36 BTS Facts That Prove Bong Joon Ho Is A Genius Filmmaker
South Korean director Bong Joon Ho took the Academy by storm with Parasite in 2020, but did you know his directorial debut film Barking Dogs Never Bite was released a whole two decades before?!
Thankfully, in those 20 years, the filmmaker has also delivered other critical and commercial successes with Memories of Murder in 2003, The Host in 2006, Snowpiercer in 2013, and Okja in 2017.
It’s safe to say that the director has certainly accumulated a strong following, with many fans (including myself) loving the range of genres he explores, plus the doses of black humor and social themes that surround many of Bong’s films. Since we haven’t seen a new feature film directed by Bong since Parasite and we’re eagerly awaiting his next release, I thought I’d revisit his directorial filmography and share some interesting behind-the-scenes facts and clever details about his films so far!
Read with caution because there’s quite a few Bong Joon Ho film spoilers ahead!
1.A foam puppet was used on the set of Okja.
On the set of Okja, the team used a foam puppet the size of the would-be super pig. In an interview with Cartoon Brew, Bong Joon Ho expressed how important this “stuffy” was for the actor, Seo-hyun Ahn, who played Mija because she had many scenes whereby she’d physically interact with the creature. The team had separate “stuffies” for different body parts of the animals, and in pre-production, “stuffy” rehearsals were held which helped the actors visualize Okja as an actual living being.
2.This sad end-credits easter egg confirms Parasite’s bleak and cruel ending.
Whether you’re more of an optimist or more of a pessimist will likely determine what you took away from the ending of Parasite. Well, if you were on the optimistic side, I’m here to crush your dreams because it turns out that the song which plays in the end-credits of the film can only confirm the bleak reality of the Kim family.
In a Q&A, Bong revealed that he wrote the end-credits song “A glass of Soju,” which is about how Ki-Woo spends his days working part-time jobs and saving up his money. However, the initial title of the song was “564 Years,” which is the amount of time Bong calculated it would take for Ki-Woo to save enough money (factoring in the average salary) to buy the house and save his father. Cruel is not the word.
3.For Mother, Bong Joon Ho didn’t include the use of acupuncture because of its traditional use.
In Mother, the use of acupuncture is not because Bong wanted to bring the idea of traditional medicine into the film; it is instead a symbol for the mother and son relationship.
In an interview, Bong describes how he was interested in the act of putting in a needle in acupuncture, about how it’s a very real and scary off-putting thing. More so, it’s possible that acupuncture can hurt you or leave a scar, and he finds it an interesting parallel to the relationship between the mother and son whereby there’s a mother who loves her son almost to the point of obsession, but that love and obsession can be a hindrance or scar to the son. Acupuncture is also symbolic of the possibility that the mother could hurt the son as well.
4.There’s more to the Parasite poster than meets the eye.
When you saw the poster for Parasite, what did you think? I took away some hidden meanings about the plot, whether it’s the infestation of the Kim family into the blissfully unaware Park family, or even how the Kim family is too “lower class” to be acknowledged and accepted into the Parks' fancy world.
Well, it turns out that the reason for the black lines is much more interesting than that! They are, in fact, affiliated with Korean publishing standards, and according to Bong in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session, the black lines are something which Korean publishing and newspapers do to hide someone’s identity. Often when it comes to criminals, it’s the idea that someone is innocent until proven guilty, so the black bars are there to protect them before a verdict is reached.
5.Kim Sang Kyung deprived himself of sleep and controlled his weight for his role in Memories of Murder.
Bong talked about how actor Kim Sang Kyung displayed maturity as an actor for his role as one of the detectives in Memories of Murder. Apparently, the star deprived himself of sleep and ran every morning to control his weight in order to reflect the details in his characterization and to portray his state of madness toward the film's climax. Bong said he was happy with the actor, and worried about him at the same time!
6.Bong Joon Ho visited slaughterhouses for Okja.
Whilst researching for Okja, Bong spoke to IndieWire about how he watched a series of documentaries set in slaughterhouses to familiarize himself with the imagery, but those movies couldn’t prepare him for when he visited a slaughterhouse in Colorado. He said when you’re finally there, there’s this smell…there is no smell in the films. The experience encouraged him to turn vegan for two months.
7.About 500 creature ideas were discarded for The Host.
When talking to Coming Soon, Bong admitted that he worked hand in hand with creature designer, Jang Hee-chul, for a year and a half, and they would have feedback going back and forth on the look of the monster. Bong stated that he would say, “I need the creature to be able to swallow a person and transport it,” then Jang Hee-chul would figure out what physical aspects of the creature would be needed to do that. In that process, about 500 wannabe creatures were discarded!
8.The name Namgoong appeared in both Snowpiercer and Parasite.
If you’ve seen both Snowpiercer and Parasite, you may have noticed that the name, Namgoong, appears in both films. Well, in Snowpiercer, Namgoong is the name of the specialist who designed the security features on the train, whilst in Parasite, the architect who designed the rich family’s house is also called Namgoong. Maybe Bong referenced the name again in Parasite as a subtle nod to one of his previous films?
9.Bong Joon Ho included a few visual gags in Okja.
In Okja, Bong was no stranger to including a bit of visual satire. There’s one scene which is almost identical to the famous situation room photograph of Obama’s cabinet, whereby the President and his national security team were receiving live updates from the operation which led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
In another sequence, Steven Yeun’s character gets hit over the back of his head by a spiky, tubular object, which is reminiscent of when he met his horrifying end in The Walking Dead. Nope, I’m still not over that, by the way.
We see you, Bong, we see you!
10.Chris Evans would stay on the cramped set to get into character for Snowpiercer.
Chris Evans plays a character who has spent the last 18 years of his life living on the cramped and dingy tail section of the train. According to Collider, to help get into character, Evans asked if he could go down to the set a few days one week to spend a couple hours by himself, studying the train and all of its hidden areas. Apparently, he wanted to grasp what it would be like to live in that environment for the better part of two decades.
11.The Host takes inspiration from real-life events.
Whilst the creature in the film certainly wasn’t real, The Host did take some inspiration from real-life events. The Guardian states that the movie was inspired by a real-life case in 2000 in which a US morgue official was convicted of dumping hazardous chemicals into the Han River in South Korea. Sound familiar? The Host’s opening scene is of an American scientist ordering his Korean subordinate to pour formaldehyde down the lab drain.
12.Bong Joon Ho never shoots coverage.
Bong Joon Ho is known for his meticulous storyboards and planning when it comes to making his films, and that’s not without good reason! In an interview with Collider, the director has admitted to not shooting coverage. Now, having coverage definitely helps if something goes amiss in a scene and it needs to be resolved at the editing stage, but what’s Bong’s answer to that? That’s exactly why he plans everything! That’s why he shoots everything according to his storyboards, and he also says that even if you don’t shoot coverage, there’s still a lot you can do in the editing room.
There you have it!
13.There’s a subtle nod to The Shining in Snowpiercer.
Major geek freakout moment pending!
Remember toward the end of The Shining when Jack chases Danny into the maze before getting lost and freezing to death? Well, the final shot scans over a wall of photos in the Overlook Hotel and centers on a picture of the 1921 July 4th Ball, and what do we see? Only Jack Torrance smiling and waving for the camera! At this moment, you can hear the song “Midnight, the Stars and You.”
Fast-forward to Snowpiercer and to the scene where there’s an uprising of the lower classes led by Curtis (Chris Evans). As the sequence unfolds, Franco the Elder chases Curtis into a sauna car, knocking him out and killing two working-class soldiers. As the crazed Franco looks over the deceased before he himself dies, the same song “Midnight, the Stars and You” plays. You could say this is a little tribute to The Shining and mirrors the fate of the protagonist — hunting villains in both films.
14.There’s a hidden easter egg in The Host that’ll have you thinking about Barking Dogs Never Bite.
Throughout Barking Dogs Never Bite, Bae Doona’s character mentions wanting to be on TV, while working in a snack kiosk. Skip to her future role in The Host, and Bae Doona’s first scene shows her on television competing in an archery competition, being watched by her family in a snack kiosk.
Coincidence? I think not.
15.Bong lied to keep this scene in Snowpiercer.
This may just be one of my favorite fun facts about Bong Joon Ho and Snowpiercer.
In an interview with IndieWire, Bong spoke about how he and Weinstein clashed over one particular scene. As Weinstein wanted to cut the movie down, he was hellbent on cutting the scene in which a train guard guts a fish in order to intimidate a group of rebels. This shot was a particular favorite of Bong's and his cinematographer, Hong Kyung-pyo.
According to Bong, Harvey hated it. Bong admitted that in that moment he was thinking what could he do to ensure the scene stays in? And so he came up with a ludicrous lie…
“Suddenly, I said, ‘Harvey, this shot means something to me. … It’s something personal. My father was a fisherman. I’m dedicating this shot to my father.'”
Weinstein then told Bong that family is the most important thing to him, which was the deciding factor in Weinstein letting Bong keep the scene in. Bong said thank you, and the scene stayed in.
Bong later admitted to the press that “it was a f***king lie. My father was not a fisherman.”
What a legend.
16.The apple scene in Mother had some help from good old CGI.
Sometimes, CGI can be super obvious, and other times, it’s used in a scene where you may not have expected it.
In conversation with First Showing, Bong explains that the sequence in which the interrogator comes and kicks the apple out of a character’s mouth is in fact not a real apple at all! It’s a CGI apple, a small realistic detail brought to life by the computer.
17.Mother was written with actor Kim Hye Ja in mind.
Mother may not have been made if actor Kim Hye Ja didn’t want the role. When talking to Collider, Bong expressed how he wrote the character for Kim Hye Ja and that she was so important because she is an icon in Korea, and is known as the nation’s mother. He said that he really wanted to explore that, delve deeper into this actor and present her in a new light, and how it was because of her that he came up with the story and with the project. Bong says he really wanted to explore the dark aspects of motherhood, how motherhood, which is seemingly warm and generous, can turn into a dark obsession.
18.The peach scene in Parasite was inspired by a true story.
If the peach scene in Parasite didn’t feel tense enough, then next time you watch it, just remember that this came from a true story of when Bong was at college.
In conversation with Collider, Bong recalls the time he went on a training trip (just going to drink, really!) and one of his friends said he was severely allergic to peaches. Bong thought he was joking, and another kid went to a nearby grocery store and tossed a peach at him as a joke, and even though it didn’t hit him directly, the friend turned bright red and had an attack. So this traumatic event was, in fact, one which inspired the peach storyline in Parasite.
19.For Snowpiercer, a massive set was constructed on a gimbal system to simulate the movement of a train.
In a behind-the-scenes chat with FandangoMovies, Chris Evans talked about how the production crew built a massive train with multiple cars that were then put on a gimbal which would move from side to side, and backwards to forwards, to recreate the sensation of a speeding train. Evans said that the set was also cramped, hot, and sweaty, so he felt like the conditions were similar to the environment of the movie!
20.A lot of work went into the dancing mothers scene in Mother.
In a magazine interview with Sight and Sound, Bong talked about how the first scene which came to mind when he had the idea for the film was showing Korean mothers dancing on the bus. He wanted it to be a realistic portrayal of Korean culture and said it contains the theme and emotion of the film.
He decided to shoot the shot from the side with the camera placed outside the bus, and shooting against the sun so the light shone from behind the women, and they would look like a dancing silhouette. Bong was determined not to use CGI for the scene, so it was a tough mission to crack. The crew had to get the right angle of the sunlight and meant they only had 30-40 minutes to shoot at sunrise or sunset and there could be no high mountains or buildings nearby. In the end, the scene was shot on January 7, 2009, the day when the angle of the sun and the compass bearings were at their best!
21.Bae Doona had archery training for her role in The Host.
For a film about a fictional creature, you wouldn’t think that the actors would be encouraged to go through actual training, right?! Wrong. Bong wanted actor Bae Doona to undergo specific training to help with the film’s action set-ups, and recruited an archery coach to train her. When talking to Korean Screen, it turns out that Bae Doona was pretty good and she actually made a nine-point shot at a range of 50 meters for the film!
22.The rich family’s house and the poor family’s neighborhood were sets built for Parasite.
In Parasite, it’s fair to say that the rich family’s house looks good enough to be a real place, whilst the poor family’s neighborhood also looks pretty authentic. In an interview with Screen Daily, Bong admitted that both places were actually constructed sets!
Bong expressed that the rich family’s house was built on a set in Jeonju, and they kept in mind how they wanted to move the camera’s around, and he didn’t want it to feel like people were acting on a manufactured set.
The poor family’s neighborhood was also built with alleys and all in a water tank for the flood scene. To get the materials, the art department went to places in Seoul, bringing back abandoned doors and other materials. Apparently, the crew could smell the decades of dirt on some of the items, and actor Park So Dam testifies to opening the fridge in her character’s home once, and it smelt so bad that no one ever opened it again. The food waste bags were also real, meaning the excessive realism attracted real flies to the stench.
23.There’s one deliberate mistranslation of English subtitles in Okja.
In Okja, Steven Yeun’s character is about to jump out of a truck before saying his parting words to Seo Hyun Ahn’s character, Mija. The subtitles translate his sentence to be “Mija! Try learning English. It opens new doors!” but what he actually says in Korean is “Mija! Also, my name is Koo Soon-bum.”.According to the New Yorker, the mistranslation is a clever subversion of the supremacy of English; the subtitle is a command to learn English (something every Korean student has heard throughout their life), but to actually understand what is being said, you would also have to know Korean. So it’s a very flagrant and clever mistranslation.
24.Parasite was first conceived as a play.
Yup, Bong’s idea for Parasite was first conceived for the theatre. However, as Bong expresses in conversation with Deadline, as soon as he started working on it and from the first line, he was already thinking about the camera positions. “I just realized that I had to do this as a film.”
25.Bong Joon Ho had the idea for The Host since high school.
In an interview with Coming Soon, Bong talked about how he had the idea for The Host since high school.
“It wasn’t like I wanted to make a sci-fi film or that I wanted to do a film with lots of visual effects, it wasn’t a choice like that. The motive behind this was actually from the space, the Han River, which is a very ordinary space, kind of like how Central Park is to New Yorkers. I’ve always had this idea of what if a creature came out of an ordinary space like that. I’ve had this idea since high school, and I’ve always been dreaming about it, and I just felt like it was the time to make that a reality. To make the creature real, that’s where the ambition came in because we wanted to make it real, so we went out to create the best and most realistic creature with the visual effects”.
26.The cast actually had to roll around in sewers when filming The Host.
According to Korean Screen, the making of The Host wasn’t all pleasant. Turns out the crew had their tetanus shots and headed directly to Seoul’s real-life underground sewers. Director of photography, Kim Hyung-goo, said that “the stench was beyond imagination…it really grosses me out to imagine what creatures could actually live here…you don’t know what creepy-crawlies we might run into.”
Assistant production manager, Joon-yeob Lee only confirmed the worst, telling the story of how scared the crew were because they knew of a blood-sucking tapeworm which lives only in rotten debris, and burrows into your skin, lays eggs, and the larvae spread all over your body. Yikes!
Even worse, some of the actors had to roll around in raw sewage! The most striking detail though is why the crew took to the real sewers? According to Kim Hyung-goo, “We seriously considered building a set and also agonized over how to bring a camera in the sewer. The truth is we did this because it’s in Korea. If it was Hollywood, we would have built sets.”
27.Bong Joon Ho wanted to make Snowpiercer after reading the Le Transperceneige graphic novel.
As LA Review of Books describes, Bong stumbled across a French graphic novel called Le Transperceneige in a Seoul comic book shop while taking a break from filming The Host. Bong noticed the book and didn’t stop reading the story about a train containing what was left of humanity until it was finished. Some time later, the filmmaker worked with Park Chan-wook to secure the graphic film rights!
28.The scene in Mother where Do Joon follows the girl is all filmed on a set.
In a Sight and Sound magazine interview, Bong talks about the scene in Mother where Do Joon follows the girl and how it’s all filmed on a set created by their art team. Apparently, the crew were restricted by the geographical features of the actual neighborhood and surrounding houses, but once the set was made, the actual length that the characters were able to walk was shorter than Bong intended, which created some problems in getting the timing and rhythm right. But overall, the sequence was as close to the storyboard as they could get.
It also meant that for the part where the girl hides in the dark end of an alley, Bong was able to have it create a strong impression in the film by portraying the scene as very dark, almost pitch black.
29.Ki-woo’s forged certificate in Parasite references the university Bong Joon Ho studied at.
Fun fact! When Ki-woo forges a certificate to show he’s a student at Yonsei University, this is in fact where Bong studied sociology back in the day. A nice little nod to his personal life!
30.There would be no Memories of Murder without Song Kang Ho
“From the very beginning, I knew that he [Song Kang Ho] was the only actor who could play that role, so I wrote the script with him in mind,” Bong tells Collider. “He was the only person who could represent the face of Korea, in the ‘80s. He also has this animalistic instinct for comedy. So he’s an actor who had it all.”
31.Memories of Murder is based on a true story, with inspiration also drawn from a play.
You may know that Memories of Murder is based on a series of real murders in the Korean provincial town of Hwaseong during the 1980s, but did you know that a lot of the inspiration also came from a play called Come to See Me, which dramatized the incidents? In conversation with BFI, Bong confirmed that he was working as an assistant director when he saw it and ended up using several ideas from the play; the succession of three prime suspects, the link between the murders, and the playing of a song on a radio request show.
According to Bong, his producer didn’t want to bother buying the rights to the play since the whole thing is based on fact, but Bong liked some aspects of it enough to insist. He also reiterates that the characters are his own inventions though.
32.Hippos, elephants, manatees, and pigs fed into the creation of Okja.
So we all know that Okja represents a kind of super pig, but the creature is actually a combination of a pig with hippo, elephant, and manatee visual features. When talking to Cartoon Brew, Bong admitted that he wanted Okja to have a similar realism to the tiger in Life of Pi, as opposed to being akin with dragons and monsters in fantasy films. The end result was that Okja was based on actual animals, and many photos of hippos, elephants, and manatees were shared as reference for the conceptual artworks.
33.In Snowpiercer, the gelatinous protein blocks were made of sugar and seaweed.
Turns out the gelatinous protein blocks in Snowpiercer were just as horrible as they sounded. As Bong confessed in a Reddit AMA, in the film, the lower-class passengers were forced to eat the bars which were supposed to be made up of crushed insects. In order to represent this imagined consistency, the jelly-texture was made from a combination of sugar and seaweed. The blocks in which Chris Evans and co. ate were edible but tasted terrible!
34.This social joke in The Host was deliberate.
In The Host, there’s a story on the news about how a nurse wanted to sue Gang-Du for injuries she sustained during the family’s escape from the hospital. In the film’s commentary, Bong remarks how this is a social joke, and that many jokes and much of the humor in the film came about naturally or automatically as he wrote the screenplay.
35.Bong Joon Ho has regrets on every film he’s ever done, even Parasite.
Yep, in my eyes, Parasite is an absolute masterpiece, but in Bong’s eyes, he has regrets on every film he’s ever done, including Parasite. In an interview with Hankyoreh, he admitted that there’s a lot of regrets, but it’s a secret, and that he’s very cruel to his own films. “Even with Parasite, I watched it again the other day, and kept thinking, why did I do that that way? I keep discovering new things wrong with it."
I can see where he’s coming from and how self-criticism gets the best of us, but my mind is still blown when Parasite is at the top of its game!
36.The idea for Barking Dogs Never Bite came from a horrible memory of Bong Joon Ho’s.
Bong’s first feature film Barking Dogs Never Bite came to him after a horrible experience. According to MK, he once saw a dead dog on the roof of an apartment building and the bloody corpse left a strong image. He even imagined that the apartment security would eat the puppy. He then came up with the idea for the film afterwards!
