Background
He was born as the seventh child of a family with nine children in Choryang-dong, Busan, South of Korea. Ha lost his mother in 1945 and his father in 1950 when the Korean War occurred.
He was born as the seventh child of a family with nine children in Choryang-dong, Busan, South of Korea. Ha lost his mother in 1945 and his father in 1950 when the Korean War occurred.
In 1956 he went to Seoul with one of his older brothers, and attended Jungdong High School (중동고등학교) in the following year. In 1960, while Ha studied French literature at Seoul National University, he met Kim Seung-ok (김승옥, novelist), Kim Hyun (김현, literature critic), Kim Chi-su (김치수, poet and critic), Lee Cheong-jun(novelist), Yeom Mu-yung (염무웅, literature critic) and Kim Ju-yeon (김주연, literature critic and scholar of German literature).
Orphaned, Ha came to live with relatives. He befriended Kim Chi-Ha there who later became a famous activist poet. After graduation, he briefly worked for Shin Film, Ha went to the United States in 1965 to study.
Ha studied fine art and photography at San Francisco Academy of Art and entered University of California, Los Angeles graduation school where he acquired both a Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degree.
During the time, he made several short films, and one of which is The Ritual for a Soldier. 1979, the 15th Baeksang Arts Awards.