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The movie “Parasite” has brought Bong Joon-ho to places few directors have been to, and gave him countless awards (as much as 193!) that many covet.
“Parasite” won Palme d’Or (the highest prize awarded) at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and it is the first South Korean film to do so. Not only that, the film won four awards at the 92nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Most, if not all, of the films that Bong Joon-ho made have received huge recognition, such as 2017’s “Okja” and 2009’s “Mother.”
Turns out, his secret to success is simple, and rather humble–hard work.
In this in-depth documentary that features him, Bong talked about how he started being a director. The director revealed that he wanted to own a camera during college so much that he sold donuts at school for six months to earn enough to buy one. Apart from that, he also did many different part-time jobs, one of them was drawing comics for his school newspaper.
Bong created his first short film with the members in his movie club in 1994, titled “White Man.” It was also the very first movie that actor Kim Roe-ha starred in. At the time, Bong had no experience in filmmaking, and he did not know of any actors to cast in the short film. Just then, Kim Roe-ha, who was a theater actor at the time, was introduced to him by a friend.
Bong was not a director who had huge budgets just yet. The aspiring director was still struggling with production costs and appearance fees while making his first film. By the end of filming “White Man,” Bong had run out of money to pay Kim. He had to take the button-up shirt voucher that his father had and paid Kim with it, in which, Kim said endearingly that he bought a shirt with the voucher.
The unattractive appearance fee did not stop Kim from working with Bong in his future projects. The two continued to work together for several films–“Incoherence” (1994), “Barking Dogs Never Bite” (2000), “Memories of Murder” (2003), and “The Host” (2006).
Bong’s first feature film “Barking Dogs Never Bite” did not do well in the box office, but 3 years later, his next film “Memories of Murder” saw huge success–it was the most-watched movie of the year it was released.
Bong is particularly known for his sci-fi tales. The film produced after “Memories of Murder” in 2006 titled “The Host,” 2013’s “Snowpiercer,” and 2017’s “Okja” are some of his sci-fi films that were well-received. Perfecting special effects does not just happen. Bong had studied a magazine that wrote details about how Hollywood achieved those special effects in their films.
While Bong and his production team had to work around budget-imposed restrictions for “The Host,” Bong continued to focus on every little detail while filming and managed to keep it as thrilling as possible.
Starting from “Memories of Murder,” Bong’s films have always been on the highest-grossing list. But this documentary featuring Bong reveals that his secret to success was not much of a surprising one–just pure hard work and the spirit of not giving up.
Bong Joon-Ho Documentary will be available on KOCOWA on April 6! Meanwhile, check out Bong Joon-Ho’s masterpiece “Parasite” casts’ work!
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