Born in 1952, Jang started his career as a television screenwriter. He made his feature film début as co-director of Seoul Jesus (1988). While studying Anthropology at Seoul National University in the late 1970s, Jang was active in the protest cultural movement against the South Korean military government. In 1980, he was jailed for having distributed leaflets exposing the Kwangju massacre. Fifteen years after this bloodshed, he wrote and directed A Petal, which narrates this tragic event. Controversial and extreme director, Jang’s 1994 film, To you from Me, full of graphic sexual contents, is a scathing critique of cultural elitism and conservative morality.