Ahn Pan Seok
Secret love affair, heard it thought the grapevine, something in the rain and one night spring. I have always liked the visual storytelling in these dramas. And SLA continues to be my favorite to this date.

I'd have to say Ahn Gil-Ho really impressed me with his work on Stranger, Happiness, and Rooftop Prince. This guy has aesthetic and knows what camera shots and angles look the most natural and cinematic at the same time. His work helps immerse you in the story and also makes it a visual feast. I love the choices of locations and shots. Think of the opening scenes in Stranger, the shots in the car, the streets, and the house as the lead makes his way to the house. It's mesmerizing in a way that you almost don't notice. His work is so good and yet low-key that you don't even notice the camera. You just get caught up in the drama. So I haven't even thought of looking up the director because he's so successful at making the camera disappear, which is the goal of directing. (I didn't want to heap such high praises because of his ill-timed scandal about past bullying/violence episode during student days that came out ironically during The Glory)

Shin Won-ho, I said this before but Shin Won-ho is a PD who has this uncanny ability to spot talented actors and also bring out their best performances. He has never let me down and I always trust him! But I beg you please please do another instalment in the ANSWER ME series! We need to spotlight new talent and yes I selfishly want an ANSWER ME 2002 okay?! Bring on the nostalgia and the fan wars and the love triangle to end all triangles!

From the ones that I watched, the stand outs are:
Ahn Gil-Ho: Happiness (though despite all its hype, The Glory was not his best work)
Kim Yoon Jin: Our Beloved Summer (it has to take someone truly special to turn a wafer thin story into a piece of art)
Lee Jae Hun: Run On - this is a classic example of a series beautifully directed, and I as a viewer almost fell asleep through; Goes to show that at the end of the day, conecting to the actors remains as important as script and direction.
Kim Hyeong-Sik Under the Queen's Umbrella. One word - brilliant!

PD Shin Won-ho (Hospital Playlist 1&2). Hospital Playlist had some very long episodes. A few towards the end spanned two hours. It's very easy to get lost in two hours and lose attention even in the presence of excellent writing. I like this PD for being able to keep my attention for 2 hours.

To the PD's who gorgeously shot their dramas:

Queen Seondeok
Little Women - The blue orchard growing in the building.
Lies Hidden In My Garden.
Bloody Heart.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo. The episode where Young-woo's mom meets Young-woo and immediately her world(Young-woo's mom) turns around her to depict how affected she was by meeting Young-woo.
My Dearest.
You Are My Spring.
Call It Love?

To the PD's who captured nice kisses:

Call It Love?
You Are My Spring.
Her Private Life.
Alchemy of Souls.
My Dearest. This one could have done better.

Shin Wonho for the win: Reply series, Hospital Playlist and Prison Playbook all of which are represented in my top 10 dramas of all time.

Lee Sangyeob: Yumi’s cells, My holo love, Familiar wife, Shopping King Louis

Nam Sungwoo: My Lovely Liar, Weightlifting fairy, 100 days my prince, Love in contract, My room mate is a Gumiho

Lee Dongyoon: Race if he was the one directing those transitions and the whole feel of that drama that would be enough but he also did; She would never know and 20th Century Boy and Girl both of which I enjoyed. I am trying to finish The Queens Classroom which is another one of his but it is quite dark in it’s content so I am struggling and easily distracted with ANY other drama.

PD Ahn Pan seok for the win! For dramas that linger years after their first watch, and that reveal more with each subsequent viewing

In general, I’d say that I operate under the assumption that the work of the PD is not “supposed” to rise the level of my conscious notice. Now that I’ve typed that sentence out, though, I’m not quite sure where that assumption came from. So, my contribution here will center on a few times where I felt that I proactively noticed and appreciated the striking visual decisions made by the production team. That is to say, those times that I was struck by the visual structure and tone of what was happening rather than the plot. This does therefore constitute a moment where I was thrown out of the drama...but when I also felt it was worth it.

Note: Here's a link to a Fan Wall post with example images from the dramas I mention below that attempt to show what I can only say in this venue.

The first drama that springs to mind is Search WWW, which had a pair of PDs (Jung Ji-Hyun and Kwon Young-Il). This drama repeatedly utilized wide-shots, punctuated by vertical dividing lines that visually separated characters and horizontal walls that entrapped them (sometimes at the same time) to demonstrate both physical and emotional distance as well as the behavioral restriction of the characters. These shots were frequently noticeable, beautiful and effective for me. Once established, these environments then served ably as the home for whatever stage action needed to happen at that moment and would then change and evolve with the dialogue.

The second is Call It Love, whose PD is again listed as two people—Lee Gwang-Young and Kim Ji-Yeon, with the latter also contributing to the screenplay. Here, all who have seen it will probably know the aesthetic decision that I was drawn to: The Rosy Tint. Plenty of people hated the pink filter that suffused the light (to greater and lesser degrees) throughtout this drama. I was in the camp with those (like @leetennant who appreciated it for the layers of meaning it suggested to this complex and beautiful series of love stories.

Finally, believe it or not, I’ve been enjoying some of the decisions being made by the PD of My Little Lovely Liar. In the recaps, some of us keep saying variations on, “I don’t need a plot...this drama is just so pretty!!!” And quite a bit of that is surely due decisions made by the whole production team, meaning the PD (Nam Sung-woo) for sure, but also the set and costume designers. Also, the actors are simply beautiful. I feel that even the ones who are not traditionally attractive are given loving attention by the camera. The particular shots that I’ve really noticed here, though, are the ones where I can almost see the storyboards in my mind’s eye. The faces of the characters will appear suddenly and alone in the center of the frame,...

Two types of directors tend jump out for me - those who find striking visual ways to tell stories and those who get great performances out of their actors (and some who do both). Some who have stood out:

Kim Chul Gyu - Excels at visual storytelling, even when the script may be less than great (Hwang Jin Yi). Especially loved his work on Chicago Typewriter.

Jang Tae Yoo - another director with a great sense of visual style in works like Painter of the Wind and Tree with Deep Roots

Lee Yoon Jung - creates a wonderful sense of human connection between cast members in shows like Coffee Prince (although I sense things went very much off the rails on Cheese in the Trap)

Park Chan Hong - gets great performances out of actors, especially his male leads (see Uhm Tae Woong in Resurrection and Joo Ji Hoon in The Devil)

Kim Hee Won - another director with striking visual storytelling in shows like Vincenzo and The Crowned Clown

Shin Kyung Soo - adept at getting great performances out of massive casts in shows like Six Flying Dragons and Nokdu Flowers - also stages amazing fight/combat sequences.

1. Han Ji-Seung, the pd of When the Weather is Fine. I remain firm in saying that this show will age like fine wine.

2. Jung Ji-Hyun, the pd of 25 21. Marvelous work.

3. Lee Eung-bok (Ep. 1–16)
Kwon Hyuk-chan (Ep. 5–16)
Yoon Jong-ho (Ep. 3–16) of Goblin.

4. Lee Hyeong-Min from Chocolate

5. Lee Jung-Hyo from Romance is a Bonus Book

6. Ahn Gil-Ho from Strangers

7. Lee Soo-Hyun from Sh**ting Stars

8. Kim Ga-Ram from Nevertheless

9. Park Jin Suk from Sell Your Haunted House

10. Oh Choong-Hwan, Bae Hyun-Jin from Start-up

11. Baek Sang-Hoon, Jung Ji-Hyun from The King: Eternal Monarch

Park Shin-woo: I may not love all his dramas (hate-watched Lovestruck in the City, dropped Encounter), but all of them are beautifully directed, especially It's Okay to Not Be Okay where he made Ko Moon-young's storybooks come alive. He's directing the upcoming drama Ask the Stars starring Lee Min-ho and Gong Hyo-jin, so at least we know the space setting will be visually appealing.

So what's interesting to me is that I feel like I have a much better track record watching dramas from the same PD that I like. I don't know if there are just fewer PDs or what, but my average here was closer to 3 per PD that I enjoyed. Among those, some favorite PDs would have to be

Lee Jae Hoon (Run on, Good Manager, Ghost Detective)

Aha Gil Ho (Stranger, Watcher, Happiness, and though the drama later sucked I liked the directing Memories of the Alhambra)

Kim chul Gyu (Mother, Confession, Flower of Evil, and again not my favorite drama but good directing Chicago Typewriter)

There are a few others, but I remember being so happy hearing that someone who worked on stranger was involved with watcher.

Kim Hee-Won : I loved The Crowned Clown, Vincenzo and Little Women. I'm very excited to watch Queen Of Tears.

An Pan-Seok : I really like his way to tell a story. He doesn't choose fancy themes but more hard ones. He's very delicate in his work.

Lee Eung-Bok : He makes a great duo with Kim Eun-Sook, I liked Goblin, Descendant of the Sun, Mr Sunshine.

Kim Jin-Won : he chose very different kinds of drama but I liked My Country, The Innocent Man and The Package.

Hwang Seung Gi : I really liked Into the Ring and the fact he kept his style to the end. There are a lot of dramas that start with a very good direction for the 1-4 episodes but then loose it for the rest of the episodes like in It's Okay to not Be Okay.

The PD of Conspiracy in the Court and Chuno

The PD of Money Flower and The Crowned Clown

1. Kim Won Suk: My Ahjussi, Misaeng, Signal.

2. Jung Jee Hyun: 25-21, You're My Spring, Search WWW.

3. Park Shin Woo: IOTNBOkay, Encounter.

4. Shin Won Ho: Reply series, Hospital Playlist, Prison Playbook.

5. Lee Na Jeong: Fight For My Way.

6. Park In Jae: Moving, Kingdom 2.

7. Lee Sang Yeob: Yumi's Cells, SWLouie, A Piece of Your Mind.

8. Park Joon Ha: BTIMFLife.

9. Kim Hong Sun: Liar Game, Voice, Black, The Guest.

10. Ahn Gil Ho: Happiness, Secret Forest.

Bonus: Sim Na Yeon - At 18.

What a fun prompt! I've enjoyed reading through everyone's comments. As I thought of my own response, I was struck by the thought that the PD has almost more impact than the writer on my enjoyment of a drama. It's like the difference between denotative and connotative meaning - denotative meaning is the actual, literal words penned by the writer, and connotative meaning is literally everything else, including the "feel" of the drama and how the scenes and interactions are constructed. Curious if there were any themes or patterns in what I like, I looked up the PDs of my favorite dramas, and lo and behold, there were multiple PDs that had done multiple of my favorite dramas.

Two of my coolest finds while "researching" were Kwon Seok Jang and Lee Jong Jae. Kwon Seok Jang was PD for both Bossam: Steal the Fate and Once Upon A Small Town. These are wildly different in terms of tone and content, but on closer inspection, both dramas are filled with sweeping shots of the natural settings, are informed by their dominant seasons (winter v. summer), and are primarily centered on the unfolding of a central relationship. Lee Jong Jae was PD for both Psychopath Diary and Our Blooming Youth. I remember that I was struck while watching these with the care taken with constructing scenes, creating a cinematic epicness, with a balance between both breadth (following action smoothly and seamlessly, scenes seeming like one shot even when not), and depth (scenes taking place in introspective spaces filled with meaningful objects that mirror the interior life of the MLs).

Do I look like I have the reserves to comment on this let alone catch up on the screenwriting ones?

_ Park Hong Kyun: Queen Seon Deok, Hwayugi.

_ Kim Jung Hyun: Secret Garden, Hwayugi, At a distance, spring is green.

_ Ahn Gil Oh: Rooftop Prince (I didn't like it much but...), Memories of Alhambra, Happiness (...I loved these two).

_ Shin Won Ho: Prison Playbook, Hospital Playlist 1 & 2. He is my favorite PD without a doubt.

_ Hong Jong Chan: Live Up to your name. I know he has directed other good dramas as Dear my friends or Life but I have not watched them yet.

_ Lee Tae Gon: Age of Youth 1 & 2, Bora Deborah, Mad for each other (this one is my less favorite).

_ Kim Won Suk: Misaeng, Monstar. (I have not watched Signal yet).

_ Lee Jong Jae: Psychopath Diary.

_ Lee Sang Yeob: Shopping King Louis, My Holo Love, Yumi's cells 1 & 2.

_ Kang Il Soo/Han Hyun Hee: Solomon's Perjury, Rookie Historian.

_ Oh Choong Hwan: Start-up (one of my favorite dramas), While you were sleeping (hmm.. this is not bad but I got bored sometimes).

_ Shin Kyung Soo: The Nokdu Flower, Six Flying Dragons. Both are great series.

Directors Kim Sung Yong, Lee Han Joon are doing a great job with My Dearest.

And I have to say that I was impressed by the rookie director (and writer) of Weak Hero Class 1, You Su Min.

Star director Son Beom Soo with 5 consecutive hit dramas. Last i heard he working on a drama called ‘Things will be Fine Once You Turn Thirty’ (working title) with writer Im Jin Joo.

On a side note, it's been great to see more female directors helming major dramas and getting accolades for their work. It always seemed odd that so many of the writers in k-drama were women but so few directors were, and I'm glad that's changing.

While I appreciate beauty, good story is the sure way to pull me in. I didn't even notice the camera works in FoS even after God knows how many rewatch. But speaking of good cinematograpy, I think See You in My 19th Life was stunning (Admittedly I only watched 2 episodes and then dropped it.)

the Lookout PD but I don´t know which one was the main PD

I've enjoyed reading all the comments. Made me look at some of the dramas in a new light.

Jung Ji In: For Red Sleeve cuff. Apart from the amazing cinematography, I understand from her interviews that she was involved in onboarding the scriptwriter, to casting, the bg music. All excellently done. She got the best delivery out of the actors and could get even the new-comers like kang-hoon to deliver. Of course the cast chosen were already good actors. There were some misses like the FL jumping into the ML's bath. I don't how she okayed that shot.
Excited for her next drama. It is a period piece about theatre set in 1950. Cast has names like Kim Taeri, Shin ye Eun and other stars.