The mother's love for her child is very strong in Korean society - almost on the borderline of being an obsession.

As a director, or just a film fan who wants to enjoy the festival, Cannes is the worst place to be. But it must be a paradise for distributors and importers.

In the grand scheme of nature, I believe that it is very natural that animals eat animals, and that humans eat animals. It is only in the last couple of decades that meat-processing factories have come to rise, and I believe we should take time to reflect on that reality.

I have a group of cafes and coffee shops that I go to regularly. They usually have an area where I can plug in my computer and have a corner seat where I can do a couple hours of writing or whatever, even the noise of the surrounding people walking by. Those things are the things that stimulate me into writing.

There's hardly any governmental censorship in Korea.

There is a lot of extreme emotion in Korean film. It's because there are a lot of extremes in Korean society.

My favourite genre lies inside myself, and as I follow my favourite stories, characters and images, it sums up to a certain genre. So at times even I have to try to guess which genre a film will be after I've made it.

When I was a kid, I was always watching genre movies on TV.

No matter where I am working, I cannot make a film without 100% creative control and final cut. If there is such a guarantee, I can work anywhere.

I am a fan of the monster and horror genre but that's not my style as a director.

I love the Japanese director Shohei Imamura. His masterpiece in 1979 called, the English title was 'Vengeance is Mine'.

The multilevel, the conscious and the unconscious, is natural when I write scripts, when I come up with ideas and stories.