By his appearance alone, no one would mistake Ryu Seung Wan for one of the hottest young filmmakers in Korea, or someone who could effortlessly deliver a powerful, 360-degree spin-kick. Boyish, unassuming, with relaxed and colorful attire, he could just as easily fit the profile of your average moviegoer.

And yet this 32-year-old writer and director was responsible for “Die Bad,” one of the most impressive and critically acclaimed debuts in modern Korean cinema, in which Ryu seems to have channeled the raw energy and grit of Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets,” with its subject matter of underprivileged life. Then came “No Blood No Tears” and “Arahan,” the latter bringing him commercial success on top of his already-established indie credibility. His fourth and latest film, “Crying Fist,” is a boxing tour-de-force. It screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI critics’ award.

The first thing you notice about Ryu’s films is his trademark mode of orchestrating and filming action scenes, with an underlying proletarian message that one’s worth is measured by one’s fists. His dramatic worlds are populated with complex characters caught in a whirlwind of adrenalin-driven violence, interspersed with moments of humor and sentimentality, and depicted through a noir-ish filter. The end result is cinema with a strong emotional impact.

LEFT: At work on the set. / RIGHT: Getting serious.

Some, however, would accuse his films of being too violent, to which he simply responds: “Korean films are a lot less violent than reality.”

And others may dismiss his “excessive energy” as a simple stylistic element of his cinematic expression, but there’s nothing contrived, pretentious or artificial about his desire to communicate and connect with the audience. Even when the story requires fantastic settings, as in the high-kicking martial arts comedy “Arahan,” Ryu’s sincerity as a filmmaker is self-evident. At heart, he still carries the innocence of the 8-year-old who saw a Hong Kong kung fu film for the very first time and was instantly enchanted and transformed by the world of the moving image.

Why did you decide to become a filmmaker?

When I was young, my father would often take me to the movies, so I became very familiar with the cinema in a natural and organic way. My father liked Hollywood movies, but I preferred Hong Kong films. When I was 8, I saw “Drunken Monkey,” and decided to become a martial artist. Seeing that I probably didn’t have enough talent to become a martial artist, I decided to become an action film actor instead.

TOP: (right) hanging on the set of “Crying Fist,” Ryu’s fourth film. / BOTTOM:Ryu was at the New York Asian Film Festival in June and got the interview treatment.

As I grew older, no one really wanted to cast me as an actor, and it seemed that the only way for me to be in the movies was to make my own. In the midst of thinking about all this, during my high school years, I also recognized that film is really the director’s medium, and I simply had to become a director. My resolve further strengthened after watching a lot of Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorsese movies, and even by looking at photographs of John Ford.