Yeon Sang-ho
Yeon in 2025
Born	(1977-12-25)December 25, 1977 (age 48) Seoul, South Korea
Education	Sangmyung University - Western Painting
Occupations	Film director,screenwriter
Years active	1997–present
Korean name
Hangul	연상호
Hanja	延尚昊
RR	Yeon Sangho
MR	Yŏn Sangho

Yeon Sang-ho (born December 25, 1977) is a South Koreanfilm director andscreenwriter. He gained international popularity for working hisadult animated filmsThe King of Pigs (2011) andThe Fake (2013), and thelive-action filmTrain to Busan (2016), its animated prequelSeoul Station (2016) and live-action sequelPeninsula (2020), and first South Korean superhero filmPsychokinesis (2018).

Born inSeoul on December 25, 1977, Yeon Sang-ho graduated fromSangmyung University with a degree in Western Painting.^[1] He directed his first animatedshort film,Megalomania of D in 1997, followed byD-Day in 2000 andThe Hell in 2002, then set up his own production house Studio Dadashow in 2004.^[2] His next two animated shortsThe Hell: Two Kinds of Life (2006) andLove Is Protein (2008) were invited to various international film festivals.The Hell: Two Kinds of Life won the Asian Ghost Award at the Short Shorts Film Festival Asia and the Public Award for Best Film School (Short Film Battle Royal) at the 2007 Lyon Asian Film Festival, andLove Is Protein screened in competition at the 2009 Curtocircuit International Short Film Festival of Santiago de Compostela in 2009.^[3][4]Love Is Protein was later included in the three-shortomnibusIndie Anibox: Selma's Protein Coffee.^[5] Yeon also directed the animated opening trailer for theBusan International Film Festival in 2010.^[6]

Yeon's first feature-length animation wasThe King of Pigs (2011), about a man who kills his wife after his business goes bankrupt, and seeks out his long-lost friend, aghostwriter, 15 years after both had been severelybullied as adolescents in middle school. Inspired by the works ofSatoshi Kon andMinoru Furuya, Yeon said the incidents in the film were drawn from his own life, and he cried while writing the screenplay.^[7][8] The low-budget (US$150,000) film drew widespread critical acclaim for its raw portrayal ofbullying, violence and systemic poverty (and the lifelong effects of such oppression), as well as the psychology of public attitudes toward a hero figure.^[9][10] It became the first Korean animated film to be invited to theCannes Film Festival, where it screened in the2012Directors' Fortnight sidebar.^[11][12][13] It won numerous awards at domestic and international film festivals, including the Director's Guild of Korea Award for Best Director, CGV Movie Collage Award, andNETPAC Award at the2011 Busan International Film Festival, the Satoshi Kon Award for Achievement in Animation and Special Mention (New Flesh Award for Best First Feature) at the 2012Fantasia International Film Festival, and the Jury Prize at the 2013Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.^[14][15]

His follow-upThe Window was a 30-minute animated short depicting violence in the military, and was the first film of the Independent Short Film Release Project organized by Indiespace, anindependent-only theater and Indieplug, a digital distributor of independent films. Yeon said the script (illustrated by cartoonist Choi Gyu-seok) was 100% based on his own personal experience while doing hismandatory military service.^[16]The Window won a Special Mention from the Jury at the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Yeon continued to make animation targeted at adults with dark, controversial themes that brutally and incisively explore human nature and social realism. His second featureThe Fake (2013) critiqued organized religion, as a cult leader swindles rural, uneducated villagers out of their compensation money, while no one believes the local wastrel who discovers the truth (the characters werevoiced byOh Jung-se andYang Ik-june, who previously starred inLove Is Protein andThe King of Pigs).^[17] Yeon said he wrote the script in 2009 because of his political dissatisfaction regarding issues about theFTA andFour Major Rivers Project.^[18]The Fake made its world premiere at the2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and won Best Film of AnimaFICX at the 2013Gijón International Film Festival, Best Animated Feature Film at the 2013Sitges Film Festival, and theFIPRESCI Award at the 2014Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.^[19][20][21]

He then castRyu Seung-ryong andShim Eun-kyung as voice actors in his third animated feature,Seoul Station (2015).^[22] Yeon said he wanted to depict society's collective rage in a "simple, powerful way" by making azombie film in which zombies are among people protesting for the democratization of Korea.^[23]

In 2016, Yeon released his firstlive-action filmTrain to Busan, which takes place on a train toBusan as a zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks out in the country and threatens the safety of the passengers. The film was released to rave reviews, with praise given to its characters and use of social commentary. A standalone sequelPeninsula was released in 2020, also directed by Yeon.^[23]

In 2024, Yeon was tapped byToho to write and produce anTV series adaptation ofThe Human Vapor to be distributed onNetflix.^[24]

• Yeon Sang-ho onTwitter(in Korean)
• Yeon Sang-ho at theKorean Movie Database
• Yeon Sang-ho atIMDb
• Yeon Sang-ho atHanCinema

• 1978 births
• Living people
• South Korean film directors
• South Korean screenwriters
• Action film directors
• South Korean animated film directors
• South Korean webtoon creators
• Mass media people from Seoul

• CS1 uses Korean-language script (ko)
• CS1 Korean-language sources (ko)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from October 2020
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