“The Admiral: Roaring Currents” director Kim Han-min, 57, will marry pansori master Lee So-young, 42, on November 15, Korean outlets reported Sunday.
According to film industry sources cited by Herald Muse, the ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. at a hotel in Seoul’s Yongsan district.
The bride-to-be, 15 years Kim’s junior, is one of Korea’s most decorated traditional musicians. Lee won the Presidential Prize at the 51st Chunhyang National Korean Music Competition and top honors at the Im Bang-wool Gugak Festival, and she is an inheritor of National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 72, the Jindo Ssikkim-gut shamanic ritual.
Kim made his feature directorial debut in 2007 with “Paradise Murdered” and became a box-office powerhouse with 2011’s “War of the Arrows,” which drew 7.48 million moviegoers. His 2014 epic “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” attracted 17.61 million admissions — still the all-time record for a film released in South Korea. He later completed his Yi Sun-shin trilogy with “Hansan: Rising Dragon” and “Noryang: Deadly Sea.”
The director is currently in post-production on the historical action blockbuster “The Sword: Godumakhan’s Blade” (literal title), starring Park Bo-gum, Joo Won, Jung Jae-young, Lee Sun-bin and Kim Hyung-seo.
No official statement from Kim or his representatives was available at press time.
The November 15 wedding opens a new chapter for one of Korean cinema’s most commercially successful directors.
