Bong Joon-ho (봉준호; September 14, 1969) is a South Korean filmmaker. His films feature social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. In 2017, Metacritic ranked Bong 13th on its list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century.
He first gained recognition for his second feature film, the crime drama Memories of Murder (2003), before achieving commercial success with his subsequent films; the monster film The Host (2006), the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013), with Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Go Ah-sung, John Hurt, and Ed Harris; and the black comedy thriller Parasite (2019), which are among the highest-grossing films in South Korea. 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. Mickey 17 (2025), with Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Patsy Ferran, Cameron Britton, Daniel Henshall, Stephen Park, Anamaria Vartolomei, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo.
For Parasite, Bong received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and, on behalf of South Korea, Best International Feature Film. He’s among a handful of individuals to win these 3 major awards in a single year, alongside Billy Wilder, Francis Ford Coppola, James L. Brooks, Peter Jackson, Joel & Ethan Coen, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Bong Joon-ho, Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Sean Baker, and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Incoherence (1994) – short
- White Man (1994) – short
- Memories in My Frame (1994) -short
- Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)
- Memories of Murder (2003)
- Sink & Rise (2003) – short
- Influenza (2004) – short
- The Host (2006)
- Tokyo! (2008) – directed with Michel Gondry & Leos Carax – anthology
- Mother (2009)
- Snowpiercer (2013)
- Okja (2017)
- Parasite (2019)
- Mickey 17 (2025)
- Ally (2027)
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