
Zhang Lu
Directing
Biography
Zhang Lü (Chinese: 张律; pinyin: Zhāng Lǜ; Korean: 장률; born May 30, 1962; Yanbian, Jilin) is a Korean-Chinese filmmaker. Zhang was originally a novelist before embarking on a career in cinema. His arthouse films have mostly focused on the disenfranchised, particularly ethnic Koreans living in China; these include Grain in Ear (2006), Desert Dream (2007), Dooman River (2011), Scenery (2013), and Gyeongju (2014). Zhang Lü is a third-generation ethnic Korean born in Yanbian, Jilin, China in 1962. He first became known in his native land China as a respected author of novels and short stories, such as Cicada Chirping Afternoon (1986). Zhang moved to South Korea in 2012, and began teaching at Yonsei University. Zhang was then a 38-year-old professor of Chinese Literature at Yanbian University when an argument with a film director friend led him to take a bet that "anyone can make a film." With no technical training but with the support of film industry friends such as Lee Chang-dong, he set out to direct his first short film Eleven (2001), a fourteen-minute nearly silent vignette of an eleven-year-old boy's encounter with a group of soccer players his own age set in a post-industrial wasteland. Eleven was invited to compete at the 58th Venice International Film Festival and several other international film festivals, and this unexpected success made Zhang decide to become a full-time filmmaker.
Known For

No description available.
神探狄仁杰前传

Their separate worlds converge when a restaurant owner suggests they "share a table" during overlapping lunch breaks. What starts as awkward silence evolves into tacit understanding over shared noodles, leading them to explore Shanghai's culinary scene together .
A Table For Two

Yoon-young fell for Song-hyeon when she was married to his friend. When she gets divorced, he takes her on a trip to Gunsan, where they stay at a guest house run by a middle-aged man and his autistic daughter.
Ode to the Goose

They're losers, but nice ones. Every day they sit at Yeri's bar, smitten by the young Chinese-Korean woman. Yeri doesn't have a preference. To her, they are equally sweet: Jongbin, a milk-drinking epileptic, Ikjune, a former petty criminal, and the introverted Jungbum, who fled from North Korea.
A Quiet Dream

In a vast desert area somewhere at the border between Mongolia and China, Hungai lives together with his wife and child. Dutifully, Hungai plants little trees in the desert. After his wife embarks on a long trip to a hospital in the capital Ulaanbaatar to have their sick son examined, Hungai starts to drink out of loneliness. One day, a North Korean fugitive and her son ask for shelter in his home.
Desert Dream

A Beijing professor returns to his stomping grounds for a friend's funeral. Reflecting on the past, he meets a tea shop owner who sparks feelings of love in a time of pain.
Gyeongju

At a Japanese restaurant nestled within the busy streets of Beijing, Li Dong convinces his older brother Li Chun to travel together to the Japanese city of Yanagawa to find and catch up with their childhood sweetheart Liu Chuan.
Yanagawa

A bookseller from Seoul travels with a young woman to Fukuoka in Japan to meet a former friend from university. While their reunion is haunted by the conflicts of the past, his travel companion floats through the plot as if moving through a dream.
Fukuoka

Gu Wentong learns the whereabouts of his father, who lost contact with him more than 40 years ago. Encouraged by new friend, photographer Ouyang Wenhui, Gu Wentong decides to face his father and rebuild the long-lost father-son relationship.
The Shadowless Tower

People have varying perceptions and definitions of love and movies. One must overcome differing opinions and disregard insignificant factors in order to achieve the end product in each aspect. However, it is these trivial features that matter in the end and leave their imprint on our souls. Whether it is for love or for movies, we must continue to question and attend to the subtle inscriptions upon our emotions.
Love and...

After the film screening, five people hold a meeting. Director Jeong asserts that a film should move the heart. Actress Soo-yeon emphasizes on the message of the film, Film critic Tony just discusses about the current trend of Korean cinema. Tomiyama cannot fully express her thoughts because of the language barrier. And, the head of jury, Sung-ki can’t control the situation. Will this jury reach an agreement against all odds? A satire for those who make, watch, and criticize films is about to begin.
Jury

A muggy summer of 2009, reality and memory tangled together, water from the canal soaked everyone in those vanishing days.
Vanishing Days

Eleven, which played at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, is the first short film of director Zhang Lu. He is a forty-year-old writer whose works engage with issues of cultural difference stemming from his own background as a member of the Korean cultural minority in China. Eleven is a fourteen-minute long vignette, virtually silent, of an eleven-year-old boy's encounter with a group of soccer players his own age.
Eleven

Cui, a young Korean mother living on the outskirts of Chinese society, has a husband in jail and a son to support. She barely makes a living selling kimchi to workers along the side of a bleak, industrial road. A love affair with a fellow Chinese-Korean leads to tragic consequences as Cui struggles against the vulnerability of her position.
Grain in Ear

30 years after the explosion at Iri station (Iksan, South Korea) the city has changed its name, rebuilt itself, but the people still carry the scars. Jin-seo is one of them. She is mentally impaired due to the explosion her mother experienced while giving birth to Jin-seo. She lives with her cab-driver brother, Tae-woong. The men in the town takes advantage of Jin-Seo's mental impairment and her mild manner nature. Tragedy soon strikes Jin-seo again...
Iri

After a decade as a Beijing drifter, Fang Chunshu returns to Chengdu, grappling with urban alienation from her single mother, until a local youth helps her rediscover familial bonds through emerging cultural spaces and find renewed purpose amid the city's transformation.
Mothertongue

A father takes his son to observe an empty field, and then to visit a neighbour, who is soon visited by other reticent characters, including a man who is a little violent, and another next-door neighbour who has fallen ill.
Routine Holiday

Chang-ho, 12, becomes friends with a North-Korean immigrant about the same age who just crossed the Dooman river, border between North-Korea and China. His mute sister and his wise grandfather accompany him through a series of misfortunes.
Dooman River

In China, Xuie lives an impoverished life with her father who is far from helpful. She is living in Chongqing. One day, her father gets arrested because of prostitution and she is called to the police. One policeman comes closer to her and her mind is taken by him.
Chongqing

Xiao Bai receiving a postcard from a small town in the southwest. It was sent by her boyfriend who left without saying goodbye three years ago. After much hesitation, she decided to go to the town to find out what happened.