Bong does not adopt specific themes or topics for his films
Award-winning filmmaker Bong Joon-ho is no stranger to controversies.
Bong’s films on occasion have generated issues during and after shooting.
Recently, three local major theatre chains have refused to screen Bong’s recent film ‘Okja’ ( 2017) after it had been simultaneously released by the American streaming service Netflix. Boycotting the screening of the brand-new movie, the giant cinemas argued that they will only screen Netflix’s original content if ‘Okja’ is released in the theatre first.
Bong’s previous hit ‘ Snow Piercer’ (2013) was not welcomed first for delivering the story in English and casting foreign actors. Bong had to fight one year for editorial control of the movie too.
Bong had struggled finding investors of his box office hit ‘ The Host’ ( 2006), which won Best Film at the Asian Film Awards and Blue Dragon Film Awards.
“Although my film, ‘Memories of a Murderer,’ was a big success, many refuse to invest in my next film ‘ The Host’,” said Bong during an interview with a local daily. “People said it is very strange that a monster would come out from the Han River. Thankfully, I was able to start the movie after I received half of my budget i nv e s tment from Japan,” said Bong.
The film ‘ Mother’ ( 2009) is the only movie that Bong shot without causing a stir. Its screening also had gone smoothly.
Bong says he hates challenges but likes peace, but he believes there is a reason behind all the hardships that he had gone through while shooting his movies.
He said he cannot control his greed.
“I usually prepare several different versions of scenarios and when there is something that I want to shoot and want to see, I cannot control myself,” said Bong. “When I started ‘Okja’ in the beginning, I thought it would be a smaller scale film than ‘Snow Piercer’. I want to shoot every film like ‘ Mother’,” added Bong. Bong promises his next film “Parasite” ( 2018) will be locallybased and a Korean language film. He maintains there will be no foreign actors either.
His recent movies adopted universal themes, delivering heavy messages to a global audience. However, Bong says they turned out universally consequential and he only shot stories on the topics he was engrossed in each time.
“There is no specific plan about adopting themes or topics for my films. I just make the movies I want to make each time. But definitely, I can recall what I was thinking when I watch them a few years later,” said Bong.
Bong’s style of shooting films has not changed over the years and he does not see the difference in the quality of his work. The only difference he notices is the diversity of the staff he is working with.
“I shoot films that I want to watch. Students frequently ask me what is the audience to me. I tell them I am the audience. I shoot films thinking that I am the audience and I make stories that I want to watch. It makes the scenes a lot simpler,” said Bong.