"When directing the movie, I tried to express a sentiment specific to the Korean culture and I thought that it was full of Koreanness if seen from an outsider's perspective, but upon screening the film after completion, all the responses from different audiences were pretty much the same, which made me realize that the topic was universal, in fact. Essentially, we all live in the same country called capitalism."
— Bong Joon-ho on the international appeal of Parasite
Bong Joon-ho (Korean: 봉준호), born September 14, 1969, is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.
He garnered international acclaim for his second feature film, Memories of Murder, before achieving commercial success with his subsequent films The Host and Snowpiercer, both of which are among the highest-grossing films of all time in South Korea.
Two of his films have screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival: Okja, which premiered at the 2017 festival, and Parasite, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2019 festival and has since gone on to become one of the biggest modern commercial and critical successes in Korean film history. Among the film's additional award wins were four Academy Awards, including not only Best Director for Bong, but also Best Picture, making it the first non-English-language film to win the top honor. This ties him with Walt Disney for receiving the most Oscars in a single ceremony, and the most for a single film as Disney’s were all for different works.
Selected filmography:
- Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)
- Memories of Murder (2003)
- Influenza (2004) (short film)
- The Host (2006)
- Mother (2009)
- Snowpiercer (2013)
- Okja (2017)
- Parasite (2019)
- Mickey17 (2024)
Tropes that apply to Bong Joon-ho's work include:
- Capitalism Is Bad: Many of his films concern themselves with the worst repercussions of capitalism, including how it can commodify human lives, cause the well-off to treat their fellow man as less than human, lead some to destroy the lives of others just for a slight convenience, make even individuals in the same economic situations turn on each other for mere scraps, and other tragic consequences.Bong
: Okja, Snowpiercer, Parasite, they’re all stories about capitalism. Before it’s a massive, sociological term, capitalism is just our lives. - Creator Backlash: He doesn't have much high opinions on his first feature film Barking Dogs Never Bite, despite it garnering a cult following.
- Creator Thumbprint: Social themes (especially Eat the Rich), Black Comedy, and Mood Whiplashes.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Averted with his original films, but a personal interest of his. The only thing stopping him from making a black-and-white film is the lack of financing in such an idea, so until then, he has screened black-and-white versions of Mother and Parasite at select film festivals.
- Doing It for the Art: Bong lives with a philosophy based on Martin Scorsese's creative ethos: "The most personal is the most creative." He turned down any chance to work with scripts sent from Hollywood after the success of The Host, which caught many American film producers' attention; his follow-up to the blockbuster was instead the modestly-budgeted Mother. Even though Bong's next film after Parasite, Mickey17, is being adapted from a novel and released by Warner Bros., he is still the sole screenwriter and producer on the film (alongside the same producers who produced Okja), so it’s likely he’ll have creative freedom with it.
- Eagleland: Type 2. His films don't have a particularly great opinion of Americans. This comes up most strongly in The Host (2006) and Okja(then again, he doesn’t portray the Chinese any better); he portrays the American government as bad, and its people as okay if flawed.
- Fan Community Nickname: #BongHive — a name for fandom dedicated to Bong's movies, which is in itself a parody of Beyoncé's "BeyHive" (beehive of Queen Bey fans). He's heard of all this.Bong: I am not on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. I don’t do any social media. It is too tiring. I’m 50 years old, and to have a devoted group of fans associated with me on social media—like Beyoncé, who is one of the most amazing musicians and artists in the world—is something I never imagined. It’s incredible.
- Genre Roulette:
- Barking Dogs Never Bite is a Black Comedy.
- Memories of Murder is a crime drama.
- The Host (2006) is a social satire, a Dysfunctional Family story, and a monster movie.
- Mother (2009) is a thriller film.
- Snowpiercer is a post apocalyptic science fiction action flick.
- Okja is an action-adventure.
- Parasite (2019) is a black comedy social thriller.
- Production Posse: Korean actors Song Kang-ho, Yoon Je-moon, Go Ah-sung, Byun Hee-bong, and Choi Woo-shik, as well as Tilda Swinton, have turned up in more than one of his films.
- Signature Style: His films are characterized by their emphases on social themes, genre mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts halfway through the movie.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: His films tend to lean closer to the cynical side.
