COMMENTARY: Bong Joon-ho on Making First Full Korean Film in 10 Years With ‘Parasite’1 min read
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The Korean auteur, back in Cannes for the sixth time, discusses turning the issue of income inequality into a thriller with his competition entry, the need for Netflix and the film world to “learn to co-exist” and why he considers himself a “journeyman director.”
Two years after creating a stir on the Croisette with his sci-fi adventure Okja — controversially backed by Netflix — South Korean genre master Bong Joon-ho is back in competition at Cannes with the family tragicomedy Parasite. It’s his first fully Korean film in 10 years, following Okja and his English-language breakthrough Snowpiercer in 2012. This time, Bong zeroes in on two traditional Korean families — one poor, the other rich — probing the problem of income inequality via his signature blend of genre thrills and off-kilter surprises. The film also reunites Bong with Korean star Song Kang-ho, with whom he has made four features (Memories of Murder, The Host and Snowpiercer), forging one of the great director-actor partnerships of contemporary world cinema.
Produced and sold by South Korea’s CJ Entertainment, the film was picked up by Neon for North American distribution in one of the biggest deals at the American Film Market last October.
Bong, 49, whose talent Quentin Tarantino once described as “like Spielberg in his prime,” spoke with THR about the Netflix imbroglio that engulfed his last trip to Cannes, the French fine art technique that inspired Parasite’s structure and a fortuitous encounter with Tilda Swinton on the Croisette.
Photo credit: The Hollywood Reporter
