Bong Joon Ho facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bong Joon Ho
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Bong at the Busan International Film Festival, 2025
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| Born | September 14, 1969 Daegu, South Korea
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| Alma mater | Yonsei University |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1994–present |
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Works
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Full list |
| Political party |
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| Spouse(s) |
Jung Sun-young
(m. 1995) |
| Children | 1 |
| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives | Park Taewon (grandfather) |
| Awards | Full list |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul |
봉준호
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| Hanja |
奉俊昊
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| RR | Bong Junho |
| MR | Pong Chunho |
| Signature | |
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Bong Joon Ho (Korean: 봉준호; pronounced [poːŋ tɕuːnho]; born September 14, 1969) is a famous South Korean filmmaker. He is known for making movies that explore important ideas about society and different groups of people. His films often mix different styles, like comedy and suspense, and can change their mood quickly. Bong has won many important awards, including three Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and five Asian Film Awards. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
Bong first became well-known with his first full-length movie, the comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000). He then gained even more fans and critical praise with films like the mystery thriller Memories of Murder (2003), the monster movie The Host (2006), and the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013). Snowpiercer was his first movie made in English. His film Parasite (2019) became a huge global success. The Host, Snowpiercer, and Parasite are some of the highest-earning films in South Korea, with Parasite being the highest-grossing South Korean film ever.
All of Bong's films have been made in South Korea. However, Snowpiercer, Okja (2017), and Mickey 17 (2025) were co-produced with Hollywood studios and used a lot of English. Two of his films, Okja and Parasite, were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Parasite won the top prize, the Palme d'Or, which was a first for a South Korean film. Bong also won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Parasite. This made Parasite the first non-English language film to win Best Picture.
Contents
Early Life and Dreams
Bong Joon Ho was born on September 14, 1969, in Daegu, South Korea. He grew up with three older siblings. His mother, Park So-young, was a homemaker. His father, Bong Sang-gyun, was a graphic designer, professor, and head of an art department. Bong's maternal grandfather, Park Taewon, was a respected author. His older brother is an English professor, and his older sister teaches fashion styling. Bong was raised as a Catholic.
When Bong was in elementary school, his family moved to Seoul. They lived near the Han River. One day, while preparing for his college entrance exam in 1987, Bong saw something strange outside his window. He thought it was a monster climbing a bridge and falling into the Han River. At that time, he already wanted to be a film director. He promised himself he would make a movie about a big creature living in the river. Nineteen years later, he made that dream come true with his monster movie The Host (2006).
From Student to Filmmaker
In 1988, Bong started studying sociology at Yonsei University. He also learned English in college. He said that director Spike Lee's films helped him learn English. During his early college years, Bong was involved in student activities for democracy in South Korea. He served two years in the military, which is required in South Korea, before returning to college in 1992. Bong later helped start a film club called "Yellow Door." There, he made his first short films, including a stop motion film called Looking for Paradise. He graduated from Yonsei University in 1995.
Starting His Film Career
After college, Bong joined the Korean Academy of Film Arts. He made many short films there. His graduation films, Incoherence and Memories in My Frame, were shown at international film festivals. Bong also worked with classmates on other projects. He was a cinematographer for 2001 Imagine (1994) and a lighting technician for two other shorts. He also helped write screenplays for films like Seven Reasons Why Beer is Better Than a Lover (1996).
In 1999, Bong started making his first full-length movie, Barking Dogs Never Bite (released in 2000). This film was about a university lecturer who takes a neighbor's dog. It was filmed in the same apartment complex where Bong lived after he got married. When it first came out, not many people saw it, but critics liked it. It won awards at the Slamdance Film Festival and Hong Kong International Film Festival. Over time, more people heard about the film, and it became a financial success from sales to other countries.
Making a Big Splash with Memories of Murder
Bong's second film, Memories of Murder (2003), was a much bigger project. It was based on a true story about unsolved cases in a rural town in the 1980s. Making the film was challenging because it used many different filming locations. When it was released in April 2003, it was a huge success with both critics and audiences. More than five million tickets were sold. The film won many national awards, including Best Picture and Best Director at the Grand Bell Awards in 2003. It also won three awards at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, including Best Director.
After this, Bong made short films for two different projects. Influenza (2004) was a 30-minute film shot entirely with real CCTV cameras in Seoul. It showed a man turning to crime over five years. He also contributed Sink & Rise (2003) to Twentidentity, a collection of films by alumni of the Korean Academy of Film Arts.
Becoming an International Director
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The Host (2006) was a big step for Bong and for the Korean film industry. This large-budget film was about a fictional monster that comes out of the Han River and causes chaos in Seoul. It focused on one family's struggle. Many actors from his earlier films appeared in it. People were very interested in the film even before it started shooting. Creating a believable digital monster was a big challenge. Bong worked with a San Francisco-based company for most of the special effects. The film had a fantastic premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. It became a major summer hit in South Korea, selling 13 million tickets and setting a new box office record.
Exploring New Stories: Mother and Tokyo!
Bong also directed a part of Tokyo! (2008), a film with three different stories about the city. Bong's story was about a man who had not left his home for ten years and what happens when he falls in love with a pizza delivery girl.
Bong's fourth full-length film, Mother (2009), tells the story of a loving mother trying to save her son from a murder accusation. It was shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and received great reviews, especially for the actress Kim Hye-ja. Mother was praised both in South Korea and at international film festivals. Many film critics included it on their "best-of" lists in 2010. In 2011, Bong contributed to 3.11 A Sense of Home Films, another collection of short films. His short film, Iki, was about a teenage girl finding a toddler on a beach.
Hollywood Collaborations
Bong's first English-language film, Snowpiercer, was released in 2013. It was based on a graphic novel and took place mostly on a futuristic train. On this train, people were separated by their social status. The film premiered in Seoul, South Korea, and was shown at several international film festivals. Snowpiercer received widespread praise and sold many tickets, both in South Korea and around the world. On the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a very high approval rating. Critics called it an "audaciously ambitious action spectacular." It became one of the highest-grossing domestic films in South Korea. Snowpiercer also won several awards and nominations.
Okja: A Special Friendship Story
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In 2015, Bong announced his next film, Okja. The story was co-written by Bong and Jon Ronson. Filming began in April 2016. It premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it was considered for the Palme d'Or. The film was later released on Netflix on June 28, 2017, and received positive reviews. Critics praised Bong for creating "defiantly eclectic entertainment" and for his "tricky tonal juggling act." A critic from New York Times called Okja "a miracle of imagination and technique."
Parasite: A Global Sensation
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In 2019, Bong directed the South Korean film Parasite. This suspenseful comedy was about a poor family that finds a way to work for a wealthy household. The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and won the Palme d'Or. It was the first Korean film to receive this award and won with a unanimous vote. In June 2019, the film also won the Sydney Film Prize at the Sydney Film Festival.
Parasite was released in South Korea on May 30, 2019, and in the United States on October 11, 2019. It received amazing reviews from critics and earned $266 million worldwide, becoming Bong's highest-grossing film. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 99%. Critics called it "An urgent, brilliantly layered look at timely social themes." Bong said he wanted to express the anxiety and deep fear that can come from real life through his film.
Winning Big Awards
During the 2019–2020 film awards season, Bong and Parasite received many awards. Bong won the Hollywood Filmmaker Award and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director. He was also nominated for Best Director at the 77th Golden Globe Awards, where Parasite won Best Foreign Language Film. This was the first Golden Globe Award nomination and win for any South Korean film. The cast of Parasite also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, making history as the first foreign-language film to win in that category. At the 73rd British Academy Film Awards, Parasite won Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Not in the English Language.
Parasite was chosen as the South Korean entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. It became the first South Korean film to receive an Academy Award nomination in any category. It received a total of six nominations and won four awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. This was also the first time a non-English language film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. While accepting his Best Director award, Bong thanked fellow directors Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino for their inspiration and support.
Future Films to Look Forward To
In January 2020, an HBO limited series based on the film Parasite was announced. Bong and Adam McKay are executive producers. Bong stated that the series would explore stories that happen between the scenes in the film. In February 2025, Bong confirmed the series was still being developed.
In September 2021, Bong was the head of the jury for the 78th Venice International Film Festival. In January 2022, it was announced that Bong's next film was Mickey 17, based on Edward Ashton's novel Mickey7. Bong wrote, co-produced, and directed the film, which was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It starred Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Steven Yeun. Production began on August 1, 2022. Mickey 17 premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2025. It was then released in South Korea on February 28, 2025, and in the United States on March 7, 2025.
Upcoming Projects
In February 2021, Bong mentioned he had been working on two new scripts after Parasite, one in English and one in Korean, and had finished one of them. He said the Korean film "is located in Seoul and has unique elements of horror and action." The English film "is a drama film based on a true event that happened in 2016." Bong is also developing a Korean animated film, currently called Ally. This animated film was thought of in 2018 and is planned to be about deep-sea creatures and humans. In 2024, Bong confirmed that both the animated film and his Seoul horror film were still being developed. He also showed interest in making a biographical film about a historical figure.
How Bong Joon Ho Makes Movies
As a child, Bong was greatly impressed by the film Black Orpheus (1959). In film school, he watched the Qatsi trilogy. He gets ideas from directors like Guillermo del Toro and Nagisa Ōshima. Bong also studied the films of Martin Scorsese and mentioned him as a big influence when he won the Academy Award for Best Director for Parasite (2019). He also admires manga artist Naoki Urasawa for his storytelling.
A special thing about Bong's films is how their mood can change suddenly. They can go from serious drama to funny or even suspenseful moments, sometimes within the same scene. Bong says he doesn't plan these changes; they just happen naturally as he writes and directs. He also likes to use real filming locations or specially built sets instead of green screens. For example, he filmed in Seoul's sewers for The Host (2006).
When working with actors, Bong makes them feel comfortable and gives them a lot of freedom to act. He even lets them try out new ideas. He believes that acting is the actor's job and he doesn't like to "direct" them too strictly. Actor Ed Harris, who worked on Snowpiercer (2013), said that Bong films scenes by "cutting while filming." This means Bong shoots small parts of a scene and then moves the camera, instead of filming the whole scene from one angle. An editor is usually nearby, putting the footage together as they film. This careful planning helps Bong know exactly what he wants for the final movie.
In 2015, Bong shared a list of 50 films that inspired him. This list included three films by Martin Scorsese and two films each by Nagisa Ōshima, Shōhei Imamura, Kim Ki-young, Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Akira Kurosawa, and Stanley Kubrick.
About His Life
Bong married screenwriter Jung Sun-young in 1995. They have a son together, Bong Hyo-min, who is also a filmmaker. In 2009, Bong got a bird tattoo on his left arm to celebrate the release of Mother and to remember a scene from the film.
Filmography
- Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)
- Memories of Murder (2003)
- The Host (2006)
- Mother (2009)
- Snowpiercer (2013)
- Okja (2017)
- Parasite (2019)
- Mickey 17 (2025)
- Ally (2027)
Frequent Actors in His Films
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Work
Actor
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2000 | 2003 | 2006 | 2009 | 2013 | 2017 | 2019 | 2025 |
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Byun Hee-bong |
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| Kim Roi-ha | ||||||||
| Seong Jeong-seon | ||||||||
| Bae Doona | ||||||||
| Go Soo-hee | ||||||||
| Kim Jin-goo | ||||||||
| Kwon Byung-gil |
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| Yu In-su | ||||||||
| Song Kang-ho | ||||||||
| Lee Dong-yong | ||||||||
| Choi Gyo-sik | ||||||||
| Jo Deok-jae | ||||||||
| Kwon Hyeok-poong | ||||||||
| Lee Jae-eung | ||||||||
| Park Hae-il | ||||||||
| Park Jin-woo | ||||||||
| Park No-shik | ||||||||
| Shin Hyun-jong | ||||||||
| Son Jin-hwan | ||||||||
| Yoo Seung-mok | ||||||||
| Jeon Mi-seon |
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| Jo Moon-eui | ||||||||
| Lee Dae-hyeon | ||||||||
| Lee Ok-joo | ||||||||
| Yoon Je-moon | ||||||||
| Min Kyung-jin | ||||||||
| Go Ah-sung | ||||||||
| Paul Lazar | ||||||||
| Park Jeong-gi | ||||||||
| Lee Jung-eun | ||||||||
| Tilda Swinton | ||||||||
| Steve Park | ||||||||
| Ahn Seong-bong | ||||||||
| Choi Woo-shik | ||||||||
| Andreas Fronk | ||||||||
| Park Keun-rok | ||||||||
| Daniel Henshall | ||||||||
| Steven Yeun |
Awards and Recognition
See also
In Spanish: Bong Joon-ho para niños
- Cinema of Korea
