- Born
- Nickname
- Bong Tail
- Height5′ 11¾″ (1.82 m)
- Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. 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 black comedy 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. Parasite also became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award nominations, with Bong winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, making Parasite the first film not in English to win Best Picture. In 2017, Bong was included on Metacritic's list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. In 2020, Bong was included in Time's annual list of 100 Most Influential People and Bloomberg 50.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Bonitao
- SpouseJung Sun-young(1995 - present) (1 child)
- Children
- ParentsSang Gyun BongSo-Young Park
- RelativesJi-Hee Bong(Sibling)Joon-soo Bong(Sibling)
- Long takes with many events happening on-screen and the camera being able to capture all of them.
- As one event is happening on screen, another occurs in the background that diverts the audience's attention.
- Displays strong subject matter while often filled with black humor
- Socially and politically conscious films
- Bold, saturated colours in his movies.
- He bought his first video camera with savings from selling doughnuts at a school cafeteria. "I still remember sleeping at night hugging the Hitachi camera," Bong said. While studying sociology at Yonsei University in Seoul, he co-founded a filmmaking club named Yellow Door with students from neighboring universities, where he made his first short films. To make a living, he shot wedding videos. [N.Y. Times, Jan. 2020].
- He is the 2nd Asian director to win the Oscar for best director after Ang Lee.
- Directed the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at The Oscars, Parasite (2019).
- Bong enrolled in Yonsei University in 1988, majoring in sociology. College campuses such as Yonsei's were then hotbeds for the South Korean democracy movement, and Bong was an active participant of student demonstrations, frequently subjected to tear gas early in his college years.
- Is among an elite group of nine directors who have won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (Orig/Adapted) for the same film The other directors are Billy Wilder, Leo McCarey, Francis Ford Coppola, James L. Brooks, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Peter Jackson.
- It's fun for me to bury my political and social comments here and there in a film.
- In today's capitalistic society there are ranks and castes that are invisible to the eye. We keep them disguised and out of sight and superficially look down on class hierarchies as a relic of the past, but the reality is that there are class lines that cannot be crossed. I think that this film (Parasite, 2019) depicts the inevitable cracks that appear when two classes brush up against each other in today's increasingly polarized society.
- My movies are based in genre, which is a universal language. Everybody speaks it.
- [on Parasite (2019)] I just hope that it gives audiences a lot to think about. It is in parts funny, frightening and sad, and if it makes viewers feel like sharing a drink and talking over all the ideas they had while watching it, I'll wish for nothing more.
- I was just a shy, naive 12-year-old cinema fan when I decided to become a director. I never imagined that the day I'd hold this trophy (Palme d'Or) would come. Merci.
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