Park Chan-wook was born in Seoul on 23 August 1963. He comes from a prominent, multi-generational local family. His father, Park Don-seo, was an architecture professor and dean at Ajou University, and his mother is a poet. Although Park originally dreamed of becoming a painter, he later shifted his aspirations toward becoming an art critic, believing that while he shared his brother's aesthetic sensibility, he lacked the technical drawing skills that his brother possessed.
His passion for cinema developed in his youth, influenced by foreign films he watched on his family black-and-white TV, broadcast by AFKN (American Forces Korea Network). As these programs were intended for U.S. personnel, they were mostly aired without Korean subtitles, requiring him to interpret the films purely through their cinematic elements and narrative structure. Park also credits his early experiences watching the James Bond franchise in theaters as an influence.
Aiming to become an art critic, Park enrolled in the Department of Philosophy at Sogang University. However, the university did not have a formal arts program, so he joined the campus photography and film clubs. In the film club, screenings of foreign films from VHS tapes became a significant turning point in his life. After watching Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), Park decided to pursue a career in filmmaking.
