Top 35 Park Chan-wook Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The point of revenge is not in the completion but in the process.”

— Park Chan-wook

2. “If I want to relax and not do anything, I don’t want to leave home.”

— Park Chan-wook

3. “If you would ask me what my ideal process is, I would say, long pre-production, long production and long post-production.”

— Park Chan-wook

4. “Whenever I visit a city, I like to see what classical music concerts are on offer.”

— Park Chan-wook

5. “Becoming a vampire means completely changing your identity.”

— Park Chan-wook

6. “I am sure I am one of 2,000 film directors in the world that Tarantino admires.”

— Park Chan-wook

7. “If your work requires you to travel, you will understand that there’s no vacation destination like home.”

— Park Chan-wook

8. “A film set is a workplace for me; it’s my office, and nobody really wants to be in a stressful work environment.”

— Park Chan-wook

9. “In our lives, we have good things and bad things, happiness and pain.”

— Park Chan-wook

10. “I have always meticulously storyboarded my films from beginning to end.”

— Park Chan-wook

11. “I became a film director, but I wasn’t successful with my first couple of films, so I had to turn to becoming a film critic to make a living.”

— Park Chan-wook

12. “I hate jeans for no reason.”

— Park Chan-wook

13. “Certainly, it includes that. I want the story to be interpreted in as many ways as possible, and of course, the bad blood aspect of it included. For instance, perhaps this is a story not about the hereditary nature of evil, but rather you could interpret it from a different perspective, too.”

— Park Chan-wook

14. “I’m not the kind of director who aims to send a message out.”

— Park Chan-wook

15. “I’d like to do a really masculine film.”

— Park Chan-wook

16. “I believe there are more films that involve love and forgiveness than violence, but they often seem fake and are almost embarrassing to watch.”

— Park Chan-wook

17. “I do like musical films more than big Hollywood films, especially those by Jacques Demi and Vincent Minelli.”

— Park Chan-wook

18. “Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn’t act in it.”

— Park Chan-wook

19. “You could say that evil is contagious in that we have this mesmerizing mentor in Uncle Charlie who comes into your life. Every person has a seed of evil inside them, and when you come across such a mesmerizing mentor, he is able to successfully turn it into a flower of evil.”

— Park Chan-wook

20. “I grew up in a very Catholic family. Up until puberty, I would go to a Catholic church every week.”

— Park Chan-wook

21. “I don’t really believe in the auteur theory.”

— Park Chan-wook

22. “In my opinion, all relationships between people have some sort of violence, and it is central.”

— Park Chan-wook

23. “The audience seems hazy to me, shrouded in a veil through which I can’t see.”

— Park Chan-wook

24. “As I grow older I spend more time with my wife, and gradually my interest in the woman’s world is growing.”

— Park Chan-wook

25. “I don’t usually watch a lot of TV, but ‘Mad Men’ changed my perspective. I admire Matthew Weiner who came up with the idea and wrote such a great TV series, and the broadcasting company for being bold enough to air such a series.”

— Park Chan-wook

26. “I am not going to do a film based on a bad scenario just to make a big Hollywood film or work with Hollywood stars.”

— Park Chan-wook

27. “I believe ‘love’ is very nice to hear, but it’s used so much that it’s come to a point where it’s almost meaningless.”

— Park Chan-wook

28. “When I was growing up, we were taught in school that North Koreans, and especially the North Korean leadership, were all devils.”

— Park Chan-wook

29. “A priest encounters temptation every day, and some of that desire is very natural.”

— Park Chan-wook

30. “I’ve read all of Sarah Waters’s novels which have been translated into Korean.”

— Park Chan-wook

31. “There’s a humble beauty about listening to period instruments that I like.”

— Park Chan-wook

32. “I guess I probably make violent films partly because I can’t express my anger in my real life very well.”

— Park Chan-wook

33. “I’d love to do a sci-fi movie, a western, or an espionage thriller. But I’m not going to limit myself. If a good script comes along, I’m not going to discount it because it doesn’t fit into one of these genres.”

— Park Chan-wook

34. “Ever since I arrived in America to promote “Stoker,” I haven’t had time to go and see it in a theater. The fact that I had to shoot twice as fast as I’m used to in Korea was the most challenging thing about my Hollywood experience.”

— Park Chan-wook

35. “Actors are professionals who deal with people’s emotions and their thoughts.”

— Park Chan-wook

36. “Certain subjects may no longer be taboo in cinema. But there are ways to treat them that still create shock.”

— Park Chan-wook

37. “I don’t know how people can find any fun in watching mindless films. If you want a peaceful rest, have a bath.”

— Park Chan-wook