Parasite, a first in Oscar history and the first non-English film, won the Best Picture Oscar under the direction of Bong Joon Ho. So who is Bong Joon Ho?
Bong Joon Ho, the director of the South Korean movie Parasite, was among the most talked about names at the Oscar Awards. Bong Joon Ho, who won the Best Director award at the 92nd Oscar Awards, is one of the most original directors of the last period. It is the first time in Oscar history that a non-English film has won the Oscar for best picture. The filmmakers said they were happy to be instrumental in making history while embracing the award in the best film category. Director Bong Joon Ho embraced the award, surpassing the nominees such as Martin Scorsese, Todd Phillips, Sam Mendes and Quentin Tarantino in the same category.
Bong Joon-ho (born September 14, 1969) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. The recipient of four Academy Awards, his filmography is characterised by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts.
WHO IS BONG JOON HO?
Bong Joon Ho was born on September 14, 1969, in Daegu, South Korea. While in middle school, he decided to become a filmmaker. Bong Joon Ho's father Bong Sang-gyun is a graphic designer, and his grandfather Park Tae-won is a famous writer known for his book "A Day in the Life of Novelist Gubo".
His older brother Joon-soo is a professor of English Literature at Seoul National University, and his older sister Jee-hee is a fashion designer. Despite his passion for movies, Bong Joon-ho did not major in theater at university to avoid conflicts with his family, but in the late 1980s, he went to Yonsei University to major in Sociology. The director, who was a member of a film club here, admired directors such as Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Shohei Imamura at that time.
In the early 1990s, he received a two-year training at the Korean Academy of Film Arts. During this period, he made many short films. Two graduation films, 'Peureimsogui gieokdeul' ('Memories in My Frame') and 'Ji-ri-myeol-lyeol' ('Incoherence'), were invited to international festivals in Vancouver and Hong Kong. After graduating from school, he worked in various behind-the-scenes roles in the films of many directors for five years. He co-wrote the 1996 movie '7 Reasons Why Beer is Better Than a Lover' directed by Kang Woo Suk and Park Jong Won.
IT ALSO CREATED EXCITEMENT IN THE KOREAN FILM INDUSTRY
Shortly after, he began filming his first feature film, 'Flandersui gae' ('Barking Dogs Never Bite'), produced by Cha Seung Jae, who was the producer of 'Motel Cactus' and 'Phantom the Submarine'. He shot the film in which an academic describes his experiences after his neighbor's dog abducted him, from the apartment where he lived after his marriage. The film, which was found very successful by the critics, was invited to the competition section of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, one of Spain's prestigious festivals, and won awards from Slamdance and Hong Kong. The director, who became known internationally with his first film, also created a stir in the Korean film industry.
Bong Joon Ho's second movie 'Salinui chueok' ('Memories of Murder') was a much larger scale project than the first. The film is based on a famous play that centers around a serial killer who terrorized a rural town in South Korea in the 1980s. Although the production process of the film was long and difficult, the film, in which the weather conditions made an unexpected contribution with the stunning images created in the sky, was completed without any major problems. The movie, which was released in April 2003, brought success to Bong Joon-ho in a short time. The film, which sold over five million tickets, saved producer Cha Seung-jae's company Sidus from the brink of bankruptcy and was named "Best Picture", "Best Director" and "Best Actor" at the 2003 Golden Bell Awards in Taiwan. won awards in 'Memories of Murder', which was also screened at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, returned with three awards, including the "Best Director Award".
SOUTH KOREA'S MOST-SHOWN FILM IN THE WORLD
Bong Joon Ho's next film 'Gwoemul' ('The Host') was instrumental in both his career advancement and in making Korean Cinema known worldwide. Bong Joon Ho brought together the actors he had worked with in his previous films, in the film about what happened after a mutated monster in the Han River terrorized the city and kidnapped a little girl. Aiming to create a real monster at the beginning of the production process, Bong Joon Ho signed with Weta Workshop, a New Zealand company that produces effects for many movies from 'Lord of the Rings' to 'The Hobbit', 'Edge of Tomorrow' to 'District 9. After a year-and-a-half design process, Bong Joon Ho, who got his monster, has produced a movie that will make a worldwide impact. So much so that the film had its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Screened in many cinemas after the festival screening, 'The Host' became South Korea's most-screened film in the world with a total audience of 13 million.
'Madeo' ('Mother') is Bong Joon Ho's fourth feature film. The film is about a woman living a modest life with her mentally disabled son in a small town in South Korea as she tries to prove her son's innocence, who was arrested on murder charges. Making its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, 'Madeo' also competed in the "Un Certain Regard" section of the festival. The film, which is also South Korea's Academy Award nominee, won awards from many festivals.
Bong Joon Ho, who contributed to the film anthology project '3.11 A Sense of Home', which was shot in 2011 for the earthquake and tsunami-affected Tohoku region of Japan on March 11, 2011, consisting of short films all lasting 3 minutes and 11 seconds, is the 27th Sundance in the same year. He served on a jury at the Film Festival. Again in 2011, he served as the Chairman of the Jury in the Golden Camera section of the Cannes Film Festival.
December 2022
The star of The Batman movie, Robert Pattinson, stars in the new movie by South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, who won Oscars for Best Film, Best Foreign Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay with his 2019 movie Parasite.
Starring Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo, the film is based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. The movie is expected to be released in 2024.