--- name: "Lee Isaac Chung" canonical: "https://film.one/person/lee-isaac-chung" fi1m_id: "lee-isaac-chung" imdb_id: "nm1818032" tmdb_id: 931952 wikidata_id: "Q6514075" roles: ["Director"] born: "19 October 1978" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 75 average_as: "director" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-20T07:56:44.982074+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lee Isaac Chung ## Identity Lee Isaac Chung - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/lee-isaac-chung - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** lee-isaac-chung - **IMDb ID:** nm1818032 - **TMDB ID:** 931952 - **Wikidata ID:** Q6514075 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Isaac_Chung, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6514075, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1818032/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/931952 Director. Born 19 October 1978 in Denver, Colorado, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 19 October 1978, Denver, Colorado, USA - **Active:** 2019–present - **Also known as:** 리 아이작 정, 정이삭 - **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 1 acting, 3 directing - **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations - **Average Fi1m score:** 75, as director, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 76 (1), 2020s 69 (3) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 75 to 72 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Action 1, Action & Adventure 1, Drama 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1, Thriller 1 - **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $385m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Isaac_Chung, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6514075, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1818032/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/931952 ## Streaming the US now - **Disney+:** [*The Mandalorian*](https://film.one/tv/the-mandalorian.md) (76), [*Twisters*](https://film.one/film/twisters.md) (64) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Lee Isaac Chung > Lee Isaac Chung is good at keeping people in view when the weather threatens to overwhelm them. His move from intimate dramas to studio spectacle makes sense, though *Twisters* shows how easily concern for characters can become a drag. In *Twisters* (2024), cinematographer Dan Mindel gives two thirds of the frame to the sky, with flat, green Oklahoma beneath it. Chung lets us see the weather coming from a long way off, then stays down with the people exposed to it. We were properly frightened by the storms, above all by the roar that seemed to have no edges. He understands how to make a landscape threatening without making it hard to read. He can handle this scale of filmmaking; the trouble is what happens when the wind drops. His route there began with *Munyurangabo* (2007), made in Rwanda with non-professional actors and students. *Lucky Life* (2010) and *Abigail Harm* (2012) followed, then the semi-autobiographical family drama *Minari* (2020). In *Minari*, his work with the ensemble makes the family roles feel specific enough for personal material to reach beyond its author's experience. An episode of *The Mandalorian*, directed in 2023, gave him experience of effects-heavy production before his first studio blockbuster. The move towards action is less puzzling when we consider his interest in people having to change under pressure. Yet *Twisters* is only a qualified recommendation, and the interruptions are the problem. Kate, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, has to decide whether to return to storm chasing after an early attempt goes badly. Chung keeps making room for her sadness when the film needs to get moving, and a familiar script gives him little fresh to uncover. Glen Powell supplies welcome confidence as Tyler, a chaser who pursues storms for an online audience and sells T-shirts from his truck. More of that pleasure in the job would have helped. We would not take *Twisters* as evidence that Chung belongs only with smaller stories. When he keeps the camera at ground level, he makes the danger comprehensible without reducing its force. That is a useful skill, and the shift to large-scale filmmaking has not cost him his interest in the people caught up in it. On the next such outing, we would welcome a little less time spent dwelling on their troubles. ## Biography Lee Isaac Chung (born 19 October 1978) is an American filmmaker. His debut feature, *Munyurangabo* (2007), premiered as an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival and was the first narrative feature film in the Kinyarwanda language. Chung wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical drama *Minari* (2020), which received a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards. He directed an episode of the third season of the Disney+ series *The Mandalorian* (2023) and the disaster film *Twisters* (2024). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (4) ### Performed in (1) - *The Mandalorian and Grogu* (2026), Fi1m 58, as Dok Suri — [page](https://film.one/film/the-mandalorian-and-grogu.md) ### Directed (3) — the average rests on these - *Twisters* (2024), Fi1m 64, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/twisters.md) - *Minari* (2021), Fi1m 84, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/minari.md) - *The Mandalorian* (2019), Fi1m 76, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-mandalorian.md) ## Complete filmography (13) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Mandalorian and Grogu* (2026), as Dok Suri — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/the-mandalorian-and-grogu.md) - *Star Wars: Skeleton Crew* (2024), series, Director - *Twisters* (2024), Director — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/twisters.md) - *Minari* (2021), Writer, Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/minari.md) - *The Mandalorian* (2019), series, Director — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-mandalorian.md) - *I Have Seen My Last Born* (2015), Producer, Director of Photography, Director - *Abigail Harm* (2013), Director of Photography, Director, Editor, Writer - *Behind the word* (2012), Producer - *Lucky Life* (2010), Writer, Director, Editor - *Munyurangabo* (2008), Director, Writer, Editor, Producer, Director of Photography - *Highway* (2004), Director - *Your Name*, Writer - *Untitled Lee Isaac Chung Project*, Director ## Gallery - ![Lee Isaac Chung](https://film.one/media/person/11231/gallery-73e2f5988c8f.png) Lee Isaac Chung — Voice of America, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Lee_Isaac_Chung_VOA_interview.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lee Isaac Chung, screen capture from the Voice of America video shown. (2021)](https://film.one/media/person/11231/gallery-15d1846ca39a.png) Lee Isaac Chung, screen capture from the Voice of America video shown. (2021) — Voice of America, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Lee_Isaac_Chung_VOA_interview_%28cropped%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Lee Isaac Chung](https://film.one/media/person/11231/gallery-eaf32fad5c8d.jpg) Lee Isaac Chung — Image via TMDB - ![Lee Isaac Chung](https://film.one/media/person/11231/gallery-0c7a6386ccb8.jpg) Lee Isaac Chung — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated - 2021: Best Director (nominated), for *Minari* - 2021: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated), for *Minari* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lee-isaac-chung