By The Same Director - Bong Joon-Ho

Given that Parasite is the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars, there are suddenly loads of threads / articles recommending other Bong Joon-Ho films as well as South Korean cinema in general*. Am I going to be any exception to this? Clearly not…

The Host (2006)
In which a mutated fish monster kidnaps snack bar owner Gang-du’s daughter prompting him to attempt to rescue her from its lair...
I watched this when it came out as it garnered a fair amount of buzz amongst the sort of film sites and magazines that look outside of the US mainstream and I’m an absolute sucker for monster movies. It certainly is a monster movie with an impressive level of effects work given the limitations of the budget that Bong had to work with but, as with Parasite, there’s a certain level of social commentary mixed in there as well, both in terms of a statement on the impact man is having on the environment and a commentary on the mindless bureaucracy of government.

Mother (2009)
In which a dim-witted young man is arrested for murder and his over-protective mother sets out to prove his innocence…
One of the key things that I’m starting to see in Bong’s work is a definite blending of genres and tones. There’s some broad comedy and some very bleak comedy in here. There’s social commentary again and elements of whodunnit. Ultimately, though, much lie Parasite (although they are different films), Mother is a film that doesn;t always go the way you expect it to. In a way, it’s best to go into both this and Parasite without knowing too much about either and letting them unfold.

At this point, I feel like I should be mentioning the films that Western audiences are more likely to have seen - Snowpiercer (currently being made into a TV show) and Okja (which was, rather surprisingly i thought, co-written by journalist and documentary maker Jon Ronson) - particularly as they are both genre films so would seem to be right up my alley. However, I have to admit that I haven’t seen either of them yet. Mind you, given that Okja is a Netflix film and Snowpiercer, despite not receiving a UK cinema release, has been screened on various channels in the UK, people are more likely to have seen those.

Anyway, a couple more recommendations for you there. I saw a number of films last year by directors that I hadn’t come across before which has lead me to seek out some of them. I’ll branch out a bit next time and cover some of these non-Oscar nominated but no less worthy directors.


*I’ve seen quite a few people recommending the work of Park Chan-wook as well and quite right too. If you’re wondering where to start with his work, Oldboy is the one of his that I rate highest (make sure you get his version and not the US remake with Josh Brolin - there’s nothing massively  wrong with the US version as such; it’s just a bit redundant)