Acclaimed Korean director Ahn Pan Seok dies at 64 after cerebral hemorrhage battle

South Korea's television industry is mourning the loss of Ahn Pan Seok, the celebrated director behind some of the genre's most beloved romantic dramas, who died on August 12, 2026, at age 64 following complications from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Word of his passing came through an unexpected source: the production team behind his final project, ENA's upcoming series Romance Expert, which stars Choo Young Woo and Kim So Hyun. In a statement released on the day of his death, the show's producers expressed their sorrow and confirmed the director had died, noting that they were sharing the news specifically because his family had asked them to. The family, they explained, is asking media and fans alike to respect their privacy during this painful time and to allow funeral arrangements to proceed away from public attention.

Signs of trouble had emerged weeks earlier. Reports surfaced last month that Ahn had been hospitalised after collapsing from a cerebral hemorrhage. At that point, his production company struck a more hopeful tone, indicating he was on the road to recovery and noting that both filming and editing on his final work had already wrapped before his health crisis.

Over his decades-long career, Ahn built a reputation as a master of understated, emotionally rich storytelling. Fans of Korean drama will recognize his fingerprints on titles like Behind the White Tower, Something in the Rain, One Spring Night, and the more recent The Midnight Romance in Hagwon, a body of work that helped define modern romance television in Korea.

His path into the industry began nearly four decades ago, in 1987, when he joined MBC's drama division as a producer. It would be another seven years before he stepped into the director's chair for the first time, debuting in 1994 with Greetings of Love as part of the MBC Best Theater anthology series.