Han Ji-won is an independent animation director who emerged in the early 2010s with a string of visually distinctive shorts. She started with "Kopi Luwak" in 2010, made during her time at Korea National University of Arts, which took home the Grand Prize at Seoul Indie-AniFest right away. She followed that up with "The Water" the next year and "On the Way to School" in 2013, establishing herself as a rising talent on the festival circuit.

Her feature debut, "Clearer Than You Think" (2015), marked a shift to longer-form storytelling. The film explores characters grappling with major life choices and picked up solid critical praise, with some reviewers drawing comparisons to Makoto Shinkai's work. It's her best-known feature to date.

Han kept working in shorts alongside her feature projects. "The Sea on the Day When the Magic Returns" (2022) earned her another Grand Prize at Seoul Indie-AniFest, twelve years after her breakthrough—a notable full-circle moment for the filmmaker. Most recently, she adapted Choi Eun-young's acclaimed novel into "The Summer" (2023), a feature film centered on a lesbian romance that brought her work to a wider theatrical audience.