Posterized: Bong Joon-ho
Friday, October 25, 2019 at 3:00PM by Nathaniel R
With Parasite rapidly collecting box office loot ($95 million worldwide to date) and looking very strong for awards season and top ten listsd, let's talk about the master behind the camera Boon Jong-ho. The Palme d'or winner turned 50 last month and had yet more cause to celebrate his half century mark with Parasite opening to sensational box office and expanding rapidly (lots more cities this weekend, so go see it!)
Let's look at his short but stellar filmography in poster form after the jump...
Though Bong's international profile has been rising steadily since Mother (2009) he was already a star at home before that. He's been nominated three times for the Blue Dragon, winning once for Best Director with Snowpiercer. South Korea's other movie award, the Grand Bell has nominated him five times, giving him the Best Director win twice for both Memories of Murder and The Host. He's also won 5 prizes from the Busan Film Critics Association over the years. How many of his 7 features have you seen?
Act 1 - Exciting New Filmmaker
BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE (2000) - Hong Kong International film festival FIPRESCI prize
MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003) - Grand Bell , Korean critics association, and Tokyo international best film award winner / San Sebastian film festival best new director winner
THE HOST (2006) - Grand Bell best director winner
Act 2 - The International Crossover Years
MOTHER (2009) -South Korean Oscar submission / Blue Dragon & Asian Film Awards best film winner / Spirit Awards nominess Best International Film / Multiple best actress citations
SNOWPIERCER (2013/2014) -First english language film / Blue Dragon best director winner / Asian Film Awards best film nominee / Multiple best supporting actress citations
OKJA (2017)
and his fame reaching its peak to date with...
PARASITE (2019) -South Korean Oscar submission / Cannes Palme d'Or Winner
Reader Comments (15)
5! Just missing the first two.
Seen all except for his debut (and Tokyo!, an anthology film for which he directed the third of three segments, the other two being by Leos Carax and Michel Gondry), and I liked them all.
What an amazing filmpgraphy so far.
I've only seen THE HOST, which I thought was good but not amazing, and SNOWPIERCER which is great!
Same as MrW -- I've been putting off seeing BARKING DOGS because I wanted to save it for a rainy day, but I think the rainy day's straight ahead because MoMA is screening it twice in the next couple of months. If I'm gonna see it that'd be a good time.
Love that new Parasite poster so much
Zero :-(
I've seen all but Barking Dogs and Parasite, which I have tickets for next week!
My favorites are Memories of Murder and Mother, but there's not a bad one in the bunch.
When I saw Barking Dogs Never Bite back in 2001, I was hooked on this director. I had never seen dark humor quite like this before, constantly flirting between the lines of good taste and repugnance, amorality and humanism. All of his movies since have figured strongly in my lists of Top films during any given year. As it stands now I would rate them thusly:
Memories of Murder (Top 10 2003)
Mother (Top 10 2009)
Parasite (Top 10 2019)
Barking Dogs Never Bite
The Host
Snowpiercer
Okja
So far, everything but Okja and Parasite.
Where's the "Shaking Tokyo" segment from Tokyo!</I>? That is a great short.
Saw Parasite today. I have also seen Snowpiercer and Mother (my fav.)
I've only seen two of his movies Snowpiercer and Parasite. The latter is superior to the former.
People were howling with laughter at my screening. I clearly didn't get it. I thought it was very sad and a bit too long.
One of the better directors working today. Seen them all except for the first and last, but will be watching his latest some time soon.
All of 'em. Mother is still my favorite, followed closely by Memories of Murder, but I just saw Parasite today and had so much fun with it. He delivers a master class in how to plant ideas early on that sprout into deeply disturbing ideas later. The ending didn't quite work for me but I'm eager to see it again.
Peggy Sue - You didn’t get how Parasite was funny???? Un, what?????????????
?????????
I saw 'Parasite' this week. The film is OK, not great. Way over rated I think.