Of course, we don’t make films for continents or countries — filmmakers create films for their personal dreams and obsessions. But despite that, it doesn’t happen very often for an Asian or Korean film to get nominated for the Oscars. It’s a very rare thing. The Korean press, they’re all very excited. It’s almost like a national celebration, and I think, in a way, it’s inevitable to be surrounded with such festivity right now.

Do you take pride in that achievement?

I’m very happy I didn’t create this film on my own. I’m very grateful to all the people who created this film with me and all the teams that were involved in the campaign process.

Why do you think Korean cinema is having such a breakthrough moment right now?

I think it just shows that “Parasite” isn’t a film that came out of nowhere. Korean cinema has a very long history, and “Parasite” is a continuation of all the Korean films that came before. It’s an extension of our history. It’s not the first time a Korean film has gone through something like this. Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden” won a BAFTA, and last year “Burning” [directed by Lee Chang-dong] was a part of the shortlist [for what was then the foreign-language film Oscar]. And there have been animated shorts from Korea nominated for Oscars. So all of these developments over all of these years matured to lead to “Parasite” today.

“Parasite" is your seventh feature as a director. Did you have a sense when you were making it that it had the potential to make the impact that it has?

From Cannes, to today in L.A., we’ve experienced a series of all of these unexpected events with the film. Especially with the box office, it’s done incredibly well around the world. And that’s something that we never expected. I created this film because of the controversial aspects of the story, and to take on these bold challenges, but I always worried how they would be received by the public and the wider world. And I’m really happy to see the audience embrace the challenges that “Parasite” took on.

Critics have noted that the film engages viewers on multiple levels at once — emotionally, physically and intellectually. What’s the key to achieving that in one movie?