Bong Joon Ho
Authors: Lee Nam 
Published: January 2024

Born on 14 September 1969, Bong Joon Ho knew from early age that he wanted to become a film director, fostered by a deep-seated love of cinema that began in childhood. He was an avid film watcher even as a child, and French director Henri-Georges Clouzot’s film The Wages of Fear (1953), which he watched on TV as an elementary school student, left a lasting impression on him. Bong’s formative experiences with art were largely influenced by his father, a professor of graphic design. He would spend countless hours in his father’s study, engrossed in the pages of foreign design books. Moreover, Bong nurtured a deep love for comics from an early age, often sketching his own stories. While in college, Bong contributed as a political cartoonist for the school newspaper, publishing a series of editorial cartoons. There was a time when he pondered becoming a professional cartoonist. Bong’s artistic talent extended from both his parents. His mother was the second daughter of Park Tae-won, a leading figure in modern Korean literature during the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945). Bong’s own artistic leanings, though, were deeply rooted in visual media such as films, manga, and cartoons. He is well known for his meticulous attention to details, particularly evident in his practice of drawing storyboards for every shot of his films before shooting. Despite majoring in sociology at Yonsei University, he was more actively engaged in the film club “Yellow Door” (Noranmoon), which he himself founded. The platform enabled him to both study and analyze films as well as to make short films. Bong’s directorial journey began with his short film White Man (Paeksaegin), in 1993, which he submitted as part of his application to the Korean Academy of Film Arts. His thesis film Incoherence (1994) attracted significant attention from the Korean film community, paving the way for collaboration with Tcha Sung-jai, one of the most influential producers of the emerging New Korean Cinema, who would eventually produce his first and second feature films. After working as a screenwriter and assistant director for a few projects, Bong made his directorial debut with Barking Dogs Never Bite in 2000. The film, however, did not receive the critical or commercial success he had hoped for. It was his second feature, Memories of Murder (2003), that propelled him into the limelight, earning high critical acclaim and box office success, and establishing him as one of the most promising young directors of his time. His next film, a big-budget monster movie, The Host (2006), shattered the domestic box office records and also marked his international breakthrough, affirming his role as a leading figure of the rising Korean cinema on a global stage. His reputation as one of the most distinctive genre filmmakers flourished with the release of Mother (2009), and his international blockbusters, Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017). However, it was his film Parasite (2019) that truly secured his place in film history. The film not only received the prestigious Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but also became the first non-English-language film to win the Best Picture Oscar at the 2020 Academy Awards. Parasite also won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Award. It was the first film since the American film Marty (dir. Delbert Mann, 1955) to receive both the Palm d’Or and the Best Picture Oscar.