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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

There's hardly any governmental censorship in Korea.