Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Holliday Grainger, Anamaria Vartolomei, Thomas Turgoose, Cameron Britton
Running Time: 137 min.
By Paul Bramhall
When it comes to any artist following up whatever it was that gave them their breakthrough – be it a song, a movie, or any other form of creativity – it’s always a challenge. That challenge is exasperated when we’re talking about an international breakthrough for a work made in a foreign language. Koreas had a few examples over the years – K-pop star Psy followed up his massively popular 2012 hit Gangnam Style with the already forgotten Gentleman in 2013. In 2024 director and writer Hwang Dong-hyuk followed up his surprise 2021 Netflix hit Squid Game with, well, Squid Game 2, of which the jury may still be out. Then we have director Bong Joon-ho, whose 2019 movie Parasite not only became a box office hit, but also became the first non-English language production to win Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards (along with 3 more, including Best Director!).
In the case of everyone mentioned their international breakthrough was far from being their first work, with Joon-ho already an established name amongst cinephiles thanks to masterpieces like Memories of Murder and The Host. Perhaps the most ironic thing about a Korean language production being the one that made Bong Joon-ho a recognizable name Continue reading
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