ABOUT BONG JOON-HO
Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director, producer, and screenwriter. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social and class themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films besides Mother (2009), the crime thriller Memories of Murder (2003), the monster film The Host (2006), the science fiction action film Snowpiercer (2013), which served as Bong’s English language debut, and the near-universally acclaimed black comedy thriller Parasite (2019), all of which are among the highestgrossing films in South Korea, with Parasite also being the highestgrossing South Korean film in history.
KAREN HAN ON MOTHER
In most of Bong Joon Ho’s movies, family is a source of empowerment. The love and support that families—natural, found, or otherwise—offer each other is a safe haven and, more importantly, a conduit for hope. For his fourth and bleakest feature, Mother (2009), Bong takes that dynamic a step further, into the realm of obsession. Familial love is still an all–powerful force, but here it warps into something dangerous and destructive.