The Best Of Bong Joon Ho

Bong Joon Ho was already one of the world cinema’s most accomplished filmmakers before the success of ‘Parasite’. Part of a new generation of Korean directors to emerge at the beginning of the 21st century – a group that also includes Park Chan Wook (‘The Handmaiden’) and Lee Chang Dong (‘Burning’) – director Bong’s work has often focused on social issues, but also played with genre conventions. If ‘Barking Dogs Never Bite’, ‘Memories of Murder’ and ‘Mother’ unfold, like ‘Parasite’, in a recognisable reality, ‘The Host’, ‘Snowpiercer’ and ‘Okja’ take a flight of fancy into speculative fiction, where monsters, genetically modified farm animals and environmental disasters prompt us to question the way we regard our own world. ‘Snowpiercer’ presents a dystopian portrait of class conflict aboard a train that is a microcosm of the world, while ‘Barking Dogs Never Bite’ explores the oddball lives of residents in tower block, and ‘Parasite’ gives us horror in the home. In all, drama is undercut with humour, resulting in a body of work that is both funny and unsettling – often at the same time.