Hwang In-ho

• Name — Hwang In-ho • Birthplace — South Korea • Occupation — Film director, screenwriter • Years Active — 2004–present Hwang In-ho is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He wrote and directed the horror-romantic comedy Spellbound (2011) and the crime thriller Monster (2014).

In 2011, Hwang made his feature directorial debut with Spellbound (titled "Chilling Romance" in Korean), about a stage magician (Lee Min-ki) who meets an introverted woman (Son Ye-jin) who is constantly haunted by ghosts. Like Sisily 2km, Hwang again flouted genre conventions by combining romantic comedy with horror. He said he had felt uncomfortable within the limitations of Korean commercial cinema, and wanted his "story to flow free of genre restrictions," adding, "Why do you have to respect every genre rule? My story still makes sense anyway, with or without them. [...] I just added a ghost to a simple love story, which resulted in a romance with a totally different texture than other romance films." Spellbound became a hit with more than 3 million admissions, making it the 7th top-grossing Korean film of 2011 and one of the most commercially successful Korean rom-coms in recent years.

For his sophomore directorial effort, Hwang reunited with actor Lee Min-ki on Monster (2014), this time opposite Kim Go-eun. Kim played a developmentally disabled woman who wreaks revenge on the serial killer (Lee) who murdered her beloved younger sister. Hwang experimented further with his filmmaking by pushing genres to the extremes, combining thriller, comedy and fantasy. But he primarily presented the film as "a character drama," saying he made "an effort to express the emotions, alienation and loneliness the main characters were experiencing. It was their emotions rather than the situations I wanted to explore. [...] What counts for me are characters. What interests me is the fresh tone created by a new type of character when he or she is introduced to a different cinematic world." Critical and audience response were mostly negative, criticizing the unsuccessful genre mashup and a perceived misogyny beneath the film's ostensible message of female empowerment.

• Decibel (2022) - director, screenplay • Monster (2014) - director, screenplay • My Way (2011) - script editor • Spellbound (2011) - director, screenplay • Two Faces of My Girlfriend (2007) - screenplay • Love Phobia (2006) - screenplay, script editor • The Legend of Seven Cutter (2006) - script editor • To Catch a Virgin Ghost (2004) - screenplay