Park Chan-wook, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is one of the most admired filmmakers not only in his own country, South Korea, but all around the world, having made masterpieces including 2000’s Joint Security Area, 2003’s Oldboy, 2016’s The Handmaiden, 2022’s Decision to Leave and, most recently, 2025’s No Other Choice, a dramedy centering on a man who is laid off from his job and resorts to desperate measures to try to keep his life the way it was. The Hollywood Reporter has described Park as “the virtual face of contemporary South Korean cinema.” Paste argued, “The vibrant South Korean cinema scene’s success with Western audiences over the past couple of decades owes much to” him. And the New York Times has described him as “an auteur beloved as much for his complex, often critical visions of his home country… as for scenes of stomach-churning horror,” “an internationally renowned master of bloodshed” and “the man who put Korean cinema on the map.” Over the course of a conversation …