That's OK" which is a departure from his usual style, Park wanted to make a film that his 12-year old daughter could appreciate and he realized that up to now, he had produced films that were inappropriate for her to watch.  "I wanted her to watch my movies and understand me more because I am a father who doesn't come home because of shooting and even if I do, I come home late and get up late. I also wanted to show her what kind of work I did and this movie is actually filled with adolescent conflicts."

As to Charlize Theron's role in the Hollywood remake of ‘Lady Vengeance', taking on the role of Lee Geum-ja, Park is effusive in his praise: "She told me she had seen Lady Vengeance over ten times...I'm not exaggerating, her comments were sharper and smarter than the critics."

For more program information on TALK ASIA visit www.cnn.com/talkasia.  

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