Bong Joon Ho.

At Yonsei University in 1988, Bong Joon Ho studied sociology during a period of student activism. Born on September 14, 1969, in Daegu, South Korea, to Park Soyeong and Bong Sangkyun, he joined demonstrations and was tear-gassed. To pay for filmmaking, he sold doughnuts at the school cafeteria and bought a Hitachi video camera, which he hugged at night. He served two years in the South Korean military before returning to college in 1992. At Yonsei, he co-founded the film club Yellow Door, where he made short films and shot wedding videos to earn money.

In 2000, Bong Joon Ho debuted with the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite, which gained a cult following. The crime thriller Memories of Murder in 2003, based on true events, marked his breakthrough. The monster film The Host in 2006 became a commercial success in South Korea. He directed the English-language films Snowpiercer in 2013 and Okja in 2017. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Parasite premiered and won the Palme d’Or, the first for a South Korean film. At the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020, Parasite won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, becoming the first non-English language film to win Best Picture.

Bong Joon Ho is married to Jung Sun young. He completed two years of compulsory military service before returning to college in 1992. He has spoken about buying his first video camera with money from selling doughnuts. He is described as reserved and intensely focused on his work.

Parasite became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020. Bong Joon Ho became the first South Korean to win Best Director, and only the second Asian director after Ang Lee. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People, and Bloomberg included him in the Bloomberg 50 list. His social themes and genre-mixing style inspired a new generation of South Korean filmmakers. He served as president of the jury at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in 2021. Bong Joon Ho brought Korean cinema to global prominence.