Director of 'The Admiral: Roaring Currents' to wed pansori singer 15 years his junior

Kim Han-min, 57, director of "The Admiral: Roaring Currents," will marry pansori singer Lee So-young, 42.

The two are set to hold their wedding ceremony on Nov. 15 at a hotel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, according to film industry sources.

The ceremony is expected to take the form of a free-flowing party rather than a conventional wedding.

Kim holds the all-time domestic box office record with "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" (2014), which drew about 17.61 million viewers. He began his directing career with the 1999 short film "That's How Kim Sun-im Met Gang Du-sik" and made his commercial feature debut in 2007 with "Murder on Geukrakdo Island," which attracted 2.26 million viewers. His 2011 film "War of the Arrows" drew 7.48 million. After "The Admiral: Roaring Currents," he completed a trilogy centered on Admiral Yi Sun-sin with "Hansan: Rising Dragon" (2022) and "Noryang: Death at Sea" (2023).

He is currently in post-production on "Kal: The Sword of Godumakhan," starring Park Bo-gum, targeting a release next year.

His bride-to-be, Lee So-young, is a celebrated pansori singer. In 2024, she won the Presidential Award — the top prize — at the 51st Korea Chunhyang Gugak Competition in the pansori master category.

Lee graduated from a traditional arts high school and the music theater department of Chung-Ang University. She has received top honors at the Im Bang-ul Gugak Festival and the Prime Minister's Award at the National Nando Folk Song Competition. She is also a certified trainee in Jindo Ssitgimgut, a nationally designated intangible cultural heritage.