Seong-hee Ryu is a Korean Production Designer who has designed such acclaimed films such as The Handmaiden, Memories of a Murder, Old Boy, Mother, Thirst  and The Host.  Ryu is the first Korean artist to win the Vulcain Prize for Technical Artistry at the Cannes Film Festival for her work on The Handmaiden.  Variety described her work as the following  "Production values are sensational even by Korean cinema’s blue-chip standards. The mansion’s interior, designed by Ryu Seong-hee, is decorated in hybrid British-Japanese style, combining the former’s decorative luxuriance with the latter’s elegant symmetry."

 

Ryu majored in ceramics at Hongik University, one of the nation’s top art schools, in Seoul Korea.  After graduating top of her class, Ryu decided to study at the American Film Institute (AFI). Upon completion of the rigorous three year program, she has returned to Korea and began working with directors like Song Il-gon, Ryoo, Seung-wan, Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook.

 

Ryu speaks fluent Korean and English and has worked all over the world.

 

She often mentions two films that have inspired her love for film - The Conformist and Ashes of Time.