Best Movie Directors (24 people)

1. Wong Kar Wai

Hong Konger

690 points by 7 voters

Wong Kar Wai is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized work, including As Tears Go By (1988), Days of Being Wild ...more

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, he directed 30 films in a career spanning ...more

3. Bong Joon Ho

South Korean

588 points by 6 voters

Bong Joon Ho is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Bong in general is known as being a director who takes a great interest in film genres, while simultaneously trying to ...more

4. Miyazaki Hayao

Japanese

489 points by 5 voters

Miyazaki Hayao is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films and one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and ...more

5. Park Chan Wook

South Korean

392 points by 4 voters

Park Chan Wook is a South Korean film director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country. His films are noted for ...more

6. Ozu Yasujiro

Japanese

290 points by 3 voters

Yasujiro Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious ...more

7. Koreeda Hirokazu

Japanese

197 points by 2 voters

Hirokazu Koreeda is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. He is best-known for works such as Nobody Knows (2004) and Still Walking (2008). Before embarking on a career as a ...more

8. Kim Ki Duk

South Korean

196 points by 2 voters

Kim Ki Duk was a South Korean filmmaker noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit, making him one of the most important ...more

9. Kobayashi Masaki

Japanese

194 points by 2 voters

Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai film Seppuku (1962), and Ghost Stories (1964). Kobayashi studied ancient oriental arts and ...more

10. Teshigahara Hiroshi

Japanese

192 points by 2 voters

Teshigahara Hiroshi was a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker. He is best known for his films "Woman in the Dunes" and "The Face of Another". Teshigahara is the first person of Asian descent to ...more

11. Oshima Nagisa

Japanese

189 points by 2 voters

Nagisa Oshima was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His films include In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930's Japan, and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence ...more

12. Mizoguchi Kenji

Japanese

187 points by 2 voters

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Mizoguchi's work is renowned for its long takes and mise-en-scène. According to writer Mark Le Fanu, "His films have an extraordinary force and ...more

13. Obayashi Nobuhiko

Japanese

184 points by 2 voters

Obayashi Nobuhiko is a Japanese director, screenwriter and editor of films and television advertisements who is well known for his surreal visual style. He began his career as a pioneering figure in ...more

14. Otomo Keishi

Japanese

100 points by 1 voters

Born in 1966 in Iwate, Japan. After graduating from Keio University, Otomo Keishi joined Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) in 1990. In 1997, he went to study in Hollywood to learn script writing ...more

15. Ang Lee

Taiwanese

100 points by 1 voters

Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director, screenwriter and producer. Lee's earlier films, such as The Wedding Banquet, Pushing Hands, and Eat Drink Man Woman explored the relationships and conflicts between tradition ...more

16. Jia Zhang Ke

Chinese

100 points by 1 voters

Jia Zhang Ke is a Chinese film director and screenwriter. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such ...more

17. Naruse Mikio

Japanese

100 points by 1 voters

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed some 89 films spanning the period 1930 (towards the end of the silent period in Japan) to 1967. Naruse is known ...more

18. Kang Je Gyu

South Korean

99 points by 1 voters

Kang Je-gyu (born December 23, 1962) is a South Korean film director. After graduating from ChungAng University, Kang received his first prize at the Korea Youth Film Festival and Korea Scenario Awards ...more

19. Zhang Yi Mou

Chinese

99 points by 1 voters

Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with ...more

20. Ryu Seung Wan

South Korean

98 points by 1 voters

Ryoo Seung Wan is a South Korean film director.

21. Tsui Hark

Hong Konger

98 points by 1 voters

Tsui Hark, born Tsui Man-kong, is a Hong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter. Tsui has directed several influential Hong Kong films such as Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), the ...more

22. Yoo Ha

South Korean

96 points by 1 voters

Yoo Ha is a South Korean film director, screenwriter and a contemporary poet. He directed the critically acclaimed films Marriage Is a Crazy Thing (2002), Once Upon a Time in High School ...more

23. Sono Sion

Japanese

94 points by 1 voters

Sion Sono is a Japanese filmmaker, author and poet. Best known on the festival circuit for the film Love Exposure (2008), he has been called "the most subversive filmmaker working in Japanese ...more

24. Tle Tawan Charuchinda

Thai

0 points by 0 voters

Tawan Charuchinda (Nickname: Tle) is a Thai actor, singer, host, director & producer. He is the son of actress Duangdao Jarujinda & Saiyun Juntawiboon, and the younger sibling of actor Wichaya Jarujinda.