page_title: Bong Joon-ho
section_title: American co-productions
hierarchical_section_title: Bong Joon-ho / Career / American co-productions
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Bong Joon-ho au festival de Deauville
context_page_description: Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. His films feature social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. In 2017, Metacritic ranked Bong 13th on its list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century.
  He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films: the crime thriller Memories of Murder (2003), the monster film The Host (2006), the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013), and the Academy Award-winning black comedy social thriller Parasite (2019), all of which are among the highest-grossing films in South Korea, with Parasite also being the highest-grossing South Korean film in history.
  All of Bong's films have been South Korean productions, although both Snowpiercer and Okja (2017) are mostly in the English language. Two of his films have screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival—Okja in 2017 and Parasite in 2019; the latter earned the Palme d'Or, which was a first for a South Korean film.
context_section_description: Bong's first English-language film, Snowpiercer, was released in 2013. It is based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige (1982) by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, and set largely on a futuristic train where those on board are separated according to their social status. The film premiered at Times Square on July 29, 2013 in Seoul, South Korea, before screening at the Deauville American Film Festival as the closing film on September 7, 2013, the Berlin International Film Festival as part of Berlin's Forum Sidebar on February 7, 2014, opening the LA Film Festival on June 11, 2014, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 22, 2014. Upon release in cinemas, Snowpiercer was met with near-universal praise and strong ticket sales, both in South Korea and abroad. On the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 248 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Snowpiercer offers an audaciously ambitious action spectacular for filmgoers numb to effects-driven blockbusters." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 84 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". As of April 2014, it is the tenth highest-grossing domestic film in South Korea, with 9,350,141 admissions. The film also holds the domestic record for the fastest movie (domestic and foreign) to reach four million admissions, which it achieved in its fifth day after the premiere, and another record for the highest weekend figure (from Friday to Sunday) for a Korean film, with 2.26 million viewers. In addition to receiving several awards and nominations, Snowpiercer appeared on several critics' lists of the ten best films of 2014.
  In 2015, Bong's next film, Okja, was announced. On April 30, 2015, screenwriter Jon Ronson announced on his Twitter account that he was writing the second draft of Bong's screenplay for the film. Darius Khondji joined the film as cinematographer in February 2016. Filming for the project began in April 2016. It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and sparked controversy due to it being produced by Netflix. The film was met with boos, mixed with applause, during a press screening at the film festival, once the Netflix logo appeared on screen and again during a technical glitch; the film was projected in the incorrect aspect ratio for its first seven minutes. The festival later issued an apology to the filmmakers. However, despite the studio's negative response, the film itself received a four-minute standing ovation following its actual premiere. The film was later released on Netflix on June 28, 2017, and received positive reviews. On the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 227 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.54/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Okja sees Bong Joon-ho continuing to create defiantly eclectic entertainment – and still hitting more than enough of his narrative targets in the midst of a tricky tonal juggling act." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". New York Times critic A. O. Scott wrote: "Okja is a miracle of imagination and technique, and Okja insists, with abundant mischief and absolute sincerity, that she possesses a soul."
caption: Bong at the 2013 Deauville American Film Festival
exif: {}