Kang Woo-suk (b.
November 10,
1960 in
Gyeongsan) is a
South Korean film
producer and
director. He has often been called the most powerful man in Korean cinema, topping Cine21 magazine's list of '50 Most Powerful Men in Korean Cinema' for seven consecutive years from 1998 to 2004.
Kang started as a director of successful comedy films before directing
Two Cops in 1993, a box office hit whose success at the time was only surpassed by
Sopyonje. More recently, he has directed several Korean blockbusters, including the
Public Enemy series (
Public Enemy,
Another Public Enemy, and
Public Enemy Returns) and
Silmido. While Kang's films aren't usually best known for their artistic merits, they have consistently been among the most watched films in the country.
After the success of
Two Cops Kang founded his own film production and
distribution company,
Cinema Service, which has since become the biggest homegrown studio in the Korean film industry and along with
CJ Entertainment, one of the two largest film distributors in South Korea. In 2005 Kang stepped down from the position of president of Cinema Service, claiming he intends to concentrate more on his personal film projects.