Shinho Lee


Shinho Lee is a South Korean screenwriter and playwright. He is best known for co-writing the critically acclaimed Na Hong-jin's film The Chaser, as well as for adapting the scripts for Sayonara Itsuka and While the Women Are Sleeping.

Early Life and Education

Lee pursued his education in the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film & TV and a Master of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He is also an alumnus of the American Film Institute's Screenwriting Program.

Career

Beginning

Lee began his career as a playwright. His plays include "The Water Mirrors" and "Butterfly".
He later gained recognition for his play. Lee's screenplay "The Red Snow" was the Grand Prize Winner of The 2003 Harley-Merrill International Screenwriting Award and the winner of The 2002 CAPE Foundation’s New Writers Award. His play "Dream of No Words" was featured at Hartford Stage's 2003 Brand New Reading Series.

Film Breakthroughs

Lee's career-defining work came with the 2008 South Korean thriller The Chaser, which he co-wrote. Directed by Na Hong-jin, the film was one of the highest-grossing films in South Korea that year and was invited to the 2008 Cannes Film Festivall for the Official Selection Midnight Screening. The film's success led to its remake rights being acquired by Warner Bros.
In 2010, Lee wrote the screenplay for Sayonara Itsuka, a Japanese film based on the novel by Hitonari Tsuji, which starred Miho Nakayama.
In 2016, his adaptation of the Javier Marías short story, While the Women Are Sleeping, was released. Directed by Wayne Wang, the film screened in the Official Panorama Special section at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival'''.'''

Other projects

His other screenplays include Last September and Tokyo Year Zero.
In 2023, it was reported that Lee is writing the feature film Sunset Park, set in the US and Korea, which will be produced by Barunson, the company behind Bong Joon-ho's Parasite.

Filmography

Kimono - director, screenplayMy Mighty Princess - screenplayThe Chaser - screenplaySayonara Itsuka - screenplayWhile the Women Are Sleeping - screenplay