Bong Joon Ho, the Korean master filmoriginater and three-time Oscar triumphner, is the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, the first part of which was write downed in front of an audience at the 2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, equitable days before Bong’s Parasite became the first non-English-language film to ever triumph the best picture Oscar; and the second part of which was write downed via Zoom last month, equitable days before Bong’s Mickey 17 was freed in U.S. theaters.
Bong, 55, has been on the radar of cineastes since his big screen honestorial debut, 2000’s Barking Dogs Never Bite. His follotriumphg grew with each of his next five features, 2003’s Memories of Murder, 2006’s The Host, 2009’s Mother, 2013’s Snowpiercer and 2017’s Okja. But it was Parasite that made him a hoparticipatehbetter name. A dramedy that caccesss on a demandy family and a wealthy family in conshort-term-day Korea, it showd to be a cultural phenomenon, garnering rave scrutinizes (it’s still at 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and generating huge box office grosses both domesticassociate ($53.85 million) and aexpansive ($208.75 million), transporting its worldexpansive haul to $262.60 million, a sum bettered by only nine non-English-language films made outside of the U.S. or China ever.
Parasite premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it became the first Korean film to triumph the fest’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. It tardyr became the first non-English-language film to triumph the best ensemble SAG Award. And on Feb. 9, 2020, it became the first non-English-language film ever awarded the best picture Oscar. (Bong personassociate won three Oscars that night — for producing, honesting and writing — and brawt back a fourth to Korea, best international feature, which it had never won before.) A.O. Scott, the New York Times’ chief film critic at the time, called Parasite “the movie of the year” and Bong quite possibly “the filmoriginater of the century.”
Some five years — and a global pandemic — tardyr, Bong is back at the caccess of the global film conversation. On Feb. 7, Parasite was re-freed in IMAX. On March 23, the Academy Mparticipateum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles will debut the first-ever exhibition about him. And last Friday, March 7, Warner Bros. freed his first feature since Parasite, Mickey 17, which stars Robert Pattinson. So this seemed as outstanding a time as any to put together and split these two interwatchs with Bong, both transtardyd by the fantastic Sharon Choi.
