Kim Hong-sun is the latest Korean filmmaker to enter the global spotlight, directing and executive producing Season 3 of Gangs of London, a popular UK thriller. His involvement follows a growing pattern of Korean directors gaining international recognition and being recruited for projects targeting global audiences. But this trend prompts a critical question: who benefits most from such transnational collaborations?

Gangs of London premiered in 2020 on Sky Atlantic and has since become one of the most popular crime thrillers on British television, known for its stylish action sequences and intricate plotting. The series follows powerful crime families as they maneuver, negotiate, and violently compete for control, wealth, and survival. It begins with the assassination of the most powerful figure in London’s underworld, triggering a volatile power vacuum. As the delicate balance among rival factions begins to fracture, the brutal nature of gangland politics is laid bare. With its shifting allegiances, betrayals, and violent reprisals, the series could have been described as a contemporary Game of Thrones, relocated to the criminal underbelly of 21st-century London.

For its third season, Korean director Kim Hong-sun took the helm of the series, directing episodes one, two, seven, and eight. In an interview, Kim stated that he aimed to present a vision of London that would feel authentic both to locals and international viewers. He also expressed a desire to move away from the often monochromatic tone of British crime dramas by infusing the series with greater visual dynamism. True to that intent, the opening episode features a Korean drug lord dying from fentanyl-laced cocaine in a private room of a nightclub. The narrative quickly erupts into a kinetic sequence set in a London amusement park, where rival factions engage in a chaotic shootout under neon lights in a desperate attempt to uncover who spiked the cocaine. The collision of pleasure and violence, framed by the vivid spectacle of the nighttime fairground, marks Kim’s aesthetic departure from genre convention and situates his directorial style within a transnational mode of visual storytelling.

Before Kim Hong-sun and Gangs of London

Kim Hong-sun is not the first Korean director to cross borders and lead a global project. Park Chan-wook made his television debut with the BBC’s adaptation of John le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl (2018), a six-part espionage drama that marked his second major international undertaking after his 2013 Hollywood film Stoker. Most recently, Park served as showrunner and director for the HBO series The Sympathizer (2024), which follows a Vietnamese double agent navigating life in the U.S. after the Vietnam War. Park had already established his international reputation with acclaimed films such as Oldboy (2003) and the erotic thriller The Handmaiden (2016), the latter receiving a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Not in the English Language. His transition to international television was not a matter of luck. Park’s signature directorial style—meticulous mise-en-scène, emotionally layered characters, and a distinctive, visually arresting aesthetic—had long prepared both industry gatekeepers and global audiences to welcome him into their production circuits.

Another example is Kim Jee-woon, known for his stylized genre filmmaking. His 2008 film The Good, The Bad, The Weird revitalized interest in a classic genre of Korean cinema known as the “Manchurian Western” or “Kimchi Western,” which flourished during the 1960s. Set in early 20th-century Manchuria, the film portrays a chaotic struggle involving Korean independence fighters, mercenaries, spies, and bandits all chasing after hidden treasure. This volatile and energetic action film functioned both as a homage to a classic genre and as a reimagining of an era often associated with the scars of colonial subjugation and cultural dislocation. Kim later made his Hollywood debut with The Last Stand (2013), an action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, further solidifying his position as a transnational filmmaker.

Project Wolf Hunting

Before joining the production team of Gangs of London, Kim Hong-sun directed several films, including Traffickers (2012). However, it was Project Wolf Hunting that brought him international attention. Premiered in the Midnight Madness section of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, the film drew comparisons to Quentin Tarantino’s work for its copious use of graphic violence. The premise is straightforward: something goes terribly wrong aboard a cargo ship transporting dangerous Korean criminals from the Philippines to Korea, unleashing a bloodbath of staggering proportions.

While Project Wolf Hunting was criticized for its incoherent plot and excessive brutality, it nevertheless showcases Kim’s visceral and unflinching approach to action. Characterized by relentless fight sequences, dark and stylized cinematography, and grim, often fatalistic narratives, the film exemplifies Kim’s affinity for crime-action stories set within confined spaces and compressed timeframes. Though his oeuvre includes a range of genres—heist thrillers, exorcism tales, and police procedurals—his most compelling work emerges from the crime-action genre, where his ability to generate tension and atmosphere truly excels.

It is likely that the Gangs of London production team recognized Kim’s potential to contribute a distinctive sensibility to the show’s action design. At the very least, they may have anticipated that he would bring a fresh intensity to the series’ already dynamic sequences. Kim’s action may appear senseless or excessive at times, but it often carries an undercurrent of raw emotion—grief, abandonment, frustration, and rage. His violence rarely has a neat beginning or resolution; rather, it loops through a turbulent cycle of affect, where each blow, stab, or shot is saturated with emotional residue.

Transnational Age of TV and Film

It is hardly a secret that the rise of Korean directors on the international stage coincides with technological breakthroughs that have rendered national borders increasingly obsolete. The emergence of OTT platforms such as Netflix and Disney+ has transformed the content market, dismantling geographic and cultural boundaries to create a larger, more profitable sphere of global media consumption. In this new environment, personal taste often supersedes national or cultural identity, ushering in an era where talent capable of energizing taste-based viewership is in high demand. Hence the growing demand for international talents such as Korean directors.

This marks a significant departure from a time when the international television and film industries were largely dominated by the UK and the US. Although it remains the case that Western industry leaders largely determine what gets produced and by whom, the international talents, including Korean directors, have undeniably expanded global viewership. The promise of increased revenue enabled by these technological shifts would only be fully realized when new talent can engage the emergent global audiences whose tastes have traditionally been overlooked or underserved by the Western-centric content industry.

While Korean directors have been afforded new opportunities to express their creative visions to a worldwide audience, it seems ultimately the entrenched powerholders, major studios and tech giants, that continue to benefit the most from this expansion of the global market.