100 Facts Bong Joon Ho

Bong Joon-ho seems to be a director that's popped up overnight, but that's not true at all

He's been producing films for over 20 years. I'm Dave Baker, and today we're going to count down

100 facts you didn't know about Bong Joon-ho. Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker that's

directed eight feature films and a number of shorts. He was born on September 14, 1969

in Daeju, South Korea. His father was a graphic designer and an industrial designer. His mother

was a housewife. His grandmother, Park Tae-won, was a highly acclaimed author, known for the work

A Day in the Life of Kubo the Novelist. He attended Yonsei University, where he pursued a degree in

sociology. While at Yonsei University, he became involved in the South Korean democracy movement

He took part in demonstrations and was frequently tear-gassed. During this time, Bong Joon-ho served

a two-year term in the military in accordance with South Korea's compulsory military service

laws. He returned to college in 1992, where he co-founded the Yellow Door Film Club. He made his

first short film during this time period, a stop-motion film titled Looking for Paradise

After graduating in 1992, he enrolled at the Korean Academy for the Film Arts. His graduation

thesis film, Memories in My Frame, was accepted and played by the Hong Kong International Film

Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival. After graduation, Bong struggled to

find work, surviving on a meager income of roughly $3,800 over two years. He amassed a few writing

credits on some feature films that his film school friends directed, including Seven Reasons Why

Beer is Better Than Love, Motel Cactus, and Phantom the Submarine. Bong married Jun Sun-young

a screenwriter in 1995. They have a young son, Hyo Min. Due to meeting producer Cha Sing-jae

Bong Joon-ho was able to procure financing for his debut feature film. He shot the film

Barking Dog Never Bites, in the same apartment complex he lived in after getting married

It was released under the alternate titles A Higher Animal and Dog Flanders

It was very well received critically, and helped Bong Joon-ho become something of a name to watch in the indie film circles of the time

The film is based on A Dog of Flanders, a European pet story that is very popular in parts of East Asia

It tells the story of an out-of-work teacher who is driven crazy by the sound of barking dogs

He eventually kidnaps and severely mistreats them, and takes their lives. The film stars Lee Sung-jae and Bae Doona

Bong's second film, Memories of a Murder, was released in 2003. The film is based on Lee Choon Jae the first Korean serial killer He was convicted of killing his sister in 1994 and then later confessed to murdering 15 other people To add insult to injury the confession

that Lee Chun-jae made in 2019 could not be prosecuted due to the fact that the statute of

limitations had expired. Song Kang-ho plays Park Du-man, the detective charged with solving the

murders. This would start a long-lasting friendship between the men. The film was very well received

By the end of its run, it had been seen by over 5.1 million people

This made it the most-watched movie in South Korea in 2003. One of the production companies that made the film, Sidus Pictures, was saved from bankruptcy by the film's success

The film won numerous awards, including Best Film and Best Director in the Korean Film Awards

and Best Director in the Director's Cut Awards. The film was such a success that it was set to be adapted into a television show, with Kim Lee Hee attached to write

Bong Joon-ho's next project was a 30-minute short titled Influenza, which was released in 2004

It was created by staging the drama in front of real CCTV cameras all throughout Seoul

The film, which follows one man as he turns to violent crime over five years

was commissioned by the John Chu International Film Festival. His next project was another short film titled Twendidity

a 20-part film created by graduates of the Korean Academy of Film Arts

as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the school. Bong's segment, Sink and Rise, is set along the Han River

2006 saw Bong Joon-ho's film The Host catapult him to a new level of international stardom

The film centers on a strange type of unknown creature that comes out of the Han River and wreaks havoc on Seoul

The film was produced with a budget of $12 million. Bong originally approached the company Weta Digital

who had produced the effects for Lord of the Rings to create the creatures for the film. However, they were unable to meet the schedule due to conflicting productions

and the San Francisco-based effects house, The Orphanage, took on the job

The film received a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. It became a smash hit when it was released theatrically, selling over 13 million tickets

It is the widest released film in Korean history, premiering on 1,800 theater screens

The film quickly sold around the world, where international audiences fell in love with it

Universal purchased the remake rights. In 2008, Bong took part in the anthology film Tokyo

The film is three shorts that all take place in the city of Tokyo. Bong's segment is titled Kikyo Mori

It's about a man who has agoraphobia and refuses to leave his house. while falling in love with a pizza delivery woman. Bong's next feature is Mother, which was released in 2009

It follows a woman who attempts to save her disabled son from a murder charge The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival The film features Woo Bin as the teenage son of Yoon Doo When it was released in Korean cinemas it grossed roughly million

It was picked up by Magnolia Pictures in March of 2010 for U.S. distribution

The film was also a part of Bong Joon-ho's retrospective that took place at the Jacob Burns Film Center in 2015

In 2013, a black and white version of the film was released. Mother currently has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Bong Joon-ho's next film, 311, A Sense of Home, is an anthology film as well

This time, each film is roughly 3 minutes and 11 seconds long. The film was made by 21 filmmakers as a way to react to the devastating earthquake tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011

Bong Joon-ho's short film, Iki, centers on a teenage girl who finds a dead toddler on the beach

In 2011, Bong served as a member of the 27th Sundance Film Festival

and the head of the jury for the Cameradeur de Cannes Film Festival

Bong's next project would be a film adaptation of Bands de Scène Le Transpériage

by Jacques Laub and Jean-Marc Rochette. Bong found the book while in a comic book store near Hongkik University

He read it all while standing in the shop and became obsessed with the idea of turning it into a movie

He took the book to his friend Park Chan-wook and Lee Tae-hun, who both agreed it would make a good movie

Bong then set about rebuilding the story and the characters in order to maximize potential of a film adaptation

The film, which would be retitled Snowpiercer, is about a futuristic train that is perpetually in motion

and the people on board who are organized into social classes depending on where they live on the train

Snowpiercer was co-written by Kelly Masterson. The film stars Chris Evans, Song K. Ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Go An Sung, and John Hurt

The filming for the production took place in Banarov Studios in Prague. The set of the film, Old Train Cars, were mounted on gimbals as though to simulate the trains were moving

The film was produced as a co-production between four production companies, Moho Films, Opus Pictures, Union Investment Partners, and Stilking Films

It was produced for $40 million, which makes it the most expensive film in Korean history

The film received rave reviews upon its release, causing the Weinstein Company to move from the initial intended limited release to a much wider release strategy

It ultimately made $86.8 million. The film was so successful that it even spawned a television adaptation, also titled Snowpiercer

Show stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs. The show is a complete reboot and will tell the story of the film and then progress past it It has also been ordered for a two commitment and will air on TNT with Netflix handling global distribution Bong next film would be Okja a cautionary tale about the dangers of factory farming

The film was co-written by John Ronson. Filming began for the movie in April of 2016

with the film premiering in 2017 at the Cannes Film Festival. The Cannes reception of Okja was unfortunately mixed

mostly due to the fact that it was projected in the wrong aspect ratio for the first seven minutes

Bokja was eventually released on Netflix June 28, 2017. It received widespread acclaim, earning an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes

Bong's next film would be a dark comedy thriller titled Parasite. He wrote an original story for the film when an actor friend had challenged him to write a play

The writing process eventually evolved into the film Parasite. The film tells the story of an impoverished family who wormed their way into the lives of an affluent family

and begin to leech money out of them. The film stars many Bong Joon-ho regulars, most notably Sang Kang-ho

The title Parasite was chosen by Bong because it has a double meaning

Both the lower class people and the upper class people are being parasites off of each other, just in different ways

The film was written by Hong Jin-ho and Bong Joon-ho. Bong has repeatedly said that the film's chief creative influence was the 1960s domestic gothic film The Housemaid

He also pulled inspiration from the famed Christine and Lia Pepping murders in France in the 1930s

where two maids murdered their employees. The subplot in the film of a young boy

tutoring a rich family's daughter comes directly from Bong's own life. The budget of the film was roughly $11.5 million

As with his previous movies, this film premiered at Cannes. Only this time, the film won the Palme d'Or

making it the first Korean film in history to do so. It was released by CJ Entertainment

on May 30th, 2019 in South Korea. It grossed $266 million worldwide due to its acclaim

In January of 2020, HBO ordered a six-episode limited series adaptation of the film

Mark Ruffalo is rumored to appear in the project, and Tilda Swinton has confirmed that she's going to star

Bong has confirmed that he's currently writing two scripts, one an English-language film and one a Korean market film

He's said multiple times that he wants to continue making smaller, more intimate stories where he can control his creative vision

Parasite is a film that received near-universal acclaim, so much so that it won an Academy Award for Best Director

Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Picture, as well as Best Picture. Bong Joon-ho is

the first writer of Asian descent to win the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Parasite is the first

foreign film to ever win Best Picture