Director Bong Joon Ho has made history at the 72nd Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) by becoming the first South Korean director to ever win the coveted Palme d’Or!
On May 25th, 2019, the final night of the festival, the incredibly talented director took home the top award of the prestigious film festival with his movie “Parasite (Gisaengchung).” When the news was announced at the festival, both South Korea journalists and film critics rejoiced— the Koreans due to one of their countrymen making history and critics because so many of them believed it was the most deserving film of the festival. To make the win even more incredible was the fact that the members of the jury unanimously agreed to choose his film as the winner.¹ In addition, the director beat out other previous Palme d’Or winners, as well as many world-famous directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Terrence Malick.
The multi-genre film is largely a dark, comedic thriller, showing just how well Korean directors and writers can tackle several genres within one film. However, this film takes on so many different elements that it led one critic to describe it as “unclassifiable.” The story revolves around an unemployed family who take an interest in a wealthy family, before becoming entangled in a bizarre incident. The film stars the incredible Song Kang Ho (“The Host,” “A Taxi Diver”), Lee Sun Kyun (“My Wife Is Having An Affair This Week”), Cho Yeo Jeong (“Ms. Perfect”), Choi Woo Sik (“Train To Busan”), Park So Dam (“Cinderella and Four Knights”), as well as many others— including a special appearance by Park Seo Joon (“What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?”). With this star-studded cast and all-star director, it should surely come as no surprise to hear the rave reviews of the film.
“Parasite” is Director Bong’s seventh feature film, including the hit film “Snowpiercer,” which has an almost cult-like following both in Korea and abroad. In addition, this was his second film to be shown as the Cannes Film Festival, with the movie, entitled “Okja,” proving to be a hit with both the audience and critics when it was shown at the 2017 festival. However, his humility shined through at the press conference as he answered questions from worldwide media outlets concerning his win. He said that this year is the 100th anniversary of film in Korea, so he views the award as a great gift from Cannes to Korea as a whole. He also went on to speak about the many talented people in the Korean film industry, stating that although he may have been the first, he has no doubt there are other talented people in Korea that deserve to win as well, leaving those in the audiences excited to see what other Korean directors will prove capable of in the future. In addition, the world-famous director confessed that he writes his award-winning scripts from the simple corner of a cafe and gets his inspiration from the sounds of those around him.²
The film will be hitting U.S. and Canadian theaters later this fall, with talks of it becoming Korea’s submission for the Oscar’s foreign-language category already being speculated upon in the film world.
Check out the trailer for the film below!
Congratulations to Director Bong Joon Ho for his incredible win, as well as the cast and crew!
Video: As Credited
Featured Image: Pascal Le Segretain (Getty Images Via Festival de Cannes Official)