CJ Entertainment The world will know his name: Bong Joon Ho, the creative force behind Parasite – the first South Korean film to win Best Picture.
Never, in the Academy’s 92 years of ceremonies, has a Korean film won an Oscar. However, this year, things changed: along with Parasite, In the Absence is the first South Korean documentary short to have ever been nominated for an Academy Award.
Bong is now officially a triumphant part of history, with Parasite swooping the biggest prize in film.
PA ImagesIt beat some brilliant films this year: also nominated in the category was 1917, Joker, Ford v Ferrari, Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman and Marriage Story.
Parasite has been described by its director as a ‘family tragicomedy’, however its intricacies are owed a much higher credit than a two-word genre distinction.
It follows the Kim family, basement apartment dwellers who just about get by on folding pizza boxes. When an opportunity to infiltrate a rich family’s home presents itself, the Kims go all in – until things take a turn for the bizarre.
NeonBong’s sentiments about foreign cinema are absolutely pivotal. There’s a whole world of movies out there, you just need to push the boat out and take a chance.
When picking up his earlier Golden Globe, he said: ‘Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.’
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.